Help make new default skin

[nkh]

Yes I would like to try your fine skins.

I wont be able to do anything this evenening though as Im in the process of fixing my dishwasher. I may be some time :-)

Hehe, good luck with that

The skin can be downloaded here: http://www.nk-h.dk/temp/Black2-960x720.rar
It's just the default blue skin with the main menu and tv guide changed, so they're the only parts that's in 960x720.

[groover km]

The more I look at the brown/cyan skin being developed by dottore, the more appealing I find it:

It is clear, simple, and concise
Retro-modern
looks professional
looks like it would work on a monitor / tv / mvp
Is intuitive enough for the 'new user'
Is a 'branding' that is unique and not just another MCE clone

For me, I think that would make a fabulous default skin; I'd use it.

I don't know how possible this is, but if it is rendered completely through xml, if you could have a 'colour scheme' tab in the configuration, keep the skin and change the brown/ cyan to something more to your liking (i'm looking at you, WAF), that would be sweet....

[Old Dog]

To help ensure we can make a great skin, I'm happy to make changes to the core components of GB-PVR, but I have to be realistic about what can be changed in a reasonable period of time, and what can be done within the limitations of the devices we support, so not everything will be possible.

Could we have a transparency attribute in the skin drawing tags that would allow elements to range from invisible to completly solid?

Currently, I'm trying to draw opaque screen elements.

By the way, I have also posted this request to the Wish List.

Thanks,
David

[reboot]

I let the WAF decide the colour scheme.
Brown is definitely out.
Blue, Gray, White, LightBlue, and Black are the most accepted, with Blues on the darker side, text has to be white (especially hilighted text), and popup backgrounds black or dark blue.
She also loves a 3D look.
Here's one I'm working on, and so far, it looks great on the TV.

[reven]

i want a skin we are all happy with, there must be a few out there, i suggest skinners looking towards the xbmc/xbmp(what xmbc use to be called)/avalaunch/evox skins for inspiration, those skins look professional they are simple (well a lot of them are). i still think the street skin is the best one thus far, but doesnt really fit the whole media centre thing.

and how about black/grey/dark skins? anyone else worried about burning bright colours on their tvs for a long periods of time?

[reven]

oh heres a link to some xbmc skins (and all the other xbox dashboards)
http://www.allxboxskins.com/skins/index....=1&sf=&so=

[reven]

All said and done, you can have pro skins I can do it, but the skins we have now are the best we got for what we have to work with...

now i have to say thats a load of rubbish.

[daphatty]

Back to design suggestions...

Maybe one of you skinners could help me interpret this idea into something tangible. I was looking at the Hauppauge remote yesterday and the design of OK and Directional buttons caught my eye. What if we tried to design a skin that used the button layouts as a model? Of course, not everyone uses the hauppauge remote but most PVR remotes follow a similar layout.

Think you skinners could come up with some concepts? Let's think outside the box for a change...

[KingArgyle]

A similar thread to this skinning question was posted on the XLobby forums a while ago. It's actually pretty interesting reading, since it addresses many of the same topics that are being discussed here:

http://www.xlobby.com/forum//viewtopic.p...0401053a7f

My thoughts.

1. Keep it simple.
2. Design one for the PC and one for the MVP.
3. The less busy the better.
4. If graphics are used, use them when necessary not because you can.

Personally, I've found only one skin that I use, but that is with Meedio (yeah, I still haven't switched yet to GBPVR for watching/playing yet). I being able to arrange menu buttons in columns, instead of being just stuck to one column.

[groover km]

This thread piqued my interest and I headed over to the wiki to check out some of the other skins... there used to be a link to the old wiki where the bulk of them were.... now I can't find it.

Is it still available?