Wave - New skin for NPVR

[BrettB]

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.

Yeah, I was trying to preserve the description space and take advantage of the mostly unused space after the title. But, I'd prefer to have the subtitle on the left along with the other info. And, with the description in a smaller font so that more fits on the screen, loosing a line doesn't look like it would be a problem.

How about posting your version, and I'll give it a try?

[johnsonx42]

Code:

    <Element name="SelectedShowDetails" location="4,67" size="92,23" alpha="255">
        <RoundedRect location="0,-8" size="100,108" fillColor="Guide_Description" borderColor="Transparent" radius="1.49" 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="1,3" size="98,20" font="Title" valign="Center"/>
        <Text text="@subtitle" location="1,22" size="98,15" font="YellowSmall" valign="Center"/>
        <Text text="@description" location="1,37" size="98,62" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>
    </Element>

[BrettB]

I had a little problem with the title overlapping with the guide grid. And the details section not quite as wide as the grid. Here's what I came up with:

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="1,24" size="98,12" font="YellowSmall" valign="Center" align="Left"/>
        <Text text="@description" location="1,37" size="98,62" font="DefaultSmall" wrap="true"/>
    </Element>

I do like the subtitle in that position. I'm wondering if there is a way to have the description text field move back up if there isn't a subtitle. Maybe sub or one of the skin developers can tell us if that's possible.

[johnsonx42]

I think I also adjusted my positions for a 4:3 display; if you're on 16:9, that would explain the postitioning variances. Also my version is from the previous release of Wave; I haven't had time to update to the latest release. I think Hairy did make some changes to other aspects of the TV Guide layout that probably make my version not line up right.

[Hairy]

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.

I'm happy enough for anyone to modify, edit or just play around with anything I post. Go for it.

The disclaimer would have to be though that no one gets to complain to Hairy about anything in my patch.

Yeah this

[Hairy]

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#

That's a weird one. I think sub and/or martin, over in the MPV/NMT forum, may be better placed to help you out with that one.

Skinners simple call a hex colour and let the app take care of the rest.

[Hairy]

Just to some of the personal preferences:

I genuinely try out everything suggested here, but at the end of the day I've gotta use my best judgement on what will please most people - most of the time. I'd drive myself doo-lally otherwise

I'll fully support and encourage people sharing their own modifications and getting stuck in personalizing the skin.

[nia]

That's a weird one. I think sub and/or martin, over in the MPV/NMT forum, may be better placed to help you out with that one.

Skinners simple call a hex colour and let the app take care of the rest.

Yes - I know. And that works well on PCs. I guess that somebody somewhere out there may have some experiences at to which colors renders best in a TV-domain...

[nia]

Question the "Videos" part of the skin.

I have a recording archive server, where i have close to 200 folders (and even subfolders like "Film" and "Kids stuff" with many folders as well). In this scenario, the horisontal scrolling with a few folders at a time is not practical.

Is the following possible:

a) View the folders vertically - more or less like the Recordings screen. Could even be optimised for more at at time on the screen, as a folder has no description or relevant date, and could use just one line.

b) The ability to go to a specific starting letter just by pressing it on the remote, like "M" to skip directly to the folders (or files) starting with "M".

[Hairy]

Yes - I know. And that works well on PCs. I guess that somebody somewhere out there may have some experiences at to which colors renders best in a TV-domain...

I do try and keep the colours NTSC safe, (but you're in PAL land so that shouldn't really be an issue). You could try a couple of pure rgb colour values to see if the problem persists. You could edit the "title" font (or all the title fonts') in the global.xml to use blue, green, red and yellow (yellow would give you the greatest contrast), to see how you get on.

Code:

<Font name="Title" color="#47afff" size="14" typeFace="Verdana"/>