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[Mr Morkey]

I've started to use Theate view a lot recently and fancy a bit of customisation to get it looking something like the skin style I use in standard view (Shining Armour)...

Before getting stuck into the XML, I wonder if any of you out there have developed any custom theatre view skins? They seem to be almost entirely absent from the forums!

If so, could people make them available? It would be great to see what can be done.

What would be really great is if animation and other transition effects could be incorporated into the theatre view interface - is this feasible? To be honest, the only thing going for Windows Media Center is its slick interface - if J River theatre view could match it, then it would truely be the most complete home theatre system out there...

Cheers!

[Mr Morkey]

In addition to the above...

Is there a way of removing the visualisation window in Theatre view?

How about integrating a track info tempate into the playing now section? Saves constantly shifting between the fullscreen view and theatre view, whilst allowing you to see all the track info (instead of just the track name)...

I notice that there is no information in the Dev Zone about theatre view - is there a reason for this? As I mentioned before, Theatre view really needs to be the focus of J Rivers attention now - the rest of the system is about perfect to my eyes.

Surely someone out there has an opinion!?!?!

[DWAnderson]

I'd be interested in seeing this too!

[udeups]

I would also like to see a repository of Theater View skins. I really see Theater View as one of the major strengths of MC. I use it daily now. Better skins will only help it.

[DWAnderson]

FWIW, see http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=27076.0

[DWAnderson]

I would also like to see a repository of Theater View skins. I really see Theater View as one of the major strengths of MC. I use it daily now. Better skins will only help it.

Appropos of this, why is there no way to submit Theaterview skins like one can for Megame or Minime skins?

[JimH]

There should be.  E-mail it to bob @ jriver.com and link to this thread.

[Mr Morkey]

Cheers for the link,

While the 'main.xml' does offer some flexibility in terms of layout, it doesn't appear to offer much in the way of allowing alternative content or functionality. I assume the source of the theatre view system comes from somewhere deep within Media Centers main system files, thus being inaccessible to the likes of us?

Not only do I want to move the existing stuff around a bit, I want to be able to show more stuff! How about giving us some form of Dev Kit for Theatre view? Save you a bit of work...

[cascius]

Yes, that would be great, but you might be asking for a little too much there.

[Mr Morkey]

Ha - yeah!

However, the way I see it, we've three options:
 
1. We request and request until JRiver come up with the goods - and considering they have bigger fish to fry, I expect the wait will be a long one...

2. We figure it out ourselves. Considering the community on this forum includes talented graphic artists and plugin coders, I reckon we can get some mileage out of it.

All we need is a bit of direction - For a start, where and how does theatre view source it's information? It must be related in some sense to the configuration of the main view (a curse as much as a blessing I might add). The XML layout file is a non-starter for this sadly - my fear is it is buried deep within the main system files and thus inaccessible to the likes of us...

However - KingSparta - he seems to be the guru for this sort of thing. Any thoughts?

I  suppose there is a third option too - develop a frontend from scratch. Having seen the web control function of JRiver, I would assume that something similar could feasibly be developed using Flash (displayed in fullscreen mode as a sort of mega-interactive track info template maybe?).

I should add that I proposed this as a project for my thesis (I work in HCI, so usability is my forte), but it was - sadly - rejected. However, once I'm finished faffing around with the rest of my work, I'll be keen to take such a project on. To that end, it would be great if I could collaborate with the likes of Cascius and Sevellian (sorry - guessed the spelling there!), who are considerably more adept at graphic design than I am?