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[frobig]

Since upgrading to 9.0, and still in 9.1, I haven't been able to use any new skins. I'll download a new skin, but when it tries to activate, I get a message that I can't read half the time (I get a black rectangle where the error message should be) and then MC reverts to the default skin. This includes skins that say "Download for V9.0." Most of the skins that I used in 8.0 still work--but not lowerright, my favorite Mini-Me skin. lowerright is still in my skin manager, but when I apply it, MC becomes invisible. Newly downloaded skins don't show up in my skin manager. I notice that the files for the new skins are downloaded and saved, but the skins that work seem to use GIF files, and the ones that don't seem to use bitmaps. Is this the problem, and what can I do about it?
Media Center Registered 9.1.305 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Jukebox\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)
AMD Athlon 1199 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 261 MB, Free - 117 MB

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106 (xpsp1.020828-1920) / Shell32.dll: 6.00.2800.1233 (xpsp2.030604-1804) / wnaspi32.dll: Internal ASPI Layer

Ripping /  Drive D:  Copy mode:Normal  CD Type:Auto  Read speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: No /  Play sound after ripping: No  

Burning /  Drive D: OPTORITE CD-RW CW4802      Addr: 1:0:0  Speed:28  MaxSpeed:48  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: No /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: No
  Use playback settings: Yes /  Normalization: None

[rocketsauce]

Probably most of the skins that are available from the skins download page haven't been updated by their authors to work with 9.0 or 9.1.

In the Third Party Plug-ins forum, most skins that work with 9.1 have their own thread. You can download them from there. Also, you should probably update to the latest version, which is 9.1.316. Skinning was broken several times during 9.1 development, so most of them have probably been updated to work with the latest version of 9.1.

Rob

[nila]

Also, read the thread carefully to work out just which version of the skin to download.

A few are already modified to work for v10 so you'll need a slightly older version of the skin to work with v9.1

There are some nice ones floating around though

[Doof]

He/She's talking about mini-me skins, not MEGA-ME skins.

Nothing changed regarding mini-me skins from 8.0 up through 10. Well... a couple of things were added, but nothing that would break any of the existing skins.

There have been some reports in the past that skins downloaded and installed didn't later show up in Skin Manager. I have no idea what causes this, though.

[nila]

Doof,
not quite true.

Something was changed though I'm not sure what.

A few of my mini-me skins went wierd at one point and dont quite work fully - cant remember which or when it happened though

[Doof]

Well, I just tried Amped, Amped 2, Cockroach, Cockroach - Orkin Edition, Eutow, Fluxion, Goo, iPod, LowerLeft, NightLife Mini, PixOS, SonixMedia, and Windows XP with MC 10.0.14 and they all worked fine.

I know of 3 things that changed with mini-me skins in 9.1.

1. Support for .png files with transparencies and alpha blending.

2. Addition of multiple text scrolling types. For instance, you can have text left justified if short, but scroll if it's longer than what will fit.

3. A bug was fixed with the SaveState and GetState functions.

None of these would effect older skins working on MC 9.0, 9.1 or 10. This would only effect people using a new skin that supported those features on say, MJ8 or even MC9.0. As far as I know, the PixOS skin is the only one that uses any of those new features.

[nila]

Just for you Doof I checked which skins it was:

Eff One Mega Jukebox
Eff One Micro Jukebox
Eff One Mini Jukebox
Eff One Minus Jukebox.

I also recall some issues happening with one of the lower skins at some point in the v9 process - cant remember what or where.

These skins all have issues though displaying.

I'm not sure what causes them because I dont have your skinning know how

[Doof]

Sometimes the state.xml file can contain some erroneous information and cause the skin to display off of the screen. Deleting state.xml from the skin's folder will reset all of that.

What problems displaying are you having?

[nila]

I think it's the transparencies not showing through properly.

There are big bright yellow areas on the skin which I'm guessing are the areas that are meant to be transparent but aren't being displayed properly.

[Doof]

Hmm... interesting. It seems to be a combination of using GIF with his choice of TransColor.

I saved it one as bitmap. No change.

Changed the TransColor from that yellow color to fuscia. The skin looks normal.

Edited the GIF to use the fuscia color and it still doesn't work right.

Sounds like a bug of some sort to me. But as a work around, all of the GIF images that have transparent parts can be converted to bmp, the yellow transparent areas filled in with fuscia, and then edit the main.xml file so that it points to the right files, and set the TransColor to "FF00FF" and then it works.