New Skin - Xlobby "Glass" *CANCELLED*

[scottw]

What are you going to use for multizone audio?

[wesblack]

Marbles,

Just curious, looked at your previous post regarding xLobby and your new skin concept. After all these years + rescent improvements to xLobby why are you considering other software.

Are you un-happy with the progress of xLobby V3.





Wes Black \ Calrad

[Marbles_00]

@Scott

What are you going to use for multizone audio?

No not the music-server, that will always remain an xlobby machine. I've only considered a change to the HTPC and MediaPVR.

@Wes

Just curious, looked at your previous post regarding xLobby and your new skin concept. After all these years + rescent improvements to xLobby why are you considering other software.

Are you un-happy with the progress of xLobby V3.

I think what you guys have done is amazing. Excellent stuff. Thing is, I'm not on V3 so I can't judge any progress you have or have not done. From what I'm seeing is a good, solid approach. I'm using the free Xlobby version, which when compared to the software still being developed (Meedios, Xlobby V3, XBMC, GBPVR, etc...not mentioning MediaPortal...I despise that program...no offense to anyone), is starting to show its age, even though it is still a great piece of software. I haven't dropped anything yet. I've played around with the other stuff, and like how it looks and flows...only I just don't want to go through and change my media format/shares/setup to accommodate. Maybe it is easier than what I can see...but that is the reason why I'm still working on xlobby, and slowly putting this skin together. It comes so much easier using xlobby still, from playing movies/music, to integrating my DIY stuff with it, WinLirc/Girder, etc. I can get an xlobby system up and running in next to no time, and easy to maintain once its up...right now, I can't say that about any other software.

[Marbles_00]

Here is something else I'm adding into this skin. It's ambiance background effects as you rotate through the menu system. It transitions from background to background. Like fanart, this can be turned on or off. I'm going to make a little video and add it here to show the effect. Currently only the main menu is done, I still have to do the secondary menus as well. The backgrounds are courtesy from a KDE website.

[Grooby]

Much better than the black mate!

[rika]

Yes, my vote goes to this colours too.
Looks user friendly and WAF.
Great work!

Rika

[wesblack]

Thumbs up on the colors as well....!





Wes Black \ Calrad

[Marbles_00]

I've gotta get out the ol'video camera. When I try and use those screen recording software (tried two different ones), XMenu doesn't show up .

[samsonlov]

Hey Marbles,
That skin looks amazing.
Looking forward to the video.

[Marbles_00]

Ooopss....I did say I'd get a video up didn't I I've been so busy with other projects...getting a TV app to work right in my mediaPVR, building an OTA antenna...which is leading to getting a TV app to work in this skin, getting .mkv HD content to work properly in this skin, using MPC-HC, to all the other things...I totally forgot.

Me silly. The skin is still developing...at a pretty slow pace, but it is still developing.

[Marbles_00]

Well, I finally got around of putting a video together of the skin (so far) in action. I apologize ahead of time for the poor quality of the video. My camera's exposure setting was set too low (realized this after). I'm going to shoot another one, which will hopefully look a little bit better...but this at least shows how things flow.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxgScsEw9ms

[samsonlov]

Hey Marbles,

WOW! I was just going to take a "peek" at your video since it's over 8 1/2 mins long, but once it started, I was "mesmerized" and I had to watch the whole thing - twice. You've really created something amazing there. With all the animated transitions and color changes it looks very, very polished.

For easy "Xlobby In Action" videos, I downloaded this and had it running in 5 mins.
http://download.cnet.com/Debut-Video-Recording-Software/3000-13633_4-10684791.html

They've got all kinds of "add-ons" that they charge you for, but if all you want to do is capture video (and audio!) and need something that will work "over" XLobby, free is hard to beat. (I am not affiliated with that company.)

If you're trying to use it to record xlobby playing video, it doesn't work that well - at least not on my test machine (an older AMD Athalon 3500 with only 1g of RAM).

This is the first video I made using this program.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_private?v=g81APS-q_CA&sharing_token=ojB3lHcdKW3PYEX-sJt5bg==

I can get an xlobby system up and running in next to no time

Do you do this for a living?

If it's not too much trouble, would you mind sharing a little bit about how you got all the (is it?) fanart? incorporated into your skin? And if there are any issues with speed or reliability with that?

Also, can you shed a little light on how you incorporated the games? I know that long-time 2.0 users have been doing this "forever", but was hoping you could point me in the right direction. You can PM me about this if that's easier.

Thanks,
Samson

[Marbles_00]

If it's not too much trouble, would you mind sharing a little bit about how you got all the (is it?) fanart? incorporated into your skin? And if there are any issues with speed or reliability with that?

Not to much trouble. If you've read my recent document on using XAnt, I pretty much use it exclusively to create all my video libraries. One of the Ant catalog fields I use indicates where to locate fanart.jpg images that I download for movies where fanart is available. Then in xlobby, I just create a text window the size of my screen (1920x1080), and set the variables to open the artwork.

Most of the fanart I've downloaded from http://www.themoviedb.org/ . I usually download the artwork while I'm ripping the movie just so it is done.

Now my next feat is to make animated fanart that will transition between images...Wall-E has some real fine artwork, and I'd like to show as much as possible. Shoot...I just gave myself a new project

Also, can you shed a little light on how you incorporated the games? I know that long-time 2.0 users have been doing this "forever", but was hoping you could point me in the right direction. You can PM me about this if that's easier.

Boy, that's been awhile, but I use Rom2Xlobby (if I recall). It's a product from the French Team (have I mentioned how awesome they are ) which will go through and create databases for all your Rom sets. Pretty awesome...the French Team are awesome.

I can get an xlobby system up and running in next to no time

Do you do this for a living?

Sometimes it feels like I do No I don't do it for a living, but I've messed around with it long enough that you just understand how it works. Once you understand how all the pieces go together, it becomes rather trivial to put it in a computer and get it running quickly. Could I do that with V3...not likely right now, but it is a new challenge to learn...if I can ever get my current projects completed.

[Marbles_00]

For easy "Xlobby In Action" videos, I downloaded this and had it running in 5 mins.
http://download.cnet.com/Debut-Video-Re ... 84791.html

Good program. Easier to use than AVIScreen Classic. Unfortunately after quickly trying it and running XMenu, it gave the same results as ASC and one other one I tried...XMenu just does not want to show up .

[wesblack]

Marbles_00,


I would like to upload your video of the glass skin to the new xLobbytv channel on youtube. Can you please send me the file or post a link here on the forum so I can upload it to the site. If you have any other video's you would like me to include, please provide them as well.

Thanks...................




Wes Black \ Calrad