STV Import: Fan Art for Default STV by TiKi (v2.2 Feb 22, 2009)

[tmiranda]

Tiki,

Thanks again for this import. The WAF has increased again! Everything is working except for the genre "House/garden". If the genre is just "House/garden" it is not picked up at all. If it's "House/garden / How-To" the genre is seen as "How-To".

I'm not certain what's special about "House/garden" (except it seems to be my wife's favorite genre!)

Thanks,

Tom

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Tiki,

Thanks again for this import. The WAF has increased again! Everything is working except for the genre "House/garden". If the genre is just "House/garden" it is not picked up at all. If it's "House/garden / How-To" the genre is seen as "How-To".

I'm not certain what's special about "House/garden" (except it seems to be my wife's favorite genre!)

Thanks,

Tom

It's most likely a problem because of the slash in the middle of house/garden. I'll look into it.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by scoful

It would be really cool if it would revert to the default layout on the details screen if no fan art is available.

This is Something I would like to do in a future version.

[tmiranda]

Another couple of suggestions.

1. Why not eliminate the video thumbnail on the detail screen? It seems out of place, not needed, and it covers the great background images. If it were not there you could use the entire bottom of the screen to display the text. I think this would just "clean things up" quite a bit.

2. On the "View Partial Recordings" menu can you NOT go directly to the "Details" screen? Most of the time when I go to this screen it is to delete all of the partials.

Thanks,

Tom

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

1. Why not eliminate the video thumbnail on the detail screen? It seems out of place, not needed, and it covers the great background images. If it were not there you could use the entire bottom of the screen to display the text. I think this would just "clean things up" quite a bit.

I have to agree with this. Though I like the idea of having the thumbnail (or channel logo in an upcoming show), I could live without it. Or maybe it could be much smaller, and/or in a different location? For example, just the other day I noticed that I'll never see Stewie in the "Family Guy" background - he falls completely behind the logo/screenshot in the arrangement I use. Poor Stewie.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

I have to agree with this. Though I like the idea of having the thumbnail (or channel logo in an upcoming show), I could live without it. Or maybe it could be much smaller, and/or in a different location? For example, just the other day I noticed that I'll never see Stewie in the "Family Guy" background - he falls completely behind the logo/screenshot in the arrangement I use. Poor Stewie.

I may play around more with alternate layouts to see what works best... One thing that makes it difficult is that things really look different depending on the resolution and aspect ratio of your TV/Display. Right now my main Sage TV is an early model 50 inch HD Projection TV that is not wide screen (it's 1080i, but it's got a 4:3 aspect ratio, not 16:9). I do most of my debug on a laptop that is 1920x1200 pixels (so it actually has an 8:5 aspect ratio). With that in mind, I run Sage in a Window and try different aspect ratios and sizes (640x480, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1920x1080) and try to find a layout that looks OK in all of them.

Some ideas I have for making the fanart backgrounds more viewable:
1. Try putting the logos / thumbnails into the scrolling region (I don't know if Sage will allow this, but I can try).
2. Remove the header (disk space bar, recording indicator, Sage logo, Screen Title), or create a custom header that is more compact.
3. Shrink the fan art so it is not quite full screen and try to fit all of the buttons and text into the borders.
4. Create a couple of layouts that are optimized for a single aspect ratio (16:9 only or 4:3 only).

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

2. On the "View Partial Recordings" menu can you NOT go directly to the "Details" screen? Most of the time when I go to this screen it is to delete all of the partials.

I can take a look to see if this can be done easily. I never use that sceen personally, since Sage deletes partials automatically by default, but I can see why you wouldn't want the extra button presses.

One other idea that may be useful to you - I have a button on my remote mapped to "Delete" (the red button on the Hauppauge remote). So, I never have to bring up the options menu when I want to delete something.

[tmiranda]

Tiki,

My system does not delete the partials automatically but on the default screen layout when you select one of the recordings one of the options is to "delete all partials". That is what I use almost all of the time.

Thanks,

Tom

[Polypro]

It took me a while, but I finally installed this on 6.4.8...SERIOUSLY COOL!

Thank you,

P

P.S. Would love to be able to jump directly to details on a non-malore set up, as well.

[tmiranda]

I've been working for the last several days on collecting banners and backgrounds from all over the place. I'd like to post them all to a server but have not been impressed with the various public servers I've seen. They are loaded with ads, pop-ups, speed limitation, waiting periods, etc. Can anybody recommend a decent public server where I can upload and share the banners and backgrounds I have collected? I estimate that they are about 1 GB in total size.

Thanks,

Tom

[gplasky]

If you have Windows Live you can use the Skydrive that gives you 5 GB of disk space out there. You can make it publicly available or assign a user name and password. It's free.

Gerry

[Polypro]

Can someone post some quick instructions to have the backgrounds show up for ripped DVDs (imported video)? I tried manually creating either a .my or .properties file with the DVD name, and putting Title= ...no joy

Is there any way to jump straight to detalied info for recorded TV? (Future TV and DVDs seem to work fine)

Is Tiki's the only Banner pack? I DL'd vexhold's, but its just backgrounds. Haven't tried KJake's yet.

Thanks,

P

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Can someone post some quick instructions to have the backgrounds show up for ripped DVDs (imported video)? I tried manually creating either a .my or .properties file with the DVD name, and putting Title= ...no joy

Is there any way to jump straight to detalied info for recorded TV? (Future TV and DVDs seem to work fine)

Is Tiki's the only Banner pack? I DL'd vexhold's, but its just backgrounds. Haven't tried KJake's yet.

Thanks,

P

To have the backgrounds displayed just put the background image in the /backgrounds/movies folder and make sure the name of the .jpg is the same as the name of the movie. It does not matter that it's an imported DVD.

Tiki's import automatically goes to the detailed info screen once you tell it to by setting the options. This is explained in the installation instructions. Have you set the option but it is not working for you?

As for banner and backgrounds packs, I'm taking gplasky's advice and uploading my collection to a Windows Live skydrive. I'm not sure how Skydrive works but I'll post here when I sort it out. I collected backgrounds and banners from all over the place by scouring the Sage forums, XMBC forums, Brent's Blog and other places.

Edit: OK, first try. Here is a Skydrive link to the banners I have gathered. I've never used Skydrive before so please let me know if it works or not. I'm in the process of uploading backgrounds but there are over 40 parts to the archive since Skydrive has a 50MB limit.

http://cid-73abfc5f000111cf.skydrive...ners.part1.rar

http://cid-73abfc5f000111cf.skydrive...ners.part2.rar

Tom

[Polypro]

Jumping to detailed info works for my Guide and Imported Video...but selecting a show in SageTV Recordings brings up the Option Menu (Watch, Delete, etc...).

I'll have to try the DVDs again...I put a Black Hawk Down.jpg in the Backgrounds folder and the Backgrounds/Movies folder and didn't get the art.

Thanks for the help.

P

Edit: Got the Movie Art...spelling error!

[wado1971]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Edit: OK, first try. Here is a Skydrive link to the banners I have gathered.... please let me know if it works or not.

Banners downloaded fine for me. Good collection - keep the backgrounds coming

[tmiranda]

I stopped uploading the backgrounds because they are very disorganized. Once I get them cleaned up a bit I will upload them. My guess is towards the middle of the week depending on what happens in real life.

The banners are also not very tidy at the moment, I'd like to get them sorted into the proper subfolders (TV, Movies) but that is not so critical at this point.

There are several developers working on plug-ins that will automatically download banners and background images so all of this may be for naught.

If you are really desperate for the backgrounds PM me your mailing address and I will burn them to DVD and mail it to you.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Polypro

Jumping to detailed info works for my Guide and Imported Video...but selecting a show in SageTV Recordings brings up the Option Menu (Watch, Delete, etc...).

I'll have to try the DVDs again...I put a Black Hawk Down.jpg in the Backgrounds folder and the Backgrounds/Movies folder and didn't get the art.

Thanks for the help.

P

Edit: Got the Movie Art...spelling error!

Are you using the Malore Multi-pane menus from the Hidden Extras or the default Sage Recordings screen?

If using the Malore menus, you must go to the Malore Menu Options, and under "Action After Selecting Airing" choose "Display Details".

If using the Default Recording menus, I never investigated that before, but it looks like it doesn't work there...

[Polypro]

Default Recording Menu unfortunately...I just don't like the other choices.

Thanks,

P

[jkohn]

Originally Posted by Tiki

If using the Default Recording menus, I never investigated that before, but it looks like it doesn't work there...

I can confirm the option to go straight to details doesn't work for the default recordings menu, although it does work for scheduled recordings list and program guide.

[tmiranda]

Tiki,

I'm sitting in a hotel using placeshifter and I notice the option to "jump directly to detailed info" is not working. I made sure I have version 2.3 installed and the detailed settings are correct. The banners are being displayed properly and if I manually go to the details menu the backgrounds shows up.

Ideas?

Tom