INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Windows => Topic started by: ldoodle on March 11, 2014, 10:11:50 am
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Hey,
Is there a guide to creating your own? If there's one thing that gets a big fat zero (well maybe a 1) from me, it's the default Theater View skins.
Personally, they're horrible. As is the only one (I can find) available as download.
Ta...
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Good theater view skin here
http://sirganty.deviantart.com/art/MetroX-Theatre-360970673?q=gallery%3Asirganty&qo=0
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'Good' is relative though :)
That's actually the other one I was referring to! This is the only thing Windows Media Center beats JRiver at.
Thanks anyway ;)
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'Good' is relative though :)
That's actually the other horrible on I was referring to! This is the only thing Windows Media Center beats JRiver at.
Thanks anyway ;)
Can't more than agree. Although many people keep complaining about missing eye-candy, nothing is improving :-(
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In MC Settings, you can customize Theater View. I set text zoom to 150%, for example.
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"Eye Candy" is extremely subjective, you'll never find something that suits everyone - which makes this so hard.
In addition, you really need a developer with a disposition for graphical work and an ounce of creativity to come up with these things. Personally, I lack the graphical skills to design new skins. I could probably rip off someone elses, but hey.
What I would be interested in is hearing from a skin developer what our skinning engine might need to do to be more flexible and more open for new and modern skins to be created.
One of the difficulties MC faces is that we don't have fixed pre-defined views like for example XBMC. Every view is dynamically configured, so a skin couldn't hard-code special behavior for a Movies view for example, which makes flexible skinning so much harder.
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More control over positioning.
More graphics linked to meta data. Like actors images to actors name.
Bookmark bar that shows how how much you have watched/listened to something. (Netflix)
Ability to disable delete and shutdown options
Maybe support for dynamic transition. So you could apply some simple animations.
Like puling up a CD cover art list.
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I like the default theme with the backgrounds disabled.
It might be nice if there could be a dynamic background similar to what Sony have with their XMB for example. (animated background, changes color based on time & date)
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I'm in theater view most of the time and most of that time is in Playing Now. I am happy with it mostly. I really appreciate the thought and effort that went into making it possible to define custom views and I wouldn't want to give that up. But it is strange to me that a product that is SO flexibile and configurable as MC would hardwire the content of the most visited screen in theater view. Why does this have to be? Seems like simply adding a bit more flexibility to what is already in place would go a long way. For what it's worth, if I could I would remove the secondary roller entirely (not needed) and I would remove the ratings (not interested.) In my view this would clean up Playing Now nicely. Just my two cents...
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Oh ability to turn off/autohide top bar!!!!! So you can full screen webpages . like when you use Netflix as a webpage.
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Hey,
Is there a guide to creating your own? If there's one thing that gets a big fat zero (well maybe a 1) from me, it's the default Theater View skins.
Personally, they're horrible. As is the only one (I can find) available as download.
Ta...
Did you see "Rapier Fusion" from xplain? http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=69662.0
If you have customised your theater view away from the defaults, you will need to modify it to fit, reinforcing the difficulties mentioned above.
It's pretty neat though, and still in use on our TV...
Screenies (https://www.mpw.scot/galleries/rapier/bigpage.html?image=862486581_orig0.jpg#)
-marko.
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Hey,
Is there a guide to creating your own? If there's one thing that gets a big fat zero (well maybe a 1) from me, it's the default Theater View skins.
Personally, they're horrible. As is the only one (I can find) available as download.
Ta...
Funny you should say that. I was (and still am) completely bowled over by the default skins. I have been looking at them for quite some time now and still don't tire of them. Well chosen!
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What I would be interested in is hearing from a skin developer what our skinning engine might need to do to be more flexible and more open for new and modern skins to be created.
As someone who's tried to develop a few skins, I think it would help if you updated the skinning docs in the wiki. I couldn't find any comprehensive list of all the available commands so lots of trial and error involved. I suspect this turns off many from trying to develop their own skins.
I learned from dissecting the skins of other users but quickly found that some commands in these skins no longer work in recent versions. I don't mind doing the coding but without updated docs, it's way too time consuming.
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As one who also use Theater View just about always I want to add to my encouragement to JRiver to consider devote some development time to improve. I am not complaining much - current Theater View is pretty good and is a key competitive advantage of MC.
But since not much has been done to improve it since introduction, it is perhaps time.
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It would be nice to have some more "eye candy"
There are some brilliant looking themes in xbmc but unfortunatley xbmc cannot touch JRiver for audio, video feature playback! Hence why most people who want audophile quality and mad vr stick to JRiver!
Its a shame really
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My two biggest complaints about JRiver is the easy of use in setting up (it's complicated in comparison to XBMC) and the lack of Theater View skins (XBMC are nicer) but the audiophile and videophile options make up for it.
The Metro skin works reasonably well but I don't like the "Player" on the main screen. Also the Vines option causes JRiver to crash for me. Gonna check out the Rapier Fusion one now!
EDIT: Ahhh I like the Rapier Fusion one a lot! :D
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With the right Theater View skin, it looks pretty good. But the big problem here is that there's functionality that's just not been added. By adding more possibilities to the skinning framework and documenting this, I think people would start creating amazingly gorgeous and functional skins. Castius mention many of the things I would like to see.
More control over positioning.
More graphics linked to meta data. Like actors images to actors name.
Bookmark bar that shows how how much you have watched/listened to something. (Netflix)
Ability to disable delete and shutdown options
Maybe support for dynamic transition. So you could apply some simple animations.
Like puling up a CD cover art list.
If I would add my own feature wish list it would be something like...
- Ability to position and resize almost everything
- Ability to add meta data and pictures to the main menu from other a set of criteria like last 5 movies added, last episodes added, last Music albums added.
- Ability to sum up the underlying number of albums, artists, tv shows, seasons, movies and how many of those are watched or not.
- Allowing users to add the small info pane above the "file level" so you could add category summary information
- Ability to position of the info pane, and items in the info pane (last one goes especially the big info pane).
- Ability to add icons and graphics that present key words in meta data. Such as 720P, 1080P, Different Audio codecs, Channels, Watched, Not watched icons
- Ability to disable certain items on the rollers, like "All ..." items, Shutdown and more (not necessarily a skinning framework thing, but an option addition).
- Ability to add meta data to the cover flow view, and change positioning of the cover art.
- Ability to set the size of the cover art on the "video wall" view (it's currently way to small for my 10/10 sight)
- Add a totally new Player bar for the Theater view (to separate it from display view). There should be a difference between launching from theater view or standard view imo. This would allow us to customize the player bar and making it more touch friendly, and making it match the theater view skin.
- Allowing users to customize the OSD
- Allowing users to sort and filter views on the fly (overrides the standard options momentarily)
I know this is much. I don't expect any of these to be implemented. But if they were, I believe we would be a lot closer to skins like we have in xbmc and other 10 foot players. There have not been much improvement in Theater View since we got the roller based navigation. And even though that was a good facelift all those years ago, it was still behind the competitors at that time. I seriously hope that Theater View will get more attention, as this is the only interface I use.
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I find the default skin completely adequate. It does the job quickly and looks fine. All I want to do is get to my content. Most importantly my wife thinks it is easy to use too.
I used to change the background pictures but they would get reset every time I upgrade so I stopped.
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I think 'real-time' viewing of changes would be wonderful. As it is now, I have to go into options, navigate several levels deep, then back out to go see the results, then do it again, and again, and again. I usually give up before making too much progress. This, combined with the 18-24 month requirement that everything be reset to defaults has left me with mostly stock views.
If I could make a change to Theater View, and see that change instantly, then keep mucking about until I get what I want, I'd probably spend more time customizing Theater View.
Also, the suggestions above, which allow more control would be most welcome.
Finally, the ability to easily share views and customizations amongst users would be very nice, so we could easily build upon others work
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One of the difficulties MC faces is that we don't have fixed pre-defined views like for example XBMC. Every view is dynamically configured, so a skin couldn't hard-code special behavior for a Movies view for example, which makes flexible skinning so much harder.
yeah.. that is a problem.. but even on the one that is defined, it does not work.. add for instance , as a test, a clock to playing now, and see when it does and does not show up in playing now..
i think an xml that reflects what the skin does, is a start, and than adding more things to influence like the rollers, what and how you see on the info page, etc etc
:)
there are a lot of threads with suggestions since mc 12,something..
:)
gab
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dead links.