xBlack, a fruity media interface *** updated 16 March

[S Pittaway]

*** Updated 10 March, added weather screen shots and merged images to save upload slots.
*** Updated 16 March, added picture screen shots.

I have been messing with xlobby for ages now, I may be unusual in that I don't use touch screens

I wanted a skin that was remote control friendly (with a mouse fall back), and easy to navigate/use - I want my parents to be able to use it when they are looking after my son

Touch screens are not important to me at the moment (but may be in the future).

I have played with a lot of different interfaces and I think the cleanest and simplest is used by apple on Apple TV/front row.

Its been a while since I pulled the skin apart and started from scratch, so I thought it might be worth posting some shots of the skin and seeing if anyone is interested / can make any suggestions on how to improve it.

The only problem with sharing it is that I tend to jump into a plug-in when I want to do something, I really need to strip some of these out.

The main plug-in is xDatabase, this is used in lots of ways and also generates new cover art which includes reflections.

Anyway, here are the screen shots (I will try and fill it out when I get a bit of time).


Main Menu

Originally I did not have a main menu, you accessed the different screens via popups, But i figured i might as well add one (i seemed to make more sense for my wife).

Movies

Here are the movie screens, You can set an active view, then whenever you click the movie button on the main menu it will take you to that screen.

Moving clockwise you have the Movie List, Movie Wall, Movie Filmstrip, Movie Flow and Movie Genre List.

Personally my favourite is the wall layout, but its to small for my wife to use

Popup Menu
If you click on the menu button on the remote (or cursor to the left hand edge of the screen) a popup menu is shown. From this you can change the layout/sorting.

Weather
Here are some shots of the weather screens, there is only one screen, but the data displayed changes depending on what is selected on the right hand side -

I think that the "floaty menu" works pretty well


Pictures
Here are some shots of the picture viewer, Same layout as the movie screens, clockwise you have the Picture List, Picture Wall, Picture Filmstrip, Picture Flow and the last one is the Picture Overlay.

Sean.

[S Pittaway]

reserved.

[Grooby]

Please post immediately with all plugins (me likey reflections...iphone...cough cough) so i can pull it apart and see how you have put it together so i can then nick all your ideas!!!

[wesblack]

I love skins with based on black and white graphic elements. Nice simple design and yes the reflections look cool !




Wes Black \ Calrad

[samsonlov]

Very very nice S Pittaway.
What are you using to create the reflections?
I created new icons with "reflections" "built-in", but obviously that won't work for covers.

movies

movies-enter

movies-down

[S Pittaway]

They way i do it is not ideal, but it works...

I wrote a plugin which creates its own cache of the coverart in a database, when creating the cache, it can add reflections/generate default covers and lock there aspect ratio's, its called xDatabase (http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6292)

The generated images can be transparent png's or "shaded" jpeg (the png's look nicer, but take up more space and seem a bit slower to draw).

Its not perfect, but i use the functions in it quite a lot.


I added reflections on page 4 (http://www.xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6292&start=45) to save you reading the entire thread

[Grooby]

Sean

I will try and get reflections up and running on my iphone skin i'm doing...you may here back if i struggle!!

Thanks
Andy

[samsonlov]

Hi S Pittaway.

Thanks for posting the info on reflections.
Xdatabase is a bit too involved for me for now - I'll wait until Wes and Steven get more of the bugs squished before I start asking for "reflections" in V3.

Samson

[S Pittaway]

Added some screen shots of the picture viewer.



Sean.