[m1mi.dan0s]

I recently switched from Aeon Nox to Backrow and I just love how snappy it is! It's very stylish, especially the in-movie overlays, such as Audio and Video OSD and Subtitle-download screen. Really great. I'm seriously loving it and I'm never going back to Aeon Nox.

I found three things, though, that seem a little bit out-of-style with the rest of the skin:

1. The shutdown-menu needs a redesign. The big button and the giant silvery borders really don't match with the rest of the skin. Which is sleek and simple, yet stylish. Why not make it an overlay as stylish as the in-movie OSD? With white icons, instead of these BIG buttons.

2. The login screen looks illogical, the endless menu is confusing. Why is the profile left of the middle the selected profile? Why not shifting it a little to the right so it's the one in the middle (which is more logical). Even better, make it a static, centered menu like in Aeon.

3. I use the official trakt plugin for rating movies after watching them. And for some reason the grades 1 - 6 don't show, instead it shows white to black gradients on that position. Anyone else having this issue?

I don't mean to come off as a jerk, but I just thought to share my 2 cents that could make the skin even better!

I'm curious about what you think!

Regards,

Daan

[Sharpe]

I recently switched from Aeon Nox to Backrow and I just love how snappy it is! It's very stylish, especially the in-movie overlays, such as Audio and Video OSD and Subtitle-download screen. Really great. I'm seriously loving it and I'm never going back to Aeon Nox.

I found three things, though, that seem a little bit out-of-style with the rest of the skin:

1. The shutdown-menu needs a redesign. The big button and the giant silvery borders really don't match with the rest of the skin. Which is sleek and simple, yet stylish. Why not make it an overlay as stylish as the in-movie OSD? With white icons, instead of these BIG buttons.

2. The login screen looks illogical, the endless menu is confusing. Why is the profile left of the middle the selected profile? Why not shifting it a little to the right so it's the one in the middle (which is more logical). Even better, make it a static, centered menu like in Aeon.

3. I use the official trakt plugin for rating movies after watching them. And for some reason the grades 1 - 6 don't show, instead it shows white to black gradients on that position. Anyone else having this issue?

I don't mean to come off as a jerk, but I just thought to share my 2 cents that could make the skin even better!

I'm curious about what you think!

Regards,

Daan

HI Daan

Nah it's cool I like feedback it's not a jerkish thing at all.

Your three points are all worth looking at.

1. I can see what you mean about the buttons. They might look a bit out of step with the other controls since I removed that style of button from the OSD. They were always a favourite of djdafreund so are in mainly because he liked them so much. I never really use the shut down menu on my own set up so never really look at them to be honest. I'll see what I can do.

2. Again another part of the skin I never really use so it's not got much love out of me for a long while. Agreed it does look a bit dated now - I'll look into it when I get a chance.

3. I don't know what the trakt plugin is I'm afraid - so it's unlikely the skin supports it. Again when I get a chance I'll read up on it.

Thanks

[m1mi.dan0s]

The trakt plugin has the lowest priority in the list. It works, so I can figure it out. It just doesn't look entirely smooth. If the first two points are smoothed out I'll be a very happy camper!

[Sharpe]

Okay I've made some changes to the power menu, replacing the old buttons with a menu item on the home screen and the power button menu with a more straight forward list box (a bit like how Confluence does things).

I've also redesigned the login screen to freshen things up in the way you suggested - seemed a decent idea.

The download link and the svn have been updated - I'll hopefully push through the changes to the main repo after some of the updated language strings (relating to the power selection home menu icon and wallpaper) have had a chance to be updated.

/still looking into the trakt plugin

[_sel_]

Okay I've made some changes to the power menu, replacing the old buttons with a menu item on the home screen and the power button menu with a more straight forward list box (a bit like how Confluence does things).

I've also redesigned the login screen to freshen things up in the way you suggested - seemed a decent idea.

The download link and the svn have been updated - I'll hopefully push through the changes to the main repo after some of the updated language strings (relating to the power selection home menu icon and wallpaper) have had a chance to be updated.

/still looking into the trakt plugin

Hi Sharpe, sorry, but I really don't like the new power menu. Really confused me when that list box popped up for the first time - so much so that I re-installed XBMC as it felt like something had got corrupt. It just looked so basic that I thought the formatting had been lost or something weird. Then I found this post and realised! Doh!

I always just want to "suspend" when I finish using XBMC. Now I have to read down the list and pick the right one option. Just not as intuitive as the old one, where I simply pressed the "Power Menu" on the Remote and selected "Shutdown", which was the default (which I have set to Suspend). So two button clicks on the remote has been replaced with about five! Just annoying. It will be even more confusing to my family members who won't even know what the difference is between the different options. "Exit", "Power Off", etc.... I also used to like the quick access to System Info, etc. The look of the icons didn't bother me, though I can understand the original posters view that they don't quite fit with the look of the rest of the skin.

I appreciate that this is how Confluence does it and that it is impossible for you to please everyone. Personally it is a backwards step for me. Also the "Exit XBMC" option in the main menu only does what it says - again it is not something I hardly every want to do (i.e. I want to suspend). Again it would confuse my family members as it would then leave them on a Windows Desktop and they wouldn't know how to shut down the HTPC (no keyboard attached to it by default). As I requested in main thread I think there should at least be an option to hide this.

Sorry for the negative post, tried to be as constructive as I can. Backrow still No1 by far!

[Sharpe]

Hi mate - yeah I do take your points and I am thinking about the functionality right now.

On a side note I was just thinking that this should help you get to suspend more easily.I actually meant to have the main "exit" button on the home controls map to the default shutdown option selected in system settings - my mistake as it's currently incorrectly mapped to quit. I'll change that right away in the svn.

[_sel_]

Thanks Sharpe. Having the main "exit" button map to default shutdown action would be an improvement, however it still requires a number of button clicks on the remote, depending where you are in the menus. The "old" method was one click to pop up the "power menu" and one click to "suspend" - it was always the same, no matter where you are in the menus. Don't get me wrong, this is not a massive issue to me, just a minor annoyance.

[m1mi.dan0s]

I just noticed the shutdown menu and it looks great! Also the login screen is a great improvement!

Thanks so much!

I also noticed that there's now an 'exit xbmc' main menu entry that can't be turned off through the skin settings. Why is this?

[Sharpe]

I also noticed that there's now an 'exit xbmc' main menu entry that can't be turned off through the skin settings. Why is this?

Bear with me - I'll get round to it soon

[Sharpe]

Okay I've made some changes that allow you to disable the exit item on the home controls (which,if you choose to do so, is replaced by a very small exit button located in the bottom left corner). I've also mapped the exit item on the main home controls to the default shutdown option chosen in system settings. These changes are available in the skin via the download link or the svn,