Help make new default skin

[andlju]

That's really nice, too bad I'm well over 15 .

I agree! Is it available for download somewhere?

hmm.. should I be worried that I like an interface designed for teens..? :eek:

[Old Dog]

jdstarling,

That's really nice, too bad I'm well over 15 .

Me too.

[Old Dog]

I agree! Is it available for download somewhere?

Not yet. I'm having trouble meeting the fourth goal which is important for the WAF.

[Kevl]

Perhaps it might be beneficial if Sub could give an idea (or point us in the direction of a wiki page etc) which would give the uninitiated a view of what is possible re skinning and perhaps some hints as to which of the suggestions for change already made are easy or hard to implement.

I have often noticed that - from a user interface point of view - some changes which sound easy are very difficult to code and some difficult sounding changes are really easy.

Kev

[sub]

Perhaps it might be beneficial if Sub could give an idea (or point us in the direction of a wiki page etc) which would give the uninitiated a view of what is possible re skinning and perhaps some hints as to which of the suggestions for change already made are easy or hard to implement.

Pretty much most things are possible. The only things I'm ruling out are small video windows or animations. I'm also not keen to entirely replace the skinning. I am happy to make additions to it though (new menu styles etc).

I'm just waiting to see if a trend is emerges in what people want from the default skin, and if that requires new things, then I'll implement those things. To be honest though, I'm not seeing any trend. Everyone seems to want something different.

[jam_zhou]

The only thing that I miss is having more than one column on the main window. I mean, even with the Music panal, task image and recording soon captions you can probably fit three columns and three rows.

This would be nice because my one column is getting really long. With myHTPC I used to have columns for Video related tasks, Audio related tasks, Misc related tasks. No scrolling, it acted like a sitemap. With my current line of up to 10 plugins, it can take up to 10 clicks to get what I want because I don't know which way to go.

FYI Plugins.
TV
Record
Guide
shutdown
my music
my videos
my programs
theatre
WinDVD (custom task)
Internet (custom task)
Weather

More to come as well, but I'll probably put it into My Programs because I launch some of my own scripts - e.g. automatic ripping from EAC, opening sites directly to certain websites like yahoo mail. I like my PVR to be able to do absolutely everything possible from a 10ft interface, wireless keyboard and mouse and remote.

[tieke]

As I think was mentioned earlier in the thread, GB-PVR does support sub-menus, which might help you here with your overloaded main menu.

Personally I have TV, Video, Music and Extras listed on the front page, which go to sub-menus as follows:

TV
-- Xrecord
-- Guide
-- Search
-- Live TV

Music
-- Music Albums
-- My Music
-- Net Radio
-- Jukebox

Video
-- My Videos
-- xDVD
-- DVD

Extras
-- Webcams
-- Weather
-- My Pictures
-- Stepmania

Which all keeps each screen to around five buttons (once you include the "exit" button on the main screen and the "main menu" buttons on the sub menus.

Just go into the config, and under the plugins tab, you can add folders and drag and drop the plugins to the subfolder and order you want them to appear.

cheers,

tieke

[reven]

it would be nice if you could use the <DefaultPowerPlugin>ShutDown</DefaultPowerPlugin> (it might be called somethign else) and assign that to the power button on the remote, but not show it in the menu, since well its not needed (and takes up one more menu item on the screen), i had to hide it away in a submenu. but ifyou uncheck it in the plugins tab it doesnt load that plugin so you cant use it. the <Default...> stuff should be used to see if the plugin should infact be loaded but just not shown.

[RCoburn]

I've been following the thread and from what I have seen I like the horizontal menu idea using the icons. I think a good way to ease navigation would be to add a second horizontal row that is hidden until a submenu is selected.

I also like the contrast with the dark background and white text/icons. I think that date/time should be on or available on all of the menus and I like the pending recordings/recording now on the bottom of the main menu.

Mostly I trust sub's judgement, as well as the rest of the developers, because they have done a great job so far.

[reboot]

I'm just waiting to see if a trend is emerges in what people want from the default skin, and if that requires new things, then I'll implement those things. To be honest though, I'm not seeing any trend. Everyone seems to want something different.

I think there is a trend.
Two schools of thought.
1.) Information, lots of it, easily accessible and readable.
2.) Clean and simple.

1 implies panels, and smaller fonts, for more information.
2 implies what we already have, simple, easy.

The largest discussions seem to be what colour, and how much to put on the front (main menu panels/plugins).

I personally like the original Blue, then shift things leftwise a bit (centered is just too boring), and run some hilights with buttons, and background.
Because XML is limited to flat, I like to use .png's for 3D buttons, which IMHO, gives it a much nicer effect.

The only (major) change I'd like to see, is the ability to switch between vertical and horizontal, with the possibility of multiple columns.
Everything after that is just choosing a colour scheme that best showcases the layout.