This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR). Written by: Sascha Volkenandt Project's homepage: http://linux.kompiliert.net/index.php?view=text2skin Latest version available at: http://projects.vdr-developer.org/projects/show/plg-text2skin See the file COPYING for license information. Description: ------------ This plugin is designed to load and interpret a set of files describing the layout of the On Screen Display and to make this "Skin" available to VDR via Setup -> OSD in the main menu. Of course it is possible to load more than one text-based skin this way and to choose between them while running VDR. All skins may be themeable (you can create your own color-theme) and translateable as the author of the skin wishes. Prerequisites: -------------- For loading images in format other than simple XPM, you will need an image library. You can choose between two supported libraries, ImageMagick or Imlib2, from which the first one is the default. You can specify which library to use (if any) in the first few lines of the Makefile. Here is an overview of the advantages and drawbacks of each solution: No library - you can only load XPM files - XPMs don't support partial transparency / alpha channels ImageMagick + you can load many different image types including animations Imlib2 + you can load many different image types - CRASHES WHEN USED TOGETHER WITH THE GRAPHTFT-PLUGIN! Using both libraries at the same time doesn't make sense anyway. HINT: Although the manual of ImageMagick claims that the used library Magick++ is part of the source distribution, some binary distributions may have to install Magick++ separately. Some skins may use True Type Fonts, which requires the FreeType package to be installed. If you don't want to use FreeType font rendering, you may disable that in the Makefile, too. Installation: ------------- Install text2skin like any other plugin. In this example I assume that you have changed to the folder where the VDR sourcecode is located, and that it is version 0.0.1 of the plugin you wish to install. During the build process, there will be generated two files called SKINS and SKINS.de, the skin format documentation. root@linux # cd PLUGINS/src root@linux # wget http://www.magoa.net/linux/contrib/vdr-text2skin-1.0.tgz root@linux # tar -xfz vdr-text2skin-1.0.tgz root@linux # cd ../.. root@linux # make plugins root@linux # ./vdr -P text2skin There are several patches included, which can be applied to VDR, but all of them are considered optional. vdr-1.3.17-dvbplayer-buttons.diff - demonstration on how to use the colorbuttons in replay mode (no skin makes use of that so far) vdr-1.3.17-osdbase-maxitems.diff - allows dynamic height menu lists, i.e. when some part of the list is overpainted with a special message Where to put the skins: ----------------------- As you might know, VDR has a subfolder "plugins" inside it's configuration folder, where all plugin-related files should reside. If you don't know, where this could be, look into the folder you gave to VDR with the -v parameter (or the -c parameter, if that was given). "plugins" should be inside that folder. Inside that "plugins" folder, create a subfolder called "text2skin". Inside "text2skin", create one folder for each skin. These skin-folders must have the same names as the skins residing in them. Each skin must at least have a file carrying the same name, but ending in ".skin". Example (the Skin is called myskin): /video0/plugins/text2skin/ /video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/ /video0/plugins/text2skin/msykin/msykin.skin /video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/channeldisplay.png The other files inside the skin-folder are additional description files (for Themeing and Translation), images, logos and symbols. If you download a skin, you usually just change to plugins/text2skin and unpack it there. Where to put the fonts: ----------------------- Font files (.ttf) can be placed either in the directory of the skin itself or in a subfolder fonts inside the text2skin directory. Example: /video0/plugins/text2skin/fonts/arial.ttf /video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/arial.ttf