Just a Thought?

I notice everyone is doing what had been done for gen1 and gen2 by making moviesheets. These do look great, but the problem is that moviesheets have to be created. Then when a new theme gets released that you like better, all of your moviesheets are out of style and have to be created again. When you look at the created moviesheets it usually consists of a backdrop/screencap at the top left and the movie description at the top right. It seems that with the hub, the xml could be used to our advantage and eliminate the need to make moviesheets. Clearly, the description can be drawn out for the movie and displayed at the top right. So couldnt the backdrop/screencap also be drawn at the top left? Most people seem to enjoy a solid background while browsing and then their movie sheet over that. The hub brings a backdrop after getting content info. So couldnt an xml file be changed to display that gathered backdrop as a smaller set image and set to be at the top left next to the movie description? Then you would just have a solid background as set in the theme. This would give the same look as moviesheets without having to create them and then switching themes wouldn’t be so dramatic. I’m not sure if this is possible, but its a thought.

Please take some time to investigate extremedigital 's MegaPack3.0 sheet mode Hub templates. Using metadata his theme creates the OSD info directly on the background. No sheet necessary.

Thanks guys …

Actually i currently have an idea that would work for what you are requesting.

Basically you could use a ‘wide’ thumbnail at the bottom.

So you create a moviename.jpg that consists of a simple solid backdrop 1280x720

The moviename.jpg will be used the same as the moviesheet concept to fill up the screen as you browse however there will be no movie info just a solid background.

The same moviename.jpg can be scaled down to 128x72 or 256x144 at the bottom of the screen.

For example if this concept was used in conjuction with either my ‘sheet’ template or Tinwarble’s ‘sheet’ template then the xml can be used to show the metadata.

This is the way xbmc works…the only limatation to this idea is that the metadata would be limited compared to a full moviesheet, but it would cetainly give TW’s already excellent theme a facelift.

I am going to try experimenting with this idea later today