STV Import: Fan Art for Default STV by TiKi (v2.2 Feb 22, 2009)

[psklenar]

Other than Tiki's zip file and http://theTVdb.com, are there any other places to look for Banners? I'm not having any luck via Google.

Thanks,
pat----

[tmiranda]

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not but I thought I'd report it. If you have a piece of artwork in the "background" directory but do not have a banner in the "banners" directory, the background is not displayed.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not but I thought I'd report it. If you have a piece of artwork in the "background" directory but do not have a banner in the "banners" directory, the background is not displayed.

I'm not seeing that. Wife records "Cities of the Underground" from HistoryHD. No banner for it yet I must have downloaded a background with one for the mediascarpers because the background shows up fine in the details. Make sure your titles for the backgrounds are exact to the show with no trailing spaces.

Gerry

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Make sure your titles for the backgrounds are exact to the show with no trailing spaces.

+1.

Also note that some of the files that come from some of the "packs" in the MC thread have some title typos in them... I looked at a few of them several times and didn't even notice... things like "l" (small L) and "i" (small I) being reversed and such (that are hard to see on the screen). I think there were even a few where the show title in Sage (from Zap2It) is different than the title that the file was given (missing "The" at the beginning, for example).

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

+1.

Also note that some of the files that come from some of the "packs" in the MC thread have some title typos in them... I looked at a few of them several times and didn't even notice... things like "l" (small L) and "i" (small I) being reversed and such (that are hard to see on the screen). I think there were even a few where the show title in Sage (from Zap2It) is different than the title that the file was given (missing "The" at the beginning, for example).

You have to watch the titles closely as the same show is sometimes listed with slightly different titles depending on the guide data source and even depending on the channel:

"Stargate: SG-1" vs "Stargate: SG1"
"MadTV" versus "Mad tv"

Also, when stripping out the special characters it can be easy to confuse which characters must be removed and which ones are OK:
Colon (, Question Mark (?), Double Quote (") and Greater than, less Than (<>) are not legal and must be stripped.

Comma (,), period (.), apostrophe ('), and exclamation point (!) are all OK.

So, "Samantha Who?" becomes "Samantha Who.jpg" (remove "?")
and
"Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" becomes "Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles.jpg" (remove ":")

but

"Reno 911!" becomes "Reno 911!.jpg" (keep "!").

[tmiranda]

Yep, it was a typo in the file name. Chalk it up to "user error".

Has anybody come up with tha a decent place to find banners? There are loads of places to find backgrounds but not many to find banners.

Tom

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Yep, it was a typo in the file name. Chalk it up to "user error".

Has anybody come up with tha a decent place to find banners? There are loads of places to find backgrounds but not many to find banners.

Tom

I've actually been creating a few myself using backgrounds or posters or whatever, from the TV database site linked above. Just simple copy/paste stuff. I've grabbed a few photos/graphics/pics from the actual network websites (CBS.com, for example), did the "print screen", pasted into good old MS Paint, and gone from there. Simple MS Paint has actually worked well... you can use "attributes" (I think it's under "tools"?) to force the size to 758x140, and then paste/paint from there.

I know it's really amateurish, but I am kinda finding it a relaxing hobby. And who else is going to create banners for game shows and news programs and all the stuff that is missing?

Maybe someday I will post a pack of "Loser's banners" with banners for all the forgotten/ignored shows. You know, just so everything on your EPG has a banner.

[Tiki]

If you are into making your own banners, there are a couple of free photo editing / drawing programs out there that are pretty good:

Gimp
Paint.Net

Personally, I'm using Paint.Net these days and have created a couple of custom banners (Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, ...)

These are much more powerful than MSPaint and allow layers and special effects (transparency, rotate, flip, etc.) - more along the lines of professional software like Photoshop.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Tiki

If you are into making your own banners, there are a couple of free photo editing / drawing programs out there that are pretty good:

Gimp
Paint.Net

Personally, I'm using Paint.Net these days and have created a couple of custom banners (Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, ...)

These are much more powerful than MSPaint and allow layers and special effects (transparency, rotate, flip, etc.) - more along the lines of professional software like Photoshop.

Oh, I have Photoshop... I just usually do the banner work on my server itself, and it doesn't have anything but the basics.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Oops. Looks like I've got some homework to do for the next version. That was supposed to be the time that the selected show is airing. I moved it to the side to leave more room for the show description underneath the banner. Somewhere along the way I must have done something to break it...

Tiki - any follow-up to this? Even if it was a quick fix we could do ourselves in Studio? I hadn't looked, but it turns out that mine is broken too (shows the wrong date and time).

[tmiranda]

Feature request:

Can you add a "watch this recording" option on the "Detailed information" screen? The way it is now there is an extra keystroke required to watch a show.

Thanks,

Tom

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Tiki - any follow-up to this? Even if it was a quick fix we could do ourselves in Studio? I hadn't looked, but it turns out that mine is broken too (shows the wrong date and time).

I'm working on a new version, but I haven't had much time to work on it so progress is slow. I did find the fix to this problem - it just requires inserting one line of code in Studio - a call to GetFocusContext(). If you are comfortable working with Studio, I am attaching a before and after screenshot for the fix...

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Feature request:

Can you add a "watch this recording" option on the "Detailed information" screen? The way it is now there is an extra keystroke required to watch a show.

I've thought about this and to be honest I'm kind of on the fence. I wanted to keep the buttons and text to a minimum to keep things from getting too busy and having writing all over the background pictures. This is why I shrunk down the text box for the recording details and moved all the buttons and text to the side and bottom.

On the other hand, the most commonly pressed button from this screen is "Play" so it kind of makes sense to have the button on the screen...

Personally, right now, I just hit the Play button on my remote when I am in this screen, so I don't actually click the "Options" button first - no extra keystroke needed.

[mechling-burgh]

Tiki, I'm with you on pushing the play button but my wife just likes to use the remote arrows and the buttons on the screen. So I changed the layout a little (Hope you don't mind). I put the Play, Back Options buttons across the top removed the preview screen since you see on the recording screen and moved the show info to where the the preview pain was. This way I could see more of the image and she could just hit the OK button. The other thing I was thinking of doing was making the show info one line high and putting it above the recording info box. Then I could but the list of recorded episodes where the preview window was. The only only other thing I thought would be nice would be to add a button on the top after options to be able to go to the next set of recordings IE. Battlestar Galatica --> Burn Notice --> CSI. Without a scrolling window. This way you would not have go back and forth between screens. I have attached a jpeg to show what I have done so far. This is a great import and I'm enjoying this a great deal and has a true testament my wife is enjoying it also.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by mechling-burgh

So I changed the layout a little...

Nice work! Will you be sharing (with Tiki's blessing, hopefully)?

BTW, I don't watch Battlestar Galactica, but it kinda freaks me out that the FanArt Background is a take-off of DaVinci's Last Supper...

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Nice work! Will you be sharing (with Tiki's blessing, hopefully)?

You don't need by blessing if you want to get creative and make improvements... But if you decide to publish it for others to use, be sure to rename it so people can tell who wrote which version.

There are already some imports for the SageMC STV that are similar to this (and were published before I published mine). I'm not sure if it's released yet, but I know somebody was working on one that would allow the user to select from several different layouts and do some customizing. I've seen previews and some of the layouts look kind of like this one.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I'm working on a new version, but I haven't had much time to work on it so progress is slow. I did find the fix to this problem - it just requires inserting one line of code in Studio - a call to GetFocusContext(). If you are comfortable working with Studio, I am attaching a before and after screenshot for the fix...

Fixed. Thanks, Tiki!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Nice work! Will you be sharing (with Tiki's blessing, hopefully)?

BTW, I don't watch Battlestar Galactica, but it kinda freaks me out that the FanArt Background is a take-off of DaVinci's Last Supper...

Yes, I really like this as well. Can you please post it?

I do not mind pressing the Play button but
- I have to retrain the spouse and kids.
- I have to move my finger from the OK button to the Play button. I'm lazy and pressing OK twice is easier than pressing OK, moving hte finger, and pressing Play.

As for BS, I have not watched it but after seeing that blonde I may have to start!

[mechling-burgh]

I can try, I more or less just play with studio but I have never exported the things I do to an stvi file. I also feel funny because this is TiKi baby and don't want to hurt feelings or step on toes. I was just showing him my ideas and thought it would be easier this way than trying to just describe it to him. I will look into exporting for you guys.

[Tiki]

FYI - I'm closing to releasing a new version of this import - hopefully I can get it posted by tomorrow...

Here's a preview of what I've been working on:

Added more configuration options so you can choose whether or not to enable banners, and backgrounds individually and you can choose whether to use my custom detailed info screens for Sage Recordings, Unrecorded Airings, and Imported Movies. Added a choice of 3 layouts for the detailed info screen. Added the "Watch" button to the detailed info screen. Fixed the Date Display bug in the Program Guide. Now check Movies and TV subdirectories for background fan art...