NPVR Skin wish list

[XJW]

My wish list for a maximally useful skin.
- Clean and uncomplicated
- A TV Guide that maximises the number of channels and hours visible on the screen. The old blue skin was pretty good but if possible more channels would be better. The more channels you can see the fewer times you need to scroll back over the program guide.
- A Videos screen that maximises the number of items listed on the screen. This makes searching through long lists of movies and recordings more effective. Old blue skin was pretty good for this.
- Vertical scrolling Main Menu - like the old blue skin. The vertical scrolling menus allow you to see lots of menu items.

If anyone else is interested in a skin of this type or has similar wishlist items then please add comments. If someone is kind enough to develop a skin of this type then please let us know.

[Reddwarf]

If you add too many channels and hours on the screen it will be pretty hard to read for those who haven't a 70" screen, likewise with the video.

[mvallevand]

There is the Mayhem skin that I use http://forums.gbpvr.com//showthread.php?...kin-Mayhem thanks to sub and Jaggy. It gets around the limited items on Default for menus and libraries, which I do agree require much more scrolling then blue ever did.

Martin

[XJW]

Agreed - we need the right balance in regards to content vs font size. We dont want so much content that the skin is unreadable.

But many of the skins only use part of the screen or they use formats that show only a couple of items as thumbnails rather than a nice long list as we had in the Blue skin of old. It is much easier to find an item if you can page down through a long list of shows rather than toggling through thumbnails one at a time.

I wish I was able to do the skin myself - I dont have the skills - and can only applaud those that do. These are just my thoughts as a user. If others have similar wish lists items it would be good to see your thoughts.

[Jaggy]

But many of the skins only use part of the screen or they use formats that show only a couple of items as thumbnails rather than a nice long list as we had in the Blue skin of old. It is much easier to find an item if you can page down through a long list of shows rather than toggling through thumbnails one at a time.

With NPVR currently there are two different kinds of displays CoversView (thumbnails like you describe) & ListView a list like you are describing for the Blue skin (blue also had a thumbnails view in it & couple of others selectable by the "Mode" button) to change the type of view if you are in CoversView (thumbnails) press the up arrow/button & just select "View" & you will then be in ListView, to change when in ListView press the left arrow/button to get the hidden menu. So even if screenshots for a skin show thumbnails it will also have a list view available & not just thumbnails.

[XJW]

Jaggy, Thanks. I have tried the Default and Next Blue skins on NPVR. I like both and particularly Next Blue but they use only part of the screen in the TV Guide and the Videos List screen. I am not sure if this is a skin limitation or system limitation. The Font sizes in these skins look good in terms of readability. My wish list item would be for a skin that made use of the whole screen allowing the user to see more channels and more items in the video folders. I can see that there are a couple of other skins already available so I will take a look at those. If anyone is developing a skin that uses more of the screen with a small but readable font then please post a comment.