[ag3141]

Hi, Ronie. Super skin! It feels complete in every way. Great design, functionality and responsiveness.
It seems my 3 years desert walk with Power DVD (frustration is a better name for this eternal beta), WinDVD (used as PowerDVD backup) and Collectorz Movie Collector (I never really used Collectorz, the program made me depressed) is over. I tried Backrow last year, but couldn’t play any Blu-Ray ISOs so I slept on it for a year. Tried it again a few weeks ago, this time with Transparency, and everything just worked! No programming skills necessary. I just downloaded and fulfilled every fantasy I had since I embarked on my home cinema project, some 4 years ago. Thank you!

I’m new to T! so I have a few (8) questions.

1: Can I exit XBMC while inside the full screen mode, using only my mouse, without closing XBMC? Now I must grab the keyboard and press the “windows” button or backtrack to the main menu and click on the close XBMC button . Inside movies section could be a minimize button next to the preview trailer button or perhaps hidden on the kiosk menu at the left side.

2: Can I grade my movies and display only my grades in the movie information? This way, in the future, I can se which movies I would like to watch a second time.

3: Can I set the subtitles so that I only se a translation when a foreign language is spoken and not all the time, even when they speak English?

4a: I have saved my XBMC settings as a single file. Will I be able to reset the thumbs for the Blu-Ray ISOs, in case there is a problem in the future with my computer?
4b: My Blu-Ray ISOs are not in separate files, but directly on the hard drive. Can I still export settings using separate files?

5: Can I add a movie that’s only on a Blu-Ray disc and not on the hard drive? If so, will movie info state that it’s only for information purpose, and that the movie is on a disc?

6: I’ve activated XWMM, but how do I use it to change metadata for movies in case a movie is grouped in a wrong movie set?

7: Can I donate money specifically for T! or must it be for XBMC?

T! makes my home cinema shine.

[PatK]

Failing a timely response..(this is a skin forum, most of your questions are general in nature and would get a quicker response posted in the general thread) here's my take on your questions as just a fellow user and mostly work-arounds.

1) A programmable extra mouse button is nice, I have it do the keypress \ to window format giving me gadgets. (logitech wireless allows for command while XBMC is in focus) if you don't want to drill into the settings on the fly.

2) You can use the ratings system for this, but you'll have to edit the .nfo in hand one by one. I personally use the IMBD ratings system.. much more reliable. Favourites are often used to tag a few movies to been seen later and you have the ability to up/down their importance.

3) Subtitles are a property of the subtitile file, some .srt files are made just for the foreign language parts, while others are the entire movie usually for the hearing impaired or language challenged. I suggest you have a look around at subtitle add-ons and do your own shopping for subtitles. This is not a skin or XBMC issue.

4)a: Copy your User folder in it's entirety to a safe place on a regular basis, I'm unfamiliar with Blu_ray iso images. There is an add-on for this.
4)b: Yes

5) The movie is on disk, so writing to the disk is not possible.

6) Clear the wrong set first, then establish the correct set and change the parms and save.

7) Every one benefits from a donation, it's a central pool unless stated otherwise.

Mine shines too

[Fice]

Just some additional thoughts and ideas

1) If you have an unused button on your mouse, you could create a Makro in EventGhost that listens to that mouse button and triggers an action that will bring you to the desktop.

3) This feature is called "Forced Subtitles". This means that for every text in a subtitle file, there is a flag indicating if this line should be forced to display (meaning it will be shown even if subtitles are disabled). XBMC supports this on some subtitle types (not sure if it does on all types). Also not all subtitle files have this data, so make sure that your ripping software keeps those flags.
I don't know if the subtitles returned by the subtitle script have those info...

5) see http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Stub

6) What exactly is your problem? To use the XWMM Webinterface just type http://{YOUR_HTPC_IP}/addons/webinterface.XWMM/ in your Browser. Also make sure you have "Allow Control over WebInterface"(backtranslated from german, so could be different) activated under Network Settings

[ronie]

7: Can I donate money specifically for T! or must it be for XBMC?

cheers for the offer...should you wish to donate, please make a donation to xbmc.
receiving personal donations is not something i'm interested in ;-)

[ag3141]

Thank you all for answering. I don’t know anything about coding so I posted questions here because the deeper layers are unknown to me. Where does skin end and system begin?? : )

Patk: 1,2: I think I’ll buy a new mouse with a programmable button and the favorite function answered my second question.
4: How do I copy fanart, thumbs and actors to a safe place when I use separate files? The pictures end up all aver the hard drive inside every dvdfile, instead of a single file that can be backed up.

Fice: 3: This is probably it, I’ll look into this. I’ll try different subtitle types and if it doesn’t work I’ll include a .dvd file when ripping Blu-Rays.
5: Yes again, but I don’t code, so I can’t use this. It would be great if I could do this automatically when inserting a disc. XBMC could ask if I want to include this Blu-Ray disc to the library, maybe in the future…
6: Same again, I don’t know how to code. This question is not so important since it usually is grouped in the right collection.

Ronie: Done, I‘ve donated $100, to be split between XBMC system and Transparecy! development.
Please automate as much as possible so that technical illiterates, like I, also can enjoy every function of XBMC.

Thanks again.

[ronie]

Ronie: Done, I‘ve donated $100, to be split between XBMC system and Transparecy! development.

cheers for the donation ag3141 :-)

i guess my previous reply wasn't all that clear...
i'm not interested in receiving donations for Transparency!
for me creating T! is just a fun job and the result is provided entirely for free.
i do not need / want / accept any money for it ;-)

[PatK]

Kudos for your donation "ag3141" I know it's much appreciated by all.

Re: your question about back-ups... XBMC keeps all the thumbnails and fanart within the userdata directory along with user settings. The images scattered over your harddrive are ignored unless you're scraping locally. The Plugin 'XBMC backup' should be in the central repository and automatically does the copying for you, but I've had no issue just copying it by hand to a safe place. The user directory location varies depending on the O/S you're running so check this wiki for the location on your system http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Userdata_folder Once you have this back-up in a safe place, a complete re-install and throwing your userdata folder back in will bring you back to the time of the back-up.

Welcome to the forums, I'll be sure to give your posts extra attention.

Her's a few links some find useful.

http://lifehacker.com/5559007/the-hassle...collection
http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultima...dia-center
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Com...20features