Alaska Theme for WDTV Live Streaming (Revised 3-12-12)

@Fennec:

Regarding thumbs, yes they are the ones downloaded by the “Get Content Info” or “scanning media…”.

Regarding the cover art borders for the selected & large are next to the synopsis, they can pretty easily be changed.  You would want to modify the file "video_browse_gallery_thumbnail_f.png" and the file “frame.png” in the Gallery folder of the theme. In terms of the thumb sizes, the file “rv_gallery_browse_page.xml” controls the size and position of all the thumbs. Right now the selected thumb is 180(w)x254(h).  I would keep the width to height ratio constant or else you might get distortion in the thumb.  Also, if you do change the thumbnail size, you’ll also need to increase the border size as well.

On your other questions:

  1. The default image I believe is called RV_BG.png & is located in the image folder.  If you replace this whatever you want to use, it should replace all the default MOCHI backdrops.  The image should be 1280x720 in size.

  2. The theater backdrop image is a file named “video_gallery_video_icon.png” located in the image folder.  You can replace this image with whatever you choose just make sure to use this same name and a image size of 1280x720.  Also you will need to adjust the image “frame.png” I mentioned above as it is specific to the backdrop currently being used.

  3. This is certainly doable. You would need to modify the image “video_browse_gallery_thumbnail_holder_n.png” for the regular thumbnail’s border & the image “video_browse_gallery_thumbnail_f.png” for the selected thumbnail border.

  4. Yes.  You would need to modify the file “rv_gallery_browse_page.xml” and specifically this information:

**<image image="@@poster" x="57" y="155" w="176" h="261" align="hcenter" scale_type="pan" scale="100"/>** **<image image="image/Gallery/frame.png" x="57" y="155" w="176" h="261" bg="1"/>**

5. To upload your changes, just make a zip of the files INSIDE the “alaska” folder.  If you make a zip of the folder “alaska”, it will not work.  Then just upload via the web interface.  If all goes well it should give you a message that the upload was successful.

6. You can take screen shots (all the images I posted are screen shots) but you need to setup your remote to do so.  If you go to setup>operation>remote settings you can assign functions to the remote keys.  If you scroll down you should see something that says “screen shots”.  Assign this function to a button on the remote.  You also need to have a usb hard drive or flash drive connected to your device.  Once you have done both of these, then just hit the button on the remote you assigned to take screen shots.  The screen shots will be saved to the root of your usb device.

Good Luck!

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Great! Thanks for the response. I’m sure it has helped others as well.

I forgot to ask a question -

1.) What is the file name for the selected dashboard icon? As I may tinker with a border around that image.

2.) Reading over your response - With regards to question #4 - What do these values stand for? x=“57” y=“155”

@Fennec:

  1. Not sure what image is used for the dahboard select.  It might be one of these three though:

    dashboard_favorite_selected.png

    dashboard_title_select_bar_01.png

    dashboard_title_select_bar_02.png

  1. The x & y values are the position of the icons on the screen.  If you assume the upper-left hand corner of the screen is x=“0” y=“0” and the bottom right hand corner is x=“1280” y=“720”.  So for example, 

<image image=“@@info_iconx=“0” y=“0” w=“1280” h=“720” bg=“1” />

would tell you that your image starts at location 0,0 and is 1280 x 720.  Just make sure that the values of your x+w don’t exceed 1280 or y+h doesn’t exceed 720 or your images will be off the screen.  Below is a link to further information on this.  Look down about five posts.

Icon Position

1 Like

 


desertwedge wrote:

 

 5. To upload your changes, just make a zip of the files INSIDE the “alaska” folder.  If you make a zip of the folder “alaska”, it will not work.  Then just upload via the web interface.  If all goes well it should give you a message that the upload was successful.


1.) So I’m not entirely sure what you mean by this…

Your theme is titled “Alaska_1.zip”

 

There is no Alaska folder in the Alaska_1.zip file. So I don’t know where to place my edited files.

 

As an alternative means to get this working I just deleted the theme from my SMP, dragged and dropped my edited graphics into Alaska_1.zip to over-write the other files and re-upped it to the SMP, though that seems very tedious and impractical. There must be a quicker way to do it without having to delete and reinstall the theme on the SMP. Which I’m sure you tried to explain it to me, but I just don’t understand.


 2.) What XML file and text changes the positioning of the synopsis border and text?


3.) I don’t think any of these png’s operate as a dashboard select for the dashboard icons.

 

“dashboard_title_select_bar_02.png”

“dashboard_favorite_selected.png”

“dashboard_title_select_bar_01.png”

 

I don’t think there is a dashboard select for the dashboard icons. If there is one, I’d like to know - Or is there a way to create a dashboard select in the XML?


Edit - Yeah, I figured out a few things since this post.

There’s an overlay image to fade the bottom portion of the theater image black.

 

And I read a post by Tinwarble http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-Themes/Some-tips-on-theming/td-p/144024/highlight/true So I changed the dashboard picture name to -  “RV-BG.jpg” and it works.

 

So desertwedge, if you’re reading this - you need to rename that dashboard file in the “Alaska_1.zip” so people can use it. 

 

 

Thanks for all the help!

to 3: give it a try with RV-BG.jpg as filename for the default background.

If this doesn’t work, also you can still use the WD function assigning any image as background. The HOWTO can be found in the manual.

Good luck

@Fennec

  1. That works to update the theme.  Sorry if my previous answer was convoluted.

  2. The xml file to change the synopsis border & text (gallery view?) is rv_gallery_browse_page.xml.

  3.  I’ll have to look around and compare my theme to the original to see what happen to the dashboard select icon.

Thanks.

Does this theme work with the new 1.06 firmware?

@Bohemus

It does work w/ 1.06 but there might be a few kinks.  I’m currently using it with the 1.06 firmware version.  

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Hi desertwedge,

I stumbled over one problem on the Streaming box with the Alaska skin. When I open the music_browse_page the view is not fully filled with down to the bottom. I attach a screenshot to illustrate. The funny thing is, you can select the album where you don’t even see an icon … And navigating on this page is reeeealy slow.

Now, when I go to the list view, and back to the cover  view all icons are there, the arrows and the numbers at the bottom as well. Weird, isn’t it?

Any ideas?

Chris

@cbram

Question, what are using as the source for your media?  Local storage, network storage, or media server?  I’m currently  using media server & able to view all the media (4 rows of 8).  I recently was viewing files via network storage though  and had a similar look.  I’ll investigate this further to see if you are limited into how many items you can view if you are using network storage/local storage vs. media server as your media source.

In terms of the navigation speed, this is probably related to the number of items on the page & the number of items in your library.  It might be where I need to adjust the number of items down to 24 or 21 to make navigation faster.

Thanks for the feedback. 

@desertwedge 

Thanks for the response. Well, I am using a NAS to get the data to the box. No local storage.

Maybe, I didn’t spell this out clearly enough. Seeing the image above, changing to list mode, changing back, the page is then fully populated and responding quit quickly. As if the error is gone. BTW, this procedure does only help if you do it within a folder that completely fills up the screen with the 32 icons. Doing it in a folder with just e.g. 10 items the issue stays.

BTW, I am working on a mod of you Alaska skin, mainly replaced a couple of images and backgrounds. Will publish it here as soon as I am happy with it.

One more finding regarding the music view. Everything works fine when you navigate there through the dashboard.

cbram wrote:

One more finding regarding the music view. Everything works fine when you navigate there through the dashboard.> * * *

Well, I’ll add it to my things to look at.  Seems every time I get something looking the way I want it, if effects the way something else looks or behaves.  Hoping to have sometime this weekend to look at the music browse issues along with the dashboard select  issue that someone else posted about as well as a few other changes that I’ve wanted to make.

Edit: Figured out a bunch of things on my own.

@desertwedge

1.) As for the dashboard select - it was me that pointed it out. I said I didn’t think there is a dashboard select icon, as I spent a while looking at the icons and there is nothing for a border select in Alaska. The default Mochi does not have a dashboard select border icon. Under Mochi when you highlight an icon, it enlarges, but there’s no border. As a simple work-around I’m thinking I might just draw a border on the backdrop art around the middle icon. 

Do you know the XML file and specific line of text that controls the dashboard icon placement for Alaska? That way I can draw a border on the backdrop. 

Thanks 

Also - if you’re talking a look at your theme you need to change the file extension and wording of your backdrop cause it doesn’t work. Check out my previous post on what you need to change. Plus the star rating system is broken.

I’ll going to give this theme a try tonight.  Thanks for creating it.

Hope you enjoy it.   I am planning on updating here hopefully this weekend to provide a few more features and address some of the issues people have pointed out.

Hello desertwedge,

Thank you for your great theme, I so like it.

a)

I have 3 HDD on the wdtv live and i would like to change yours covers by mines on mediatheque screen

is it possible or not and how ?

b)

some users in France (PAL tv) have a problem with the clock on the corner of  the main screen.

the last two numbers (minute) do not appear on the screen and they must reduce at 95% in order to see them.

is that normal or not ?

Thank in advanced
OlivierQC

@ OlivierQC> Glad to hear you like the theme.  In response to your questions:> a) I’m not sure what you are looking to change with covers.  If you are talking about the thumbnail that shows up for or your drives?> b) Regarding the clock on the corner of the screen, I believe the clock is being cut off due to  overscan.  All the themes for the WDTV Live Streaming and the Live Hub as well are based on a 1280x720 screen.  The clock is positioned such that it fits within the screen without going off the screen.  This also happens to me & why I suggested the scale to 95%.  I have always assumed that the overscan is being done by the TV and not by the WDTV Live Streaming.  I will be checking on this over the weekend to confirm though that this is a tv issue and not a WDTV Live issue.> Thanks for the comments.

thanks for yours answer desertwedge,

a) 

Yes that is it,   i made my own thumbnail and I would like to change them for mine, is it possible ?

thanks in advanced

OlivierQC

@OlivierQC

You can certainly replace any of the thumbnails in the theme.  Just replace the image in the theme folder with the one you want.  If you can tell me which media thumb(video, music, photo) & which way you are viewing the media (list, thumb, large thumb) I can better direct you to which thumbnail you need to replace & the size that your thumbnail should be.