Anyone found a way to use custom backdrops in gallery view yet?

[lordsmiter]

I have been monkeying around with the XML under the new firmware, but can’t get it to work.  Never had it working in any firmware, but I thought it might be possible with the XML’s in “our” court so to speak.  I know WD has the clause with TMDB to not store any of their images, which is why it hits the internet every time I hit the right or left arrow on my remote.  Horrible.  Naturally I disabled this…any sane person would.

But think of this WD…in 2 seconds I can rip a 1080p movie still from any movie file I have into a jpeg.  Shouldn’t I be able to display this image with my movie file.  It is not a TMDB image…it is an image I created.  I should be able to name a backdrop image like this “moviename (year) background.jpg”, store it with my movie file, and have it display with my metadata in gallery view.

-lordsmiter

[boucher]

i agree with this, but WD should just remove the backdrops entirely it’s horrible and it makes the device slow when browsing in gallery

[TonyPh12345]

There’s been several themes created that do away with the background images if you’re interested.    It’s a pretty simple change.

There IS a way to use local images, but it doesn’t appear to work right now.  I think they have a bug.

BTW, the Hub DOES cache the backgrounds.   If you stay on a title, it will only go to the web once to get them; as it cycles through, it’s pulling them from cache.

[Vistawall]

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There IS a way to use local images, but it doesn’t appear to work right now.

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Happy New Year!  to you Tony! and all the community members!

All I have understood so far is that current Backdrops are displayed when these lines are executed in gallery mode

<

<image image="image/keyboard_mask_bg.png" x="0" y="0" w="1280" h="720" bg="1" disable="@@disable-thumbnail-bg"/>
<image image="@@preview_rect_image" default_image="@@default_preview_rect_image" x="0" y="0" w="1280" h="720" textcolor="@@preview_rect_color" keycolor="1" ignore_keycolor="1" bg="1"/>
<image image="image/video_browse_gallery_overlay.png" x="0" y="0" w="1280" h="720" bg="1"/>

It has references to “@@preview_rect_image” or “@@default_preview_rect_image” which is an internal function call or something that gets the backdrop images from the TMDB cache that is stored in the hidden partition of the internal HDD of the WDTVLIVEHUB

So my question to you Tony is what  IS  that XML modification to the “rv_gallery_browse_page.xml” or the many of the “includes” referenced in the Gallery Browse Page  that you know of even though you say that it does not work?  - May be it will keep me thinking to go around it and get it working!

Thanks!

With best wishes

[TonyPh12345]

The file reference would be in the METADATA XML, not the THEME XML. 

The Metadata has a bunch of

http://www.themoviedb.org/blah blah blah

lines in it.  

Since that backdrop tag contains a fully qualified URL, it stands to reason that URLs of the format 

file:/// something or other would work.

It’s a bit of a trick, though, finding out the exact URI portion to make it work.

[Vistawall]

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It’s a bit of a trick, though, finding out the exact URI portion to make it work.

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Yeah it is tricky alright, especially now that the “metadata” folder is missing so are the pointers mentioned in the “Movie.xml” file to get the cryptic mount points for the USB drives to get the file:/// URI

Why is life so difficult? :angry:

Thanks!

[Vistawall]

Well, I tried all the possible permutations and combinations of the file:/// URI in the metadata.XML file but still could not get the WDTVLive HUB to recognize my custom backdrops.

I may be doing something wrong, or something is broken in the Firmware code that prevents to read file:/// commands in the metadata.xml file.

I have tons of Home Videos that I have made my own cover-art that I would like to display when browsing in Gallery mode and so far I have had no luck.

If someone has found a way to display their custom backdrops (Rather than using TMDB ) please post it here!

It is a request to WD staff to please implement a feature that allows users to have their own custom backdrops for their home videos it will be awesome to show off to family members when browsing thru’ the home videos!

[TonyPh12345]

Just heard back from WD on that.  It is a known issue.    But as always, they don’t say if or when a fix is coming…

[davcor]

I use pictures names the same as the movie file and place it in the same folder as the movie file and it shows up in the list as a pic in the folder icon beside the movie folder name.

[TonyPh12345]

davcor wrote:

I use pictures names the same as the movie file and place it in the same folder as the movie file and it shows up in the list as a pic in the folder icon beside the movie folder name.

Right, but that’s only for thumbnails…  The backdrops are a whole different beast.

[Vistawall]

While I did not have any hopes with the new firmware 2.04.13, I did attempt… But it does not display custom backdrops in the gallery view yet :neutral_face:

Oh well… Patience my friend patience… Some day, May be… or may be not?