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"nOpacity" is a highly customizable native true color skin for the Video Disc Recorder

Content
  1. Requirements
  2. Screenshots
  3. Installation
  4. Usage
  5. Themes, Theme types, Theme specific Configurations and Icons
  6. Image Caching
  7. Customizing, Skin Setup Options

1. Requirements

  • Clone Git Repository: 
    git clone git://projects.vdr-developer.org/skin-nopacity.git
  • VDR version >= 1.7.34 needed
  • Installed ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick for displaying png/jpg Icons, Channel Logos
    and EPG Images
  • for scaling the video picture to fit into the VDR menu window please use
    softhddevice plugin revision 87c1c7be (2013-01-01) or newer.
  • epgsearch Git since commit ba7c6277 (2013-01-03) to correctly replace the schedules
    menu with epgsearch

2. Screenshots

Main Menu (default theme):

EPG What's On (default theme):

Channel Display (default theme and activated TVScraper Plugin):

Detailed EPG View (theme dark red and activated TVScraper Plugin):

Find more Screenshots and the end of the Wiki.

3. Installation

After "normal" Plugin installation you have to care about the paths for the
used Icons, the channel logos and epg images. The following paths can be set
at startup:

-i path, --iconpath=path
    Path to the icons (Default: <ResourceDirectory>/plugins/skinnopacity/icons/)

-l path, --logopath=path
    Path to the logos (Default: <ResourceDirectory>/plugins/skinnopacity/logos/)

-e path, --epgimages=path
    Path to the epgimages (Default: <CacheDirectory>/plugins/skinnopacity/epgimages/)

ResourceDirectory and CacheDirectory are taken from your VDR configuration (make.config
or vdr.pc).

During a "make install" the Icons are automatically copied from <SkinSourceDirectory>/icons/
to the default path. Included Theme files are also copied from <SkinSourceDirectory>/themes/
to <ConfigDirectory>/themes/

I recommend to use channel logos from https://github.com/3PO/Senderlogos
To download them just change in the directory you want to place the logos
and do a:

git clone https://github.com/3PO/Senderlogos.git logos

An update of the logos can then be done with a "git pull" just inside this
directory.

If directories for channel logos, icons or epg images are set via startup
parameters, images are searched first in these directories. If the image
is not available, an additional search in the according default directory
will be performed.
With this it is possible to use user images and images provided by a
package maintainer or distributor in parallel.

For S2-6400 Users: Disable High Level OSD, otherwise the plugin will not be
loaded because lack of true color support

For Xine-Plugin Users: Set "Blend scaled Auto" as OSD display mode to achieve
an suitable true color OSD.

For Xineliboutput Users: Start vdr-sxfe with the --hud option enabled

4. Usage

After installation first activate then skin in the VDR OSD menu. nOpacity scales to
every screen resolution, but in lower resolutions than 1920 * 1080 it may be necessary
to change some default settings for dimensions and font sizes to achieve the best result
(see "setup options" below). In the folder "screenResSetup" in the plugin source directory
exemplarily setup options for SD and HDReady resolutions are provided.

nOpacity respects the OSD settings for OSD top, left, width and height. If these values
are not set to top&left: 0, width&height: 100, you'll get a border around every displayed
skin element. Additionally you are able to configure an individual border for almost every
displayed skin element (channel switching, recordings, volume, audio tracks) in the
skin setup. Only the menu uses the full screen if not configured differently in the
OSD settings.

As already mentioned, font sizes are customizable via the skins setup menu. The skin
calculates the font sizes for the used screen resolution individually. The value
for the different font sizes in the setup options is always the delta to the calculated
(default) values. If you set a value for a font size of -2 for instance, the default
font size is decreased by 2, analogue the font size will be increased by setting a
positive value.

As described in "installation", you should use a special channel logo pack with transparent
channel logos. In this logo pack all files are named only with lower case letters.
nOpacity uses the channel name CONVERTED TO LOWER CASE LETTERS to search for an
appropriate channel logo. With this, approximately 90% of the channel logos should work
immediately after placing the channel logos in the correct place. So if you have to change
the name of a channel logo (may be by inserting a space or a hyphen) so that it fits to
the channel name, only use lower case letters, and not the name of the channel with upper
and lower letters as displayed inside VDR.
If no logo is found for the channel name, additionally a search for a logo named as the
ChannelID is performed. Analog to the channel name the ChannelID is also converted to lower
case letters. This allows channel logos for channels with changing names (for instance
Sky Feed Channels).
Additional hint: some channels have slashes in their name (in germany nick/comedy for instance).
In this example, as a dirty hack just create a folder in your channel logo directory named
"nick" and place an image named "comedy.png" inside this folder.

In the folder "logoconverter" a script and some backgrounds are provided to create logos
with fancy backgrounds from the transparent logos. Before running the script, just adapt the
config variables in the header of the script according to your needs. If you place the newly
created logos in a subfolder of your logo directory named exactly as the used Theme name,
nOpacity uses these logos only for the appropriate theme automatically.

Here some examples for channel logos with background for the different themes:

5. Themes, Theme types, Theme specific Configurations and Icons

nOpacity is fully themable with different "theme types". Examples for theme files with all
possible color settings are included in <SkinSourceDirectory>/themes/. As already mentioned
these themes are automatically copied during a "make install" into the VDR themes directory
and can be choosed in VDRs OSD setup menu.

The following skin characteristics are theme dependend:
  • theme default configuration
  • theme configuration
  • theme colors
  • graphical skin elements (for "graphical" themes, see below)
  • theme icons and images

5.1 Theme types:

nOpacity supports three different theme types named "flat", "blending" and "graphical". This
type can be set with the config option "displayType" (flat: displayType = 0, blending:
displayType = 1, graphical: displayType = 2) which has to be provided via the theme specific
configuration file (see below). If this value is not provided by the theme designer, the default
value "blending" is used.

flat style: "basic" skin type with almost no effects, areas are just filled with plain colors
blended style: skin elemements like menu items are drawn with a main and a blended color which
are provided via the color theme file, skin elements are drawn with a blended effect.
graphical style: almost all skin elements are drawn by using dedicated PNG images. These PNGs
have to be placed in the <themename>/skinElements/ icon directory. See the default theme for
examples for this style and the used images.

5.2 Theme specific configuration:

On the one hand it is possible for the theme designer to provide a dedicated default
config for every theme. This theme configuration has to be named "theme-<themename>.conf" and
has to be placed in <VDRConfigDir>/plugins/skinnopacity/themeconfigs. As already mentioned all
theme configs which are available in the skin source directory <SkinSourceDirectory>/conf/ are
copied automatically to the destination directory with a "make install". The syntax for this
theme configuration file is just straight forward a "configoption = value" per line. The possible
configuration options and the default values can be checked in the file config.c in the function
cNopacityConfig::LoadDefaults(void).

On the other hand, all configuration changes done by the user are only valid for the currently
choosen theme. That means that every theme has it's individual configuration. If the theme is
changed via the VDR Setup/OSD Menu, the configuration for this theme is loaded in the following way:

- first the general default settings from cNopacityConfig::LoadDefaults() are used
- after that the settings from the theme config file (if available) are looked up, every available
config option in this file replaces the default config option
- after that the settings the user has individually customized are used and replace the corresponding
default settings

5.3 Theme specific icons and images:

Icons and images are first looked up in <IconPath>/<ThemeName>/. If there is no appropriate
icon found, <IconPath>/ is used. With that it is possible to use specific icons for every
different theme.

Two types of icons are used:
  • statically named icons for standard main and setup menu entries, recording folders,
    active timers and other menu decorations.
  • icons for plugins with a main menu entry: if a plugin has a main menu entry, the icon
    has to be named as the plugin name so that the appropriate icon will be shown in the
    main menu.

Find more fancy icons at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sps0g2ykt81ic87/hqxlXB84jT/nopacity
(Thanks @BooStar from VDR Portal for creating these aditional icons)

6. Image Caching

nOpacity uses an image cache to achieve best performance also on systems with low performance.
The image cache loads all necessary images (icons, skin elements, channel logos) at startup and
also after a change in screen resolution or leaving the nOpacity setup menu. Depending on the
system hardware and the configured number of channel logos to cache (see below) this cache reload
can need some seconds.

In the plugin setup menu in the submenu "image caching" it is possible to configure the number of
channel logos to be cached at startup and the maximum number of channel logos to cache. Channel logos
are always cached in the order the channels appear in your channels.conf file. If you configure for
example to cache 50 logos and you set the maximum number of logos to 100, the logos for the first 50
channels in your channels.conf are cached at startup. If logos from channels 51 - 100 are needed,
the image is created once, all further requests for that logo are fulfilled by the cache. Logos for
channels > 100 are not cached and are always created from the source PNGs on your storage medium.

In the "image cache" setup sub menu the current cache usage for the different types of images and the
memory used is displayed as additional information.

7. Customizing, Skin Setup Options

General Options (only non self-explanatory options are described)

  • Font: Used Font, all Fonts installed on your system are shown

VDR menu: Common Settings:

  • Create Log Messages for image loading: show log message for each image loading process. Usefull
    for debugging, but causes many log entries
  • Number of Default Menu Entries: Number of menu items for the default menu view.
  • Adjust Font Size - Default Menu Item
  • Adjustment of narrow menus: the narrow menus (main, schedules, channels, timers,
    setup) can either be adjusted left or right.
  • Scale Video size to fit into menu window: no / yes / auto: with "auto" the video window is resized
    when the detailed EPG Window is displayed in Schedules and Recordings menu to be completely visible.
  • Header Height (% of OSD Height): Default: 7%
  • Header Icon Size (Square Header Menu Icons)
  • Footer Height (% of OSD Height): Default: 7%
  • Rounded Corners for menu items and buttons
    • Radius of rounded corners: if rounded corners are used, radius in px.
  • Use Channel Logo background: display theme specific background (clrMenuChannelLogoBack) for channel
    logos in menus what's on now / next, channels, timers
  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading): Default 0, active fading
    for main menu caused sometimes trouble in some special setups. Activate on
    own risk ;)
  • Menu Items Scroll Style: "Carriage Return" after scrolling is complete, or "Forward and Back again"
  • Menu Items Scrolling Speed
  • Menu Items Scrolling Delay in s: period which menu element has to be selected
    till scrolling starts
  • Adjust Font Size - Header
  • Adjust Font Size - Date
  • Adjust Font Size - Color Buttons: Font for color buttons
  • Adjust Font Size - Messages
  • Adjust Font Size - Detail View Text: Font for detailed EPG & recordings view text
  • Adjust Font Size - Detail View Header: Font for Header date/time and short text
  • Adjust Font Size - Detail View Header Large: Font for detailed EPG & recordings
    view title

VDR Menu: Main and Setup Menu

  • Use narrow main menu: display main menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Use narrow setup menu: display setup menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Number of entires per page: number of menu items shown per screen
  • Use menu icons: yes/no
  • Main menu title style: way how VDR version in menu header is displayed:
    "VDR" plus VDR version, only VDR version, no title
  • Display Disk Usage: Display Disk Usage in Main Menu
    • Size (square, Percent of OSD Width)
    • Free Disc Display: free time in hours (estimated) or free disc space in GB
    • Adjust Font Size - free
    • Adjust Font Size - percent
  • Display Timers: Display active Timers in Main Menu: "yes", "small without channel
    logos", "no"
    • Maximum number of timers to show in main menu
    • Width of Timers (% of OSD Width)
    • Width of channel logos (% of timers width)
    • Adjust Font Size - Header
    • Adjust Font Size - Title
  • Show Timer Conflicts
  • Header Logo Width / Height: Header Logo is scaled to fit into the header, these
    values are used for correct scaling
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Items

VDR Menu: Schedules Menu

  • Use narrow menu: display menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Number of entires per page
  • Mode of EPG Window: "small window" with settings for fade in and scroll speed / delay
    or "full screen"
  • EPG Window Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading)
  • EPG Window Display Delay in s: period which schedules menu element has to be
    selected till fade in of epg window starts
  • EPG Window Scroll Delay in s: period which epg window has to be opened till
    window text starts to scroll
  • Height of EPG Info Window (Percent of OSD Height): Height of text window which
    is shown for schedules menu elements
  • Border around detailed EPG view: border to be displayed in detailed EPG view
  • Display Reruns in detailed EPG View: via epgsearch service
    • Number of reruns to display: Default 5
    • Use Subtitle for reruns
  • Display additional EPG Pictures in detailed EPG View: if set to yes, additional
    EPG pictures will be shown at the end of the detailed EPG view. The pictures have
    to be named as eventid_number.jpg with number from 1 to 9.
    • Number of EPG pictures to display
  • Detail EPG View EPG Image Width: Default 210px
  • Detail EPG View EPG Image Height: Default 160px
  • Detail EPG View additional EPG Image Width: Default: 525 px
  • Detail EPG View additional EPG Image Height: Default: 400 px
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item Small
  • Adjust Font Size - EPG Info Window
  • Adjust Font Size - EPG Info Window Header

VDR Menu: Channels Menu

  • Use narrow menu: display menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Menu Items display mode: Transponder Information / Current Schedule / None
    • If "Current Schedule": Schedules with time information
  • Number of EPG Entries in Schedules Info Window
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item Small

VDR Menu: Timers Menu

  • Use narrow menu: display menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item Small

VDR Menu: Recordings Menu

  • Use narrow menu: display menu in narrow or standard style
    • Width (Percent of OSD Width): if displayed narrow, width of this menu
  • Number of entires per page
  • Mode of recording Window: window / full screen
  • Border around detailed recording view: analogue to "detailed EPG Info"
  • Display additional EPG Pictures in detailed recording View: if set to yes, additional
    pictures will be shown at the end of the detailed recording view. All jpegs in the
    recording directory will be used.
    • Number of EPG pictures to display
  • Use folder poster if available: use folder poster provided by tvscraper
  • Width / Height of manually set recording poster: used for correct scaling
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item
  • Adjust Font Size - Menu Item Small

Channel Switching:

  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading): Default 300ms
  • Height of Channel Display (% of OSD Height): Default 25%
  • Left & Right Border Width: Default 15px
  • Bottom Border Height: Default 15px
  • Background Transparency in Percent: for graphical themes, sets transparency of background
  • Background Style: only for non graphical themes, transparent logo background or not
  • Channel Logo Position: left / right / do not display. If set to "do not display",
    the whole screen width is used for channel display.
    • Channel Logo original Width: Default 260px (used for correct scaling)
    • Channel Logo original Height: Default 200px (used for correct scaling)
    • Use Channel Logo background: use theme specific image (skinElements/channellogoback.png)
      as backgrond image for channel logos
  • Kind of time display for current schedule: elapsed or remaining time
  • Display Source Information: display Channel Source Information (used Satelite)
  • Display Signal Strength & Quality: Set this to Zero if you want to disable the
    display of signal strength & quality (for instance if your dvb drivers does not
    deliver this values)
  • Display Poster or Fanart from TVScraper
    • Border in px around poster / fanart
  • Display previous and next Channel Group
  • Adjust Font Size - Header: Font for Channel / Channelgroup Name
  • Adjust Font Size - Date
  • Adjust Font Size - EPG Text
  • Adjust Font Size - EPG Infotext
  • Adjust Font Size - Channel Source Info
  • Adjust Font Size - Channel Group
  • Adjust Font Size - Next/Prev Channel Group

Replay:

  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading)
  • Height of Replay Display (% of OSD Height)
  • Left & Right Border Width
  • Bottom Border Height
  • Adjust Font Size - Header
  • Adjust Font Size - Text

Audio Tracks:

  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading)
  • Width of Tracks Display (% of OSD Height)
  • Height of Tracks Display (% of OSD Height)
  • Position (0: bot. center, 1: bot. left, ... , 7: bot. right): The following
    positions are possible, starting at bottom middle:
    0: bottom center
    1: bottom left
    2: middle left
    3: top left
    4: top middle
    5: top right
    6: middle right
    7: bottom right
  • Border Top / Bottom
  • Border Left / Right
  • Adjust Font Size - Header
  • Adjust Font Size - Buttons

Messages:

  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading): Default 300ms
  • Width of Message Display (% of OSD Height): Default 90%
  • Height of Message Display (% of OSD Height): Default 10%
  • Bottom Border Height: Default 10px
    Remark: with different sizes and a large value for the bottom border height you
    are able to achieve a positioning for the messages box analogue to the positioning
    of the audio tracks display.
  • Adjust Font Size

Volume Display:

  • Fade-In Time in ms (Zero for switching off fading): Default 300ms
  • Width of Volume Display (% of OSD Height): Default 40%
  • Height of Volume Display (% of OSD Height): Default 10%
  • Bottom Border Height: Default 10px
    Remark: the volume display is always positioned in the center of the screen,
    with bottom border it can be moved to the top.
  • Adjust Font Size

Legal Remark: some of the menu icons used in this skin are from http://icons8.com/
Thanks @icons8.com for provide these icons for free.