Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[globetrotters1]

I managed to make most of my MC dreams come true with MC 12 (Audio server solution for my whole house), just two parts are now missing for this first stage:

1. Theater View Design

I read the how-to thread for a custom Theater View SDK. So far I understood most of what I can do with it. Have to try it out and learn by doing.
What is my goal?
I'd like to create a touchpanel GUI as easy to use as possible. The touchpanel has normal NTSC TV functionality. That's why I think 640x480 is the maximum resolution. All buttons should stay on certain screen positions and shouldn't jump around (I think they can even be included into the background picture design). I need only the common playback functionality: back, play, pause, stop, next, shuffle, endless and the four arrow buttons up, down, left and right. The rest of the screen can be filled with album/artist/genre/track lists to choose and during playback with the album cover, the track title, time and an overlay with a translucent audio analyzer would be cool...

Who has experiences with this and who can give some hints/tips?

2. Infrared

My touchpanels can be programmed and create external infrared signals (can be learned). I use an iMon inside/VFD IR receiver on my HTPC.

Who uses that too and can give some hints/tips what to avoid or suggestions how to implement it?

Thanks for any ideas!

[globetrotters1]

really no one around who already has some experience with that?

[globetrotters1]

I see, I'm the only one who needs a normal TV interface, no one uses MusicLobby as a frontend
and
I'm the first one who wants to use an iMon IR remote control  ?

anyway, thanks folks, appreciate your informations...

I therefore have to solve all that myself    and invent the wheel another time

Martin

[JimH]

A lot of people use MusicLobby.  You may find help specific to it on their forum at www.cinemaronline.com.

Any remote can be used if you teach MC how to talk to it.

[globetrotters1]

Jim,

thanks for the answer. I know where I can find people who use MusicLobby. I wanted to talk to someone here who uses MusicLobby only as frontend to MC... talk about the pros and the contras, nothing else. I personally find the whole MusicLobby thing way too expensive just for getting a bit more design flexibility for my TV GUI...

In the meantime I designed my own display view, which was easy to do. I'm not sure if I can do with the theater view what I'd like to do. It seems a bit too much stuck in means of animations, fixed design structures and so on. But I can be wrong. I'll have to dig through all the SDK documentations and have to try this and that. If I could talk to someone who really knows the limits of theater view I can pretty quickly decide if I need a third party program to reach my goal. I have very specific questions and need a few clear answers.

What I saw until today (as an old programmer) I have to congratulate you guys, you did a great job with this media center program, no doubts. It's extremely flexible.

Do you have the programmer around who wrote theater view? I would just need answers on a few simple questions...

Thanks,
appreciate your efforts and time
Martin

PS: I included the iMon IR in the meantime, it was no problem at all... sorry for bugging, I tend to ask first for problems