Modern8 Metro Media Center Theme

Shackleford

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#21

Post by Shackleford » Tue Feb 18, 2014 6:51 pm

I'm liking this theme, thank you kindly for sharing. I do have 1 question. When you press 411 info to get to the debug screen both the background and text are light and its very difficult to read. How can I change the color of either so its easier to read? Preferably just the background as I prefer white text to keep with the theme.

NeoM

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#22

Post by NeoM » Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:24 pm

Where do you press 411 and what does the debug do exactly? I haven't come across this setting before.

Shackleford

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#23

Post by Shackleford » Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:38 pm

NeoM wrote:Where do you press 411 and what does the debug do exactly? I haven't come across this setting before.
You press 411 info on a remote or 411 CTRL-D on the keyboard. It gives you debug info on your tuners, codecs etc.

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#24

Post by NeoM » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:47 am

-Open COLOURS.mcl in C:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer\Modern8\Shell\ with notepad
-Find the line <Color Name="DenialDebugBackground" Color="200, 255, 255, 255" /> (it's in the bottom half)
-And change every 255 in this line to 0 (this will make the background black)
-Save and relaunch Media Center

I'm not sure if this will affect anything else but it does improve the readability significantly for the debug table

Also, the first number (200) is the alpha value (transparency). You can change that to any value between 0 and 255 where 0 is fully transparent and 255 has no transparency

Cheers

Shackleford

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#25

Post by Shackleford » Thu Feb 20, 2014 2:48 pm

Excellent, thank you.

pungo

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#26

Post by pungo » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:23 am

I noticed that when playing a recorded show, using comskip, between commercial skip transitions, the backdrop will flash up on the screen very quickly, I never noticed that without the themer. The backdrop only flashes up for a fraction of a second, but it's kinda annoying. I'm using the stock Modern8 Metro settings. How anyone else noticed this?

NeoM

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#27

Post by NeoM » Fri Feb 28, 2014 1:34 pm

If you open up the MCTDefault.xml with notepad and find "ALLBACKGROUNDS.JPG" you should be able to find five entries which have been reassigned to use this background image.

Through trial and error, you can try selectively deleting each entry, saving and then restart MC to see which entry will cause the background image flash up - but of course, if you were to remove the entry causing the background to flash up, I would expect that this would affect the background somewhere else.

Educated guess: first I would try removing:

<Resource Id="TV.COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG">
<Replace File="Modern8\Images\ALLBACKGROUNDS.JPG"/>
</Resource>

And see if that's responsible

Cheers

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#28

Post by pungo » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:39 am

NeoM wrote:If you open up the MCTDefault.xml with notepad and find "ALLBACKGROUNDS.JPG" you should be able to find five entries which have been reassigned to use this background image.

Through trial and error, you can try selectively deleting each entry, saving and then restart MC to see which entry will cause the background image flash up - but of course, if you were to remove the entry causing the background to flash up, I would expect that this would affect the background somewhere else.

Educated guess: first I would try removing:

<Resource Id="TV.COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG">
<Replace File="Modern8\Images\ALLBACKGROUNDS.JPG"/>
</Resource>

And see if that's responsible

Cheers
That did it, no more flashing background during commercial skip transitions. Thanks...

pungo

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#29

Post by pungo » Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:49 am

I'm liking this theme, thought I'm having trouble determining which item is selected in the menus. I'm using white text and when navigating the menus, the selected white text turns bold and is a little hard to tell from 10' away that it is bold. Is it possible to change the selected menu item to be a different color than the non-selected item? If so could someone point to what I would need to change?

3rob3

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#30

Post by 3rob3 » Sat Mar 01, 2014 1:27 am

Love this theme but I agree.....It's hard to see selected text.

NeoM

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#31

Post by NeoM » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:58 am

The first line in MCTDefault.xml:
<Color Name="OffWhite" Color="255, 255, 255, 255" />
Changing this will change the focus colour for most menus - the other option is to use one of the 'greyer' text colours and change this line to white

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TheOsburnFamil

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#32

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:31 pm

I gotta say, I'm really impressed with this. It was just the refresh I needed as we head into the spring (albeit through the dreaded "polar vortex"). And I don't even have to reload media center to feel refreshed! LOL :thumbup:
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

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#33

Post by 3rob3 » Sat Mar 01, 2014 11:08 pm

I know. It really does give it a fresh, updated feeling. Standard Media Center looks strange for me now.

This, Media Browser 3, and the Amazon Instant plugin have really given my Media Center a new lease on life.

NeoM

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#34

Post by NeoM » Sun Mar 02, 2014 1:10 am

Thanks! Glad you guys like it :)

I've posted Modern8 v1.2.1 on the other forum, it's basically the same as v1.2 except it includes fixes to the issues that have been discussed here.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rmq39 ... _1.2.1.zip

Cheers :)

[Moderator note: download link added]

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Cyterio

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#35

Post by Cyterio » Sun Mar 02, 2014 2:43 pm

I'm completely addicted to this theme, thanks again. I find myself continuously playing with theme, customizing it, trying different mixes between the original media center theme and this Modern8 theme. I love the fact also that if I mess it up, its completely safe and easy to restore.

On a side note, anyone looking for an easy program (free) to create .png images, I've been using pixlr.com. You can't really use it to edit .png files because they open as a single layer but its very easy to create new ones.

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Cyterio

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#36

Post by Cyterio » Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:42 pm

Will using another program such as Media Center Studio along side Media Center Themer cause issues? I only ask because Media Center Studio makes it stupidly simple to re-organize and rename the start menu rows and programs.

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Scallica

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#37

Post by Scallica » Sun Mar 02, 2014 8:07 pm

One of the nicest looking themes ever. I figured out how to apply the theme using Media Center Themer Tools. Rename the MCTdefault.xml to Modern8.xml before copying everything to C:\ProgramData\Media Center Themer. Then the theme will appear in the list.
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NeoM

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#38

Post by NeoM » Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:01 pm

Cyterio:
I wouldn't know for sure, since I'm using Windows 8 and Media Center Themer is incompatible with Win8 - but I wouldn't think there should be a problem, so long as you don't reorder the menus with MCTDefault.xml

Scallica:
Glad you got it to work (:

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TheOsburnFamil

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#39

Post by TheOsburnFamil » Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:37 pm

I love this theme so much I just donated (using wife's PayPal). Not much cuz I'm a cheap arse... but enough to buy the man a beer at least. I've created a couple themes in my day and appreciate the time it takes just to tweak the .png's let alone the xml so when I find one that is this complete and I REALLY love it-- it's worth at least getting the man a beer.

Thanks again for your efforts bud!
Matt O. ...tivo what? ...dish dvr--uh... huh? ...cable dvr fees--you're kidding, right?

NeoM

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#40

Post by NeoM » Sun Mar 02, 2014 11:53 pm

Thankyou very much, to all the Osburn Family! :D

No donation is too small; this theme has been hobby of mine for a while and I've enjoyed sharing it with others.
I promise to get myself a nice drink next time I'm out and about :)

Cheers

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