[Jeroen]

Introduction
A new release of XBM.. I mean Kodi, a new release of reFocus and a new thread.

- This new version of reFocus is Helix only. Do not attempt to install this version of reFocus on any previous Kodi/XBMC version as it is completely incompatible!

The XBMC 13/Gotham version of reFocus is available on the official Kodi repository. It is also available for manual installation here. The Gotham version will not receive any further updates, fixes or backports.

Required
Kodi 14 Helix

Required add-ons
To get the most out of reFocus the following add-ons are required. These add-ons should be installed automatically when you install the skin. If they are not, please install manually using the links below. Certain skin features will not be available if one or more of these add-ons are not installed on your system.

• Skin Shortcuts
  Information
  Download
  
• Watchlist
  Information
  Download
  
• Library Data Provider
  Download
  
• Fanart Grabber
  Information
  Download
  
• Artwork Downloader
  Information
  Download
  
• TV Next Aired
  Information
  Download
  
• Artist Slideshow
  Information
  Download
  

Supported add-ons
The following add-ons are not required but the skin does have support built-in. You will need to install these manually through Kodi's Add-on Browser.

• TV Tunes
  Information
  
• Cinema Experience
  Information
  
• CU LRC Lyrics
  Information
  
• Skin Info Service
  Used for additional information in music information screens
  Information / Download
  

PVR Support
It's likely the PVR support has some quirks. I have no PVR setup, and I can only test what the PVR Demo Add-on can provide. Since I personally have no need for a PVR either, I am completely dependant on which bugs are reported and what I am able to test.

Known Issues
- The TV Guide/ TV Next Aired add-on window currently only supports the week view. Support for the new extended view will probably supported some day, but it's not a priority and a lot of work

Recommendations

• If you want to use the weather fanart support in reFocus I recommend this really nice pack by Dr.Toxic:
  
• If you are a PVR user, get this nice TV + radio channel logo pack by Butchabay
  
• Or these (mainly focused on the Dutch community)
  
• And more international logo's here
  

What will not be added

• Discart / Extrafanart / Extrathumbs
  
• Watched flags
  
• Backgrounds / fanart that changes based on selected home menu item
  

Thank you

• The reFocus translators http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=187505
  
• robweber for his great help and feature support with his Fanart Grabber add-on
  
• Unfledged for creating the Watchlist add-on for reFocus, creating the Skin Shortcuts add-on and the great help and support. You are missed.
  
• Team Kodi
  
• My colleague skinners for their help and advice
  
• Anyone else contributing to Kodi in any way
  

Download / install
reFocus is available through the official Kodi repository. Instructions on how to install development snapshots are available here: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=187222

watch gallery

Donations
If you enjoy my work and would like to buy me a beer to show your appreciation, it is appreciated greatly.

[Raitsa]

Installed and so far perfection, thank you Jeroen

[thewarm]

Jeroen, thank you for working on this.

MetaData Actors support please... I know that this addon was abandoned... but it was really nice to see the actor biographies!

Again, many thanks for "refocusing" on Helix!

[ZwartePiet]

1) The changes to the shelf are great. It feels much more intuitive and useful now.

2) Have you been able to get the PVR Demo Client to work? It's derivative, IPTVSimple, doesn't seem compatible anymore. If either regains compatibility, I'll try to provide feedback.

3) The fanart alignment error I mentioned here is still present.

4) IMO, the List View looked more aesthetically pleasing with the old star rating method. The current method of including the rating as another item on the second line is getting a little busy (e.g. movie library --> year, duration, rating, genre [multiple categories]).

I'm happy this skin is still alive. Can't wait for it to be added to the official repository.

[Jeroen]

2) Have you been able to get the PVR Demo Client to work? It's derivative, IPTVSimple, doesn't seem compatible anymore. If either regains compatibility, I'll try to provide feedback.

Yeah, updating to a newer dev build of Kodi luckily solved whatever issue I had with it. The whole IPTV thing is a hassle IMO and it doesn't allow me to test all PVR functionality anway.

3) The fanart alignment error I mentioned here is still present.

Yeah, I posted a follow up question about that I haven't been able to spot that issue. Could you post a screenshot?

4) IMO, the List View looked more aesthetically pleasing with the old star rating method. The current method of including the rating as another item on the second line is getting a little busy (e.g. movie library --> year, duration, rating, genre [multiple categories]).

I kind of agree, the stars gave a nice visual balance to the list. However, I needed a way to have unwatched indicators in the actual list itself so that information could be available at a glance instead of having to hover on a title first. Putting those indicators up there alongside the rating stars made it feel very cramped. I tried several approaches but none ever felt / looked right. Apart from that, there's only a couple of content types that actually have rating information available and to be honest I never actually look at the ratings anyway. I don't really care a whole lot about what others think about a movie or show. So, like with everything, ultimately function over form. Alhough it's always about finding a balance as well. I'm pretty happy about the way it is now though.

I'm happy this skin is still alive. Can't wait for it to be added to the official repository.

Thanks, it was never in danger of dying though As long as I'm using Kodi, reFocus will be around

[ZwartePiet]

3) The "buffering" text isn't necessary, IMO.

In the example you provided it probably isn't no. But when processing a stream is taking a bit longer I feel feedback to the user is appropriate. And "a bit longer" is such a relative and personal criterium

4) The "buffering" text and time/weather icon disappear before the main info bar.

The time out for the information bar is actually not handled by the skin. See Settings->TV->Menu/OSD->"Show channel information when switching channels"

I could try to synchronise the animation time of the player status and time with the default value of the above (5 secs) but I kind of feel that would be too long.

Could you point me to the xml file controlling the behavior of both? It sounds like stopping the "buffer loading" and time/weather from appearing on each channel change is an easy enough edit that I can make my first mod! Probably not before FUBARing the skin several times in the process...

(Oh, and don't worry, I'll only keep pestering you about issues with the official release version.)

3) The fanart alignment error I mentioned here is still present.

Yeah, I posted a follow up question about that I haven't been able to spot that issue. Could you post a screenshot?

A video's worth a 1000 pictures... The video sequence of events is kiosk mode disabled --> movie library (gallery view) --> TV library (gallery view) --> enable kiosk mode --> movie library (gallery view) --> TV library (gallery view).

4) IMO, the List View looked more aesthetically pleasing with the old star rating method. The current method of including the rating as another item on the second line is getting a little busy (e.g. movie library --> year, duration, rating, genre [multiple categories]).

I kind of agree, the stars gave a nice visual balance to the list. However, I needed a way to have unwatched indicators in the actual list itself so that information could be available at a glance instead of having to hover on a title first. Putting those indicators up there alongside the rating stars made it feel very cramped. I tried several approaches but none ever felt / looked right. Apart from that, there's only a couple of content types that actually have rating information available and to be honest I never actually look at the ratings anyway. I don't really care a whole lot about what others think about a movie or show. So, like with everything, ultimately function over form. Alhough it's always about finding a balance as well. I'm pretty happy about the way it is now though.

Heh, I don't really use the ratings or the unwatched indicators. I was wondering why things seemed more barren than usual with both disabled, then I realized that the stars used to serve as a nice visual filler.

[lednurb]

Thanks Jeroen, looks great!

I'm using the TV section a lot and I'd like to see a thumbnail preview and watched indicator in the TV recordings view. In fact, if it looked just like the TV channels view I'd be very happy with that!

greetz,
Lednurb

[Jeroen]

Could you point me to the xml file controlling the behavior of both?

Well, the xml in which the clock is loaded is DialogFullScreenInfo.xml, but it just calls an include from includes.xml, and that include uses variables from variables.xml. I'ts pretty self explanatory though

A video's worth a 1000 pictures...

Great, thanks. Fixed for next release.

Thanks Jeroen, looks great!

I'm using the TV section a lot and I'd like to see a thumbnail preview and watched indicator in the TV recordings view. In fact, if it looked just like the TV channels view I'd be very happy with that!

Thanks! Unfortunately both thumbnails and watched status are not made available in the recordings screen by Kodi. I don't think Helix changed anything in this. Though, I am using the PVR Demo add-on so I may just not be able to do each and every thing a real PVR setup can. Maybe you can check if they are available in Confluence? If they are I can look into adding it in reFocus but I doubt it to be honest.

[thewarm]

Love this skin!

Music Videos show no art. Just the "default_Portrait" image.
Any ideas please?

Thanks again.....

[tret]

Really excited about this release, thank you Jeroen.

One of the features I really enjoy is the TV Episodes Watchlist that shows the next episode for each show that is "In progress". I've noticed a strange "return" issue however, I'll describe below:

1. Go to TV Shows > Watchlist
2. Press Backspace which returns to the Home screen
3. Go back into TV Shows > Watchlist
4. Press Backspace, instead of returning to the Home screen the watchlist is reloaded
5. Press Backspace again, instead of returning to the Home screen an up-directory navigation action is performed
6. Each subsequent Backspace press results in further parent directory navigation actions until the Home screen is reached
Note: Pressing Escape at any time of course will return to the Home screen

I'm not sure if this is a Kodi issue or what, any chance you can investigate?

System Details:
Asus Chromebox running OpenELEC v5.0.0 (Kodi 14.0 Git:ad747d9)


Thanks again regardless Jeroen, great stuff.

-tret

[lednurb]

Jeroen, Confluence has the thumbnails and watched indicators in the recordings view. Other skins (ie Titan) have even more than one view available (list, landscape, poster etc). Hopefully you can look into this. TIA

[Jeroen]

Music Videos show no art. Just the "default_Portrait" image.
Any ideas please?

They show up for me? What scraper are you using? I never use scrapers for music videos and use local information only as most of my music videos aren't found. I guess my taste is not mainstream enough.

Really excited about this release, thank you Jeroen.

One of the features I really enjoy is the TV Episodes Watchlist that shows the next episode for each show that is "In progress". I've noticed a strange "return" issue however, I'll describe below:

1. Go to TV Shows > Watchlist
2. Press Backspace which returns to the Home screen
3. Go back into TV Shows > Watchlist
4. Press Backspace, instead of returning to the Home screen the watchlist is reloaded
5. Press Backspace again, instead of returning to the Home screen an up-directory navigation action is performed
6. Each subsequent Backspace press results in further parent directory navigation actions until the Home screen is reached
Note: Pressing Escape at any time of course will return to the Home screen

I'm not sure if this is a Kodi issue or what, any chance you can investigate?

System Details:
Asus Chromebox running OpenELEC v5.0.0 (Kodi 14.0 Git:ad747d9)


Thanks again regardless Jeroen, great stuff.

-tret

When I get to step 4 I just go back to the homescreen? Tried this on my workstation and on my HTPC running OE. I also tried going up in Watchlist using the ".." entry and going back from that. But everytime going back from the homescreen I am brought back to the episodes watchlist.
Generally things like window history are handled by Kodi unless a <previouswindow> is given by the skin. So I don't know what's going on there, but I can't reproduce it unfortunately.

Jeroen, Confluence has the thumbnails and watched indicators in the recordings view. Other skins (ie Titan) have even more than one view available (list, landscape, poster etc). Hopefully you can look into this. TIA

How about that, good to hear! I already made the recordings window use the regular list view that is used by "normal" videos. Doing the same for other views should be pretty easy. I'll make it so that the same views available to video files are used for recordings too.

[Galefury]

In "banners" view, the name of the tv stations are off. See screenshot.

[Jeroen]

Good catch, thanks. There have been some changes in Helix regarding the way text is aligned. It's possible there's more I missed.

[Jeroen]

reFocus 2.0.2 preview release available

changes:

• tv recordings screen should now display thumbnail and description (feedback please, can't fully check myself)
  
• tv recordings screen now has more viewtypes available (thumbnails, slide and tiles)
  
• fix for text alignment issue in banners view
  
• translation updates
  
• fix for fanart gap in gallery view
  
• fix for missing window header in timer dialog
  
• fix for double rating starts in subtitles dialog
  

Get it through the repo add-on.

Question/request: can someone tell me what is shown in the viewtypes available for radio recording in Confluence? Does it show any thumbnails? Or just generic icons? Does it show descriptions/plot? I'm trying to evaluate whether thumbnail based viewtypes make sense for audio recordings.