[gargon]

Hi Guys,

I had to create an account here just to say thanks to all of the developers of this great skin! A very clean and eye-catching piece of work. I also have a very basic question. I have followed all of the instructions to the letter and have everything working how I want and it is all looking really beautiful, but I am having a very simple problem. When watching something ie a movie from my hard drive etc... how do I fast seek? So click on the play time bar with the air mouse and have the movie jump to that point? I have tried clicking my mouse pointer all over the place trying to get the movie to skip forward but the only way I can do it, is to manually fast forward to the desired point. This skin does have fast seek functionality right (or what ever the correct term is for this function)? Am I crazy or am I doing something wrong? I am on an Android Shield 16GB running SPMC 16.4-0 and AZ:FA 3.2.21 by the way, if that makes any difference. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Guardian Hope]

Hi Guys,

I had to create an account here just to say thanks to all of the developers of this great skin! A very clean and eye-catching piece of work. I also have a very basic question. I have followed all of the instructions to the letter and have everything working how I want and it is all looking really beautiful, but I am having a very simple problem. When watching something ie a movie from my hard drive etc... how do I fast seek? So click on the play time bar with the air mouse and have the movie jump to that point? I have tried clicking my mouse pointer all over the place trying to get the movie to skip forward but the only way I can do it, is to manually fast forward to the desired point. This skin does have fast seek functionality right (or what ever the correct term is for this function)? Am I crazy or am I doing something wrong? I am on an Android Shield 16GB running SPMC 16.4-0 and AZ:FA 3.2.21 by the way, if that makes any difference. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance

First, and foremost: on behalf of myself and all the contributors to this skin - thank you. To answer your question: this skin doesn't use the mouse whatsoever. Yes, it functions still but it's not a "true" input method. You should consider using a remote like a Logitech Harmony or even just your keyboard.

When you bring up the On-Screen Display which has all the play, pause, etc. buttons, to seek through a title simply press the fast-forward (or rewind) button and it will seek. I believe the upper seek limit it 24x. Alternatively, if the title you are watching is chaptered either via chapters contained within the media or by Emby Server, you can use the "Skip Forward/Backward" button to skip to scenes. Otherwise it functions as a 30 second skip.

Let me know if you need additional help!

From Ashes Getting It's Own Repo and Krypton...

So tomorrow (might be Monday for some of you), AZ:FA will get it's own repository containing everything you need to get going quickly. With the repo release comes Danvers Preview Alpha 1. Remember that this version may or may not work. I think @minus0 has had as much luck as I have had in tracking down why one of us can use the skin like it's completely fine and the other cannot.

What does having a repo mean for you? Well, downloads through the Enterprise CDN are now managed meaning updates happen seamlessly and all the requirements are in one place. While I will still link to the zip download virtually everyone's AZ:FA will now automatically update!

[gargon]

First, and foremost: on behalf of myself and all the contributors to this skin - thank you. To answer your question: this skin doesn't use the mouse whatsoever. Yes, it functions still but it's not a "true" input method. You should consider using a remote like a Logitech Harmony or even just your keyboard.

When you bring up the On-Screen Display which has all the play, pause, etc. buttons, to seek through a title simply press the fast-forward (or rewind) button and it will seek. I believe the upper seek limit it 24x. Alternatively, if the title you are watching is chaptered either via chapters contained within the media or by Emby Server, you can use the "Skip Forward/Backward" button to skip to scenes. Otherwise it functions as a 30 second skip.

No problem. Air mouse/mouse support would really be the cherry on the cake, in my opinion, should you ever decide to incorporate it. But either way, keep up the good work.

Thanks

[quixote23]

I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping someone can help with - I've been fighting with these things all afternoon and have gotten absolutely nowhere.

First: How do I change music genre icons to custom ones? As you can see below, I use a lot of uncommon genre tags and wherever AZ:FA is pulling or scraping these images from, I've had no luck finding them to manually replace them. On top of that, these don't even seem to be the right icons, since I found a folder of totally different icons included with AZ:FA that aren't actually being used. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use my own artist images here and there as well if they don't get scraped.



Secondly, how do I replace the spinning CD image with, say, a spinning vinyl image? I haven't been able to find this default CD image anywhere either.



And lastly, the sidebar menu in the music folder seems to be weirdly formatted. No idea what's going on here, as all other sidebar menus look fine.



I've uninstalled AZ:FA, deleted all userdata files, and reinstalled it from the Emby repo, but I've had no luck fixing any of these. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Guardian Hope]

watch gallery

Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview) Alpha 1
"Summer 2016 Update" - 'The Girl of Steel Finally Arrives... sort of'

The Girl of Steel is finally here... well, sort of; we're still working on the cape! This is the first release of Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes for Kodi 17 Krypton. A lot of the credit should go to @minus0 for this one; he's worked super hard - otherwise this wouldn't be out for another month. Essentially, this is the Summer 2016 Update except this time for Krypton as part of the Danvers Preview promised so long ago. Do note that certain features have been temporarily disabled or are currently not working and you are also looking at a lot of dialogs which I am told are still undergoing refinement. However, for an Alpha, it's a good start.

We've also changed the way you get the addon to give you access to the Enterprise CDN's fast delivery speed with a carefully crafted new repository which I at least plan to expand to include some other skin modifications in the future since Team Kodi decided to declare all out war on Skin Modifications (as a side effect) of adding the requirement to enable "unknown sources" to even install skin mods or ironically - repositories. To get started, simply download the NortheBridge by Design Repository here: https://embycdn.northebridge.com/Victori...1.0.00.zip

It currently features:

• Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview)
  
• Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes UI Audio Suite
  
• Emby Repository for Kodi
  

To ensure the security and safety of Kodi users, my idea is to run it a little bit more like the Apple App Store than Google Play. Any Skin Modification (or addon) submitted will undergo vigorous testing for safety and it will be ensured that it does comply with the no-piracy rule. Even updates will have to be submitted. Why? Piracy and certain other addons harm Kodi but at the same time there needs to be a balance and scaring people with that warning that comes up when you click "enable unknown sources" is not balance. Right now, I say PM me here if you are interested (your addon will be delivered via the Verizon Enterprise Anycast Edge Network - 100% free) but I intend to make an application process.

Anyways, the skin is still available the old fashioned Enterprise CDN direct download way: https://embycdn.northebridge.com/AZFA/da...alpha1.zip
It is also available in the Emby Beta Repo.
Finally, it is also available on GitHub: https://github.com/NortheBridge/skin.arc....20-alpha1

As a special surprise, we have begun working on a requested "Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes" website which is in the early stages of development: https://northebridge.com/systems/oss/kodi/fromashes but once completed should provide you an easy to use resource for this feature rich skin and answer a lot of the "how do I do X" questions. It probably won't be fully ready until closer to the end of the Danvers Preview and Krypton's release.

Now to the bugs. There's probably a few more than what's listed here (or a lot more) but this is what's been tested and encountered so far.

Known Issues

Code:

Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview) may not redraw the "addon" dialog during its installation. To fix this, simply press escape. Another way to fix this issue is to press "\" to put Kodi into windowed mode temporarily and press "\" to have it go back to full screen.

[CRITICAL] Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview) may not be usable for some users with the skin constantly throwing service issues. You will not be able to browse for any media or watch any media but the widget slideshow that shows what's new and what you have been watching in your library functions normally. This may be related to the Emby addon which is currently not compatible with Krypton so if you encounter this issue please also let us know whether you are running Emby and if you are not encountering the issue, same deal: OS and whether you are running Emby.

Changelog:

Code:

Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes Danvers "Summer 2016 Update" - Released August 1, 2016
Danvers: 4.2.20-alpha1 (4.2.20-alpha1_danvers)

ARCTIC ZEPHYR: FROM ASHES ANNIVERSARY EDITION (CODENAMED "DANVERS") IS PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE DESIGNED FOR A PRE-RELEASE VERSION OF KODI.
THERE IS NO GUARNTEE THAT ALL FEATURES WILL WORK. PLEASE LET US KNOW OF ANY ISSUES YOU RUN INTO. THIS SKIN IS NOW AVAILABLE IN THE
NORTHEBRIDGE BY DESIGN(R) REPOSITORY, EMBY BETA REPOSITORY, GITHUB, OR VIA DIRECT ZIP FILE DOWNLOAD ONLY.

"About From Ashes" has been updated with new credits which were missing in the "Spring 2016 Update"
Info Banner Code Has Been Completely Commented Out
Rotten Tomatoes Has Been Added to the Video Information Screen
Fixes to Broken Code Lines During 3rd Gen Color Enhancement Implementation
Adds all Krypton Dialogs
New Textures Have Been Added
Unused Textures Have Been Removed
4th Generation Color Enhancer Has Been Added
Ability to change Dialog Menu Background
Ability to change Dialog Menu Text
Ability to change Dialog Disabled Text
Ability to change Dialog Buttons Highlight
Ability to change Hubs Menu Highlight
Ability to change Hubs Text Color Highlight
Ability to change Hubs Widget Highlight Border
Ability to change Hubs Widget Sublabel
Ability to change Side Blade Menu Highlight Color
Implemented new Busy Spinner into all applicable windows
Fixed File Browser not displaying Folder and File Icons properly
Changed "script.toolbox" to "script.skinhelper" for Backup and Restore in Skin Settings.
Added new Color Themes Category in Skin Settings, With Ability to Create and Manage Custom Themes
Added Ability to Select Day/Night Themes

Finally, again, I can't stress this enough, give a lot of thanks to @minus0 who has been putting 200% effort into this. At this point, AZ:FA can't be done without him and in the next release I feel he has earned the title "Co-Author" instead of "Executive Contributor" (unless he likes "Executive Contributor.").

For those who have posted questions about the current Jarvis release (Dormer), I will get to them in the coming week.

[Moviefan445]

I'm having the skin helper service issue. Not running Emby, and I'm using an nVidia shield.

[Guardian Hope]

I'm having the skin helper service issue. Not running Emby, and I'm using an nVidia shield.

Thank you @Moviefan445. This confirmed something I had thought and a message I got from @minus0 also confirmed it further: when Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes' Dormer Branch is launched on Krypton by just switching out the "Startup.xml" files, the skin functions although obviously settings do not function (and other items that no longer exist in Krypton).

Trial and error and a lot of patience has led us to Kodi's new skinning definition which should be:

Code:

<include content="foo">

Which was updated from:

Code:

<include name="bar">

Yet AZ:FA is not taking to the use of the newer skinning definition in the Includes.xml file. So, given the amount of evidence to suggest the culprit lies somewhere in the new definition causing a conflict, we're going to update that to reverse the "content" definition back to "name" in the Includes.xml file. This should restore most functionality. In addition, in my own rush to get Alpha 1 out, I forgot to update Textures.xbt which was pointed out to me so it's missing some new textures. That's going to be fixed too.

Please expect Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview) Alpha 2 soon (in the coming days) with the following changes:

• Reverted redefined include contexts in "Includesxml"
  
• Updated Textures
  
• Fixed Startup Splash to use Kodi's addon version call rather than 4.0.20
  
• Updated "About From Ashes" to label @minus0 as "Co-Author" and updated Plugin Information calls
  

If you have the newly created NortheBridge by Design Repository or Emby Repository, you'll be updated automatically. If not or you prefer to download via GitHub or the good old packaged zip files, they'll be posted for download at release as well.

[jurialmunkey]

Include name= is used to for the definition of the include. Include content= is used to reference the definition when using params

[zszs]

I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping someone can help with - I've been fighting with these things all afternoon and have gotten absolutely nowhere.

First: How do I change music genre icons to custom ones? As you can see below, I use a lot of uncommon genre tags and wherever AZ:FA is pulling or scraping these images from, I've had no luck finding them to manually replace them. On top of that, these don't even seem to be the right icons, since I found a folder of totally different icons included with AZ:FA that aren't actually being used. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use my own artist images here and there as well if they don't get scraped.



Secondly, how do I replace the spinning CD image with, say, a spinning vinyl image? I haven't been able to find this default CD image anywhere either.



And lastly, the sidebar menu in the music folder seems to be weirdly formatted. No idea what's going on here, as all other sidebar menus look fine.



I've uninstalled AZ:FA, deleted all userdata files, and reinstalled it from the Emby repo, but I've had no luck fixing any of these. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Same issue here! Have been trying to locate what file this is located so I can fix it myself. Very annoying!

[zszs]

Signed up just to say....

thank you for such a great theme!

[Blurayx]

Krypton:

constant skin helper error. can't add Music,TV Shows,movies. currently unusable.

[Guardian Hope]

Krypton:

constant skin helper error. can't add Music,TV Shows,movies. currently unusable.

Danvers Preview Alpha 2 will be released either later today or tomorrow to fix the issues currently making the skin unusable. The issues in their entirety have been tracked down and fixed. Also Alpha 2 will include a new feature: the ability to force views for certain content which can be set in the Skin Settings.

Also, thank you to @Jurialmonkey for also clarifying the usage of include name and include content. They had originally made it sound like they were getting rid of include name= entirely but I finally got to the end of the discussion and saw they decided to go with include content= for PARAMs and leave include name= for defining the include.

[Guardian Hope]

I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping someone can help with - I've been fighting with these things all afternoon and have gotten absolutely nowhere.

First: How do I change music genre icons to custom ones? As you can see below, I use a lot of uncommon genre tags and wherever AZ:FA is pulling or scraping these images from, I've had no luck finding them to manually replace them. On top of that, these don't even seem to be the right icons, since I found a folder of totally different icons included with AZ:FA that aren't actually being used. Ideally, I'd like to be able to use my own artist images here and there as well if they don't get scraped.



Secondly, how do I replace the spinning CD image with, say, a spinning vinyl image? I haven't been able to find this default CD image anywhere either.



And lastly, the sidebar menu in the music folder seems to be weirdly formatted. No idea what's going on here, as all other sidebar menus look fine.



I've uninstalled AZ:FA, deleted all userdata files, and reinstalled it from the Emby repo, but I've had no luck fixing any of these. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

AZ:FA gets its icons from either a resource package which is downloaded with the skin or from the compressed texture package that contains all the skin's textures located in /media/Textures.xbt. This is likely why you cannot find the genre icons - they are compressed as part of /media/Textures.xbt. Currently, there is no way to modify the icons except by decompressing the Textures.xbt file and changing the icons there. Since you can label the genres a thousand different things, we can't include an icon for every conceivable name. A lot of the textures are going to be updated as part of the Danvers Preview for Kodi 17.

The CD you see is actually also from the Textures.xbt file and happens to be the "default" disc image used by AZ:FA. What I mean by this is that if you change the CD to a Vinyl, than if there is no CD Art for the movies it will default to a vinyl since you changed the same image. Music is getting a major overhaul as part of the Danvers Preview as well.

I hate to keep saying "will be fixed in Kodi 17" but that's really the reality. Music and Widgets have always been that way - they haven't been touched since Isengard.

Unless you are encountering a ground breaking bug, the Jarvis version isn't getting anymore updates. However, I am happy to tell you where the media is pulled from.

Remember:

Arctic Zephyr: Exploded - Kodi Version: Isengard (v15) - End of Life (No Future Updates or Support)
Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes - Kodi Version: Jarvis (v16) - Long Term Support (Critical Bugfixes, Extended Support)
Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes Anniversary Edition - Kodi Version: Krypton (v17) - Preview Availability (Experimental Updates; Full Support)

[quixote23]

Thanks Guardian Hope! Even if it's not a fix, it's a mystery solved.

That said, I'm currently relying on the DSplayer build of Kodi for the madVR support, and it sounds like that won't be getting a Danvers update (dev seems to have stalled out), so I think I may be stuck on Jarvis for the foreseeable future. Not that I'm expecting any future AZ:FA support on Jarvis... That's sort of why I'm trying to dig into this now, to learn more about how it's put together so I can make any needed changes myself.

[Guardian Hope]

Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview) - Alpha 2

"Alpha 2 - We Fixed the Cape, We Hope

So, we fixed the cape... I hope, in this Girl of Steel release of Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes (Danvers Preview). Alpha 2 should bring a working and usable version of the Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes experience to Kodi Krypton for the first time in forever. There'll be magic, there'll be fun! Sorry, I couldn't resist .

For those of you using the newly minted NortheBridge by Design® Repository which is your express route to the Enterprise CDN within Kodi itself: you should start being updated soon. The same for those who use the Emby Beta Repository.

If you would like to get the zip, it's available at https://embycdn.northebridge.com/AZFA/da...alpha2.zip while on GitHub at https://github.com/NortheBridge/skin.arc....20-alpha2.

If you haven't heard, we created our own repository and have plans for it. Right now it just hosts what is needed to support AZ:FA and since it's part of the Verizon Anycast Enterprise CDN Network, it's just as blazing fast to use as getting the zip standalone. You can download and install the repo from https://embycdn.northebridge.com/Victori...1.0.00.zip - oh, and did we mention the repo will self update too?

Although Krypton has started as a bumpy ride for From Ashes, it is gearing up to be the best experience of any Arctic Zephyr skin in the Arctic Zephyr: Exploded family.

Changelog:

Code:

Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes Danvers "Alpha 2 Preview Update" - Released August 3, 2016
Danvers: 4.2.20-alpha2 (4.2.20-alpha2_danvers)

ARCTIC ZEPHYR: FROM ASHES ANNIVERSARY EDITION (CODENAMED "DANVERS") IS PRE-RELEASE SOFTWARE DESIGNED FOR A PRE-RELEASE VERSION OF KODI.
THERE IS NO GUARNTEE THAT ALL FEATURES WILL WORK. PLEASE LET US KNOW OF ANY ISSUES YOU RUN INTO. THIS SKIN IS NOW AVAILABLE IN THE
NORTHEBRIDGE BY DESIGN(R) REPOSITORY, EMBY BETA REPOSITORY, GITHUB, OR VIA DIRECT ZIP FILE DOWNLOAD ONLY.

Fixed Krypton Runtime Issues
Updated Skin Textures With New Krypton Textures
Reverted Redefined Contexts for Includes Contexts
Fixed Startup Splash to Use Kodi's Addon Version Call Rather than "4.0.20"
Fixed the "Danvers Preview" Prompt to Only Display On Kodi Startup
Updated "About From Ashes" to label @minus0 as "Co-Author" and updated Plugin Information calls

Known Issues

Code:

It's an Alpha. Please report any issues you find no matter how small!