Topic: new Theater View background system called 'Themes' (Read 17787 times)

JimH · « **Reply #50 on:** October 03, 2009, 03:37:05 pm »

Quote from: Daydream on October 03, 2009, 03:22:38 pm

is there any advice regarding the size and resolution for the images used? Is there a difference in format decoding time (JPG, BMP, PNG) that would matter? Can't say I've noticed anything from limited testing but I'm curious if I need to 'adjust' my local resources.

Any of these should work. Higher resolution will look better, but you're the best judge of that.

datdude · « **Reply #51 on:** October 04, 2009, 12:37:53 am »

Can't get videos to play. Installed the 'Dynamite' theme but no video plays. I do see the images playback though.

Marty3d · « **Reply #52 on:** October 06, 2009, 07:06:44 am »

Quote from: fitbrit on October 01, 2009, 01:39:35 am

I'm a fan of Seal's music. However, when in Seal's albums, I'm getting background images of some cute, furry aquatic animal. Some of Seal's music is clubby, but most is not, so those critters are a bit out of place.

I should add that I love the Themes idea, and it's executed beautifully, even in the default theme.

A seal walked into a club.

Couldn't resist!

tcman41 · « **Reply #53 on:** October 06, 2009, 07:42:58 am »

the only wallpaper site that really matters is interfacelift, 1000's of wallpapers all at 6 to 7 sizes including full 1080p, all free, pick your wallpaper, pick your size and download.

http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/any/

TC

MrC · « **Reply #54 on:** October 06, 2009, 10:29:19 am »

Quote from: Marty3d on October 06, 2009, 07:06:44 am

A seal walked into a club.

... and had a bashing good time.

Daydream · « **Reply #55 on:** October 06, 2009, 06:24:51 pm »

This thing with background online searching for artists' images works great but... care to bet on what happens if the artist you're listening to graced the covers of FHM, Playboy and the likes? One might need to warn the casual listeners around him that the whole listening experience became a bit edgier...

I'd still use my local collection should an option allowing local resources would be implemented.

JimH · « **Reply #56 on:** October 06, 2009, 06:34:16 pm »

Quote from: Daydream on October 06, 2009, 06:24:51 pm

This thing with background online searching for artists' images works great but... care to bet on what happens if the artist you're listening to graced the covers of FHM, Playboy and the likes? One might need to warn the casual listeners around him that the whole listening experience became a bit edgier... I'd still use my local collection should an option allowing local resources would be implemented.

We did notice. We're thinking about what to do. Sorry if it's caused any problems.

rick.ca · « **Reply #57 on:** October 06, 2009, 06:46:44 pm »

Quote

We did notice. We're thinking about what to do.

Don't forget many of us would love the option to include more such images. Perhaps with a hot-button for switching back to "prude-mode."

JimH · « **Reply #58 on:** October 06, 2009, 06:57:22 pm »

I think I've spent too much of my life in prude mode. $:-\$

MrC · « **Reply #59 on:** October 06, 2009, 07:09:17 pm »

Interesting... I was more thinking it would be troublesome if violent or graphically disturbing images appeared. Funny how we each have our own sensitivities wrt sex and violence.

rick.ca · « **Reply #60 on:** October 06, 2009, 07:52:33 pm »

Well, seriously then...

I always appreciate such things to be configurable. Even if it makes no difference, at least I won't feel I'm been held hostage to someone else's sensitivities. But if that's not feasible, I believe most general purpose image sites offer some kind of filtering mechanism. For example, I use Google Images with "moderate filtering," and don't recall ever seeing anything offensive there. If such filtering is necessary but not available, I'd rather the site not be used. On the other hand, I don't expect MC to go any further than using such filters.

I think the bigger challenge is configuring the searches so they retrieve relevant images. When I'm browsing/playing The Cars or Genesis, I expect the images to be relevant to those bands, not automobiles. I've never thought about it much before, but there sure are a lot of rock bands named after cars, animals, cities, states... $:-\$

For video, attempting to search for images for a specific movie or series doesn't seem practical. It would be better if a user-specified URL were used (it could, for example, point to the IMDb images page). It would be nice, however, if the search were for images of the actors appearing in the selected video.

JimH · « **Reply #61 on:** October 06, 2009, 07:55:34 pm »

Quote from: MrC on October 06, 2009, 07:09:17 pm

... it would be troublesome if violent or graphically disturbing images appeared ...

I don't think what Rick is talking about is violent or disturbing.

But that's probably way off topic. I might need to split some of this later.

gappie · « **Reply #62 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:33:40 am »

Quote from: MrC on October 06, 2009, 07:09:17 pm

Interesting... I was more thinking it would be troublesome if violent or graphically disturbing images appeared. Funny how we each have our own sensitivities wrt sex and violence.

its those violent images that keep me from using it all the time on my main media machine. but its easy to put on or off, so.

today i got this popup.

gab

Marty3d · « **Reply #63 on:** October 07, 2009, 02:59:11 am »

Would it be useful to create an app (web or in MC) where you're able to download/upload themes? Preferable with voting, lists of popularity, # downloads etc.

One of MC's weak sides has always been that it feel quite "disconnected", especially between users. It would be nice to extend the community to more than this board.

MrHaugen · « **Reply #64 on:** October 07, 2009, 04:02:08 am »

Quote from: Marty3d on October 07, 2009, 02:59:11 am

Would it be useful to create an app (web or in MC) where you're able to download/upload themes? Preferable with voting, lists of popularity, # downloads etc.

Oh yea. That would be sweet. Especially if we now got the ability to add our own local photos and videos in themes.

Daydream · « **Reply #65 on:** October 07, 2009, 04:45:05 pm »

A few things.

Videos as background. I wonder what are you guys using because from my testing most of the videos do not fit for backgrounds since they're instantly distracting. Those should be carefully crafted vids, the waves of PS3, the glowing lights of a Tivo, etc. Subtlety.

Quote from: rick.ca on October 06, 2009, 07:52:33 pm

For video, attempting to search for images for a specific movie or series doesn't seem practical. It would be better if a user-specified URL were used (it could, for example, point to the IMDb images page).

That's what the word "fanart" stands for. On some other part of the planet

the same endeavor spawned hundreds if not thousands of images as background for movies. They are available; they can be created for what's not available. In a couple of months packs of hundreds of MB with images for every movie can be put together. Think "Flood!"

It can be done.

Quote from: MrHaugen on October 07, 2009, 04:02:08 am

Oh yea. That would be sweet. Especially if we now got the ability to add our own local photos and videos in themes.

My theme is already 50MB without any vids as background. If the granularity is developed further, so that pics can be attached / linked to specific vids (per movie, per series/season/episode, per clip) that size (at least in my case) will increase ten-fold. What app? Hosting will be the problem.

rick.ca · « **Reply #66 on:** October 07, 2009, 05:51:26 pm »

Quote

That's what the word "fanart" stands for. On some other part of the planet Smiley the same endeavor spawned hundreds if not thousands of images as background for movies. They are available... It can be done.

Where? How?

Daydream · « **Reply #67 on:** October 07, 2009, 09:53:39 pm »

http://www.themoviedb.org/movie to begin with.

Besides this one there are other sources but they are more or less related to competing projects. All my movies stored on HDDs (300+) have high-res posters, high-res backdrops/fanart, and 10 (HQ) thumbnails at random from each movie. Not all these resources are used currently in MC but they could be.

rick.ca · « **Reply #68 on:** October 08, 2009, 12:32:21 am »

The coverage and consistency are still not great (based on some quick testing from my own collection), but it's a lot better than it was six months ago. Most of my web searches (using original titles) produced a results page rather than a direct hit. That may be better using their API, but it makes me wonder. Also, it seems JRiver would need to negotiate and arrangement in order to use it.

There's also TheTVDb, which might be considered a similar deal for series. But it's unclear to me whether the API provides suitable access to images. Personal Video Database has a plugin for it, but we don't get any images from that.

Marty3d · « **Reply #69 on:** October 08, 2009, 02:07:38 am »

Quote from: Daydream on October 07, 2009, 04:45:05 pm

My theme is already 50MB without any vids as background. If the granularity is developed further, so that pics can be attached / linked to specific vids (per movie, per series/season/episode, per clip) that size (at least in my case) will increase ten-fold. What app? Hosting will be the problem.

The app could be either built-in in MC, like a plugin thing, or a simple web based application, similar to the plugin pages for MC, but slicker (think Firefox plugins/themes).

I don't think hosting is going to be an issue, disk space is cheap these days

Bandwith, well, all niceties comes with a price, and I would happily pay for more connectivity in MC (to use a common phrase by marketing where I work; bring MC to the cloud era). This could also be a start for more exciting things, like sharing views, smartlists, statistics between users.

nuke2000 · « **Reply #70 on:** October 09, 2009, 12:46:28 pm »

Regarding video backgrounds. I posted way back somewhen in the 13 thread about having playing now as a background (assuming video playing now, akin to windows mc) but it seemed then that this was too problematic for some reason and could not be implemented. It seems logical that if video backgrounds is to be a pemanent new feature that we should also have playing now as an option for a background (with time out to remove the overlay and a shourtcut key to bring it back / remove it again) don't you think? Or am i still missing something?

Matt · « **Reply #71 on:** October 09, 2009, 01:14:29 pm »

Quote from: nuke2000 on October 09, 2009, 12:46:28 pm

Regarding video backgrounds. I posted way back somewhen in the 13 thread about having playing now as a background (assuming video playing now, akin to windows mc) but it seemed then that this was too problematic for some reason and could not be implemented. It seems logical that if video backgrounds is to be a pemanent new feature that we should also have playing now as an option for a background (with time out to remove the overlay and a shourtcut key to bring it back / remove it again) don't you think? Or am i still missing something?

The playback display could be a Direct3D window, an OpenGL window, a regular GDI window, a DirectShow renderer with hardware acceleration, etc. There's no consistent, high-performance way to get data from the playing window to mix into another area with Windows.

Forcing all playback drawing into a custom Direct3D render target might work, but it would also add bad limitations to the types of playback displays we could support. (i.e. no GDI, no OpenGL, etc.)

maxxsid · « **Reply #72 on:** October 09, 2009, 04:20:03 pm »

+100

Quote from: Daydream on October 07, 2009, 04:45:05 pm

Videos as background. I wonder what are you guys using because from my testing most of the videos do not fit for backgrounds since they're instantly distracting. Those should be carefully crafted vids, the waves of PS3, the glowing lights of a Tivo, etc. Subtlety.

My personal opinion on this new feature: I most likely will have it disabled (unless it evolves into something really interesting). I thought the moving MC logo background was distracting.. now I wish I had it back..

imugli · « **Reply #73 on:** January 12, 2010, 12:04:43 am »

Sorry to drag this one up...

I actually like the Video playing in the background and currently have Music Clips playing in the Audio section, Movie Previews playing in the Movies section etc.

What I would like to see is

* Some way to use shortcuts or playlists in the folder, so that I don't need to take up my HDD space with duplicates of my clips, which are stored on another HDD.

* Some way to control Audio on these files - especially the movie previews. I'd love my HTPC to act like those big preview screens they have at the cinemas, esp now with trailers being released in big screen HD goodness.

Merv · « **Reply #74 on:** January 16, 2010, 03:05:39 pm »

Is it possible to add as an option in the Theme configuration to keep the "rolling MC Logo" on the Theatre View opening page (ie home page) rather than a picture

(while still retaining the"show online media in artist view") ? or is there a workaround to do this ?

Merv · « **Reply #75 on:** January 19, 2010, 09:02:42 am »

Or allow an animation (rolling Logo or whatever) on the theme

HTPC4ME · « **Reply #76 on:** January 19, 2010, 09:48:09 am »

hi, where do we find the picture\video slideshow option? dynamite?, where are the theme downloads is there a wiki? i cannot seem to find it and would love to incorporate it into my theaterview. thank you.

CadErik · « **Reply #77 on:** January 19, 2010, 10:01:13 am »

Quote from: Griff on September 28, 2009, 07:06:38 pm

A number of months ago you released "Theater View Background" playlist.

Is there still a way to use a playlist for background pictures?

Erik.

CadErik · « **Reply #78 on:** January 19, 2010, 10:12:31 am »

Quote from: Daydream on October 07, 2009, 04:45:05 pm

Videos as background. I wonder what are you guys using because from my testing most of the videos do not fit for backgrounds since they're instantly distracting. Those should be carefully crafted vids, the waves of PS3, the glowing lights of a Tivo, etc. Subtlety.

I really like the current theme with paintings in the background but waves or glowing lights... this would be a killer!

HTPC4ME · « **Reply #79 on:** January 19, 2010, 11:37:55 am »

is there a wiki on how to do what you all are talking about? im not finding these features you all speak of.
thank you.

JimH · « **Reply #80 on:** January 19, 2010, 11:46:12 am »

Look here:
C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 14\Skins\Theater View\Themes\Default

HTPC4ME · « **Reply #81 on:** January 19, 2010, 11:59:09 am »

ohh ok.. so we just add what we want to those folders i see.

ok thank you.

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Author Topic: new Theater View background system called 'Themes' (Read 17787 times)

nuke2000