Replacement Interface

[DijiTao]

So are you saying that in the multimedia category there are 4 apps: music player, video player, picture viewer and ebook viewer?
Great use of space there, and totally a step back from GPHs current interface in features.

It's not any different from the way things are currently done. The current menu only creates the illusion of listing the files for the media players. The menu itself isn't what your seeing once you select Music from the menu, your actually looking at the Media player from that point forward. The screen where you select the song, and the screen were the song is played are NOT part of the menu, they are part of the media player itself. So it's not a step backwards to keep doing it this way.

 

[Hanz™]

So are you saying that in the multimedia category there are 4 apps: music player, video player, picture viewer and ebook viewer?
Great use of space there, and totally a step back from GPHs current interface in features.

It's not any different from the way things are currently done. The current menu only creates the illusion of listing the files for the media players. The menu itself isn't what your seeing once you select Music from the menu, your actually looking at the Media player from that point forward. The screen where you select the song, and the screen were the song is played are NOT part of the menu, they are part of the media player itself. So it's not a step backwards to keep doing it this way.

​

True.
But I still think it would be nice to beable to select the files from the menu.

 

[nickspoon]

It's not any different from the way things are currently done. The current menu only creates the illusion of listing the files for the media players. The menu itself isn't what your seeing once you select Music from the menu, your actually looking at the Media player from that point forward. The screen where you select the song, and the screen were the song is played are NOT part of the menu, they are part of the media player itself. So it's not a step backwards to keep doing it this way.

​

True.
But I still think it would be nice to beable to select the files from the menu.

Can't do that until we have mplayer source, because it won't accept command-line.

 

[Hanz™]

It's not any different from the way things are currently done. The current menu only creates the illusion of listing the files for the media players. The menu itself isn't what your seeing once you select Music from the menu, your actually looking at the Media player from that point forward. The screen where you select the song, and the screen were the song is played are NOT part of the menu, they are part of the media player itself. So it's not a step backwards to keep doing it this way.

​

True.
But I still think it would be nice to beable to select the files from the menu.

Can't do that until we have mplayer source, because it won't accept command-line.

​

Yes I know, hurry up GPH I say.

 

[Tobriand]

I'd like to add here that, and I know I don't speak for everyone here, I personally would like some configuration widgets built into the launcher - or at the very least, seeming as though they are and located on Nand with it. Most notably,

- Ability to configure file types from within the launcher. Just try and run something that isn't an executable, and then the launcher passes it to a selected proggy, be it emu, movie, or music player. Ideally allow you to configure this from inside a "system" menu or summut.
- Overclock selection
- Battery light config (assuming this *should* even be in the launcher)
- A console. It just strikes me that a seamless one of these would make the whole thing *feel* more like Linux as opposed to a sugar-coated Linux-in-the-background thing. Might need a virtual keyboard as well.

Otherwise, I like both proposed designs; I'd *prefer* the slide one, though I can understand all of Dave's points. But that's just me. Ideal, of course, would be fully configurable, but only if it can be done without costing too much in terms of loading time (2 seconds tops, I think)

 

[Hanz™]

- A console. It just strikes me that a seamless one of these would make the whole thing *feel* more like Linux as opposed to a sugar-coated Linux-in-the-background thing. Might need a virtual keyboard as well.

I like that idea. Just seems so senseless to underuse linux so much when it is running in the background all of the time.

 

[craigix]

So, is anyone working on making something based on the design? As i'm thinking of having a go myself, but I don't want to get to work only to be duplicating someone elses work.

 

[devestation]

I would like an option to adjust the backlight brightness in the new menu.

Edit: to continue with the person who suggested taking a hint from XBMC, those pics you showed were old and did not bring out the magnificence of XBMC. Here are some newer pics I took.

If you don't like that, UnleashX is another popular dashboard with it's own interface style.

 

[theoddbot]

Has anyone looked at freevo for inspiration. It works very well on a TV at least.

http://freevo.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

 

[Hanz™]

So, is anyone working on making something based on the design? As i'm thinking of having a go myself, but I don't want to get to work only to be duplicating someone elses work.

​

I think there are a few people in the dev channel who are having a go at making something. I presume parag0n is still interested.

 

[craigix]

I'm going to have a go anyway and see what I come up with, probably going to be working with daveCs design but with a dir text list switch.

 

[PSyMastR]

lol, and I spent the last 3 hours making a skin for the 1.4 interface

 

[jislizard]

Xbox Media Centre is a nice system for sure, I run most of my emus/music/vids on it but it still takes a while to scroll through all the lists of ROMs, though it should be quicker on a 1gb SD card than it is on a 250gb hard drive. I've got them all in folders as well to make it a bit quicker, alphabeticaly sorted, but it adds more clicks to get to the one you want. Most of the emus on the xbox have a favorites folder for speedy access to my favorite Roms.

Nice pics devestation, are they screen shots? if so how did you take them? I started to read a tutorial on one method but it got a bit heavy, it is easy enough to capture the sound and video output through my Archos but I've not found a way of taking a snapshot.

Just a quick question about clicking on a ROM and having it open up in the emulator, and sorry if it has been answered already in this thread, if you have several Roms from different consoles and they are all in zipped format would that confuse the system or could it take a peek inside the zipped file before deciding what to use to open it?

I don't have a problem with the Interface we have at the moment, now we can move up and down not just left and right it is much better but I will be looking forward to trying the new ones out, just there is no rush is there? we need evolution not revolution!

 

[Tobriand]

Just thought of another nice little feature that would be useful to implement, namely you add a directory called "docs" to the root, where readmes get put. Name the readme the same as a given program with .txt on the end, and then have it set such that pressing, say, select displays help-text (i.e. the readme) for whichever program is selected.

Could also be used to display the information that some see as redundant, possibly alongside a picture of the proggy. Yes, it'd be redundant as a constant display, but it could be useful for reminding yourself of what something is after a long absence or, e.g., after a competition.

 

[Hanz™]

Just thought of another nice little feature that would be useful to implement, namely you add a directory called "docs" to the root, where readmes get put. Name the readme the same as a given program with .txt on the end, and then have it set such that pressing, say, select displays help-text (i.e. the readme) for whichever program is selected.

Could also be used to display the information that some see as redundant, possibly alongside a picture of the proggy. Yes, it'd be redundant as a constant display, but it could be useful for reminding yourself of what something is after a long absence or, e.g., after a competition.

​

Yeah, I thought perhaps the main panel could be used for that, it would be quite useful I think. Or not. Leave it up to the user.

 

[Tobriand]

Personally, I'd like that, but I can see where Dave's coming from in terms of getting stuff done fast and it being redundant after a bit. But if it's only displayed on a specific button press, then I don't see why it couldn't be done

 

[craigix]

How about the first 4 lines of a readme.txt are displayed transparantly over the bottom of the screen if the file exists in a dir?

This way a readme can contain a short summany in the first 4 lines, and it won't take up too much space, as usually the very bottom of the screen will be empty. Once the pointer is moved into the 'Main' files window the text can fade out.

 

[rokdcasbah]

i like the idea of hitting a button (perhaps select) and having the info come up...be it in a readme or whatever. then press again to hide. but craigix's idea sounds pretty svelte.

 

[DaveC]

How about the first 4 lines of a readme.txt are displayed transparantly over the bottom of the screen if the file exists in a dir?

This way a readme can contain a short summany in the first 4 lines, and it won't take up too much space, as usually the very bottom of the screen will be empty. Once the pointer is moved into the 'Main' files window the text can fade out.

​

As long as it doesn't mean less icons can be displayed.

Is this really useful though? You could read the whole thing in a text reader. How often do you need to read the readme in the actual interface?

This thing can start getting bloated if it suffers from featuritis. Lean and mean in my opinion. K.I.S.S. rule.

Maybe these extra features could be added as modules or something? So someone could do a lean install that will be faster and smaller and others that want all of the bells and whistles could do a full install?

 

[rokdcasbah]

well it kind of makes me think of the minigames in mario party...ok sort of a bad analogy but there's another place where you find yourself needing to know the controls to a bunch of different games

of course as davec is saying there'd probably be enough power users who'd wanna disable it to save real estate.