Hi djdafreund - yeah those images look great - I'll PM you with some contact details and get them into the skin. As for putting it on SVN - I wouldn't know where to start mate - we'll see how things go for now.

Leontes - cheers for the kind words mate, I'm glad you're enjoying the skin. The time is visible on the sub menu and favourites dialogues which pop up on the home page but no not on the home screen itself. I've never really been bothered about the time - but I can see that some like it there - so I'll look into putting it somewhere as an option.

Hi,

Love your skin and have been using it for a while...however, with the latest build, I can't seem to move the select button from the left panel over to the right without the right side text disappearing..also the horizontal select button disappears too(under skin settings only)However, I am able to scroll down to the wallpaper button and then move to the right and actually see the default wallpaper select menus...Anyone know how to resolve...using lastest XMBC build 2/24/08

Thanx

Hiya

Try deleting the entire back-Row skin folder then redownload the latest build of the skin and transfer it over. I changed the skin from version 2.0 to 2.1 and that caused that to happen - I then redid some of the xml files to fix it. It could be that it's still got some of the older xmls on your xbox.

Ok, i sent that stuff to you. Also further changed the aspect ratio of the countdown. It's perfect now. Had it on 'NTSC 16x9', instead of '16x9 1080,720p' Looks right now.

I don't know how many times i keep forgetting to mention these 2 things that are left out in the OSD of music (START when showing visualization). So busy with everything else, and other projects, i keep forgetting. I guess I've just been watching a lot of episodes more then listening to music, except when I'm mixing of course.
In the visualization screen when playing music, bringing up the menu (Pressing START), you are missing 2 key buttons, 'Visualization Selection' and 'Selection Settings' buttons. Definitely needed too. Saves a lot of time to not have to go to XBMC's music settings just to change the Visualization. Also, 'Visualization Settings' icon is needed, most importantly, currently there is no way to even get there and change settings at all right now.

2 options of course
=============
1) Make the line bigger ('Playing') to allow space to add 2 more icon buttons to the right, below.
2) Remove the playlist button (since 'X' does the exact same thing anyway), shifting the remaining buttons over 1 left and then change the "(<o>) "(eye) button from 'Visualization Presets' to 'Visualization Selection' instead, since 'Y' does the same thing (brings up Visualization Presets)

So it would be like this
=Playing====...................|....................== 02:03 / 04:09 ==
(^) (<=>) (<--) (<<) ( || ) (>>) ( ->) (MA) (VSel) (VSet) (.!'.!')

I can help making the 2 buttons to match too. I FINALLY remembered to bring this up.

Oh right - thanks for that.

Sorry it's another part of xbmc I don't use much - I've added the 2 buttons.

I've also added your 16:9 countdown for widescreen modes - thanks

Cheers

Thank you..it worked and I can finally see the subtle changes made to this skin..very nice!!!

Will you be doing the opening DVD animation for CD and Games too?? Nice effect

Just wanted to mention that we got Back-Row officially added to the xbmc skin SVN now (Link also in Sharpe's signature). I have also agreed to work on the skin alongside with Sharpe. Sharpe has already done such a fantastic deal with Back-Row, and things can and will only keep getting better in the future. This is to take some load off Sharpe, and also have some good things to contribute to the skins progress and advancements. Some changes have already been implemented and done.
Looking forward to continue keeping Back-Row amongst some of the best skins available for xbmc, it's already the only main one i use currently.

Back-Row SVN
==========
https://xboxmediacenter.svn.sourceforge.net...enter/back-row/

If your new to SVN, please simply search on the wiki, you should find your answer. It's pretty easy though.

I am very happy to see djdafreund joining up with Sharpe. Awsome busy updates. I like this one the best.
I also fixed my problem by replacing the busydialog xml in the pal folder. Looking forward to what djdafreund will incorperate into this baby now. Wow.

Hey, thanks a bunch buddy. That's so nice to be able to hear. I'm looking forward to help Sharpe keeping this skin at that top level. I just made and added a "File Manager" background that looks pretty nice to replace the default one to match everything else. I'll be making a "Weather" one also in time.

Yeah, gotta admit, I'm glad of the help. djdafreund is making a big contribution to things - it's great that he's on board.

The new filemanager background looks very nice.

Ok, just finished the Weather screen background. Still have some tweaks left, but mostly it's done.

djdafreund can you place a frame on the outside of the dvd to make the case more appealing?
Examples below.

http://www.4shared.com/file/40319069/3cca8...D_Template.html?

Saw the samples, but not quite sure what you mean. In the game section? As the box sample from link is a green color. Give me a better description if possible and where you were wanting it done. Let's see what we can do.

djdafreund I have now included the proper example for the dvd view for dvd's, not games. This frame will make the dvd view look a helleva alot better. Right now it looks kinda funny to me?

http://www.4shared.com/file/40368887/417e6...Template_2.html?

I'm cool with taking at look at it and see. Link is not working though.

Check your internet connection? I downloaded it just find?

Something might be wrong with 4shared in some demographical regions possibly, but it's definitely not my internet connection. I can't reach 4shared with my cellphone either, nor can i reach it using my parents computer (VNC'd) which is a bit of distance away and a totally different provider. Oh well.

Try this....

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qmrucg

That worked, but after looking at it, it's just honestly not catching my eye, and also too low res to use. I do appreciate the idea though.Thanks. We have to keep the quality level high since SDTV's days are numbered. That way, as much as possible, we won't have to redo things again in the future. Although one thing i am wanting to do is tweak the reflection cover box, in time.

I'm sure you could also create something similar in hi res?

Of course it could be done in hires, but it also has to the have the right look too before adding. It's in the list of things to do for sure.

Sharpe can you make the nubers for file stacking higher? 1-20 just doesn't cut it? I have TV Shows which go for several seasons? Maybe 1-80 or something like that?

I'm sorry mate - I'm not quite sure what you're asking there - can you go into a bit more about what you mean?

I'm not sure the file stacking stuff you mention is a skin thing - might be more to do with xbmc in general.

If your movie is in two parts a sub menu will pop up with the button-cd-focus. American Me_cd1.avi,
American Me_cd2.avi......

okay...and you want it to display up to 80 parts? Is that it?

Wow sharpe! Just upgraded my 'back-row' and found you've put the time onto the front page. Thank you so much!! I only mentioned it because it's something I find useful, but as its your skin I didn't expect you to feel the same, never mind doing it so quickly. I like the placement a lot, its simple and clear and doesn't mess up the look of the skin. I don't know if its possible, but I was wondering if you had thought of having an option where you can choose to have a digital or analogue clock? A vista (bleurgh) style kind of thing. Not sure where on the page, or what style clock would look best (something that suits the skin obviously) but it might look a tad groovy. Oh, and for some reason this latest svn is running a lot quicker for me, is this true for others or something particular to my box. It's got a 750 gig drive jammed into it, so sometimes it is a little slow.

Loving this skin more each day, keep up the good work.

80 parts would be great my friend. Love the hard work in this baby Sharpe.

Sharpe, can you move the bottom seek bar to the top? I can't read the subtitles on movies when I puase because theres this big black & red bar right ontop of the subs? Thanks.

Hi sharpe, just thought I'd let you know that I really like your plot with the tvshow wide icons... it's great to have such a large image... you definitely have all around the best, and most creative views out of all the skins I believe... keep up the good work.

hey competes2win - that's great to hear - I actually really like that view myself

I've just recently been adding a FanArt View into the mix (you'll need the latest svn version of XBMC to view it)



Still something I'm working on but so far I do like the feature a lot - agathorn and all the others involved over at the XBMC forums did a tremendous job adding FanArt to XBMC.

@maximus - I'll look into sorting something out for you mate.

QUOTE:I've just recently been adding a FanArt View into the mix.

How do you access this view?

It's a TV library view that's just been added to utilise the new FanArt features recently added to the main XBMC SVN. You need XBMC revision 12300 or higher to use it (It'll be in the next t3ch release if you don't compile your own) - There's a whole load about it over at:

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=300...ighlight=fanart

Hey Sharpe, I've just been having a play around with the 'fan art' view you've added. It looks fantastic. I've added fan art to all my shows that have it available @ tvdb. One thing I thought I'd mention in case you find it usefull: When you scroll through the episodes on the right hand side, they don't stop at the last episode but keep scrolling ad infinitum. Because the thumbs are smaller in this view this makes navigation a little more difficult. Perhaps having them stop at the end would help? What do you think?

excellent work as usual

Mucho Thanks!

My personal opinion is to disagree with this... I like how it continues... To my knowledge all the current views wrap around, so what's the difference? I understand what your saying though about the icons in this view, maybe making it hard to keep track of things while scrolling, which Is why I find it way easier scrolling while monitoring the episode number and plot... I guess either way is not going to be that big of a deal, but in my opinion I'd say that I'd prefer to keep the wrapping action.... Anyhow sharpe just wanted to let you know my thoughts. I envy the people who can compile their own xbmc... I want to play with this too.......

I do see what mean Leontes - about the icons being a bit on the small side. After using the view myself for a while, I've switched to displaying 3 instead of five icons and stretched them out a bit also. As you can see in the screencap above. I think that should help a bit.

Hi Sharpe,
Checked out the svn that shows three thumbnails in the 'fan art' view. For my money this is indeed a lot clearer. You lose a bit more of the fan art in the background, but you can still see it, the thumbnails are clearer, and its easier to navigate.

Lovely work, Thanks

Hey what do you guys think of an emulator tab? I wanted to implement Competes2win emulator mod into the emulator tab in Back-Row. This would be sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. For thoughs that don't know go take a look. This is what xbmc is really missing. I just need Sharpe to create the tab, & I'm sure there can be an option to disable it in the settings tab. Please help out on this one bro?

Sounds fine but - I don't really use emulators personally so I've no idea really.

From what I can see Competes2win has made a new window especially for emulators (very nice by the way) and put a link to that window on his own skin's homescreen. That's easy enough to achieve (and yeah you could make it visible / invisible via the skin settings but as to what goes in there - like I say I don't use them, so wouldn't really know what to link the controls to ie what emulators to activate and so on. Competes2win has also made his own info descriptions of what emulators he's using... well that would have to be specific to each individual and what they were using (also where they were stored on the xbox presumably?).

So basically any such mod like that would have to be personalised to your own tastes - not something I could really add to Back-Row as it stands.

Which is what I was saying too. But anyhow, as far as the info tags are concerned There are only a certain few emulators for the xbox anyhow, I have made info tags for 7 of them, People interested could easily make their own and donate to the scene.... That would be that. And as to where these tags are stored, like I said I'm no skinner so the only way I could come up with was to just directly type them into a 'textbox' label control directly in the customwindow's xml....

However, as stated by sharpe. Any view like this would have to be at least partially personalized by the user. For example I know that I linked the buttons in my window to the .xbe's of each emulator and this would most likely be in a different directory for different users. However sharpe, I know that some skins have the options in the skin settings to specify a directory to open upon a button click and/or to access for folder images... is it possible to do such a thing for this emulator mod? I mean, after you actually take a look and try, it's not all that hard to open up the window .xml and mod the buttonclick actions but for the majority of users it would just be easier to specify the directory once and have it done from the skin. Possible?

Anyhow, I'm glad at least maximusoctavious liked my mod lol and wants it integrated into another skin. My dream of course would be to have the skinners adopt a similiar view for all of their skins, so I wouldn't be restricted to my custom skin in order to use such a view.

QUOTE:From what I can see Competes2win has made a new window especially for emulators (very nice by the way) and put a link to that window on his own skin's homescreen. That's easy enough to achieve .

Then couldn't you just add the emulators tab and leave the rest to us? I have Competes2win xpr & xml for the emulators, so I can add or subtract whatever I want. Its no differen't than the custom xml's you have done for me. Except these will have to be done by me(with a little help from competes2win). I could also upload the xpr & xml for others here as well. Please reconsider this bro.

Keep in mind we have to consider things for the majority, not just for some individuals. There's a decent size to-do list currently in place, and i don't exactly see that as a big priority, although i would like to eventually have it added in time. I also don't play games much either like Sharpe, but once in a while i do throw on and play some Forza, Burnout(last one released), or a different emulators. I do like the emu's section stuff from the picture's i've seen, and would be up and willing to do some artwork to keep things to the skin's theme.

Well I'm still thinking about the emulator window - /will probably do something with it.

In the meantime I've rejigged the FanArt view partly based on a very nice Meedio skin I saw recently.

Wow, that fanart style looks so much more fitting. Nice touch!!! I can whip something up to help with artwork for the emu section if you need me to, if do decide to ad d it. It would be kind of cool.

Yeah an emulator tab would be nice, but so would a music video section as well. I don't know if anyone else here feels the same way, but xbmc feels so uncomplete without the other tabs. Plus it sucks how each section doesn't open directly into the source folder like Sharpe has it for movies & TV. I was hoping Sharpe could tweak things to make pictures actually open into pictures, and music actually open into the music folder(like the movies do). This would really complete things here. Alot of people I mod boxes for agree strongly.
For the newbie things can be a little confusing with all the menus and sub menus. But not if things were worked out like above. I hope Sharpe will consider the above improvements, I know he has alot on his plate already and has done a fantastic job. But my hat goes off to Copetes2win for actually doing most of the above on his mod skin. Competes2win you rock bro

Hey sharpe, nice fanart view I just tried it out now that the new t3ch is out... However, Wouldn't red text go better with your skin than that mustard color? just my thoughts. Thanks.

Yeah you're right - it's been altered to fit better with the other red stuff.

Cheers

Fanart Scraper??? I have had no luck with this. My movies has a sub menu that allows set content but my tv shows do not????? WTF! So how does everyone but me have Fanart? I even changed my damn icons to original posters so I can see this Fanart stuff? Can someone tell me why I can't see "SET CONTENT" on the sub menu(white button) of the tv section????? Thanks to anyone who can help.

why are you trying to find set content? are your shows not yet scanned to the library? I don't know why you wouldn't see it. it's always there for me. You don't have to 'set content' on the tv show section, but on the tvshow directory themselves, try that... for example Videos/tv/"Lost"/season1/lost.s01e01 so you should try to set content on the "Lost" and not tv.

Easiest way to use fanart I have found is to just store the pictures locally and then set it through the context menu... which is just in "tv show information" once its scanned to the library.

Sharpe.....I hope you wil do the emulator tab. Everyone gather around and lets pray
I can't wait for some more updates

Great job so far guys.....Love it