3rd Pre-Release Ready

[stevenhanna6]

Sorry this release took so long, but we have been working on a bunch of new stuff. We didn't want to release something that had new sections that were incomplete....plus we try to test it out as much as we can before we release it so there aren't as many bugs.

This release is a lot more polished then previous releases. It's hard for me to remember what we added in between this release and the last one just because there was so much and the last release was so long ago. Regardless though, there are still some new features that I didn't have time to get put in but since the last release is about to expire it was about time for a new one. But we have some really cool stuff coming down the pipe soon relating to spiders and more accurate/faster results for cover art and movie info.


Ok let me just start talking about whats new...

1) The Installer

The installer has been completely redone, you can now upgrade you copy of xlobby from the installer itself. There are 4 different types of installs once you have xlobby installed. They are all explained in the installer.

Another thing about the installer is that it will now auto download the .NET framework if you don't have it.

It also has an auto import feature so that when you first install xlobby you will be asked for the locations to your music,video,movies,and pictures. Then when you start xlobby for the first time, it will import everything for you.

All these changes are designed to make xlobby more user friendly and save you time.

2) Updated Screens

The lighting section has been updated in preparation for our future enhancements. Basically most of the screens got some kind of addition to them to improve their usability.

3) New Screens

There is now a default "videos" screen, this will let you import music videos or anything else you want without having to go through the trouble of building out a whole new screen. This new "videos" section has also been added to the auto installer and under setup.

The "Ambience" screen exposes functionality that allows one to create a shuffled play list on the play and play it from a single button.

The "Hardware" screen is a working example of some basic rs232 code that was added. At this time its only one way, but since we will be going into more in depth control soon this will become two way with lots of extra stuff for scheduling,timers, themes...this is also related to the lighting screen and any other hardware that will communicate with xlobby.

4) DVD Copy Plugin

This is a new addition, its uses DVDFab HD Decrypter to copy your movies into xlobby through a very easy to use interface. Once the movie has been copied to the destination folder it will refresh the movies db to show the new movie. We do plan on adding the ability to set the cover art and info during or before the copy procedure.


Fixes
-weather has been fixed (that day missing bug)
-skin editor delete crash bug
-no internal audio zones is possible now

Minor Additions
-video to full screen on play
-resume music after leaving a video player
-progress bar added for import
-cover art shown in import now
-wma tag reader fix
-show video on 2nd display option
-support for x10 type remotes

I know I'm missing stuff, but you can check the updatelog.txt for new commands and variables. There is also the documentation section that is still being built out, that isn't done yet but it's something that was used to create the first 2 pdf's that are included in the "documentation" folder. Yes xlobby now comes with a documentation folder, imagine that!!! Here are the first xlobby documents


http://www.xlobby.com/documents/QuickStart.pdf
http://www.xlobby.com/documents/PluginDVDCopy.pdf

As you can tell from the install exe below, xlobby is switching to a versioning system beyond just the number "2". This is way to keep track of new builds.

And here is the new release with all this stuff in it, expires June 22th.

http://www.xlobby.com/xlobby_2.0.7131.46.exe

[rika]

Rika

[Jay]

Oh yeah! Definitely on the way to a consumer/prosumer product.
Even w/o content partnerships, looks great compared to Vista's media center - which is impressive IMHO.

[smarty]

Looking nice...

[samgreco]

Steven - will skins from the earlier versions carry over without issue? I have been working on a new skin and would love to be sure I will be functional with the new version. Also, are you planning on changing anything from here forward with skins?

This release looks great though. And seems to work very well. The client on one of my Fujitsu 3400s is running surprisingly quickly.

Lastly, the USB-UIRT plugin just doesn't seem to like sharing with SageTV. I don't think this is new to this version. But I never pursued this in the past, I just remember it happening before too. But I would love to see that work, as I am going to be sharing the server with SageTV. I also have an MCE IR receiver/blaster. So I may use one for Sage and the other for XLobby.

[stevenhanna6]

Another build for everyone, I had to make another release so soon after the last one because the dvd copier plugin had a couple of major bugs /peformance issues that me and Wes found...but we got them all worked out so here you go....I'm changing my first link to this one now as this will be the offical 3rd release. You dont really have to upgrade unless you want to use the dvd copier plugin.

http://www.xlobby.com/xlobby_2.0.7131.46.exe

Fixes
+double click plugin to access configuration
+menu bug when saving a new skin, show/hide would be broken
+jump button added to "music flow"
+dvd copy plugin bug / improvement (will now do direct to folder copying)
+screensaver reset if volume pressed on remote

Oh yah there is alo a new "jump" screen for cover flow....actually you could use it where ever you want. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like. You hit the "U" button and you will jump to everything starting with the letter "U".




samgreco, yah you should be fine putting your skin in these versions. I have been very careful not to remove any functionality so everyones customized skins will work. Just dont do a "full update" in the setup installer...just do a partical update so your skin doesn't get overwritten. I also know about the usbuirt issue I just haven't had time to devote to it....I will be honest though its not high on the list right now. I'll write it on my list though.

[reynoldswu]

Fixes
-weather has been fixed (that day missing bug)
-skin editor delete crash bug
-no internal audio zones is possible now

Looks very good! I have a couple questions/comments:

1. How do the internal audio zones work? I don't see how you can assign an audio zone to a sound card.

2. The initial import is very good and intuitive, my only comment is that the import of photos takes fooooorever. I have over 5000 photos and it would have taken all day to import. Just a suggestion, but something you might want to look at..especially if this is someones first experience with XLobby, that would be something they might frown upon.

3. I like how in the Setup screens you've created buttons to the skin editor and setup. One nice touch to those setup and skin editor screens is to just add a "Save and Close" button. This gives the user a good feeling that what they've changed is now saved and the window will close.

I'll continue to test it out, but it's looking good. I'm just very interested in the internal audio zones. I couldn't tell by what you wrote "no internal audio zones is possible now" whether you expected this to be working or not.

[mwigtkm]

I couldn't tell by what you wrote "no internal audio zones is possible now" whether you expected this to be working or not.

This was my request. I run a "fat" client on my laptop but without an audio zone. If you ran Xlobby on a fat client it required it to have at least 1 internal zone. No matter what you did, it automatically added an internal zone (if you didn't have any external zones mapped). This is a problem, because if you used the "Sync All" function, suddently all zones are synced to this non-existent internal zone on the fat client. Hope that makes sense. Now I can continue to use my laptop as a client, but not have to have any zones.

[Axalotaqs]

Dang. Was hoping with the update full screen video would work on 2nd (TV) monitor (see last post http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5658&highlight=) So I am still using Zoom Player rather than the built-in player.

Also, a new annoyance is that when Xlobby is loaded, it blacks out my desktop monitor. I can't see the desktop and it even hides the mouse! Xlobby has never had any behavior on the desktop monitor before this new version and the new version seems to do this regardless of the skin selected.

[cmhardwick]

Axalotags,

Look under the setup, there is an option there for selecting which monitor for the video, I believe. I can't remember which part of setup, but I remember seeing it. My main system is down (MB died ) so I can't test this part. I'm just using it on my laptop currently.

[cooldog]

If I leave the screen on "Weather", as I usually do, invariably I find it saying "Please wait, updating." after a few minutes.

I have to hit "Refresh", or "Next " or "Previous" in order to see the weather info.

[samgreco]

I'm seeing the weather update issue too.

[Jay]

OK. I just check WX and leave. Saw the issh you describe when I left the WX screen on. I have the plugin update set for the default 30 minutes. When it updated, I got the current info.

[cooldog]

Steve,

I'm also seeing Xlobby burning up 100% of one CPU after playing music.

Can't tell you more than that, but if you have some tests you want me to do to help track it down, let me know.

Paul

[cmhardwick]

as for the weather issue, I use the same version of the plugin on the latest "free" build and it works just fine. On the pre-release, when I start it, I get weather on main menu, go to weather, have to hit refresh to see the forecasts, then when I go back to the main menu, it's blank again.