[Arzk]

A clean, simple skin with less clutter. Optimized for remote control use, but includes a separate touch screen mode as well.

A few features:
- Monochrome theme
- HTPC and Touch modes
- Redesigned List view, no fancy coverflow etc views
- Three customizable submenus in home: Submenu, Custom Menu and Addons Menu. Toggling by <up> (Not in Touch Mode)
- Recently added and next aired widgets (using the Skin widgets and TV Show Next Aired)
- Right sidebar replacing the favourites bar, which can contain hidden main menu items. Favourites is to the right from it (not in Touch Mode)
- Eden style home backgrounds
- UI Player controls can be disabled from skin settings
- Music video views are designed for posters
- Supports some great add-ons, doesn't force-install anything but the most necessary (favourites and skin widgets)

Screenshots (v. 1.1.9):

watch gallery

Supported addons:
Favourites (installed automatically) - Custom menu in home screen
Skin Widgets (installed automatically) - Recently added unwatched items home screen widget
Global Search - Search button in home screen when player controls are on
CU LRC Lyrics (Reskin) - Lyrics in music visualisation view
Rom Collection Browser (Reskin) - Games button in home screen
Metadata Actors (Reskin) - Actor information in video info dialog
TV Show Next Aired - Next episode in tv show list, home screen widget
Video Language - All audio and subtitle languages shown in video info dialog
Artwork Downloader - Download artwork in video info dialog and video library sidebar
Library Editor - Edit library details in video info dialog
VideoExtras - View extra content for media, if available, from video info dialog
Studio and Record Label logos

The backgrounds in the screenshots are downloaded from htbackdrops.org and I'm not including them. The skin comes with the default Confluence (Eden) backdrops.

You can get the skin by installing my repository.
Here's also a direct link just in case: Download from Dropbox (Version 1.3.2 - Jarvis only)
For Isengard you can use an older version: Download from Dropbox (Version 1.2.2 - Isengard)
Github repository

Thanks to The Freaky Linux Guy for the icons! Custom menu items and skin settings are borrowed from the Confluence Modified, thanks to the fellow Finn SpaceMonkey as well!

Changelog

1.3.1
- Favourites opened, if custom item type favourite and path empty
- Fixed custom system submenu items


1.3.1
- Touch mode updates

1.3.0
- Isengard and Jarvis changes
- Repaired musicvideo list view
- Todo: DSP manager has not been tested
- Code cleanup
- Added MusicVideos to home menu
- Rewrote skin settings and submenus

1.2.2
- More small fixes
- Media info view integrated to List view

1.2.1
- Small fixes
- Option for single background in home or all around
- Home weather info

1.2
- Helix Changes
- Better EPG
- Touch Mode

1.1.10
- Music now playing widget tweaks
- A Custom item in shutdown menu
- More skin settings

1.1.9
- Fixed "Buffering..." text overlap and font size
- Video Extras addon support
- Library Editor addon support
- Removed default recently added widget from home screen (it wasn't updated for a while and skin widgets is force-installed after all) - Only via skin widgets addon from now on
- Customizable submenus
- Better skin settings
- More custom menu items for movies and tv shows

1.1.8
- Small fixes
- New fonts

1.1.7
- Added 3D button to Video OSD
- Readded player controls
- Added skinsetting to hide the player controls
- Global Search addon support

1.1.6
- Studio and record label logos in info screens
- Skinsetting to toggle them
- 3D flagging

1.1.5
- Most played games widget (Rom Collection Browser)
- New FileBrowser.xml
- Titles in home screen widgets
- Sidebar in settings categories
- Prevent the subtitle flagging from overlapping with label2
- Disable list view if media info is available
- More accurate resolution flaggings in video lists
- Videofullscreen shows codec flagging only when viewing info
- Studio and record label logos (don't yet exactly know what to do with them, but they're included)

1.1.4
- Small fixes in video info dialog and list view
- Bigger logos in TV Show Next Aired TV Guide

1.1.3
- Clearlogo in VideoFullscreen
- Transparent background in default folder etc icons
- Artwork Downloader support
- Rest of the Gotham changes
- Small fixes

1.1.2
- Horizontal KaiToast.xml
- Added audio and subtitle languages to video fullscreen info
- Added audio and subtitle languages to video info dialog (script.videolanguage)
- Added subtitle icons or flags to video lists
- Added support for TV Show - Next Aired addon (shown in video library, homescreen widget)
- New PVRGuideInfo.xml

1.1.1
- New DialogVideoInfo, DialogAlbumInfo
- Removed the video library quick info
- Added support for script.metadata.actors by Frost
- Content panel background reshaping. Same solid background for nearly all items
- Modified some media views to tolerate background changes
- Rearranged scrollbars
- Video and audio OSD changes: cleaner video and audio settings, visualization menu
- Modified clock to support 12h format. Clock can also be disabled
- Switched the favourites and settings bar order
- Some (main menu bar etc) transparency fixes
- Shutdown menu options from Confluence Modified by SpaceMonkey
- Skinsetting for enabling sidebar and showing hidden main menu items there
- Shortcut buttons in video and music libraries

1.1
- Most of the Gotham changes. WIP
- Artist backdrop to music visualization
- Redesigned lyrics script

1.0.1

- Added a skin setting to disable the System menuitem. When disabled, System is available through the favourites bar
- Made the favourites bar 100px narrower
- Darkened the backgrounds for some info dialogs (KaiToast, Library updates etc)
- small position adjustments in Video fullscreen and Music visualization

[hemuni]

This looks awesome. After a long time of trying to get one of the existing skins to work the way i want it, I finally gave up and decided to hack into Confluence to get it right.
I need something wife friendly and simple, that will also run smoothly on an rpi. Your skin seems to be to meet those requirements better than the original Confluence.
Basically I only need a couple of movie nodes and one for tv, so I'll probably cut out the parts I don't need, but this is really great, thanks for sharing!

[Arzk]

Thanks, hope it can bend to your needs (and your wife can also get used to it). Have you had time to test it on an rpi? I'd be happy to hear comments about how smooth the skin is on a low power device.

[hemuni]

I'm still waiting for the rpi to arrive in the mail, so my main task now is to simplify the interface. I basically need a general thumbnail view and to cut out a-nything that could be confusing like scroll bars, view- and playback options etc.
And I also want to disable the option to back out of playback while a video is still playing.
So far I've gotten rid of the scroll bars and I've found that the view options are in the myvideonav.xml, but I haven't managed to disable them yet. I am learning as I go and I'm on a limited time budget, so it's not moving as fast as i would like, but I will let you now as I progress. Your skin is a great start and inspiration, thank you.

[Arzk]

I unfortunately removed the thumbnail view as well in this but it can be easily switched back on in MyVideoNav.xml as it's only commented out. The views itself are in VievsVideoLibrary.xml and ViewsFileMode.xml, but they can be disabled in MyVideoNav.xml by commenting out the include lines for views you don't need (and making the same changes to the <views> tag in the beginning).

I think it would also be great to somehow move the system item from the home menu elsewhere, but I can't think of any other place that's intuitive. Maybe to the top of the favourites bar?

[Greg_]

I keep the system item off my home menu and place it in my shutdown menu. This works well for me, the only items in my home menu are for media.

Since I also have kiosk mode enabled, someone really needs to try to adjust any of the settings for the program.

[Arzk]

I ended up making the system menuitem, all its submenu items and 8 custom items into a new list in the favourites bar. Navigating right from favourites brings up this (there's an arrow indicator)


It is only shown when System menuitem is disabled in skin settings. The changes are updated to the zip in the first post.

Next I'm thinking of adding the video/music submenu items to the sidebar, like the LiveTV sidebar works, so there would be shortcuts for Sets/Genres/Files/Addons etc. I'll also probably go back to the default submenu (now there are my nasty edits to disable some items) and add skin settings for users to configure them according to their own taste. Now only the Play Disc item has an option to include the custom menu items in submenu, but I'll maybe add the option to the other items as well. These things may not happen this year, I'll spend the holidays far away from my htpc.

Edit: I just noticed that now the thumbnail view is also available for videos. I tested enabling it for hemuni and it's there, so I don't think there's any point in removing it again

[VonMaterhorn]

Great job on simplifying the skin! Made a fan out of me.

Couple of things I wanted to bring up...

There is a bug with the 12H clock setting which pushes the AM/PM off the screen.

Also I would like to request an option to turn off the clock entirely to clean up the interface even further.

Thanks.

P.S.
If its not too much trouble please add an option to move the home screen menu bar to the center of the screen.

[hemuni]

I finally found a little time to continue my project. I have been working on you skin for a couple of days now and it is starting to come around nicely.
I've changed the main list on the homescreen from wrap to fixed because I think its more intuitive for the casual user.
Regarding the system menu items I've moved them into the shutdown menu, like greg suggested (though the origninal inspiration came from confluence mod) this way I still have onebutton access to anything i want to keep hidden and I don't really use the favorites menu anyway.
I managed to get the thumbnail view back as per your directions, thank you! i also got all the home menu nodes set up. I have them all hardcoded in home.xml, but I have them pointing to smartplaylists, so I still have some control from inside the xbmc. I also deleted everything in includeshomemenuitems.xml. I know this is not the right way, but it was a quick fix that worked.
I still need to get rid of the view options and i want disable all controls from the fullscreen video playback. I'm also planning on a simpler interface for music playback, but that is futher down the line.

---

Quick question: Can you tell me how to change the transperancy of the main menu bar?
With brighter backgrounds the text becomes less readable.

[Arzk]

Couple of things I wanted to bring up...

There is a bug with the 12H clock setting which pushes the AM/PM off the screen.

Also I would like to request an option to turn off the clock entirely to clean up the interface even further.

I'm sorry, the 12H clock issue was something I noticed but forgot to do anything for it yet. It should be easy to fix and add the hide option as well. I will think about adding the option to move the menu to the middle, but can't promise anything.

I finally found a little time to continue my project. I have been working on you skin for a couple of days now and it is starting to come around nicely.
I've changed the main list on the homescreen from wrap to fixed because I think its more intuitive for the casual user.
Regarding the system menu items I've moved them into the shutdown menu, like greg suggested (though the origninal inspiration came from confluence mod) this way I still have onebutton access to anything i want to keep hidden and I don't really use the favorites menu anyway.
I managed to get the thumbnail view back as per your directions, thank you! i also got all the home menu nodes set up. I have them all hardcoded in home.xml, but I have them pointing to smartplaylists, so I still have some control from inside the xbmc. I also deleted everything in includeshomemenuitems.xml. I know this is not the right way, but it was a quick fix that worked.
I still need to get rid of the view options and i want disable all controls from the fullscreen video playback. I'm also planning on a simpler interface for music playback, but that is futher down the line.

---

Quick question: Can you tell me how to change the transperancy of the main menu bar?
With brighter backgrounds the text becomes less readable.

I have the smart playlists set as custom menu items as well through the Favourites script and skin settings. The transparency of the menu bar (if I recall correctly) is set by the colordiffuse value in the BottomBlade (or something like that) include in IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml. Removing the colordiffuse completely or setting it to FFFFFFFF will remove the transparency.

Happy holidays everyone!

[hemuni]

Couple of things I wanted to bring up...

There is a bug with the 12H clock setting which pushes the AM/PM off the screen.

Also I would like to request an option to turn off the clock entirely to clean up the interface even further.

I'm sorry, the 12H clock issue was something I noticed but forgot to do anything for it yet. It should be easy to fix and add the hide option as well. I will think about adding the option to move the menu to the middle, but can't promise anything.

I finally found a little time to continue my project. I have been working on you skin for a couple of days now and it is starting to come around nicely.
I've changed the main list on the homescreen from wrap to fixed because I think its more intuitive for the casual user.
Regarding the system menu items I've moved them into the shutdown menu, like greg suggested (though the origninal inspiration came from confluence mod) this way I still have onebutton access to anything i want to keep hidden and I don't really use the favorites menu anyway.
I managed to get the thumbnail view back as per your directions, thank you! i also got all the home menu nodes set up. I have them all hardcoded in home.xml, but I have them pointing to smartplaylists, so I still have some control from inside the xbmc. I also deleted everything in includeshomemenuitems.xml. I know this is not the right way, but it was a quick fix that worked.
I still need to get rid of the view options and i want disable all controls from the fullscreen video playback. I'm also planning on a simpler interface for music playback, but that is futher down the line.

---

Quick question: Can you tell me how to change the transperancy of the main menu bar?
With brighter backgrounds the text becomes less readable.

I have the smart playlists set as custom menu items as well through the Favourites script and skin settings. The transparency of the menu bar (if I recall correctly) is set by the colordiffuse value in the BottomBlade (or something like that) include in IncludesBackgroundBuilding.xml. Removing the colordiffuse completely or setting it to FFFFFFFF will remove the transparency.

Happy holidays everyone!

Thats great, thank you!
Happy Holidays to you to!

[Arzk]

I'm anxious to rewrite and optimize the code to make the customizations easier in the future... So many things in my mind but my testing htpc is so far away at the moment and the laptop I'm borrowing now has only a notepad I'll try to wait until next year.

[Arzk]

I switched to Gotham and made the necessary changes. I also finally had time to tweak something else, changelog:

1.1.1
- New DialogVideoInfo.xml, DialogAlbumInfo.xml
- Removed the quick video info
- Added support for script.metadata.actors by Frost
- Content panel background reshaping. Same solid background for nearly all items
- Modified some media views to tolerate background changes
- Rearranged scrollbars
- Shortcut buttons in video and music libraries
- Video and audio OSD changes: cleaner video and audio settings, visualization menu
- Modified clock to support 12h format. Clock can also be disabled
- Switched the favourites and sidebar order when sidebar is available
- Some (main menu bar etc) transparency fixes
- Shutdown menu options from Confluence Modified by SpaceMonkey
- Skinsetting for showing hidden main menu items in the sidebar

1.1
- Most of the Gotham changes. WIP
- Artist backdrop to music visualization
- Redesigned lyrics script

The new sidebar is a bit confusing, but it will:
- Replace the default favorites bar. Favorites is right from sidebar
- Include Settings if it is disabled in main menu and shutdown menu (to ensure there's always some way to go to settings)
- Include the submenu items of Settings if enabled in skinsettings. Available only if settings is shown in sidebar
- Include all items hidden from the main menu, if enabled in skinsettings

The skin can be downloaded in the first post. The changelist is so big that I promise there will be bugs I haven't noticed
Screenshots of the biggest changes:

watch gallery

[Arzk]

Another update. Two different notification KaiToasts (normal and video fullscreen mode) gave problems so now it is always in horizontal orientation. Added also support for some great addons. TV Show Next Aired home screen widget should work like the music videos widget: normally hidden, but visible when navigating up from recently added tv shows widget (when skin widgets is enabled in skin settings).

1.1.2
- Horizontal KaiToast.xml
- Added audio and subtitle languages to video fullscreen info
- Added audio and subtitle languages to video info dialog (script.videolanguage)
- Added subtitle icons or flags to video lists (user selectable which to use)
- Added support for TV Show - Next Aired addon (shown in video library, homescreen widget)

[Greg_]

How was the change to Gotham, both with the new features of Gotham, as well as adjusting your skin to work with it? Like you, I've mucked around and combined a few skins to make my own disjointed thing. My primary goal was to have the rightlist menu, add the clearlogo & clearart in specific places and have kiosk mode enabled.

What do you mean when you say you are modding more efficiently? I'm still using Notepadd++ and typing things by hand, and I'm dreading the switch to Gotham. I've likely forgot most of the things I've done and I'm concerned about how long it will take me to get things back to the way I like.