XLobby & SageTV - which Sage skin should I emulate?

[Naylia]

Hey guys,

I have been contemplating working a XLobby & SageTV integration skin with the goal of having both programs look exactly the same. (Literally use the same artwork if I can arrange it)

Which Sage skin should I emulate? I've been in touch with people about doing SageMC and I'd considered Cayars, but since I haven't started yet does anyone here have any suggestions and would there be demand for this type of skin.

Since you can easily edit XML menus in Sage I'm going to strip my SageTV to the essential PVR menus only. I want to do everything else in XLobby. What do you guys think?

[rhitt]

This would be awesome. I've attempted to do things between the two but I haven't gotten very far. Just to be completely clear, you don't have access to Studio do you???!?

[Naylia]

No, I'm going to target one of the pre-existing installations and just borrow graphics if I can get permission. Some don't even really use much for graphics. They're just text on a background.

Anyone can edit the menus for their STV. If you open up the menu.xml file in your SageTV directory you can delete menu items and rename them, play with the heirarchy and such. Sometimes i think the menu.xml will be something like Cayarsmenu.xml if you want to give that a shot. It's pretty easy to do.

I may also try to do like Jowaldo and have it multi-themed/colored. But instead of selecting buttons to use and allow mixing and matching I'll shoot to just allow loading of a theme's images. I suppose that would be something added at the end, unless it's easier to build from the ground up.

Interestingly the reason for this is that, I've run out of money and hardware to buy so I guess I'll work on good software integration now. Unfortunately I only have Sage loading because the gaf is low switching between the two when they're not similar, so I'll strip all the weather, apps, movies, and music out of whatever STV i end up going with and then rename the Sleep button to Back, and just have a PVR button in XLobby.

[rhitt]

I'm in the exact same place only it's WAF and not GAF in my case. Xlobby has the benefit of extreme customization and extensiblity while Sage is, relatively, locked down but dead solid as a PVR.

I considered SageMC and Xlobby MC to keep things realitvely straight but what ever STV you choose it HAS to have comskip built in. Comskip got me more WAF than anything else on my box.

From everything that is being said on the Sage forum regarding Studio it looks like it will most likely not be offered for free or any time soon either and must be a beast to work with......

[samgreco]

I would use whatever STV style you picked . I use Cayar's now, but like SageMCE 16x9 too.

I need WAF as well.

I like the idea of stripping everything except PVR functions from Sage and turning everything else over to XLobby. Right now I'm the only one using XLobby since the wife doesn't get it. If it all looked seamless, she'd go for it. Right now I just leave SageTV up.

[Naylia]

Hey guys! I got approval from Samsonite over at mediaportal to use his mce style graphics. They look great and they are the same ones used by mlbdude in his SageMC skin!

So the work begins. I'm not promising anything soon, but as soon as I have a few screens done I'll start a new thread showing you the shots. My gf is out of town for a night or two next week so hopefully I'll make some progress then.

Please keep voting because I'm considering doing multiple themes/styles and want a good count so that I know what to focus on second.

[Naylia]

Well here's the first ppc screen using Blue Two from SageMC. This is just a taste of the style, but I suppose if you're using SageMC you'll recognize the buttons. Oh and the font will change to match, I'm trying to find out what font is used in Sage. I just couldn't resist putting togetehr at least one screen while at work. Bad Naylia! I'm really itching to get this together. I'll start a new thread when I have most of the screens done and you guys can start testing.

All the artwork is courtesy of Samsonite over at MediaPortal. And the rest is HeavyMetal reskinned.



Vote if you haven't...!!!

I wonder...I should be able to make a SageTV screen on the ppc that will act as a remote for sage using messages between the two. (Like the ZP controller screen) I'll have to give that a shot too. The list grows.

[rhitt]

I've got this for an old skin I adapted. If I remember it works with Sage 2.2.5 and up after the changes to sendmessage numbers. If you want it let me know your email and I'll pop it over.

Can't wait.....sample screen looks sweet.

[Naylia]

Don't count on it too soon, and I'd definitly appreciate what you have. Damn, I wish I had a few days off to work on this. Near term I suspect I won't make much progress till the gf is out of the house next week. I'll start with the basics and hopefully beable to get some screens up late next week for feedback.

Daniel DOT Schoerner AT gmail DOT com

[briands]

I LOVE Sage as a PVR, but HATE it as a music player. This would be a GREAT improvement.

I selected SageMC, but would use any one that has comskip during playback. I preferred Cayars, but it seemed to get a little buggy.

Just to see if we are on the same page, I would anticipate only using the Recorded TV, Live TV and Guides from Sage. Leaving Music, DVD, Media files, Weather, etc all to XLobby. Is that what you are planning?

One additional hurdle I have though (for which there is no good solution) is that I have one MediaMPV client that I would like to use for Music as well as TV.

[Naylia]

that is exactly what I'm planning, i haven't installed SageMC yet but mlbdude said there is a way to limit which menu items are shown in SageMC

you could modify your menu to keep the music menu i suppose and use sage for music only from the client, problem is on your main htpc you'd see links to music twic that may be slightly different from eachother

Progress Update: used my lunch break today to start renaming image files to the way Xlobby needs them, luckily they were already .pngs

[Naylia]

Guys, need some feedback. I dummied up two music slides, the dark blue square is where your music shows up. Which do you prefer? I think I prefer the second since it would be more remote friendly, with one column of stuff for navigation/control with the next column being content. What do you think?

music1:


music2:

[AirPost]

Looking good !

You've got my vote on the second one as well. Don't forget the touchscreen users though, you would still need the up and down arrow for them to scroll through the list.

[milanp]

I vote for the second one.
I think that most of use remotes, and that layout is so much better for remote control.

[Naylia]

good call airpost!