Help make new default skin

[dottore]

look at the mediacenters: they normally copy the mce-look. shouldn't we find a better solution for gbpvr? i think, our own skin without licencing problems or legal issues would be the best solution.

i have played a bit and i find, the trebuchet ms - font, which is installed on every windows computer, looks best. also, dark backgrounds with light fonts look best.

my opinion: create a simple, very readable skin, which works on both, the tv and the mvp (maybe with another background for the mvp) without using too much graphics for the buttons or popup-boxes.

[daphatty]

Maybe we should be discussing the functionality of a new default skin before we talk about aesthetics. Making pretty graphics is easy enough (for the artisitically inclined). I would like to see some changes made to the main menu screen, specifically the menu buttons. Rather than having one button for every feature and plugin, why not use a few main categories like TV, Radio, Recordings, etc, and then traverse down in a tree like structure? For example, selecting the TV category would reveal the LiveTV, TV Guide, and Search Guide buttons. We could even implement a neat wipe effect or dissolve to hide the root buttons when traversing the tree. This would be especially useful if, say, sorting the guide by genre were ever implemented.

Another neat feature would be the support of horizontal buttons on the main menu screen. I've seen this mentioned many times by skinners. The only use I can think of on the main screen would be the minimize and shutdown buttons a la Windows but maybe you skinners could think of something better.

Oh, and how about this? Could we implement "jump" buttons that automatically take take you to a favorite location like a specific television channel, or net radio broadcast, or even a My Pictures slideshow? Sorta like a one-click solution. That could be a useful feature on the main screen.

I'll post some more ideas later...

[Pioneer4x4]

For example, selecting the TV category would reveal the LiveTV, TV Guide, and Search Guide buttons.

That is possible now. I have mine setup that way.
I have

TV
Music
Util
Pictures

And under TV, I have
TV Guide
Recordings
Fast Find
Live TV
Videos

Under Music, I have
Net Radio
Music Library

Under Util
Solitare,Calculator, DVD to MPEG, Email, MVP Position, .....

[chewy747]

That is possible now. I have mine setup that way.
I have

TV
Music
Util
Pictures

And under TV, I have
TV Guide
Recordings
Fast Find
Live TV
Videos

Under Music, I have
Net Radio
Music Library

Under Util
Solitare,Calculator, DVD to MPEG, Email, MVP Position, .....

that is what I do too

[chewy747]

i personally like the XP style icons for the skin, it is why I picked the MCE2 skin. Maybe someone could come up with some new XP style icons independant of the MCEish ones

[haripj]

I've checked out a few of the skins. While I like the MCE skins, I find myself gravitating to the Fat Blue Hi Vis skin too. My wife's eyesight was what really prompted me to try it (we watch TV through the MVP), but I have to admit it makes everything a lot more readable and is very clean (which I think is the most important part). Except of course where it cuts off words. My wife asked me if the guy who developed the skin was southern too because it kept saying that we were "Recordin" shows! I wouldn't mind if being jazzed up a little though

I am another one that would agree with having the Flat Blue High Visibility skin for the MediaMVP. I actually almost never use GB-PVR on my desktop, so don't have much experience in that regard. The Flat Blue High Vis skin is great for the Media MVP, though. I've changed the background image, and added a few images for each task (task.png), and changed the positioning of the date/time a little bit.

[mvpaaagh]

I too am a big fan of the Flat Blue High Vis skin. It's simple and looks well on both PC and MVP. I have also being playing with Windows MCE recently and like the look and feel of it. Some may find the sound affects when moving around options anoying but personally I like it. Could BleepBloop be incorporated into the deafault skin/functionality?

[sub]

I'll be honest, while I agree the flat blue high visibility skin is very functional and readable etc, it's never really done it for me. It doesnt seem to have that cool professional graphics look I was hoping for. Its a little too plain. (sorry tieke!)

[Spartan]

I'll be honest, while I agree the flat blue high visibility skin is very functional and readable etc, it's never really done it for me. It doesnt seem to have that cool professional graphics look I was hoping for. Its a little too plain. (sorry tieke!)

Another vote for that skin (from an MVP user). I have inserted a few custom task icons and have tweaked the layout / panels a little bit to make them look more like the buttons.

[dottore]

as i was designing this skin:



i found some problems in showing recordings. so i thought of following skinning options for gb-pvr:

• horizontal menu
  
• shadows on rounded rects and lines
  
• transparency option for graphical elements (also on composite images)
  
• alternating lists (alternating backgrounds in lists)
  
• leave some menu-options for the user: use centered button on main menu, use horizontal menu.....
  
• define different backgrounds for mvp and pc...
  

just ideas. i would like to make a faded background to the recordings you see above, but for now i must make a transparent png which increases the memory consumption....

what do you mean?