Plugin: Diamond Theme

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Midwestfarmer

The default date added sort that I found is the one movie at a time. To get it do sort by date you have to go into menu options and set it up each time you use it That might work if it can be made into a custom view. Otherwise making the wife choose sort by descending dates in the options menu is a non-starter.

I only care about an alphabet scroll bar in title or folder view, not any other views including date sorted.

I can prolly train her to use the remote to get close with auto alphabet sort but will the date sorted has to be much easier.

I have no Idea what you are refering to we only change the diamond views not the default and the sort sticks and is remembered...

We don't modify folder view not will we. We only modify our custom views.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

I think he was refering to using a single banner and the rest text.

Yeah, he was.. but that's a dumb idea.. :-)

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Yeah, he was.. but that's a dumb idea.. :-)

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

[Gustovier]

Originally Posted by Midwestfarmer

The default date added sort that I found is the one movie at a time. To get it do sort by date you have to go into menu options and set it up each time you use it That might work if it can be made into a custom view. Otherwise making the wife choose sort by descending dates in the options menu is a non-starter.

I only care about an alphabet scroll bar in title or folder view, not any other views including date sorted.

I can prolly train her to use the remote to get close with auto alphabet sort but will the date sorted has to be much easier.

If you go back a few msgs we had talked bout this, right now the date sorting is broken. And we talked on the usability as well, so I think they will be fixed in the next version. From what I'm reading it looks to maybe be a few weeks still, but I'm hoping for a suprise :-)

[mkanet]

At the risk of getting attacked with a negative responses from a couple of people, I thought I would at least make an official suggestion in this thread. I'm not sure if this has been suggested already or not; heck, maybe it's already going to be implemented.

Anyway, I had originally mentioned the suggestion in the CVF thread in an indirectly related topic with an surprisingly encouraging response from Jeremy; even with screenshots demonstrating something like that can be done very nicely. Hopefully, its okay to repost the example diamond screenshots here (which is currently posted by Jeremy in the CVF plugin thread).

I REALLY like ALL the cool enhancements made in Diamond in TV recordings and Video Imports. In fact, I liked what I saw so much, I installed diamond on our living room TV immediately. Unfortunately my wife didn't like what it does to the Main Menus/Submenus at all. I even tried the Serenity version of diamond (since we like the serenity theme on the standard STV). I also agree with my wife that the standard SageTV 7 STV + Serenity theme on the main menu is much easier on our eyes. Hence, as hesitant as I was to uninstall Diamond, I ended up putting it back to the standard STV with Serenity.

Suggestion:
It would be great to have Diamond have the option to keep all the cool TV Recordings and Video Import menu enhancements, except leave the Main Menu/submenus alone (or as close to the standard STV as possible); and, hopefully offer a Serenity flavor of that as well.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mkanet

At the risk of getting attacked with a negative responses from a couple of people, I thought I would at least make an official suggestion in this thread. I'm not sure if this has been suggested already or not; heck, maybe it's already going to be implemented.

Anyway, I had originally mentioned the suggestion in the CVF thread in an indirectly related topic with an surprisingly encouraging response from Jeremy; even with screenshots demonstrating something like that can be done very nicely. Hopefully, its okay to repost the example diamond screenshots here (which is currently posted by Jeremy in the CVF plugin thread).

I REALLY like ALL the cool enhancements made in Diamond in TV recordings and Video Imports. In fact, I liked what I saw so much, I installed diamond on our living room TV immediately. Unfortunately my wife didn't like what it does to the Main Menus/Submenus at all. I even tried the Serenity version of diamond (since we like the serenity theme on the standard STV). I also agree with my wife that the standard SageTV 7 STV + Serenity theme on the main menu is much easier on our eyes. Hence, as hesitant as I was to uninstall Diamond, I ended up putting it back to the standard STV with Serenity.

Suggestion:
It would be great to have Diamond have the option to keep all the cool TV Recordings and Video Import menu enhancements, except leave the Main Menu/submenus alone (or as close to the standard STV as possible); and, hopefully offer a Serenity flavor of that as well.

You can make your own theme and use it with diamond as a fallback.

[mkanet]

Yes, I already expected/predicted a response like that in the CVF forum thread (almost verbatim). Which is one of the reasons why never posted here. It wasn't until just recently when I got a surprisingly pleasant and encouraging response from Jeremy in the CVF forum thread (on an unrelated topic) suggesting the possibility of implementing something like that in Diamond. I think Jeremy understood exactly what I was suggesting and the benefits of it; which is why he took the time to make experimental changes to diamond and even posting screenshots, etc.

I actually already have the Serenity theme set; and works great just the way it is using the standard STV, but after I install the diamond plugin, it drastically changes the main menu/submenus in a way that doesnt suite taste of multiple people (not just me). All other components of diamond are fantastic; which add real value to the overall sageTV experience; just not so much the main menu/sub menus.

Edit: Its important to note that Jeremy didnt promise anything in the upcoming version of Diamond; just that he seemed to understand the value of this enhancement. I guess it just depends on how much influence the other developer(s) have helping with this plugin.

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

You can make your own theme and use it with diamond as a fallback.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by mkanet

, it drastically changes the main menu/submenus in a way that doesnt suite taste of multiple people (not just me).

That is why plugins are a choice if you don't like them you don't have to install them. It is impossible to please everyone but I think most diamond users are more than pleased and will be even more so in the next build.

[jorton]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

You can make your own theme and use it with diamond as a fallback.

Hey Michael,

Plucky was just suggesting that you could make your own sub theme for Diamond that falls back on the main Diamond theme for the rest of the images you don't want to change. Not an unreasonable response, just trying to suggest that you can take the bulk of Diamond (or one of it's sub themes) and suppliment it by adding the changes you need to your own version. I can recall you posting about changing the "folder" icons to better suit your likes in another thread so this would be similar. Replace the images in the main menu with your own and we can provide guidance on some easy tweaks to the theme.properties file to get the fonts changed and sized to what you need. Just because I make a theme look a certain way doesn't mean that people can't tweak it, heck I don't even use the backgrounds included in the theme

We've had people make some odd requests, one that comes to mind was the Grandma that had a hard time seeing the scroll bars. If i try accomodate everyone and their grandmas (wives, kids, dog etc) I'll have way too many themes to maintain and everytime I change one I have to change the same image in 4 other themes, not a lot of fun.

I find it odd myself, that after 5-6 months of v7 being out of beta that only 4-5 themes exist for the default STV in the repository, I would have expected several new themes posted by now seeing that the theme system has been improved so much by Sagetv.

At this point, for the upcoming release there will a couple new themes that offer some new looks and address some of the concerns that people have brought forward. We most likely won't be porting over the Standard theme or the orginal Serenity theme as I feel that they don't fit the look that what we are going for with Diamond unless I do a lot of image tweaking, and right now with work, family and day to day Diamond stuff I don't have the time. If you were me, would you feel motivated to fix someone elses themes to work with our mod that you will never use, not a high priority for me unless I suddenly find mass amounts of free time, and with two little kids and all the dirty looks I get from my wife not going to happen anytime soon.

As Plucky said, "it is impossible to please everyone". We are more than happy to help with getting something working so you can enjoy the mod's, we just can't do it all for you. Maybe if there's a theme in the next Diamond release that will partially work for you and your wife, then we help you to take it and make some minor tweaks to get it looking the way you want.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by jorton

I find it odd myself, that after 5-6 months of v7 being out of beta that only 4-5 themes exist for the default STV in the repository, I would have expected several new themes posted by now seeing that the theme system has been improved so much by Sagetv.

Probably because they take a look at Diamond and just drool

[mkanet]

Thanks for taking the time to respond Jeremy. I also appreciate the friendly reply back. I'll definitely check out the new sub themes for the upcoming Diamond release. Who knows, maybe both me and my wife might like the changes made to the main menu/sub menus even more than the standard STV + Serenity; I'm not sure how much has changed in the main menus/submenus in the new release.

If the main menus/sub-menus still look the same or similar in the new version (even with the new sub themes), it would be completely worth it to me to me at this point to make a diamond sub-theme plugin (with your blessing) which only changes the main menu/sub-menus to look closer to the standard STV with some minor enhancements.

I know that development time is precious; and would be better spent on enhancements in other menus. I honestly can't wait to see what you guys have done in the new version! Thanks to you and plucky for all your hard work.

-Michael

Originally Posted by jorton

Hey Michael,

Plucky was just suggesting that you could make your own sub theme for Diamond that falls back on the main Diamond theme for the rest of the images you don't want to change. Not an unreasonable response, just trying to suggest that you can take the bulk of Diamond (or one of it's sub themes) and suppliment it by adding the changes you need to your own version. I can recall you posting about changing the "folder" icons to better suit your likes in another thread so this would be similar. Replace the images in the main menu with your own and we can provide guidance on some easy tweaks to the theme.properties file to get the fonts changed and sized to what you need. Just because I make a theme look a certain way doesn't mean that people can't tweak it, heck I don't even use the backgrounds included in the theme

We've had people make some odd requests, one that comes to mind was the Grandma that had a hard time seeing the scroll bars. If i try accomodate everyone and their grandmas (wives, kids, dog etc) I'll have way too many themes to maintain and everytime I change one I have to change the same image in 4 other themes, not a lot of fun.

I find it odd myself, that after 5-6 months of v7 being out of beta that only 4-5 themes exist for the default STV in the repository, I would have expected several new themes posted by now seeing that the theme system has been improved so much by Sagetv.

At this point, for the upcoming release there will a couple new themes that offer some new looks and address some of the concerns that people have brought forward. We most likely won't be porting over the Standard theme or the orginal Serenity theme as I feel that they don't fit the look that what we are going for with Diamond unless I do a lot of image tweaking, and right now with work, family and day to day Diamond stuff I don't have the time. If you were me, would you feel motivated to fix someone elses themes to work with our mod that you will never use, not a high priority for me unless I suddenly find mass amounts of free time, and with two little kids and all the dirty looks I get from my wife not going to happen anytime soon.

As Plucky said, "it is impossible to please everyone". We are more than welcome to help with getting something working so you can enjoy the mod's, we just can't do it all for you. Maybe if there's a theme in the next Diamond release that will partially work for you and your wife, then we help you to take it and make some minor tweaks to get it looking the way you want.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[lucasbuck]

Loved the UI, thanks for all the work! This was my first attempt at BMT and I think I've got it lined out. I was figuring out how to add my own art (can't imagine there was nothing for Peoples Court). During my testing I stuck in some other shows art. Once I got a banner, poster, and background made for Court I went back, deleted the test ones, and added the new ones. For some reason, it keeps using that old test banner and shows no poster. It's the only pics in the Court folder. I even went in and deleted them from the \SageTV\SageTV\cache\DiamondImages\tv\ folders. No luck. I noticed when I pulled up my recordings, it remade the file in the cache (and it's the correct picture), but it still shows the old one on screen. Any way to clear out the old one? Thanks for any help!

(Again, great job, my wife loves it. We both have a request though. I read where it doesn't show a banner if there's only one episode recorded. It would be a great option if it could show them even if it's a single. We like the banners!)

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by lucasbuck

Loved the UI, thanks for all the work! This was my first attempt at BMT and I think I've got it lined out. I was figuring out how to add my own art (can't imagine there was nothing for Peoples Court). During my testing I stuck in some other shows art. Once I got a banner, poster, and background made for Court I went back, deleted the test ones, and added the new ones. For some reason, it keeps using that old test banner and shows no poster. It's the only pics in the Court folder. I even went in and deleted them from the \SageTV\SageTV\cache\DiamondImages\tv\ folders. No luck. I noticed when I pulled up my recordings, it remade the file in the cache (and it's the correct picture), but it still shows the old one on screen. Any way to clear out the old one? Thanks for any help!

(Again, great job, my wife loves it. We both have a request though. I read where it doesn't show a banner if there's only one episode recorded. It would be a great option if it could show them even if it's a single. We like the banners!)

Delete the diamond cache(can be done form UI in next build)

default is sagetv\sagetv\cache\diamondimages\

delete that folder and it will recache.

[lucasbuck]

Thanks Plucky! I kept trying to delete the cache, the file itself from the borders, etc. Kept popping up. But a few restarts got it.

[nateziemann]

It was mentioned above that there are some easy ways to Tweak icons, images, etc for Diamond. Is there is guide somewhere or a thread that someone could sticky? That sounds like something many people could benefit from and could help enable others who get requests from the wives and grandmas alike :-)

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by nateziemann

It was mentioned above that there are some easy ways to Tweak icons, images, etc for Diamond. Is there is guide somewhere or a thread that someone could sticky? That sounds like something many people could benefit from and could help enable others who get requests from the wives and grandmas alike :-)

It is just like making any theme but you make it dependent on the diamond theme you can see all the images. I believe sage or someone has how Tos somewhere maybe someone can link them. No since in us rewriting them

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by PLUCKYHD

It is just like making any theme but you make it dependent on the diamond theme you can see all the images. I believe sage or someone has how Tos somewhere maybe someone can link them. No since in us rewriting them

Also the theme name must start with "Diamond" to work with out mods.

[jorton]

Originally Posted by nateziemann

It was mentioned above that there are some easy ways to Tweak icons, images, etc for Diamond. Is there is guide somewhere or a thread that someone could sticky? That sounds like something many people could benefit from and could help enable others who get requests from the wives and grandmas alike :-)

One of the best places I found to learn about all the settings and images used is the theme.properties file in the Standard theme folder as well as just going through all the images in the Standard theme folder one by one to see where they are used and how they are sized if you want to replace them. Most of the images have been named in such a way that they are pretty easy to figure out where they are used. Sagetv has documented the types of settings and how to use them for the most part right in the theme.properties document.

At this point I don't have enough time for family, work and Diamond stuff so I won't be writing a how to theme guide, but if you have a specific tweak or change you would like please just ask here in the forum and I can point you to the correct setting or image(s) to change up to get what you are looking for in Diamond. Things like substituting fonts or changing up icons or backgrounds are pretty easy to do.

Like Plucky said, to use the Diamond UI Mod you will have to stick to one of the "Diamond" themes as there are images unique to Diamond that are not in the Sagetv standard theme. This is why the Standard theme or the original Serenity theme (falls back on Standard) don't work so well with Diamond.

Jeremy

[mkanet]

Quick question, is there a setting in studio that changes the main menu text from "all caps" back to pre-diamond Uppercase/lower case?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I found TitleCaps.ttf and renamed it to stop using all caps. But, I would prefer remove the reference to it. Thanks.