Video background is disabled in SageMC. Not sure if HD icons were ever added, but you can filter the guide to only show HD shows if you wanted.

:)


I only added the option to display the encoder icons, but I could look into displaying a HD icon as well if this is of general interest.

Before I switched over to SageMC I also used the video background in the standard STV, but honestly I never have missed it, since SageMC displays the video preview in almost all menus (which I now prefer) ...

Dirk

The Great Mlbdude.....

I am in the presence of SageTV royalty…

(bowing down)

I use the video background/always features so I wont be disrupted watching TV while looking up movie theater info, controlling my lights and elecontric appliances, reading Internet news, etc... but Im glad that sageTV in general is customizable enough suit everyone's needs/taste. :)

I'm pretty content with the SageMC guide although an option for and HD icon might be nice.

Now that I am getting the hang of Studio I think my next plan of attack may be for the Home Automation (HAL) plugin that Bohica has developed here:

STV Import: HAL Home Automation

I did get HAL and have a bunch of X-10 stuff. Now we just need somebody to be able to work on passing the voice command stream from the sage client PCs to the HAL application on the SageTV server. :D

(First, bows in the presense of MLB...good to see you've been lurking, and defending your STV.)

I like the idea of the HD icon. MIM, think you can come up with a good one?

Are you kidding, Morgan? That would be like...awesome. I've been waiting to get HAL here, trying to get a good deal on it. Once I saw Bohica's STV Import, I was totally amazed.

Wow, this keeps getting better. Before you know it, we'll be able to order our groceries through SageMC, and have them delivered to our front door.

Many dittos!

Anybody like the idea of a simple transparent HD type of icon?

Another thing I would like to see is something that can show a calendar that is shared with something else like Google Calendar, Mozilla Calendar, or even a Sage calendar that can be managed totally by SageTV.

Actually, that's exactly what I am currently working on ...

:D Nah, just kidding ... or ... maybe not ? :p


Dirk

A transparent HD Icon would be fantastic. :thumb:

I'll add one to the existing collection as soon as I get a chance.

I was already planning on making a new set of semi-transparent glassy round showicons to go with my Orbital skin. I can make these available separately when they are done. Morgan111, will that work for you? Or were you thinking of something simpler without any background?

I welcome other suggestions as well. One thought that I had was to change the yellow 'now recording' icon to be more consistent with the red manual and series recording icons. (I think red should be associated with icons related to recording and yellow should be reserved for warnings) Another thought was if flachbar wanted to add the logic to display the 'now recording' icon based on encoder, then I could also provide a set of 'now recording' icons with the encoder number on them. This would convey additional information at a glance in the 'My TV' screen (for example) about the current recordings without requiring additional screen real estate. Just a thought.

Aloha,
Mike

Great ideas, Mike. Any chance of some more info on your Orbital skin?

MIM, that sounds wonderful! I like the idea of the glassy icons.

LOL, ordering groceries...funny, and coworker and I were talking about that today, and we thought that as soon as RFID's take off, and are in every product we buy, refrigerators connected to a network could either provide a grocery list for you, or even order it automatically. Pretty cool ideas.

It will probably be a couple of days before I have anything more, but I wanted to post an HD billiard ball icon (as I've come to think of them) to hold you over. I will add it to the show icon collection as soon as I can check and name it properly. I've started on the glassy icons. Things are a bit crazy around here (we're having twins within the next month or so) so it may take a little while, but I'll get it done.

bobrap,
I'll post some more info about the orbital skin soon. My concept of it is still evolving as I figure out (hopefully) better ways to set things up. I have 3 main objectives.

1. It should look good.
2. I want as much info available on the main menu as possible withiout being cumbersome or cluttered.
3. I want access to all functionality with a minimum of button presses.

Aloha,
Mike

Great, thanks Mike. Always looking for new skins. Right now I settled for one of Mediaportal. No hurry.:thumb:

I know its possible to not display the channel numbers in the guide but I want the channel numbers, but I dont want the channel names because I have the logos. Is there anyway to not display these names?

Miller

Mike, I'm a bit confused. The theme you posted a screenshot of the other day, showed a radically different layout than is common with say, the media portal themes.

The issue comes into play, is that you can't move the images around, unless changing things in studio. Am I correct? Just wondering how you are planning on moving everything around?

Nice HD icon. Can't wait to see the glassy ones.

geogecko,

You are absolutely right about changing the layout. That is why I'm calling it a skin rather than a theme. I am developing a completely new main menu from scratch. It also has some simple, but (I think) cool animations. All of the submenus will also have new backgrounds that are color coordinated with the associated icon on the main menu, but I am not planning on otherwise changing them. My first release will probably be a completely separate STV (based on flachbar's latest update of SageMC), but I am hoping that I will be able to set this up as an import that will replace the main menu, etc. Ideally, I am hoping that there might be a way to add the orbital skin to the theme selector and have the contents of the main menu (and other changes) switch when the orbital skin is selected. I have much to learn and I'm not sure what will be possible, but the challenge is half the fun for me. I hope I haven't confused the issue too much with my rambling. Thanks for the interest.

Oh, and I'm glad you like the icon. I think the glassy ones will look pretty good. I've already gotten much more comfortable getting around Illustrator and Photoshop.

Aloha,
Mike

Thanks for clearing that up, Mike. I thought I kind of understood where you were coming from. Wow, if you can make it to where you can select it similar to selecting a theme, and it's not a huge amount of work, I'd be interested in a how-to document, so take good notes, if you wouldn't mind. I've been wanting to do some menu/theme work, but lack some of the artistic skills needed, however, copying someone else's work, and making it work for SageMC isn't all that hard. Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Just a quick question...is the "Send to Queue" button currently working for anyone? When I'm playing music and try to queue up additional songs, nothing gets added to the queue. Thanks!

Nope, this functionality is currently broken ...

I already had a look at it, but the cause for this behavior is not that obvious. I do not use SageMC for playing my music, so it doesnt have high priority right now, but I'll keep looking when I find some free time.

Dirk