Wave - New skin for NPVR

[nia]

It's a beautiful skin - thank you for putting time into this

It is particularly useful with the descripion field to the right.

Two things though.

a) The medium blue text on the dark blue background is beautiful on the PC. However it is quite difficult to read on the PCH/TV. Maybe higher contrast in color and/or bolder font could remedy the issue.

b) The time/date field is not wide enough, and also in the bottom right with the file numbering space is missing. (see screendump).

[Hairy]

Cheers

a: This is something I have been concious of. Also; as I don't actually use NPVR, these are the types of things I appreciate hearing back on, thanks. If you don't mind could you try the attached global.xml and see if the heading texts' legibility improves any.

b: From the screen shot it looks like you're using a 4:3 aspect ratio. As per the first post, Wave is designed for a 16:9 aspect ratio - so unfortunately there are going to be areas of the skin that don't work quite right on any aspect ratio other than 16:9. NPVR does include the ability to load specific formatting based on aspect ratio but I don't have any current plans to modify Wave for a 4:3 aspect ratio.

[johnsonx42]

Regarding the 4:3 issue, I have made a few edits to my installed copy of Wave to help with 4:3 (mostly to correct the most egregious issues - read: the ones that bother the wife ). However, I've not yet updated to the latest release of Wave. I'm really busy with work stuff right now, but sometime in the next week or so I'll get up to the latest release of Wave and get my fixes put in.

At that point, if Hairy has no objection I'll post a .zip of the .xml's I changed. Then any 4:3 users could just install Wave and then copy my .zip over it to get a little better display. The disclaimer would have to be though that no one gets to complain to Hairy about anything in my patch.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I'm still using this skin and it's great. But for the WAF: is it possible to add the episode name in the recordings screen, just like in gbpvr?

Chris

[nia]

Thanks for the quick response

(...)and see if the heading texts' legibility improves any.

It was better. I got inspired, and tried a few even lighter variants. For best legibility, the lightest one I tried was also the best: 99CCFF. However, on the PC screen I still find the darker variants nicer.

b: From the screen shot it looks like you're using a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I'm not, actually. I'm 16:9. But I have to admit that I did not observe if the issue with the date/time and page number was present on the PCH. But its displaying perfect now - both on the PCH and on the PC.

On a more general note:
One thing that doesn't help clarity is the way the text is rendered on screen. I took a couple of shots of the letters with your updated color, and the 99CCFF. The color of the letters is in both cases a mix of pixels in blue to white nuances. I don't know if it is possible to identify a color that is represented as pure as possible, which could potentially give an as clean as possible rendition and increase legibility. Well - last part just speculation.

Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/nielsaxelsson/NPVR#

[mvallevand]

Regarding the 4:3 issue, I have made a few edits to my installed copy of Wave to help with 4:3 (mostly to correct the most egregious issues - read: the ones that bother the wife ). However, I've not yet updated to the latest release of Wave. I'm really busy with work stuff right now, but sometime in the next week or so I'll get up to the latest release of Wave and get my fixes put in.

Did you try to make a 4:3 PAL (640x576) skin? It is much more challenging.

Martin

[skippy_nz]

Hairy - is it possible to increase the text size in the TV Guide - (perhaps drop one or two channels from the list at the same time ?) both myself and the wife have said its a bit too small as it currently sits and we are having to squint to read the text.

cheers
Skip

[BrettB]

I'm still using this skin and it's great. But for the WAF: is it possible to add the episode name in the recordings screen, just like in gbpvr?

By "episode name", I'm guessing that you're referring to the subtitle. I think that it does show up on the recording details when a recording is selected. However, it isn't displaying in the TV Guide by default. I modified the guide.xml file like this:

Code:

    <Element name="SelectedShowDetails" location="3,68" size="94,24" alpha="255">
        <RoundedRect location="0,-8" size="100,108" fillColor="Guide_Description" borderColor="Transparent" radius="2.24" borderWidth="0"/>
            <Rect location="0,0" size="50,1.2" fillColor="Acsent2_Horizontal_FadeIn"/>
            <Rect location="49.95,0" size="50.05,1.2" fillColor="Acsent2_Horizontal_FadeOut"/>
        <Text text="@title" location="1,4" size="98,20" font="Title" valign="Center"/>
        <Text text="@subtitle" location="1,4" size="98,20" font="Yellow" valign="Center" align="Right"/>
        <Text text="@description" location="1,24" size="98,72" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>
    </Element>

It displays the subtitle right-justified next to the show title when a show is selected.

[johnsonx42]

great minds think alike I guess BrettB, I modified my copy of Wave in exactly the same way.

edit: actually not quite the same way... I put my subtitle under the main title, and gave up a line of description that never seems to be used with my epg source.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

By "episode name", I'm guessing that you're referring to the subtitle. I think that it does show up on the recording details when a recording is selected. However, it isn't displaying in the TV Guide by default. I modified the guide.xml file like this:

Code:

    <Element name="SelectedShowDetails" location="3,68" size="94,24" alpha="255">
        <RoundedRect location="0,-8" size="100,108" fillColor="Guide_Description" borderColor="Transparent" radius="2.24" borderWidth="0"/>
            <Rect location="0,0" size="50,1.2" fillColor="Acsent2_Horizontal_FadeIn"/>
            <Rect location="49.95,0" size="50.05,1.2" fillColor="Acsent2_Horizontal_FadeOut"/>
        <Text text="@title" location="1,4" size="98,20" font="Title" valign="Center"/>
        <Text text="@subtitle" location="1,4" size="98,20" font="Yellow" valign="Center" align="Right"/>
        <Text text="@description" location="1,24" size="98,72" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>
    </Element>

It displays the subtitle right-justified next to the show title when a show is selected.

I'll give this a try, thanks. Indeed, the subtitle shows up when a recording is selected, but it would be nice to have al subtitles shown by default, without the need to select a recording.