Modified KISS skin released www

[Marbles_00]

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http://www.xlobby.com/files/Marbles_00/ ... SS_mod.bmp
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To download:
http://www.xlobby.com/files/Marbles_00/ ... dified.exe

Please view the info during install on what plugins and external application are required (or suggested) in using this skin.
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Hey, I've just finished up a modified KISS skin on my MediaPVR. Screen shots are here:
http://sites.google.com/site/maycreates/xlobby-skinning about 1/2 way down the page under the title "Xlobby skin on the MediaPVR". The original skin was made by Buddabing, I just made some changes to it to work in my setup. The system is using Got All Media for PVR duties (EPG and all). Using Zoom Player for video viewing for the most part, but I'm finding GAM better at viewing recorded TV for some reason...currently I'm tyring to integrate MPC for that purpose, but it is not in this release.

I wasn't planning on distributing it, since it is just a repackage modified KISS, but decided to, well, just to start the new year off on a good note.

Should also add that it is controlled entirely by a Hauppauge 45 button remote (one included with the PVR-150 and other tuner cards), using its own receiver/blaster with a modified IRremote.ini file (which I included with the install).

Also included with the install are vbs/bat files that tie to remote buttons for doing different things, like jumping to specific screens. View my google pages site, under MediaPVR in my log of a description of what each button does.

[Chazotta]

Hey Marbles,

Why are you using GAM or contemplate using GB-PVR when you can/could incorporate PVR requirements directly within xlobby itself say using XLTV?

regards

[Marbles_00]

I was using GAM on the system prior to using anything else as I found that GAM didn't require a fast system to run. I like GBPVR and actually, and if the system was newer, I would have used it instead from the get go. When I started getting frustrated with GAM, I tried out different versions of GB on that system, and I mean different versions...from 0.92 (or whatever the old version is) to the newest. I even asked on GB's forum about the system I was going to use it on and got some feedback saying that I could have problems...though I still had to try it out. Though ripped/recorded video worked well enough, watching an actual DVD ran jerky. Opening the TV module was very slow and it also was not quite as smooth playing. I was quite surprised by this as I chose settings comparable to GAM's. I even tried different codecs.

I had thought about using different xlobby plugins, but using an external sat box, so I only need "one" channel, I could never understand how to set XLTV up for that situation. The MediaPortal/TV3 plugin...well, then I had to use a stripped down version of MediaPortal, which is still a huge resource hog, and most likely would not run right on that system...besides, I can't stand MediaPortal. XSchedule/GBRecord would most likely work, though on my test system (though slower than the MediaPVR) it ran sluggish so I didn't think it would run any better on this system. I was also unsure about how to control the external box with the Hauppauge blaster. Using Girder would have helped I suppose, but then it would be another piece of software to integrate.

The other reasoning is that I would have to skin a bunch of screens to make it all work, where I decided that I never had an issue with GAM's PVR capabilities...all of GAM's downfalls, its PVR is not one of them. I had learned enough about GAM to do some minor skin changes, so I decided to go that route.

[Chazotta]

Yea that's fair enough. XLTV is not the easiest to understand I must admit and I only have a pair of DTV-T cards to incorporate and I am using myTheatre underneath XLTV.

About 6 months ago I sold my house and just prior to that my xlobby / customised skin somehow corrupted itself (I came home from work one day and it would crash on load up, only to be rectified by changing the skin) and until now i haven't really had the time to fix it. I am thinking of starting again with a skin (unless I can figure out why it is crashing itself). Have you had any experience with any of your skins suddenly corrupting (like crashing on load up for instance) and if so how have you diagnosed/fixed the problem? I should have taken a backup of the skin when it was working 100%.

[Marbles_00]

Usually crashes occur at loading and the splash screen will sometimes indicate at what point the crash occurs. During startup you have the update text field in the splash screen going through its functions. One of the functions that is done during startup is going through the xlobby.xml file. This is found in the xlobby root directory. Crashes ususally occur when:
1) Loading plugins - the updater will sit with "Plugins" text. Usually you have to remove all plugins from the plugin directory and then replace them one by one until the corrupted plugin shows itself.

2) Databases - the updater will sit at "Databases". Same thing as with plugins, you have to go through and remove all databases from both xlobby/database and your skins database and then replace them one by one until the corrupted one is found. A second way of verifying this is to attempt to open the corrupted database in your web browser. Normally it should open to a nice sequenced format of text.

3) Eventgroups - the updater will sit at "Events". Go through the same procedure as with databases, isolate .xml files from both xlobby/eventgroups and your skin's eventgroups directory.

4) Your EPG - the splash updater will sit at "Guide:XXX", where "XXX" is your EPG file. I had occurances where the EPG file is too large and it will crash xlobby on start. Using the MCEUpdater currently produces about a 50Meg file, but I have had it as large as 90Megs, and that crashed xlobby

5) Your xlobby.xml file has become corrupted. Try and open this in a web browser. If it opens okay, then the file should be fine. I guess this should be done first thing before checking anything else.

Can you open other skins fine? If so, then your problem is isolated to a specific skin, meaning that you most likely won't have to check any .xml file from the root xlobby directory (xlobby/databases, or xlobby/eventgroups), or plugins as these are loaded universal across all skins. In this case, just open each .xml file within the skin directory, in your web browser until the corrupted one shows its dreaded head. Start with your skins root directory, open your screen's .xml files, then move to your skins/database directory and finally your skins/eventgroup directory.

Oh and this just happened to me the other night. If using XRecieve, and you have setup the conf.ini file to your computers IP address (not using "localhost", or "127.0.0.1", but your actual IP), then you have to be connected to the network. The other night, I dis-connected my HTPC from the network to do some wiring. I then wanted to watch some TV, and I attempted to go through the Mirage menu, but it wasn't working (Mirage menu is using XMenu, which sends XSend commands to the HTPC IP address...which wasn't on the network). I restarted Xlobby, and it crashed consistantly during the plugins loading...reason being that the XRecieve plugin couldn't define the HTPC's IP address as it was dis-connected from the LAN. Once I connected back up, everything was peachy again.

[Chazotta]

I can open and use other skins so it would be something within my custom skin..possibly one of the databases I reckon. I was using DVD Profiler then but the latest version isn't supported within xlobby right?.. so I will have to switch to Ant. Did you ever use DVDProfiler or always Ant? Is there a fast way of grabbing images and movie info with Ant or is it tedious ?

I'm rebuilding/reinstalling the HTPC this weekend so I might fire up my old xlobby skin and see at what stage it hangs itself and then see if I can work out where the bug is..otherwise I might just start all over.

[Marbles_00]

Did you ever use DVDProfiler or always Ant?

I think way, way back I looked at DVDProfiler, but then I started using Ant, and never looked back.

Is there a fast way of grabbing images and movie info with Ant or is it tedious ?

Not tedious at all. Here are the steps:
1) Start new movie entry
2) add movie name to "Original Title". It doesn't even need to match totally
3) press F6 to open up the script page, select DVDEmpire, as it contains hi rez covers (only has a "copy right" watermark, but since I'm only using it for home use )
4) once it finds the selection, then a window will open where you can select what parameters to save, I just use "Save"
5) Fills in most areas
6) I then copy/paste "Original Title" to "Translated Title" for category>title reasons
7) save

Just remember to get the XAnt version that allows to rebuild within the skin, otherwise after you make new entries, you will have to close down and restart xlobby in order to see these new entries. I have an event which calls the plugin to rebuild, wait a second, then refresh the movie database. Works a charm.

[Chazotta]

Is the event in your Mirage 3D skin? I might give it a whirl. I have downloaded the latest Ant version 3.5.1.1. This should be okay to use generally speaking right?

I was hoping to export the xml from DVDprofiler and import that into Ant and then be able to run some type of macro within Ant which can pick up missing images and info etc for your whole database. Manually entering each one could be a project for the wife...!

Seems (if I am right) that you run a separate music box with XL and a separate HTPC box with XL rather than having just the 1 box with XL which handles both music and video? If so, what are the advantages (if any) in doing this..or was it because you just started using XL for music and zones and looked at the movies later? I have always just had one central point of XL doing everything with control via RF mouse and remote (ie: direct from main display) and some thin clients (via tablet and PDA).

[Marbles_00]

Is the event in your Mirage 3D skin?

It's not in the Mirage that you can currently download...one day I have to finish off some things...package it up and a do an update in which everyone can download. I've separated my movies into R-Rated, and Children. So my event calls on two plugin commands to rebuild each database, then refresh each database with some wait times in between. I'm currently not in front of the HTPC, but if you want me to define it more, let me know and I can help ya. It's pretty easy, but as mentioned make sure you have the proper version. I right click on the .dll and in properties it has this version: 1.0.2085.23794, it was created Feb.27/08.

Ideally, I should have started with the UnRAID machine build. Put all my movies and music on that then just had individual xlobby machines to pull the certain media off. But I like to do things a little unorthodox. I started with the music-server, then the HTPC. The music-server was to be controlled entirely via PPC. I also wanted to have that capability to control the HTPC as well, which meant to set that up as a server. Problem is that xlobby servers can't connect to other xlobby servers and be a client of that server...well not in the free version of xlobby. I also felt that with the overhead that the music-server could have...hence driving all zones with seperate sources, I didn't want to take the chance of additional clients putting a drain on the system by accessing movies at the same time. Besides, once the UnRAID server comes on line, all movies, videos, pictures, music-server backup, music backup, HTPC backup, MediaPVR backup will reside on that machine, so really I won't have a true dedicated xlobby server so to speak (just the music-server). Right now, the HTPC is the machine that I rip movies on, and update ANT to accommodate the movie. I may setup the MediaPVR to copy the ANT file over and do its own update either via button event, or XEvent. That way both machines will have current movie databases, but only maintained on the HTPC. Currently the ANT catalogs are handled individually on each machine.

When it comes to music, the HTPC is in the family room, which is also a zone in the music system, so I have the choice to either listen to music setup within the HTPC, and take advantage of visualization or be able to play from the zone. Since both are servers, they can't communicate to each other directly, so the HTPC cannot be considered a zone of the music system. I chose to only have the MediaPVR connect to the music-server via thin client and have it act as a controller because, quite frankly, music sounds like crap playing from the CRT TV, when I have a decent set of Polk speakers dedicated for that zone (Livingroom).

Is it the most glamorous way of doing things...most likely not. But hey, it works for me.

[Chazotta]

Okay thanks re Ant..I'll see how I go.

There are so many different ways you can run XL..its all pretty glamorous right??

[Chazotta]

Hey Marbles, I have installed the Xant plugin, but when I click on the (movie) play button, it will not launch Zoom Player and play the movie. It seems to build the movie database fine, but I can't launch the movies?

I then created a new ant catalog with just one movie to try and track down the problem. I have followed the Xant guide except for the OMP stuff..is this necessary?

I have put the full path of the movie in the URL in the ant catalog and I have the correct file association for Zplayer.exe in XL file types. I can't work it out. I don't need to add movie paths in the basic area of XL right? Xant does all this?

Any ideas?

[Marbles_00]

have put the full path of the movie in the URL in the ant catalog and I have the correct file association for Zplayer.exe

Yep, you need the file location in the URL window of the ant catalog. My file association in xlobby is the following:

Program: {location of zoomplayer, that is my player software of choice}
Extensions: ts, ifo (NOTE: do not use the "." as in .ts or .ifo)
Command Switchs: /DVD /PLAY /F %playlist%

Where: /DVD is to open in DVD mode
/PLAY is to start playing a file in playlist (if I recall off the top of my head)
/F is to start in fullscreen
%playlist% is the file parameter

Now to finish is all off I have a "Play" button with an event that has this command:
category>execute, that has a "Category Name" set to my movies category
Basically this command will execute whatever file is selected in the database used under the "Movies" category.

Hope that helps.

[Chazotta]

My settings are the same as yours.

I'm just using the default skin that comes with the latest free version of XL, just to see if I can get Xant to work. The default skin has a "Play Movie" folder in the Skin folder of the event section with a category>execute event that has a "Category Name" set to movies.

From memory this is why I used DVDprofiler from the begining, because I could never get ant to work.

Could it be that I have bypassed myOMP? (it is the only thing in the guide that I have bypassed).

Is it the case that with Xant, you don't have to add any movie paths (like music) to the basic section of XL? or use the import function within the basic section of XL? or use the import movies function in the database section of XL?

Also when I go to the plugins section of XL, I cannot configure Xant. Is this also correct?

I am using Ant version 3.5.1.

[Marbles_00]

I have been on the fence in releasing this skin, but since I helped rhinoman with his, and I'm close to releasing ZS5, I figured I'd continue this new year with a bang.

Total hat's off to Buddabing who released the original KISS skin. It is an absolute awesome skin to learn from. All I did was to take that skin and mod it slightly to work better in my situation. I just figured someone else may have a use for it too. It integrates with GAM and my ZoneSkins and includes the irremote.ini file for controlling with a Hauppauge remote.

*EDIT*
Updated first post and added more details on the skin itself.