Hi, I am using MS MOJO and when my Hub is not connected to Internet, the movie backdrops are not showing up. The thumnails and Movie information is showing up correctly. My XMLs are using local backdrops (generated using new thubgen version on new firmware). Is it normal or should i do anything else to show up the backdrops when it is not connected to internet. I am bale to see the backdrops when my hub is connected internet. Thanks in advance.
Can you post one of the xml files. Also did you unplug wd for 30 secs or so to reset cache or delete the thumbs content inside the wdtv foler on the hub ?
sudheer,
Yes, this is how the HUB is designed, you must be connected to the internet for the backdrops to show up and have the media library turned on.
Tinwarble wrote:
sudheer,
Yes, this is how the HUB is designed, you must be connected to the internet for the backdrops to show up and have the media library turned on.
actually if using local backdrops (not a trick) with internet connection you don’t need the media library at all. (newest firmware)
If there is no internet connection at hand you need to run the media library, turn it off after crawling the contents and the backdrops will work (strangely enough this work around fails 30% of the time)
I have created a thread about offline mode and locally stored backdrops in the suggestion forum 2 weeks ago, vote for it if you agree that it shouldn’t matter if you are connected or not to display any locally stored files. (seems like a bug to me)
Well, actually the backdrops will show up. However, I stated that the medial library needs to be on because the coverart thumnails will not display if not on (even with the newest firmware.).Â
There are variables which you have to take in to consideration with the media library. If you original used “get info” to gather your metadata, then you can do things that you can’t do if you have either cleared the library or have used a 3rd party software like TG to get the data. When you use “get info” it caches that info and is available more readily, and if you turn off the media library the coverart thumbnail wil display (however, it will not display as a poster).
Also, just so that you know, your other Idea about the delay in the backdrop load time. There is actually more to it then just a fix. The backdrop uses the photo slide show to display the backdrop and the delay is due to the animation. The photo slide show is displayed, basically, the same way that videos are, so even though there could be less of a delay if you could use no animation, there would always be a delay.
The absoulte best solution would actually be to have an option to turn the backgrounds off for the gallery view in the Photo options, then to have a seperate variable that could be added to the gallery xml. Something like:
  @@posterbackdrop, which would = filename_sheet.jgp or filename_backdrop.jpg.
But to answer the question posted by the original poster again. If you are using Mojo, you need both an internet connection and have the media library turned on.
Tinwarble wrote:
Also, just so that you know, your other Idea about the delay in the backdrop load time. There is actually more to it then just a fix. The backdrop uses the photo slide show to display the backdrop and the delay is due to the animation. The photo slide show is displayed, basically, the same way that videos are, so even though there could be less of a delay if you could use no animation, there would always be a delay.
The absoulte best solution would actually be to have an option to turn the backgrounds off for the gallery view in the Photo options, then to have a seperate variable that could be added to the gallery xml. Something like:
@@posterbackdrop, which would = filename_sheet.jgp or filename_backdrop.jpg.
I completely agree with what you said and the variable @@posterbackdrop thingie would be certainly the best solution in library mode and for people like me who don’t want to put up with the library mainly for the idiotic lack of sorting options in the audio area and frustrating updating time of new content i would love to see the ability to replace either of the 2 files below in the browse gallery page
image="image/Gallery/video_browse_gallery_overlay.png" (not desireable)
or
since none of them would work without a firmware modification I’d be happy to see WD speed up the display time or to bypass the the photo gallery entirely. I can see why it was designed this way, originally this content comes from an online source and it takes a few seconds to download the jpg file. To me (and I could be wrong and what follows is based on assumptions) there is a built in delay of aprox. 2 seconds before the animation starts, I wouldn’t know if this is due to the loading time of the application or if it was build in intentionally in order to make it appear more smooth with internet sources, but I am sure this is something WD could fix this somewhow if the delay is intentionally, if it isn’t maybe there is a way to make the page background a variable and / or gets overwritten by the moviesheet.xml backdrop info.
This of course in a universe with free candy and unicorns however this should not be impossible, or am I completely wrong here?
Well actually you can change both of those images, although using a different for RV_BG can cause slow downs. But there is no reason that you can’t change the Overlay image.
All my themes use a different image than the Overlay and you can delete it entirely if you don’t want it at all.
Although, after re-reading your post, if you mean replacing those to use a backdrop, then that’s not really a solution since you can get rid of these anyway and to use backdrops you would have to a variable which is signified by “@@”.
Also, there is no “built in delay”, as stated the delay is from how the image is drawn. Actually it’s images, since the background image is draw over another image. And as I stated the background is drawn like a video and the delay is from the animation. The best way to explain it is that the background acts just like the video in the Preview view and it drawn in much the same way.
So what you have is every time you focus on a video the firmware says “draw preview rectangle”, this is what the background is drawn on, then it says “draw background image and use animation X”. Doing this every time you focus on a video takes time to process so you get a delay.
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Thanx for easing my mind about the loading time and explaining the concept to us.
In your opinion / experience… hypertheoretically…
would it be possible to “abuse” the overlay image as a moviesheet if the overlay would be a variable and the content would be fed from the movie sheet xml? Again I am just assuming this should work or am I completely wrong? If the movie sheet can feed the plot /year /title variables it should be able to feed anything!??!? ???
If it was possible what would be the parameters for the variables. With a static sheet it works fine but hand edited sheets are clearly no option.
Still in hypertheoretical mode… 
if that would work and it would be doable by user mod, then thumbgen would need to write the variable into the sheet but shall not write the backdrop in the sheet or there would be a slow down when browsing the gallery thumbnails since the delay happens in behind that overlay image.
Doable or am i fantasizing too much?
Well, I’m not really sure what you’re asking about abusing the overlay image. The overlay is just a static image located in the “image” folder and can be anything that you want it to be. And really it is only an overlay because of it’s use, but can be anything that you want it to be as long as it’s a static image.
Also, I’m assuming you meant the xml feeding the plot/year/etc., since that is were the info is pulled from. However, if you are asking something to the effect of setting your own variables, then the answer would be “no”. The variables are set in the firmware and there is no way to set your own parameters for a variable. Nor can you set a variable in a sheet, well, you could but the HUB wouldn’t understand it.
What you have are variables that only do set things. So “@@overview” only pulls data from the xml that is between and , just as “@@thumbnail” only knows to look for “filename.jpg or .png” which is has the same name as the file that it is associated with.
But you can’t say, add “@@poster_sheet” so that you could display an image with “filename_sheet.jpg” because the HUB’s firmware doesn’t understand that variable nor what it should be associated with even though “@@poster” displays “filename.jpg”.Â
You can’t stray from the disignated variables set within the firmware. Even variables that are understood by the HUB differ from view to view, so you can’t even alter the Preview view and add the variable “@@overview” to it and have the plot display. Because those variables aren’t set for that view.
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Got it. When I checked about this, there is an existing idea/suggestion to display the backdrops offline mode,
By the way thank you for the new MOJO version, I liked it a lot. I removed all other themes from my Hub. You are the best.
thanx Tinwarble for clearing that up for me, I thought it would need some sort of firmware mod to make this work but I am **bleep**uming this is not going to happen. Let’s hope the WD people consider the backdrop delay a problem too and work on a solution. Hope dies last
There are a few similar threads on this subject. I have a folder for baby einstein videos which I have named Baby Einstein.iso. I edited an XML file that was for one of my movies and could not get the backdrop to display with a web based image. I did try the local image trick with no luck. Firmware is 2.08.
Main directory has the B E.iso folder, the XML file, and the backdrop images. The title from the XML shows up ok. XML was edited with word. I editedout all of the other XML data. Reboots performed and I just get a black backdrop. Thank you for your help in advance, XML file is below.
E
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?>
Â
 <imdb_id />
 Baby Einstein
 Baby Einstein_backdrop.jpg
 Baby Einstein_backdrop2.jpg
 Baby Einstein
Â
