Tinted Glass Skin Development/Support

[mememe]

Did you get the e-mail Marbles?

[Marbles_00]

Sorry bout that.

I got a couple of emails from steven@gmail.com from multiple sources. One looked like a confirm as to the email I sent you...so I didn't really read it further...most likely that's the one your referencing? If you want drop me one to mayhemDOTprodATgmailDOTcom. I get direct email notification to that account, and can respond alot more quickly.

[mememe]

e-mail sent to the mayhem address. Thanks again.

[Marbles_00]

Goto viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6742 for the official release of this skin. It's been packaged into an executable which should install the skin to Program Files/xlobby/skins/Tinted Glass . If it does not work, please let me know, otherwise all support questions should be directed towards the designer - mememe.

Good work...real small package.

[mememe]

Thanks for making it an executable Marbles.

I would love to get feedback from anyone that tries it out. I would definitely like to know of any features that people regularly use that are missing, issues with functionality, any times they had to "figure out" how something worked, and any features they would like to be included in later versions. I will continue to work on this because it is what I do with my free-time and it is the skin I use for my system. I will do my best to help others adapt it to their needs, just ask. The first thing I'm doing is fixing the navigation for remote controls. It was all done, but decided to break after the last round of bug fixes I did.

Current general to-do list:

1. Make new images to replace the 3 I had to pilfer from the default skin. (clear, switch mimic, and xmpg-weather)

2. Re-working of the top information bar so that elements like time and date are consistent, and it is more than a glorified banner.

3. Finish creating proper images and tints for blue, red, pink, and green versions.

4. Get a live tv program and episode guide fully integrated.

5. Consolidate Television shows, Movies, Stand-up comedy, and music videos into a unified video collection.

6. Finish and ntegrate thetvdb.org plug-in for downloading TV episode information.

7. Create appropriate images for the main menu to reflect menu options graphically in dead space.

8. Add search and genre sorting to Movies and Music (possibly Television).

[mememe]

Since the start of this project, the rather plain layout of the tv, movies, and music screens has been bugging me. I decided to try some different things and try to eliminate the need for so many overlays at the same time. I currently have this:




I like the way it flows, have eliminated the need for information overlays, and have reduced the number of button pushes to accomplish a task by about 50%. I thought I'd post the screens to see if anyone had any comments or a different idea. I've also thought about changing them to a vertical menu layout, but I haven't done the actual work yet. Anyone care to comment?

[mememe]

I haven't been around much, but have been working on things a bit and decided to post an update.

I decided that the old way was rather boring and I didn't like the feel of it after some time. It also required far too many screens to do the very basic things I was asking of it. I dug into it and after many iterations have started compiling the parts I liked from each one, and weeding out the ones I don't like. I've also got a very alpha version plug-in to keep information up to date, get tv episode data/images, get movie posters, get imdb info, and get a better version of plot than what is usually on imdb. All the data in the screens is provided by the plug-in which connects to thetvdb.com (open source and guaranteed to not block access), imdb.com (director, cast, date, etc), and impawards.com (movie posters). Next I'll tackle something that can do the same for my music collection. Anyway, this is what I have so far:




What do you think?

[lpg]

It is very easy on the eyes. How big is your collection? I wonder how long it takes to cycle through your movies?

[mememe]

It is very easy on the eyes. How big is your collection? I wonder how long it takes to cycle through your movies?

I have about 200 movies, 600 CDs, and about 50 TV series (varies from 1-10 seasons each). It does take awhile to get through them, especially the music. My next step is to add a search mechanism, and the ability to sort by things such as genre or first letter. I've spent most of my time getting the plug-in to work well enough to be usable so that I would have tags to manipulate. The actual visual part of the skin has only been applied to those few screens which took about 3 days.

[mememe]

This skin is now dead. I will no longer be using it or developing it.

Consider this my training wheels skin. It is good for basic functionality, but I've very quickly found it's limitations and it's time to try something new.