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Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:45 pm
by W10MC
dugepg793 wrote: Fri Oct 12, 2018 5:54 pm Question: What's the expected turn around time for getting an activation key?
You should have received an email with the activation code shortly after sending your contribution. It may have been flagged as junk.

I just sent you a PM with the code.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:31 pm
by dugepg793
Hi Mike, Thanks.
Also let me double down on the expression of how great of a product you've produced. It really is spectacular. I was so impressed that I think it was less than an hour after installing it that I went to contribute. Between what epg123 Gary did and this, WMC has completely revitalized for quite a while. I'm very impressed at your attention to the details and the way that the overall design is so consistent. Very much like the recent channels list. Everything is very well done.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:45 pm
by W10MC
dugepg793 wrote: Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:31 pm Hi Mike, Thanks.
Also let me double down on the expression of how great of a product you've produced. It really is spectacular. I was so impressed that I think it was less than an hour after installing it that I went to contribute. Between what epg123 Gary did and this, WMC has completely revitalized for quite a while. I'm very impressed at your attention to the details and the way that the overall design is so consistent. Very much like the recent channels list. Everything is very well done.
Thank you for the positive feedback. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it!

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:10 pm
by aquadextrous
Been using this for over a month now and still loving it.

Just a tweak I noticed - when watching tv pressing info brings up a bar - some of the headings are capitalised and some not. Looks like: “ information Details Aspect Language interactive”

Also. Not sure if a question for MMUI+ or EPG123... there’s an option to see localised movie ratings but when selected I still get USA ratings. I can’t see any options on epg123 to change to British. Is there anything I’m missing?

Thank you

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:09 pm
by W10MC
aquadextrous wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:10 pm when watching tv pressing info brings up a bar - some of the headings are capitalised and some not.
Are you using Media Center Themer to set custom strings for these titles?
aquadextrous wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:10 pm there’s an option to see localised movie ratings but when selected I still get USA ratings. I can’t see any options on epg123 to change to British.
In EPG123, the option "Create UI+ support file" must be enabled for ratings to work. Then, if ratings for your region are available for the selected program, they will appear only in the fullscreen program info, not in the guide views or the info bar.

Gary might be able to provide more details on the ratings implementation in EPG123.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:45 pm
by garyan2
I duplicated the problem here last night. I could never get it to show anything other than the MPAA ratings for movies and never a different region. I did check the json file and entries for "British Board of Film Classification" and/or country codes of "GBR" were there, so I don't know where this is failing. I'm pretty sure there is nothing EPG123 could help with.

I did notice that UI+ doesn't show both a TV rating and a movie rating at the same time... default WMC does. I'm assuming that the presence of a TV rating overrides any MPAA rating in the program (which makes sense)?

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:24 pm
by aquadextrous
W10MC wrote: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:09 pm
aquadextrous wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:10 pm when watching tv pressing info brings up a bar - some of the headings are capitalised and some not.
Are you using Media Center Themer to set custom strings for these titles?
Yes! My apologies. I found the string in MCT and changed it - i hadn't considered that!

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:39 pm
by aquadextrous
garyan2 wrote: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:45 pm I duplicated the problem here last night. I could never get it to show anything other than the MPAA ratings for movies and never a different region. I did check the json file and entries for "British Board of Film Classification" and/or country codes of "GBR" were there, so I don't know where this is failing. I'm pretty sure there is nothing EPG123 could help with.

I did notice that UI+ doesn't show both a TV rating and a movie rating at the same time... default WMC does. I'm assuming that the presence of a TV rating overrides any MPAA rating in the program (which makes sense)?
I'm not sure if it's important but UK TV programmes arent rated like US ones are - so for any UK TV shows there would be no rating included in the data, just films have a rating for age guidance.

As a bit of a fix i have just renamed the image files in the MMUI+ images folder so the UK ratings images have the names of the US equivalents. It's not perfect, but its a work around for having the correct UK ratings images.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 4:34 pm
by garyan2
Actually, WMC natively supports UK TV ratings "UC", "U", "PG", "12", "15", "18", and "R18". EPG123 looks for the rating from either "UK Content Provider" or "British Board of Film Classification" in the data from Schedules Direct to assign the appropriate TV rating. The MPAA rating for movies in WMC is the US ratings only.

I think @W10MC will be able to describe how UI+ overrides the MPAA rating to show the localised value.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 7:05 pm
by garyan2
I had to refresh my memory a bit. The TV rating is determined by the broadcasting network; for the US you could have a 'R' rated movie but it is edited for TV to be a 'TV-PG' TV rating. None of the broadcasting networks from UK identify TV ratings that I have seen coming from Schedules Direct (France and Germany do).

For programs, the data from Schedules Direct covers all kinds of rating bodies to include "UK Content Provider" and "British Board of Film Classification", but there is no mechanism in the WMC database to assign any other rating to the program other than the MPAA rating which is strictly USA. This is where UI+ steps in with that setting and uses the UI+ support file created by EPG123 with all those rating bodies for each program to provide you with localized ratings.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:22 pm
by Dean
aquadextrous wrote: Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:32 pm Thank you for creating something new for WMC.

I have a few bits of feedback though:

Watermark - I'd love to spend some time to get to see if the software passes the family acceptance factor before spending £15 - however due to there being a watermark displayed on all video screens before paying, that's not going to happen. The website makes it sound like some features are free then you unlock extra features with donating. However as the watermark makes any viewing of videos or TV impossible without seeing it then you should probably mention this somewhere. Perhaps a watermark free trial before it appears?
I tried this app but had to remove it straight away as it needs to have the Mrs agree to it before it goes on... Can't really test it with her with the watermark.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:42 pm
by aquadextrous
garyan2 wrote: Sun Oct 21, 2018 7:05 pm I had to refresh my memory a bit. The TV rating is determined by the broadcasting network; for the US you could have a 'R' rated movie but it is edited for TV to be a 'TV-PG' TV rating. None of the broadcasting networks from UK identify TV ratings that I have seen coming from Schedules Direct (France and Germany do).

For programs, the data from Schedules Direct covers all kinds of rating bodies to include "UK Content Provider" and "British Board of Film Classification", but there is no mechanism in the WMC database to assign any other rating to the program other than the MPAA rating which is strictly USA. This is where UI+ steps in with that setting and uses the UI+ support file created by EPG123 with all those rating bodies for each program to provide you with localized ratings.
I don’t think films would be generally edited in this way to change a rating or make it suitable for a certain time of day. As far as I know what ever the BBFC rate a film it stays that way unless they reclassify it. Films can be edited for tv but the rating wouldn’t change. So films broadcast on UK tv would only have a standard rating.
Tv shows are not classified at all for broadcast and only receive an age restriction when being sold on VHS DVD BluRay etc. TV shows are just shown at appropriate times of day based on their content. Broadcasters manage this themselves based on a set of rules and guidelines - and OFCOM (government dept who control tv and communications) tells them off if they get it wrong.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 4:49 pm
by PeteS457
So I have bit the bullet and installed the ModernMediaUI+ - and as feared, having a miserable experience right away. I'm sure there are answers to my problems. Hopefully someone can help me with them in a timely manner. I have installed Build 181004 on top of my Windows 7 HTPC with all Win7 updates installed, running MCT Modern 8 1.3, epg latest build (10/29), and ModernMedia 1.1. TV is LG OLED 4K.

1. It comes up nice with the watermark in lower right hand corner, all the rest of the WMC Start Menu looks the same, including the Modern 8 color scheme, no new menu strips, weather text added to left of date/time upper right corner. The new guide comes up - I'll have to get used to it, but I'm excited about it. I see the Recorded TV program info is enhanced, although I've seen no Rotten Tomatoes info. So far all that's good.....now for the bad stuff....

2. Live TV crashes. I can't play Live TV. What's up?

3. Where's the new strips for Sports and Weather?

4. How do you close WMC with this installed? I see no Minimize/Close Windows icons up top right. If I get back to the desktop and close it with a right-click from the taskbar, I get a black screen for my desktop and I basically have to Task Manger/Log Off and start over. I did just realize I can close it from Tasks/ Power Options/Exit MC and just tried it and that works fine.

5. If I can get these basic things working, I plan to buy an activation code - hopefully later today. Is there any documentation for setting up additional users, recent channels, etc, etc?

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:08 pm
by jachin99
PeteS457 wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 4:49 pm So I have bit the bullet and installed the ModernMediaUI+ - and as feared, having a miserable experience right away. I'm sure there are answers to my problems. Hopefully someone can help me with them in a timely manner. I have installed Build 181004 on top of my Windows 7 HTPC with all Win7 updates installed, running MCT Modern 8 1.3, epg latest build (10/29), and ModernMedia 1.1. TV is LG OLED 4K.

1. It comes up nice with the watermark in lower right hand corner, all the rest of the WMC Start Menu looks the same, including the Modern 8 color scheme, no new menu strips, weather text added to left of date/time upper right corner. The new guide comes up - I'll have to get used to it, but I'm excited about it. I see the Recorded TV program info is enhanced, although I've seen no Rotten Tomatoes info. So far all that's good.....now for the bad stuff....

2. Live TV crashes. I can't play Live TV. What's up?

3. Where's the new strips for Sports and Weather?

4. How do you close WMC with this installed? I see no Minimize/Close Windows icons up top right. If I get back to the desktop and close it with a right-click from the taskbar, I get a black screen for my desktop and I basically have to Task Manger/Log Off and start over. I did just realize I can close it from Tasks/ Power Options/Exit MC and just tried it and that works fine.

5. If I can get these basic things working, I plan to buy an activation code - hopefully later today. Is there any documentation for setting up additional users, recent channels, etc, etc?
I can address some of your problems but I can't be certain this will fix everything. The very first thing you need to do is go to the programdata\Microsoft\ehome folder and rename packages to packages.old. The packages folder was microsoft's way of updating the UI of WMC but the only updates they have pushed for WMC over the last few years have been to remove features. This will at least get you the interests strip on your start menu.

It also seems something is going on with your markup and renaming packages might help with this as well but in case it doesn't, what else do you have installed for WMC? Have you used anything like Media Center Themer, Media Center Studio, or anything like that? I have found a few small problems with MMUI+ like the netflix plugin crashing, and a few others but none of them break live TV. I don't have problems 2, 3, and 4. Renaming packages will likely solve at least problem 2. W10MC can comment on the others.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:35 pm
by PeteS457
jachin99 wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:08 pm
So I have already made some headway - special thanks to the quick reply from jachin99.

1. I just went and cut the Media Center Themer folder in ProgramData and pasted it to the desktop for the time being and logged off and logged back on. I saw immediately that it had been removed from being used as I got the black/white monochrome interface of the MMUI+. And lo and behold, I have Live TV working. That's great. As long as I can watch TV, I can tinker with this more leisurely.

2. Thanks to jachin99, I went and renamed the Packages folder to Packages.old and the Interests strip with Sports and Weather showed up. Pretty cool. I have more questions about the Sports strip later on, but the Weather strip is very nice.

3. Pressing my luck, I pasted the Media Center Themer folder back to ProgramData and merged it with the one MMUI+ must have put there (with only a .log file in it). I was hoping to get my color scheme - or at least SOME color - back into the interface. Unfortunately, that broke Live TV again. Anyway to get the Modern8 with color working with this or are we stuck with a monochrome interface?

As for jachin99's questions, Media Center Themer (MCT) is the only thing I know I've added to WMC. I have added the new Recorded TV strip (not a fan) so that's installed also.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:38 pm
by jachin99
I can share my theme after a while. It isn't finished yet but for those of us who are not big fans of monochrome it does pretty good.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:34 pm
by W10MC
garyan2 wrote: Sun Oct 21, 2018 4:34 pm I think @W10MC will be able to describe how UI+ overrides the MPAA rating to show the localised value.
Basically, when a TV rating is available for a specific airing of a movie, it will be used in place of an MPAA rating.
PeteS457 wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 4:49 pm So I have bit the bullet and installed the ModernMediaUI+
Aside from the sports and weather issue which jachin99 helped resolve, all of the other problems are being caused by the theme you are using in Media Center Themer. As a general rule, due to the amount of modifications made with UI+, you have to be careful when using any other software that further modifies the WMC interface. In your theme file, I recommend starting with just a few elements and adding more while testing to ensure it continues to work without crashing. You can also temporarily disable MCT in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Patchou\Media Center Themer by changing EnableThemer to 0.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:26 pm
by jachin99
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XSRPc ... 41psgMGP4G

Its not done yet but that seems to not break anything. I started with 10Inspired, which is a different theme from around the forums, and changed how a few of the live TV and miniguide overlays are displayed. I also changed a few start menu Icons. I don't believe I have any extra strips in this themes but you may need to take out the lines for the addons at the bottom of the XML file. Let me know how it goes.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:16 pm
by PeteS457
jachin99 wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 11:26 pm https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XSRPc ... 41psgMGP4G

Its not done yet but that seems to not break anything. I started with 10Inspired, which is a different theme from around the forums, and changed how a few of the live TV and miniguide overlays are displayed. I also changed a few start menu Icons. I don't believe I have any extra strips in this themes but you may need to take out the lines for the addons at the bottom of the XML file. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks jachin99. I will be sure to test out your theme. The built-in monochrome isn't so bad - the black/white contrast is ok - but yeah, I'd like some color to splash around all the black/white on my LG OLED. If anyone else has some working themes they'd like to share, I'd love to give them a whirl.
W10MC wrote: Mon Oct 29, 2018 10:34 pm Aside from the sports and weather issue which jachin99 helped resolve, all of the other problems are being caused by the theme you are using in Media Center Themer. As a general rule, due to the amount of modifications made with UI+, you have to be careful when using any other software that further modifies the WMC interface. In your theme file, I recommend starting with just a few elements and adding more while testing to ensure it continues to work without crashing. You can also temporarily disable MCT in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Patchou\Media Center Themer by changing EnableThemer to 0.
Thanks for your response Mike. I never was a "themer guy" in the sense that I know Patchou had some documentation on how to modify and manage his theme elements, but I didn't spend any time on learning it. I just tried out all the different ones and picked the ones I liked as they were. So I guess this gives me the chance to learn something new and start playing around with the elements if I really want it to look like I want (without crashing). However, although adding some splashes of color and some interesting icons to the interface are important to me, other features of your work are what I'm concentrating on at the moment. I do have a list of comments about what I've seen so far that I will be documenting and posting later, but overall my impression is that it is good work and an exciting refresh to WMC, so thanks. Removing my Modern8 theme and applying the "Packages.old" rename really did the trick to where I've got it working and can use it as my everyday real-life WMC for my home (including extenders). So now I'm ready to get the activation code and go all in. (Expect my order this afternoon or tomorrow morning.) However, the two features that the code unleashes - dual buffers and last 8 recent channels (are there others?) - I've seen very few comments on this forum and no description/graphics of how these are implemented. For example, I'm supposed to create two new users, etc for these things to work. Is there any up front documentation on how to implement/use these things? Are there other comments from users as to the design/implementation/usefulness/bugs in these features?

Thanks once again.

Re: ModernMedia UI+ - Modern Theme and All-New Features

Posted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 1:05 am
by W10MC
A new resource build (181030) includes some adjustments to better accommodate third-party guide data sources such as DVBLink TV Adviser. For affected users, the program year will no longer incorrectly overlay the season and episode information inside program cells. This issue did not impact systems using the default Microsoft/Rovi data or EPG123.
PeteS457 wrote: Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:16 pm However, the two features that the code unleashes - dual buffers and last 8 recent channels (are there others?) - I've seen very few comments on this forum and no description/graphics of how these are implemented. For example, I'm supposed to create two new users, etc for these things to work. Is there any up front documentation on how to implement/use these things? Are there other comments from users as to the design/implementation/usefulness/bugs in these features?
When activated, those two features are unlocked and the watermark is removed. There are some additional features in development that may be added in the future.

If you scroll down to the last image in the ModernMedia UI+ release article, you will see a screenshot of the recent channels overlay, which is invoked by pressing the right arrow during playback. There is currently only one issue with this feature: channel numbers containing a decimal (i.e. 2.1, 5.2) cannot be tuned programmatically within WMC due to a technical limitation, so those channels are not included in the list. A workaround for this may be possible at some point.

Surprisingly, there has not been much feedback or interest about using dual buffers, but I will be posting a detailed setup guide to help configure your system for this feature.