One guy's TViX wallpaper-based UI [Text View]

efong

02-07-07, 05:11 AM

This post will contain the latest information on the WIB-T Application.

Attached is an incomplete Walkthrough to get you started

Installer Download: (ver 0.7 beta build 4)
http://wib-t.wyri.net/

Latest version: (ver 0.86 beta build 15)
http://wib-t.wyri.net/
Replace the WIB-T.exe file that the installer loads with the latest version.

Latest Updates:
0.86 Build 15
* Fixed an issue loading the program if you had more than 335 fonts installed.
* Huge Re-write of the picture editor - it's not perfect, but it's more usable than before. The main reason is that if your picture was taller than your screen, you really couldn't crop or paint the bottom section.
* Picture editor: There are now two viewing modes, scrollable Full image, and "Four Corners". Four Corners shows you all four corners of the image at once, squishing the portions in-between. This allows easy access to the corner areas.
* Picture editor: Added a zoom feature so that you can zoom into the image as you work on it. This works for both "Full Image" and "Four Corners" mode.
* Picture editor: Fixed an auto-crop issue - the auto-crop wasn't working right if the borders were not white. Because of this, if you painted the background transparent, the auto-crop wouldn't work. You can now paint first, auto-crop second, which is a lot faster if you only have to paint once vs four times .

0.84 Build 14
*Fixed an issue that caused Boolean settings (True/False, Checkmark items) to not load from a Template.

0.83 Build 13
* Fixed an issue that left a pinkish border around graphics that had transparency applied.
* Fixed an issue that caused Font Names to not load from a Template

0.82 Build 12
* Fixed the folder selection button in the Open Template form.
* Looking into a reported transparancy issue that was not an issue in build 8...

0.81 Build 11
* Fixed the "Open a Template" form, which was not cleaned up yet.
* The program will now start on the "Background" tab - build 10 started on the "Misc" (stars) tab, which was a strange place to start.
* Added the ability to copy the video_ts.jpg file into subfolders that contain DVD files. This is to provide instruction to the TViX viewer on how to start the DVD amid all of the confusing VOB and IFO files. (See post #2). You can set whether this happens "Always", "Never", or if you should be "Ask"ed in the preferences menu.

0.80 Build 10
* Completely changed all of the code's variables to be class-like. An example is the Title Text's Left position is now config.wallpaper.text(0).left.value, while the minimum and maximum values are stored in config.wallpaper.text(0).left.min and .max. Over 2000 changes in the code for this one, and only about 500 could be done by find/replace. :( Because of the complete rewrite, some things that worked in previous versions may be broken now.
* completely changed all of the code relating to the Template System. It is now much more modular and easier to make changes to in the future. Some field and section names have changed for the .wit files themselves, but the program *should* read from the new fields and if nothing is found, check the old fields also. Because of the complete rewrite, some things that worked in previous versions may be broken now.
* When Saving a Template, you can more easily see which settings will NOT be saved as part of that template.
* The program no longer needs the file "vbalColumnTreeView6.ocx" file
* Added the ability to select a JPG quality setting from four. The top setting, "Excellent" has better color accuracy than the method used before. The original method is now "Superb", and I have added "Great" and "Good" for those who may want so save space. You can compare the quality and size of each method (zooming from 1 to 5 times to see detail), or select a quality to "always" use, bypassing the selection process in the future.
* Implemented a Photoshop 7.0-like (RGB mode only) color picker rather than the previous one was not very flexible.
* Better error trapping when entering values manually. Entering 40000 into the "Left" Position field of the Title would previously crash the program - this type of crash should be greatly reduced or eliminated.
* Partial Stars are now available. You can specify "2.5 stars out of 4" now. You were previously limited to whole numbers.
* The program's height is now 714 pixels high, down from 728 pixels to help those with only 720 pixel-high screens - still not perfect, but better.

0.7 build 8
* Fixed the problem with the Masking Bars Bottom position not Saving to a Template
* Fixed the problem with the Masking Bars Color not Saving to a Template
* Fixed the problem with the Masking Bars Opacity not saving to a template
* Fixed the problem with the Font Name not Loading from a Template
* Fixed the problem with the Show Stars On/Off value not Loading from a Template

0.7 build 6
* Improved graphics handling - bicubic resampling instead of just stretchblt. Slower, but much nicer. Lots of coding changes there - bicubic resampling is cake with the FreeImage library, but resampling while keeping transparency took a bunch of (slow) work. Still more improvement to come on the 3D effect.
* Masking bars will update opacity while you're changing it rather than when the next time something major happens to the background.
* The height of the application is now at 728 pixels (at least on Win2K), which will help those with 1024x768 resolutions. I'm going to try to trim it a little more for those running at ???x720 (like my laptop)

Original Post
--------------------
Here's some info on the app that I'm building:

* Its primary purpose is to create nice, consistant wallpaper files.
* It lets you build a wallpaper based on the following components:
* A background image
* masking bars to make the Disk Selection and the Current Folder TViX text stand out
* a cover art or other image
* a Title
* a Description.
*It does not automatically pull any info (description, actors, cover art, etc) from Web Sites. There are a number of reasons for this, but I may add something in the future.
* I've designed it around Movies, so it may need to be tweaked to make nice CD/Audio wallpapers
* It can scan your USB-attached drive to find folders that do not have TViX.jpg files in them, so you can easily see which items you haven't created wallpaper files for.
* As you can see from the output shots, it can applly a perspective and/or reflection effect to your cover art (which I think helps the appearance greatly). Since this is only my second foray into graphics programming, the effects are relatively simple. Photoshop's perspective and reflection put mine to shame, but hey, it's all I can figure out right now.
* As with any programming project, it seems that the last 10% of the program takes 90% of the time.
* It's gone through six interfaces to get one that I am okay with, and I've finally got the redraw times to around 1/10 of a second (it originally took around 1.2 seconds)
* It's written in VB6, and uses BitBlt, TransparentBitBlt, and AlphaBlend since I haven't learned any DirectX programming.
* FTP support is planned to browse folders and write the wallpaper files to the TViX over the network, but hasn't been written in yet.
* I'll probably release the code when it's clean & commented enough to not embarrass me too much.
I hope to post at least some screenshots sometime this weekend.

nlindholm

02-07-07, 05:30 AM

Here's some info on the app that I'm building:

* Its primary purpose is to create nice, consistant wallpaper files.
* It lets you build a wallpaper based on the following components:
* A background image
* masking bars to make the Disk Selection and the Current Folder TViX text stand out
* a cover art or other image
* a Title
* a Description.
*It does not automatically pull any info (description, actors, cover art, etc) from Web Sites. There are a number of reasons for this, but I may add something in the future.
* I've designed it around Movies, so it may need to be tweaked to make nice CD/Audio wallpapers
* It can scan your USB-attached drive to find folders that do not have TViX.jpg files in them, so you can easily see which items you haven't created wallpaper files for.
* As you can see from the output shots, it can applly a perspective and/or reflection effect to your cover art (which I think helps the appearance greatly). Since this is only my second foray into graphics programming, the effects are relatively simple. Photoshop's perspective and reflection put mine to shame, but hey, it's all I can figure out right now.
* As with any programming project, it seems that the last 10% of the program takes 90% of the time.
* It's gone through six interfaces to get one that I am okay with, and I've finally got the redraw times to around 1/10 of a second (it originally took around 1.2 seconds)
* It's written in VB6, and uses BitBlt, TransparentBitBlt, and AlphaBlend since I haven't learned any DirectX programming.
* FTP support is planned to browse folders and write the wallpaper files to the TViX over the network, but hasn't been written in yet.
* I'll probably release the code when it's clean & commented enough to not embarrass me too much.
I hope to post at least some screenshots sometime this weekend.

GREAT,

I'll be hangin' in this thread and am looking forward to your imminent "release-Party" :D :p

good luck
Nik

efong

02-07-07, 05:32 AM

efong

great info. It looks nice. How can I get hold of the application to make these tvix.jpg files?
the UI looks very nice when it's displayed like you have done :-)
another thing, how do you get the .jpg file to "tilt" so it looke 3D ?
I would love to learn that .....

Keep up the good work my friend

Nik

It's off topic, but basically you figure out a nice ratio to reduce the image, I use 20%. Squeeze the image into it's new width, but keep the original height. Then you take each vertical row, and you squeeze it into a smaller height. At the far left you don't make it smaller at all, at the far right, it's 20% shorter (centered to give 10% reduction on the top and bottom). All the points inbetween are reduced in height somewhere between nothing and 20%:
newWidth = originalWidth * 0.80
for step = 0 to newWidth
. newTopPixel = (step / newWidth) * (0.10 * originalHeight)
. newBottomPixel = originalHeight - newTopPixel
next
It was basically something I found on the net, but the original used a bitmap for a mask, and needed a lot of graphical overhead to do the masking that I didn't need. Replaced that with the above formulas dropped the masking from 450 ms to about 40.
It's definitely not the best or accurate way to create a perspective effect, but it's all I could figure out without delving into DirectX. If you use this method on a circle, you'll see what I mean - it doesn't look quite right.
I can probably send you some code if you'd like, but it'd be for VB6.

jofa

02-07-07, 06:56 AM

It looks very nice!
Does it still workd if I have the DVDs as ISO files instead of in a VIDEO_TS folder?
But each ISO in it's own folder....

/J

nlindholm

02-07-07, 09:35 AM

It's off topic, but basically you figure out a nice ratio to reduce the image, I use 20%. Squeeze the image into it's new width, but keep the original height. Then you take each vertical row, and you squeeze it into a smaller height. At the far left you don't make it smaller at all, at the far right, it's 20% shorter (centered to give 10% reduction on the top and bottom). All the points inbetween are reduced in height somewhere between nothing and 20%:
newWidth = originalWidth * 0.80
for step = 0 to newWidth
. newTopPixel = (step / newWidth) * (0.10 * originalHeight)
. newBottomPixel = originalHeight - newTopPixel
next
It was basically something I found on the net, but the original used a bitmap for a mask, and needed a lot of graphical overhead to do the masking that I didn't need. Replaced that with the above formulas dropped the masking from 450 ms to about 40.
It's definitely not the best or accurate way to create a perspective effect, but it's all I could figure out without delving into DirectX. If you use this method on a circle, you'll see what I mean - it doesn't look quite right.
I can probably send you some code if you'd like, but it'd be for VB6.

Don't send me any code mate I would probably try to feed it to my Golden Retriever :p
Seriously, I don't know squat about it but your instructions for "perspective" sounds logic . Thanks

efong

02-07-07, 01:00 PM

It looks very nice!
Does it still workd if I have the DVDs as ISO files instead of in a VIDEO_TS folder?
But each ISO in it's own folder....

/J

Sure, as long as you didn't use an icon (icon.tvix + filename.jpg) for the .iso file, because that would cover some of the screen space available for the cover art, title and description.
The TXiV would print the .iso file's name where the folder "Video" is in my screenshot. There wouldn't be any instructions to select that file, but you probably wouldn't need any for an .iso, since there's only one choice, unlike the VOB/IFO structure I'm using.

efong

02-08-07, 04:33 PM

I'm at somewhere around 80 hours into the application, so I thought I'd share some screenshots. There's still stuff to do before I can release a compiled version.

The fullscreen screenshot was reduced in size in order to post. The settings screenshots are original size

Basic Usage:
1) Select a root folder to work in. Assume my Z: is the TViX drive, I select Z:\Video\Movies to work on wallpapers for the movie folders.
2) The program will show you all the folders (and subfolders) within your selected root folder, marking which already have TViX.jpg wallpaper files in them.
3) Click on a folder to create a wallpaper for. The program will use the folder's name as the Title, and the folder will be where the wallpaper will be saved.
4) Select a background image if you don't want the default one. Paste or Load from a file (bmp, jpg, png)
5) Modify the Upper and Lower masking bars if desired. These bars create a nice separation between the TViX's interface and the custom stuff. You have a decent amount of creative control over these masking bars including color, opacity, size, whether the edges are solid or fade to the background (solid vs smooth)
6) Find or scan a Cover Art or other Graphical image if you want one included. The program does not automatically find art. Paste or Load a file with the graphic image
7) Move and resize the image as desired within the program. The scaling isn't Photoshop quality, but it's decent enough.
8) Apply 3D perspective and/or mirror effects on the graphic as desired
9) Modify the Title text if needed. Since this is filled in based on the folder name, you usually won't need to, but maybe you want to move words like "The" or "A" to the end. ie: "Final Countdown, The" instead of "The Final Countdown"
10) Adjust any of the Title's properties, including Font Face, Font Size, Font Color, the Font's Shadow's Color
11) Move the Title's bounding box if needed. It can be moved using the "nudge" arrow buttons in the Upper-Left and Lower-Right sections (click for 1 pixel, right-click or shigt-click for 5 pixels) or by typing in the coordinates directly.
12) The Title's text will wrap within this box, but will only display text that can fit entirely within the box. An alert will be visible if any text is cut off. You can show or hide the bounding box with the checkbox. When saved, the bounding box will not show up, even if it is set to display on screen.
13) Repeat 9-12 for the Description Text Box and an "Other" Text Box.
14) I am working on both a "stars" rating (3 out of 5 stars) graphic and a content rating (G, PG, PG-13, etc), but it's not done yet. Beginnings of this are visible in the screenshots
15) Save the wallpaper (the button seems to be missing in the screenshot, but it will be located below the folder tree.

davidcotton

02-08-07, 05:25 PM

Nice work!

tolax

02-08-07, 07:06 PM

Marde

02-09-07, 01:17 AM

nlindholm

02-09-07, 02:28 AM

Efong !

With your app and a Universal Remote The Tvix - era should reign for some time to come !
It's all coming together now man !
I second all the above's comments and lift my hat for you. It's gonna be WIFR now :-)

(Wife friendly LoL)

Nik

efong

02-09-07, 03:34 AM

I have not had time to wrap my hands around your wallpaper UI app (trickery) yet.... however, I did want to drop a quick line and scream that "you done good man!" Glad to see that u brought your science project out to play. I look forward to reading your previous (and future) posts again and learning more about the app that you r building. I was really thrilled to hear you mention releasing a "compiled version"... I will be cheering you on from a distance.

I am new to most of the video streaming stuff, and I have a few questions that make you the perfect answer-man, based on your dev work on this UI... It is my belief that ripping DVD's into an .ISO file is the best way to go. Others, like you, are ripping your content into VOB's. Would you please take a moment and explain why your choice is VOB's, so (we) I can get smarter on the pro/cons of the different methods?
Thanks, -Marty
<Howlee & Mauna Loa Junior High Grad>

My preference for the .VOB route is that it's more universal. Any DVD player software that can play unencrypted DVD's from disk should be able to handle the VOB method, since that's what DVD's are. Using .iso's adds another layer to the mix. While it doesn't matter much to TViX, I can take my same USB hard drive that's connected to my TViX now (i didn't even put an internal drive in yet) and connect it to my laptop (or a company one) and play the DVD files without having to install software like Daemon Tools to be able to read it in an .ISO format. Perhaps the latest versions of WinDVD, PowerDVD, etc can read .iso's but the older one's definitely didn't. For someone like me who has tried too many HTPC-like devices, the more universal the better. I've tried MCE 2005, TiVo (great for TV, not so much for storing DVD's), Beyond Media, gbPVR, XBMC, and a linux one that I can't remember the name of. I converted about 25 DVD's to divx before I decided to try another machine - one that didn't play divx's - I don't want to do that again.

Another possible pro for the VOB route is you won't go over the 4GB size limit found in certain File Systems since VOB's are typically broken down into 1GB chunks. Again, probably not an issue for TViX users.

I haven't really used .iso, but I can see the appeal of not having every one of your movies named "VIDEO_TS.IFO". Luckily the TViX developers gave us ways to customize it a bit.

efong

02-09-07, 03:37 AM

Bugger - Just spent a whole weekend getting the jpg images from Amazon for my 200+ movies - Now I am going to have to do it all again. :D

Very nice app - Been looking for something that would include IMDB style info for a while.

Keep up the good work

tolax

Don't delete the jpg's just yet - my program, if you choose to use it, doesn't get cover art for you automatically - you still have to find & copy/paste or load the image into it.

nlindholm

02-09-07, 10:41 AM

Don't delete the jpg's just yet - my program, if you choose to use it, doesn't get cover art for you automatically - you still have to find & copy/paste or load the image into it.

efong, I can't wait :D :D :D :D

Whats te ETA on this little piece of magic ? :p Are we talking 1 month or more
or maybee less (yes yes yes haha)

it's friday and I'm at work drinking beer :cool:

nice weekend

Nik

Axel

02-09-07, 12:24 PM

efong;
Nice work!
I'll keep monitoring your thread.
____
Axel

efong

02-12-07, 11:01 PM

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to release the program in a pre-release beta version within a week.

Still NEED to do:
Finish up some of the code for "Things it will have"
Make sure the tab key cycles through the different buttons in the correct order
Build an installer package and test it to make sure all required dll's & ocx's come with it.
Finish the "About" box to make sure I give credit for the open-source libraries I'm using.
I'm sure there's stuff I forgot.

Things it WILL have:
Identify which folders do not have a TViX.jpg wallpaper file
Load/Paste Background Image
If you put your favorite Background image in the application's folder as "defaultBG.jpg", it will use that as the default (although that can be overridden by the template system)
Position, Size, Color, Opacity of Masking Bars
Load/Paste Cover Art/Graphic Image
Position, Scale, Apply 3-D Effect, Apply Mirror Effect on the Cover Art/Graphic Image
Position, Size, Color, Font a Title
Position, Size, Color, Font a Description
Position, Size, Color, Font additional "Other" text (I use it for Content Rating, Year, runtime)
Position, Size, Color a "star" rating system (3 of 4 stars, etc)
Save the wallpaper in JPG or PNG format
I'm sure there's stuff I forgot.

Full Template system:
Build a wallpaper just how you want it and save it as a template - include as many or as few settings as you want. An example would be one for Movies, one for CD's.
Load the CD Template whenever you build a CD wallpaper, or load the Movie Template whenever you build a movie wallpaper.
You can rename your favorite generic template to the application's folder under the name "default.wit" and have it load as the program's default.
When you save a wallpaper, the program will save the item-specific data into the folder, so if you build another wallpaper for the same folder (you changed your preferred background image, for example) you don't have to type the Title, Description, "Other" text, or the star ratings information.

Things I'll add I have time:
Session State: I'd like the program to remember your choices - where you load the images from, the last folder set you worked on, etc.
Simple Picture Editor: Just cropping for now: if the Art/Graphic you're using has a border around if you want to get rid of, you won't have to use a different program to cut off the bits you don't want.
For folders with a subfolder called "Video" that contains the DVD files (VIDEO_TS,IFO, etc) in them, have the option to copy a specific TViX.jpg file into that "Video" folder. See my the "video_tvix_output" attachment in post #1 if this doesn't make sense.
I want to change part of the UI - I came up with a better way to show and change the text boxes' top, left, right, and bottom positions.
I'm sure there's other stuff I'll try to add

Things it WON'T have in the pre-release version
FTP Support (I was hoping to get this into the version 1.0 - we'll see)
Grab Images and/or descriptions of movies from the net (but this wasn't a planned feature anyway)
Content Ratings (MPAA: R, PG, etc are the US content ratings)
I have not tested anything other than a 720x480 wallpaper so I don't know what it'll do if you try to use a different size background.

on a side note: happy 3/4 birthday to my baby girl who just turned 9 months yesterday - woohoo!
I'm trying to work as hard as I can to get the 1.0 version out before I have to start hard-core into the birthday party work. First birthday's are a big deal here in Hawaii - Marde knows what I'm talkin' about

rchcah

02-13-07, 04:29 PM

I too am looking forward to this...

Regards,
Ricky

jamille

02-14-07, 10:30 PM

efong

02-14-07, 11:59 PM

Could someone please tell me how to change the background on the tvix4000p
I could swear that I followed all the instructions in the manual and some found here
please pretend your talking to a 5 yrs. old girl on your explanation.
I have it connected to my NAS server,ftp. etc, etc. with no problems, but the most simple thing is giving me headaches. Please HELP can't stand more frustration.

Create a 720 x 480 pixel file called "TViX.jpg".

Although the manual says you can use both lower and capital letters for the file name, I've always used capital "T", capital "V" lowercase "i", uppercase "X", lowercase ".jpg"

I've attached a sample file if you'd like to use it.

To change the background of a particular folder, place the graphic file in the folder you want changed. The new background will only be visible while you're in this folder - all other folders will have the default background.

To change the default background of *every* folder, place the graphic file in the TViX's root folder. I'm not sure if "root" means the root of each disk (internal, usb 1, usb 2, NAS, etc or it "root" means the root of the internal drive only. I've never tried this - I don't even have an internal drive in mine.

Good luck!

nlindholm

02-16-07, 02:48 AM

Create a 720 x 480 pixel file called "TViX.jpg".

Although the manual says you can use both lower and capital letters for the file name, I've always used capital "T", capital "V" lowercase "i", uppercase "X", lowercase ".jpg"

I've attached a sample file if you'd like to use it.

To change the background of a particular folder, place the graphic file in the folder you want changed. The new background will only be visible while you're in this folder - all other folders will have the default background.

To change the default background of *every* folder, place the graphic file in the TViX's root folder. I'm not sure if "root" means the root of each disk (internal, usb 1, usb 2, NAS, etc or it "root" means the root of the internal drive only. I've never tried this - I don't even have an internal drive in mine.

Good luck!

I had a thought here guys. If at all possible can you release your wallpaper examples here so people like me can choose one. If it 's not too much to ask ;) I for one am pretty dumb when it comes to making these fance ones so if anyone like to share... Pliz Pliz feel free to upload them to this thread.
Efong ! Thanks for the sample file. Don't know how you do it but it was nice in my TViX :D :D :rolleyes: :cool: :cool: :cool:

Rgrds
Nik

efong

02-16-07, 04:19 AM

I had a thought here guys. If at all possible can you release your wallpaper examples here so people like me can choose one. If it 's not too much to ask ;) I for one am pretty dumb when it comes to making these fance ones so if anyone like to share... Pliz Pliz feel free to upload them to this thread.
Efong ! Thanks for the sample file. Don't know how you do it but it was nice in my TViX :D :D :rolleyes: :cool: :cool: :cool:

Rgrds
Nik

I can't take credit for the wallpaper - it was from a Google Image search of "backgrounds" or "wallpapers" - I may have added "osx" to the search because I kinda remember it being a Mac wallpaper... anyway - all I did was crop it to 720x480 and rotate it 180 degrees.

But I agree - having people post their favorite backgrounds in one of these forums would be great - maybe start up a new thread!

efong

02-16-07, 04:37 AM

...but I can take credit for the program! I'm still chugging along - haven't had too much time this week to work on it, but I'm still on track to have a pre-release version for people to play with by Monday. I'm trying really hard to get the picture cropping tool in there. I have to crop about a quarter of the graphics I've been getting and not having to make a stop in Paint Shop Pro first would be nice.

Attached are the screenshots of the cropping tool in its current state. The transparent red area indicating what will be removed can be transparent white or transparent black, depending on what color your picture is. The Auto-Crop will look at the pixel in the upper-left corner of the picture (the reference color), and scan from the top down for the first line with a pixel that is 2% different in the Red, Green, or Blue value in relation to the reference color. It'll do the same scanning in from the left, right and bottom to and give you what it deems the edges. Of course this may not be what you want if the cover is mostly white, and the border is also white, so you have the ability to manually set the cropping as well.

nlindholm

02-16-07, 04:47 AM

davidcotton

02-16-07, 06:05 AM

Said it above but again, nice work. This could finally help me make a choice between the rapsody and the tvix! One thing, is there a limit to the amount of dvd covers that the tvix can display?

nlindholm

02-16-07, 09:28 AM

Said it above but again, nice work. This could finally help me make a choice between the rapsody and the tvix! One thing, is there a limit to the amount of dvd covers that the tvix can display?

Nope,, Not that I know of. It can however only show 10 per page at moment.

jamille

02-16-07, 06:54 PM

HI everybody
EFONG thank you for your quick reply. IT WORKED !! Mine only works with the combination of upper and lower case letters you told me. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

FLABOY

02-16-07, 07:42 PM

is there away to get the wallpaper it came with off the tvix? I want to edit it not replace it totally? The root wallpaper (ie the one on the unit when you first turn it on)

jofa

02-17-07, 02:49 AM

You'll find the background and more here:
ftp://ftp.dvico.com/Products/TViX/Img/

/J

efong

02-19-07, 08:30 AM

I tried to upload the pre-release version of the program, but at 3.4 MB, it's well beyond the 500KB limit of the AVS Forum. I'll have to figure something else out to get the whole program uploaded

Status update: The picture editor was incorporated into the main program. It's really ugly but it gets the job done. Attached are the steps to go from an actual cover art download to a nice clean graphic for the wallpaper, all within the WIB-T program. Also attached is the screen shot of the picture editor... on a cover that needs no cropping or painting...

The program will now save the Title, Description, "Other" text, stars rating, and the graphic image into the media folder, so if you select it again in the future to change it up a bit, you don't have to re-type anything, and you don't have to go and find the graphic again.

There are a few issues here and there and no FTP support yet, but its getting pretty usable now.

nlindholm

02-19-07, 08:47 AM

jofa

02-19-07, 10:21 AM

Yeah!
there are numerous free services to share files.
http://www.4share.com for example.

It's not perfect but free.....
/J

efong

02-19-07, 12:28 PM

** Since it was the first post I really talked about WIB-T, Post #4 will be where the latest links and information will be. **

I uploaded it to a free file sharing site (didn't even know they existed). The URL is:
http://dl8.ohshare.com/v/9462566/setup.zip.html

Click on the words "Download File" at the top (it's not obvious that it is a link).

Download notes:
I have tested this installer on:
Windows 2000 Pro SP4 - no problems
Windowx XP Media Center Edition (SP2) - no problems
Windows Vista Business - The file MSVBM50.dll is needed but not included. Until I can post one, get one here: http://www.ryanware.com/faq.html#msvb_gone

My first fixes will be to include that file, make the masking bars update in real-time, and to make the UI more friendly to 720 and 768 pixel high screens.

Attached is the in-progress Walkthrough to get you started (incomplete)

Updated .exe file (build 6) attached.
* Improved graphics handling - bicubic resampling instead of just stretchblt. Slower, but much nicer. Lots of coding changes there - bicubic resampling is cake with the FreeImage library, but resampling while keeping transparency took a bunch of (slow) work. Still more improvement to come on the 3D effect.
* Masking bars will update opacity while you're changing it rather than when the next time something major happens to the background.
* The height of the application is now at 728 pixels (at least on Win2K), which will help those with 1024x768 resolutions. I'm going to try to trim it a little more for those running at ???x720 (like my laptop)

davidcotton

02-19-07, 02:36 PM

efong

02-19-07, 02:42 PM

Thanks!

One request though, how about a readme on how to use it, or at least a run through on here first?

Don't even have a tvix yet tbh, but wouldn't mind playing with this to see what effect I can achieve!

I'll make up a walkthrough PDF, but until then, see post #10. It has most of the steps.

I updated post #35 with an in-progress (incomplete) walkthrough

mathijs

02-19-07, 04:25 PM

I'll make up a walkthrough PDF, but until then, see post #10. It has most of the steps.

I updated post #35 with an in-progress (incomplete) walkthrough
I think your program works very intuitive! I like it very much! The only thing I couldn't get immediately was the thing that I had to save my template. By the way: when I open my saved template, most of my settings (like font-details, positioning of the bars, the star-system is turned off again etc.) are lost. I think this is a minor error?

But again, I think it works fantastic!

Another thing: I think the program saves the wallpapers with too much quality-loss. Is this editable?

efong

02-19-07, 06:31 PM

I think your program works very intuitive! I like it very much! The only thing I couldn't get immediately was the thing that I had to save my template. By the way: when I open my saved template, most of my settings (like font-details, positioning of the bars, the star-system is turned off again etc.) are lost. I think this is a minor error?

But again, I think it works fantastic!

Another thing: I think the program saves the wallpapers with too much quality-loss. Is this editable?

I've tested the templates on my systems and I haven't had any problems. Maybe you weren't actually using the templates?

Aside from the wallpaper graphic, data is saved two ways:
1) for each folder, the actual text, # of stars, and graphic are stored in the folder itself as folder.wid and folder.wig. folder.wid is just a text file using .ini format for the folder-specific items. It does not store any positioning or color information. The folder.wig file is a PNG file of the cover art. These files are automatically saved when you save a wallpaper file so that you don't have to type it in next time if you want to redo something. When you click onto a folder with these saved files, you are prompted to import any or all of the 6 possible items that were saved.

2) The template system can save every aspect of the wallpaper, from the background file name to the color of the non-stars. This can include the text but normally doesn't. You have to manually save and load a template (from the "Template" menu. When you save the template, you are presented with all the fields that will be saved, and you can select (checkmarks) which you want to include. I personally wouldn't include the text since that is usually specific to the folder. When you load the template, you are shown how every item has been assigned, whether by the default built-in template, or the template you loaded.

As far as the quality goes, the current jpeg setting is the highest quality I can go. Take a look at the background and text - are they poor quality? You can also save (as a test) the wallpaper as a .png file, which does not lose any quality.

I'm thinking the quality issue may be how the cover art is being drawn. I use the VB6 functions bitblt, stretchblt, transparentblt, and alphablend because they are fast and because I don't actually know how to scale images any other way. These methods are definitely not the highest quality, and adding the 3D effect makes it worse. I think the ease and nice effects outweigh the quality loss, but I can't speak for everyone.

Can you sent me (private is probably better) an output file that is not as high quality as you'd like so I can see what your'e looking at?

I think there's some quality loss in the picture editor process also - I'm going to check on that one.

FLABOY

02-19-07, 07:15 PM

Where do I put the edited wall paper so the Tvix sees it? Also Thanks this is a great help in making the Tvix mine :)

efong

02-19-07, 10:06 PM

Where do I put the edited wall paper so the Tvix sees it? Also Thanks this is a great help in making the Tvix mine :)

Each wallpaper is designed for a specific folder, so you would just place it in that folder on the TViX. If you were working on the TViX from the program, it would have already placed it in the correct place.

If the wallpaper is for say, the movie "Face Off", then place the TViX.jpg that was generated (keep the capitalization as-is) into the folder with "Face Off" in it, probaby /Video/Face Off, or /Video/Movies/Face Off, or /usb1/Video/Movies/Face Off, depending on how you decided to set up your TViX files.

When you navigate to that folder on the TViX, your wallpaper should show up. (but only in that folder)

mathijs

02-20-07, 08:01 AM

I've tested the templates on my systems and I haven't had any problems. Maybe you weren't actually using the templates?

Aside from the wallpaper graphic, data is saved two ways:
1) for each folder, the actual text, # of stars, and graphic are stored in the folder itself as folder.wid and folder.wig. folder.wid is just a text file using .ini format for the folder-specific items. It does not store any positioning or color information. The folder.wig file is a PNG file of the cover art. These files are automatically saved when you save a wallpaper file so that you don't have to type it in next time if you want to redo something. When you click onto a folder with these saved files, you are prompted to import any or all of the 6 possible items that were saved.

2) The template system can save every aspect of the wallpaper, from the background file name to the color of the non-stars. This can include the text but normally doesn't. You have to manually save and load a template (from the "Template" menu. When you save the template, you are presented with all the fields that will be saved, and you can select (checkmarks) which you want to include. I personally wouldn't include the text since that is usually specific to the folder. When you load the template, you are shown how every item has been assigned, whether by the default built-in template, or the template you loaded.

As far as the quality goes, the current jpeg setting is the highest quality I can go. Take a look at the background and text - are they poor quality? You can also save (as a test) the wallpaper as a .png file, which does not lose any quality.

I'm thinking the quality issue may be how the cover art is being drawn. I use the VB6 functions bitblt, stretchblt, transparentblt, and alphablend because they are fast and because I don't actually know how to scale images any other way. These methods are definitely not the highest quality, and adding the 3D effect makes it worse. I think the ease and nice effects outweigh the quality loss, but I can't speak for everyone.

Can you sent me (private is probably better) an output file that is not as high quality as you'd like so I can see what your'e looking at?

I think there's some quality loss in the picture editor process also - I'm going to check on that one.

Hey,

I can say that the first way of saving data (for each folder, the actual text, # of stars, and graphic are stored in the folder itself as folder.wid and folder.wig.)works great on my computer. Nevertheless, the second way doesn't work completely. You said that "The template system can save every aspect of the wallpaper, from the background file name to the color of the non-stars." It does save my background file and the color of the stars/non-stars. But: it doesn't save my fontstyles... In the data of the template that I load, it states e.g. "Arial 19", but then again, it shows the original fontstyle (Verdana). Try for yourself.

About the quality loss: It is not the coverart which I mentioned, but the quality of the text. It looks a bit the same when saving text in Microsoft Paint to a .jpg or .gif. I will post 2 images when I got time.

Keep up the good work!

FLABOY

02-20-07, 11:53 AM

ok so if I want to change the directory wallpaper (the main screen that has photo,video,music) I just save a .jpg as TVIX.jpg plus the icon.tvix an i'll be ok....right :)

efong

02-20-07, 01:18 PM

ok so if I want to change the directory wallpaper (the main screen that has photo,video,music) I just save a .jpg as TVIX.jpg plus the icon.tvix an i'll be ok....right :)

You don't need the icon.tvix file to make custom wallpapers work (you do for custom icons), but the I in TViX may need to be lowercase.

I don't know about changing the main screen - i don't think that one has an actual folder on a disk since it doesn't really match the root folders on my USB drive (I don't have an internal). You may be able to change the default background though (see post #22), but I don't really know what they mean by "root" folder in respect to possible multiple drives.

if you try it, let us know what you find out.

jofa

02-20-07, 03:39 PM

The tvix.jpg can be named all lower case. I use that and it works ok.
Since you say that TVix.jpg work, I guess it's safe to guess that any combination of lower and capital letters works. I.e. something like [Tt][Vv][Ii][Xx] in regex form :)
It must however be EXACTLY 720x480. At least in earlier firmwares.
/J

efong

02-20-07, 11:13 PM

... Nevertheless, the second way doesn't work completely. You said that "The template system can save every aspect of the wallpaper, from the background file name to the color of the non-stars." It does save my background file and the color of the stars/non-stars. But: it doesn't save my fontstyles... In the data of the template that I load, it states e.g. "Arial 19", but then again, it shows the original fontstyle (Verdana). ...

Thanks for the feedback and helping narrow down that problem.

After some testing, it looks like the following are not being saved to the template file properly: Masking Bar Style, Masking Bar Bottom Edge position, Masking Bar Color, Masking Bar opacity.
In addition, the following are saved to the template, but are not loaded properly: Font Name, and "Show Stars" on/off.
I'll work on the fix for those...

Also, it may not be apparent because the branches are not expanded, but the Title Text, Description Text, "other" Text, the graphic filename, and the star rating and max ratings are not saved by default - the checkmarks are cleared in the Save Template dialog. You have to mark them and then they will save.

efong

02-21-07, 02:03 AM

Since it was the first post I really talked about WIB-T, Post #4 will be where the latest links and information will be.

I have an updated posted that fixes some Template issues that mathijs found.

swedish hef

02-21-07, 06:41 AM

tregor

02-22-07, 09:09 AM

Here is the original old background files tvix.jpg
(Included into next release ;-))

M3000 (http://www.freewebs.com/tregor29/m3000.tvix.jpg)
M3100 (old but nice!) (http://www.freewebs.com/tregor29/M3100tvix.jpg)

nlindholm

02-22-07, 09:23 AM

Efong, you just made my day, I just recently switched to Tvix from XBMC and was sort of unhappy with the GUI - and then your fantastic application came along. I can't wait to get home and start editing, couldn't agree more about the wife-friendliness of it all.

Marvellous work! :)

I totally agree ! ;) :rolleyes: :cool: :cool:

I have to wait before I can use it though, My whole livingroom is under clingfilm since I have a painter there and guess where my TViX is at ? :eek: so for the moment I just take everybodys word for it that the program is good.

Where do you guys download your Covers from ? IMDb or something different ?

Nik

davidcotton

02-22-07, 02:18 PM

I just used amazon.com's with the larger image option.

efong

02-22-07, 02:36 PM

I recently found Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com) has great quality large covers, but a smaller selection. They all have white borders though, so you'll need to use the cropping tools. PlayUSA.com has some good quality covers as well, but there's a trick to finding them. When you find a cover, right-click it and look at the properties - the url (of the image: images.playusa...) in particular. Copy the url and paste it into the address bar of your browser, changing the "m.jpg" to "x.jpg" to look at the X-tra Large image rather than the Medium image. Not all images have an X-tra large version though. Crivens reported that little trick.

nlindholm

02-23-07, 02:03 AM

Crivens

02-23-07, 10:50 AM

Crivens reported that little trickYeah, took me a while to find that one. Serious amounts of HTML parsing to rip out the images and then I find PlayUSA doesn't have big images when you click on the small ones. Slightly annoyed with that one, but with a bit of mucking about found they had "X" types, although not everything has them. So not quite sure why they store the large images if you can't view them. Maybe for the future, or there is another way to view the large image on site? Dunno. Useful large images though. Note they have "m" for medium and "x" for large, but also "s" for small icon type if I remember rightly.

Cheers

mathijs

02-23-07, 09:55 PM

As far as the quality goes, the current jpeg setting is the highest quality I can go. Take a look at the background and text - are they poor quality? You can also save (as a test) the wallpaper as a .png file, which does not lose any quality.

I'm thinking the quality issue may be how the cover art is being drawn. I use the VB6 functions bitblt, stretchblt, transparentblt, and alphablend because they are fast and because I don't actually know how to scale images any other way. These methods are definitely not the highest quality, and adding the 3D effect makes it worse. I think the ease and nice effects outweigh the quality loss, but I can't speak for everyone.

Can you sent me (private is probably better) an output file that is not as high quality as you'd like so I can see what your'e looking at?

I think there's some quality loss in the picture editor process also - I'm going to check on that one.

Hey, I was going to get back on the quality loss issue. Therefore I have posted 2 images: image 1 is a screenshot I've made inside WIB-T that I have 'manually' cropped and saved as .jpg.
Image 2 is the output as generated by WIB-T of the same as in image 1.

Image 1:
http://members.home.nl/vermue/screenshot.jpg

Image 2:
http://members.home.nl/vermue/TViX.jpg

As you can see, the text is a bit blurry and not really white anymore, which I find kinda ugly. It's not a very big deal, but I'd love to see this better :)

And ehm: don't mind the language it's written in. (It's Dutch)

efong

02-24-07, 05:28 AM

... As you can see, the text is a bit blurry and not really white anymore, which I find kinda ugly. It's not a very big deal, but I'd love to see this better ...

You have great vision or a great monitor or both - I couldn't tell any difference between the two images until I magnified them and used a color picker tool to see what the colors were. You were right about the color - the original is pure white (RGB: 255,255,255), but the jpg'd one was around (240,255,255). I added a second way for the program to create JPG files, using Microsoft's GDI+. I created some test output files using the original method (FreeImage), and the GDI+ method at 50%, 75%, 100%, and 150% (for fun) quality. The 100% and the 150% quality were the same, so no tricking the library, but the 100% and the original method were exactly the same - same number of bytes in the file, same color "white" as the original method. I saved the file as a png, and it was perfect. I then took that file and resaved it as jpg using JASC PaintShop Pro 7.02 at max quality (99) and it was the same quality as WIB-T (although the file was a little smaller). Adobe Photoshop 7.0 at max quality (12) saved it with true white, and the file was about 20% larger than WIB-T's. I can't figure out how to save it "Adobe" quality, but I'll keep my eye out for new jpg encoding routines to try.

Upate: I found some great jpg encoding code from "korejwa" at planet-source-code that gives me more encoding options like changin the luminance sampling. In the initial test, I've been able to save the jpg with the correct colors. It's slower, but how often do you hit "save" when working on a wallpaper? I'll try to work this into the next release once I can finish up the Template coding re-write.

A workaround may be to save it as png and use Photoshop (or whatever you used to save your jpg) to convert it to jpg. I thought I had read that the TViX could read both jpg and png files, but uploading a TViX.png file didn't change the folder's wallpaper on my TViX (firmware v1.98), and going throught the manual again, it only lists png on the file and folder icons, but it makes no mention about png wallpapers. Maybe you can test it if you have a 2.0+ firmware)

As for the blurry text, both of your images were very clear when magnified. The text shadow (which changed color also - it's a little more blue) is probably what you are seeing. It's not in the options to changes, but the shadow on the "Title" text is offset by 2 pixels to the right and 2 pixels down. The "Description" and "Other" text have their shadows offset by 1 pixel to the right, and one down. I forgot to put options to change this in the UI. I'll add these once I rewrite the Template code to make it easier for me to modify and add fields - it's currently way complicated.

nlindholm

02-25-07, 08:16 AM

HI Efong,
Sofar your little program works just fine and the cropping stuff is perfect. I want however to erase the "Please select the VIDEO_TS IFO file ..." from the jpg file you have made for me. Is there an easy way (it sort of is in the way) I am too stupid to make a nice background myself and find the one "video ts.jpg" perferct exept for this text. How can I remove it ?

Also, am I supposed to keep the "folder.wid and folder.wig" in the movie folder once I have made all the changes I want or can I safely remove them ?

Thanks for a brilliant program
Nik

efong

02-25-07, 08:37 PM

... "video ts.jpg" perferct exept for this text. How can I remove it ?...

Attached is the "video_ts.jpg" without the text, and another with the filmstrip graphic more transparent.

... am I supposed to keep the "folder.wid and folder.wig" in the movie folder once I have made all the changes I want or can I safely remove them ?...

Those files can be removed. Their purpose is to save the text and graphics you used for the folder so you dont have to find/edit them if you decide to change your background. At around 200K (0.005% of a DVD's space), it's more than worth the space to me. But you don't need to keep them.

the folder.wig file is a PNG file with your Cover Art / Graphic
the folder.wid file is a plain text file (.INI format) that holds the text and star ratings.

nlindholm

02-26-07, 01:58 AM

Attached is the "video_ts.jpg" without the text, and another with the filmstrip graphic more transparent.

Thanks a mill mate !
Those files can be removed. Their purpose is to save the text and graphics you used for the folder so you dont have to find/edit them if you decide to change your background. At around 200K (0.005% of a DVD's space), it's more than worth the space to me. But you don't need to keep them.

great thanks ! (then I'll keep them :-)
One last question before I go ahead and prepare my TViX with goodies: My DVD covers are not particuralely "sharp" imagewise. What is the best size according to you for the covers? Do you shrink them from Barnes and Noble or take them "as is" ?

Nik
ps take a look, if you got the time, on the one in my previous mail (departed) and you will see that the name of the picture is not smoothe as mathijs at all ? By the way the departed (who one best best pic and directtion last night) was only an attempt. It's not that I "have" the DVD allready :-) ds

FLABOY

02-26-07, 08:34 AM

nlindholm

02-26-07, 08:42 AM

Ok so here is what I have. I have the folder.jpg that shows the folder as the cover art then when you select it it takes you into this one with the cover art and the describtion (thanks to efong) now how do I set it up so you can click on what to play the movie?

d:
movies
departed
(cover art made with WIB-T)
Video_IFO (how do I make this clickable after the wallpaper page?

Hi Flaboy.
If the TViX.jpg file is in the VIDEO_TS folder you should see the VIDEO_TS_IFO
file and just click on that to make the movie start. Am I missing sonething here
cause I really don't understand what the problem might be :confused: (sorry)

Nik

FLABOY

02-26-07, 09:53 AM

ok let me try again right now I have the folder.jpg (which shows cover art in the main folder) then you select the movie and normally you then see the video_IFO (and yes by selecting it the movie will start) I'm trying to figure out how to impliment this new wall paper maker by Efong to show the cover art and a description (here comes the question) if I use this wallpaper how do I build the tree so that I can click on the IFO after the this wallpaper? See attached pic.

jofa

02-26-07, 10:28 AM

The files will be listed by the Tvix itself, as it already works for you today.
It is only the background that is changed in your video folder.
That means that in your video folder you will have 2 extra files added to the ordinary BUP, IFO, VOB, etc files:
folder.jpg - your icon in the main folder which you already have.
tvix.jpg - the background used in the video folder, which now is changed to contain an image and some text.

So as I understand it you already have the correct file tree structure. You only need to add a tvix.jpg in each of your video folders.
/J

mathijs

02-26-07, 10:41 AM

And that's why the bottom textbox (in where you put the actors of the movie at the moment) originally was placed more to the bottom of the picture. Where you've put the actors is the place where the TViX shows the map you're in. (See movie_tvix_output.jpg (attached image at the very first post of this topic) for an example). As you can see the result is a mix of the output of the TViX and your own text from the background.

FLABOY

02-26-07, 03:12 PM

Ok now I get it! I forgot about the video folder. Is there any way to:
1) hide the non-video_ts files
2) change the video folder icon but keep it small
3) Change the icon associated with the video_ts file (like link a icon to the video_ts file so just click and the movie plays)

Trying to get rid of anything that looks PC- ish.

FLABOY

02-26-07, 07:01 PM

Also is there away to tell the tvix where to put the Icons? If I put icon.tvix in the video_ts folder then the tvix wants to put the icons in front of the movie description.
I want the icon to be a play button :D above the description

efong

02-26-07, 11:38 PM

...My DVD covers are not particuralely "sharp" imagewise. What is the best size according to you for the covers? Do you shrink them from Barnes and Noble or take them "as is"?...
There's no magic size, but as a general rule, the larger the source file the better, which is why I like the B&N images. I usually scale them down to 200-250 pixels, depending on the background file. note: The folder.wig saves the full sized graphic, so you can change the height again without losing the original quality.

Also, the scaling quality was greatly improved in build 6. If you haven't upgraded the .exe to build 6 or higher (see post #4), that's probably where the quality issue is coming from - this is especially visible in the words of a cover.

The original installer contains build 4. Once that is installed, you can take the .exe for the more recent build zip files and overwrite the old one, usually in C:\Program Files\WIB-T\WIB-T.EXE.

As a side note, coming up in the next release are:
* Tons of internal changes - the entire Wallpaper configuration and the entire Template System is being re-written to be easier to update later. (hopefully I won't break too much in the process)
* The "Color Picker" tool will be a lot better - more Photoshop like.
* More error catching so that entering 40000 into a bar's top or bottom value won't crash the program.
* Better quality JPG saving
* More options for the text shadows
* Still no FTP support worked in... :-(
Like I said before - the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time.

nlindholm

02-27-07, 02:05 AM

Like I said before - the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time.

And let me re-iterate if you had forgotten : Thanks for a very nice program !

Regards
Nik
ps I 'll uppdate tonight , cheers efong ds

bryan8

02-27-07, 07:25 AM

Nice app!

Is there a reason why it wouldn't work for the 3000 as well?

mathijs

02-27-07, 11:06 AM

As a side note, coming up in the next release are:
* Tons of internal changes - the entire Wallpaper configuration and the entire Template System is being re-written to be easier to update later. (hopefully I won't break too much in the process)
* The "Color Picker" tool will be a lot better - more Photoshop like.
* More error catching so that entering 40000 into a bar's top or bottom value won't crash the program.
* Better quality JPG saving
* More options for the text shadows
* Still no FTP support worked in... :-(
Like I said before - the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time.

Great updates, your program is just getting better and better! :cool:

In addition, I would request the possibility to rate a movie in half stars, so you can give a movie for example 3,5 stars. In this way I could even better differentiate my movies.

Example: http://www.movie2movie.nl/images/waardering/groot/ster35.gif

efong

02-27-07, 04:55 PM

[QUOTE=bryan8]...Is there a reason why it wouldn't work for the 3000 as well?/QUOTE]

I'm not familiar with the 3000 at all. If you can use custom wallpapers for each folder, then I see no reason it wouldn't work.
This program is locked at producing 720x480 wallpapers, but just about eveything else is customizable, so you can move the screen elements to work around the 3000's UI.

efong

02-27-07, 05:07 PM

... Is there any way to:
1) hide the non-video_ts files
2) change the video folder icon but keep it small
3) Change the icon associated with the video_ts file (like link a icon to the video_ts file so just click and the movie plays)

1) The TViX displays every file it associates with Audio, Video, or Photos and does not display anything else. (This is why the folder.wid and folder.wig files do not show up) The only way to hide a file is to change its extension, but in the case of a VIDEO_TS folder, I think the .VOB and .IFO files must be named that way. I don't know if there's a way to edit the .ifo file to point to a non-vob file, but I doubt it.

2) TViX is supposed to support transparancy on icon files, so you could create a n icon file the correct size (100x136) filled with transparancy (TViX uses RGB color 255,33,252 as transparent) and put your "real" icon in the middle. That way the TViX won't try to rescale the icon. My program cannot really help with this, and since the icon is still 100 x 136, the TViX won't let you put more of them on the screen.

3) If the main file is "VIDEO_TS.IFO", then you should (I don't think I've tried it) be able create an icon of whatever you want, save it as "VIDEO_TS.jpg" or "VIDEO_TS.png" and that will be your new icon. This feature may be dependent on your firmware version.

... Also is there away to tell the tvix where to put the Icons? If I put icon.tvix in the video_ts folder then the tvix wants to put the icons in front of the movie description.
I want the icon to be a play button :D above the description

I don't know of any way to specify where the icons go. I don't use the icon view for this reason. I can be reasonably sure of where my safe space is by using the file listing mode, and by separating the VIDEO_TS files into a separate folder.

efong

02-27-07, 05:10 PM

...I would request the possibility to rate a movie in half stars, so you can give a movie for example 3,5 stars. ...Example: http://www.movie2movie.nl/images/waardering/groot/ster35.gif

Thanks for the praise!

I've been thinking about the best to do partial-stars for a while now. I'm sure I'll work it into the program at some point.

takecontrol101

02-28-07, 11:18 AM

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I have been waiting for something like this for a long time. I attached the original tivix back ground; I think it looks better with the darker back ground, at least on my projector it dose.

Thanks,

FLABOY

02-28-07, 09:47 PM

efong can I get a jpg of just your background like the design just want to make the color dark red to match the theater room. :D

efong

02-28-07, 11:56 PM

efong can I get a jpg of just your background like the design just want to make the color dark red to match the theater room. :D
I's included with the pogram, but here it is. I didn't create it - I just found it on the web & cropped it to size. it was on a Mac OSX backgrounds gallery i think.

FLABOY

03-01-07, 06:10 AM

Thanks! :D

nlindholm

03-01-07, 06:17 AM

EFONG

One thing (and I just might have missed this in all the commotion) :
There was discussion about saving the template so I don't have to re input samt size
same fix place for this and that, can I do this ? I cannot seem to find a "Save template"
button :-(
If it's in this thread somewhere I do appologize

regards
Nik
ps. Used your program on 24 movies sofar.. Got 78 to go.... phew ds

efong

03-02-07, 12:52 AM

...I cannot seem to find a "Save template"...

The Open and Save Template options are in the "Template" menu - there's no button on the form for it.

p.s. as shown in the screenshot - partial stars will make it into the next release...

nlindholm

03-02-07, 02:05 AM

The Open and Save Template options are in the "Template" menu - there's no button on the form for it.

p.s. as shown in the screenshot - partial stars will make it into the next release...

Sorry mate. I missed that one. Got it now though :D

Cheers
Nik

FLABOY

03-03-07, 10:00 AM

Ok lets start seeing what you guys are doiing with the WIB-T. Iwant to see some examples and Im sure efong would like to too. :D

FLABOY

03-03-07, 10:03 AM

efong - was wondering if any automation was coming in the near future most of us have more than a few dvd/cds we could use some automation :)

Let us know

tolax

03-03-07, 11:08 AM

efong

03-03-07, 06:33 PM

Nearly all of my movies are single file either .iso or .avi. How well does this work with that. At the moment I have a screen of movie covers and I just click to start playing the one I want.

In an ideal world I guess I would like one click and the movie info comes up (as per the screenshots in this guide) then another click to start the movie. Maybe I could create a blank icon for the movie so it does not appear on the movie info screen......

Anyone using it like this?...

It would be easy to do what you want (mostly)

Using your screen of movie covers, you would click on one to go to the movie's folder. That folder is where the wallpaper is located, so you sould see the movie info as you would like. If you have a single file, and the name is short enough, the file name will not block any of the movie info wallpaper. You will see your movie info, an icon for taking you back a folder, and one for your .avi/.iso. Click on that icon and it starts playing.

You can go one step further and change the icon for the .iso or .avi to a "play" symbol or the blank symbol you were talking about. For the blank one, you'd probably need a 100x136 png (jpg probably won't work) filled with the "transparency" color RGB 255,33,252. Your firmware also needs to support transparent icons. What you cannot do is to hide the .avi or .iso file name. You could rename them all "Play Video"....

efong

03-03-07, 06:44 PM

efong - was wondering if any automation was coming in the near future ...

No plans in the near future for automation.

After the next release (probably tomorow or the next day), I have to focus on planning a 1st birthday party for my daughter including 200+ people (1st birthdays are big celebrations in Hawaii). Have to create the invites, favors, video slideshow, etc, etc.

Once I can work on WIB-T again, there are some issues I've found so far:
1) Webscraping/screenscraping/grabbing data from a website using automated means isn't allowed on all websites (IMDB for one explicitly forbids it, which is ironic since most of their info is entered by Internet users, not by IMDB)
2) I haven't found a site that has great info - I usually go to 2 or 3 before I like the description/synopsis. Which site(s) should be used, and do I present all the data for the user to choose from?

If someone else wants to tackle the grabbing of info/graphics from websites, the information can easily be placed into the folder.wid and folder.wig files for WIB-T to read. folder.wig is just a PNG format file of the graphic, and the .wid file is just a text file that if you open it, it's easy to see how to modify it. (one note: since data is limited to one line, use "<br>" for a new line marker)

efong

03-04-07, 09:20 PM

Post #4 updated with version 0.80 build 10

I'll have to take a 3-month break from adding new features (at least big ones), but I can probably handle bug fixes, so let me know if you find some.

0.80 Build 10
* Completely changed all of the code's variables to be class-like. An example is the Title Text's Left position is now config.wallpaper.text(0).left.value, while the minimum and maximum values are stored in config.wallpaper.text(0).left.min and .max. Over 2000 changes in the code for this one, and only about 500 could be done by find/replace. :( Because of the complete rewrite, some things that worked in previous versions may be broken now.
* Completely changed all of the code relating to the Template System. It is now much more modular and easier to make changes to in the future. Some field and section names have changed for the .wit files themselves, but the program *should* read from the new fields and if nothing is found, check the old fields also. Because of the complete rewrite, some things that worked in previous versions may be broken now.
* When Saving a Template, you can more easily see which settings will NOT be saved as part of that template.
* The program no longer needs the file "vbalColumnTreeView6.ocx" file
* Added the ability to select a JPG quality setting from four. The top setting, "Excellent" has better color accuracy than the method used before. The original method is now "Superb", and I have added "Great" and "Good" for those who may want so save space. You can compare the quality and size of each method (zooming from 1 to 5 times to see detail), or select a quality to "always" use, bypassing the selection process in the future.
* Implemented a Photoshop 7.0-like (RGB mode only) color picker rather than the previous one was not very flexible.
* Better error trapping when entering values manually. Entering 40000 into the "Left" Position field of the Title would previously crash the program - this type of crash should be greatly reduced or eliminated.
* Partial Stars are now available. You can specify "2.5 stars out of 4" now. You were previously limited to whole numbers.
* The program's height is now 714 pixels high, down from 728 pixels to help those with only 720 pixel-high screens - still not perfect, but better.

efong

03-05-07, 12:34 AM

Post #4 updated with version 0.81 build 11

Build 10 wasn't quite up to par for a release - build 11 fixes some minor but noticable issues.

I think I'm finally happy enough with it to start using it on my TViX!

0.81 Build 11
* Fixed the "Open a Template" form, which was not cleaned up yet.
* The program will now start on the "Background" tab - build 10 started on the "Misc" (stars) tab, which was a strange place to start.
* Added the ability to copy the video_ts.jpg file into subfolders that contain DVD files. This is to provide instruction to the TViX viewer on how to start the DVD amid all of the confusing VOB and IFO files. (See post #2). You can set whether this happens "Always", "Never", or if you should be "Ask"ed in the preferences menu.

ttxx

03-05-07, 07:51 AM

am I the only one not able to download the file from ohshare?

nothing really happens when i click on the "Download File".....

efong

03-05-07, 09:39 AM

am I the only one not able to download the file from ohshare?
nothing really happens when i click on the "Download File".....

The download link stopped working, so I built the plainest website ever for you to download WIB-T from. Go to http://wib-t.wyri.net (no www)

mathijs

03-05-07, 10:56 AM

The new build 11 works very smoothly, I like the .5 stars and the possibility to save the images in an even better way!

I've got 1 (big) problem: loading a template doesn't work, cause the 'folder select button' isn't doing its job :confused:

nlindholm

03-05-07, 03:55 PM

efong

03-05-07, 08:58 PM

...loading a template doesn't work, cause the 'folder select button' isn't doing its job :confused:
It looks like that button never did work. It works in build 12. If the WIB-T.exe looks for templates in the folder that WIB-T.exe is in by default, so if the templates were there, it should have listed them. Find Build 12 in post 4, and on the http://wib-t.wyri.net website

Looking into a reported issue of pinkish outlines on graphics where it should be transparent. Reported that it was working in build 8, but not in 11...

ttxx

03-06-07, 02:53 AM

The download link stopped working, so I built the plainest website ever for you to download WIB-T from...

Thanks, works great!

XBMC gets it's info from imdb so I guess they doesn't care about imdb's strange license clause

couldn't wib-t also have an option to do the same? I can't see that it would generate to much traffic to imdb that they would notice, specially when it is normal web traffic and you could reuse ie components or set a normal User Agent string in the request

wpang

03-06-07, 03:41 AM

Thanks for the effort, it works great so far!

Template saving and loading work, except that the background image doesn't get loaded even thou the value gets save correctly. If i recall, the default background button is looking for "defaultBG.jpg" but the installed file is "default.jpg". Not a big deal, just rename and it will run.

It will be great if there's an option to generate icon file with the size of 100x136 from the cover art. The file could be named folder.jsp so that browsing from the parent folder shows the icons rather than the normal directory structure.

I am using the following directory structure:

Video (Folder)
|---DVD (Folder)
|---icon.tvix
|---ANT BULLY (Folder)
|---ANT BULLY.iso
|---folder.jpg
|---folder.wid
|---folder.wig
|---TViX.jpg

mathijs

03-06-07, 11:28 AM

efong

03-06-07, 01:17 PM

My fontsize gets loaded, but the font (arial/verdana) not. It always loads with Verdana... (I made a whole new template in build 12)
Issue was related to the Template System rewrite - it's fixed in build 13.

efong

03-06-07, 01:21 PM

...It will be great if there's an option to generate icon file with the size of 100x136 from the cover art...
Possibly in a future version, but as a new feature, it would have to wait until I have a lot of time to throw at the program again.

mathijs

03-06-07, 04:35 PM

Issue was related to the Template System rewrite - it's fixed in build 13.
Thanks!

Another thing: the fill color of the "empty" stars isn't loaded either from my template. Every time I load my template, the fill color is set to transparant again (but I saved the template with for example a white fill color).

efong

03-08-07, 02:22 AM

... the fill color of the "empty" stars isn't loaded either from my template. Every time I load my template, the fill color is set to transparant again (but I saved the template with for example a white fill color).

When I looked to see how the program was processing boolean (Yes/No, True/False, Checked/Unchecked) items like the "Empty Stars are Transparent", there was no code there at all! must have forgotten about it. Anyway, fixed in build 14, on the website (which doesn't suck quite as bad anymore) and in post #4

mav7256

03-13-07, 02:25 PM

lukas718

03-13-07, 04:00 PM

efong

03-14-07, 03:31 AM

hi efong,

first of all, great tool! i have been using this for quite some time now and my wife is really impressed with the tvix because of the wallpaper (she dont want to touch the tvix before).

anyway, now, i cannot run the program and am getting a runtime error 6 (overflow). counter stops at 84% while loading fonts then the error message will appear. any thoughts?

thanks!

Not sure why it would error out in the Font loading section, but I have attached a program that pretty much does the same thing WIB-T does in the font init section but gives tons of debug info. Please run and private message me with the results, or at least the parts with errors. (Second column is the error code - 0=no error) That will hopefully give me an idea of why or where it's having the issue.

Updated test app to actually trap errors instead of crashing

nlindholm

03-14-07, 03:47 AM

hi all
is there a way of removing icons on the top of the screen when looking up cover and movie description ? (icons like hdd, network, usb, usb)
also how can I remove folder path beeing dispalyed on the bottom of each dir ?

Thanx guys

P.S awsome soft

Hi Efong. Haven't posted in a while because I have been a happy user of your prog. I do however agree with lukas718 here about "blanking out" the icons
for usb1 2 and the others "upstairs". My Title is normally up there and is screened.
Not a dealbreaker since I can easily move the title of the movie but once in a move
folder, what's the use of seeing them at all I wonder ? :rolleyes:
I assume this is a TViX issue though and not doable but if anyone can, Efong CAN !

Cheers
Nik

mav7256

03-14-07, 11:38 AM

efong,

ran the app but still got the same error. it stopped at 84% and gave a runtime error 6. already pm'd u.

efong

03-14-07, 02:00 PM

is there a way of removing icons on the top of the screen when looking up cover and movie description ? (icons like hdd, network, usb, usb)
also how can I remove folder path beeing dispalyed on the bottom of each dir ?

That is definitely a TViX thing - as far as I know, you can't do anything about it unless DVICO makes a firmware change that lets us hide it with the remote or by checking for a special file in the folder like they do the icon.tvix file to change the file list into an icon list

mav7256

03-14-07, 11:12 PM

hi efong,

thanks for spending the time to sort this out. you're way better than software support from other companies. i attached the captured error here.

efong

03-15-07, 04:01 AM

hi efong,

thanks for spending the time to sort this out. you're way better than software support from other companies. i attached the captured error here.

Thanks for the kind words!

I found the problem - if you added fonts recently, that would explain why the problem just started. The problem occurs if you have over 335 fonts on your PC.

Technical reason:
When I calculate the Font Loading percentage complete, my formula multiplies the current font number by 100, then divides the product by the total number of fonts. Unfortunately, the way I wrote the formula, the multiplication is done using Integer variables, which max out at a value of 32767. Starting with font #328, the calculation goes beyong the maximum value and "overflows". I only calculate and update the staus every 16 fonts, so font number 336 was actually the one to crash you.

The fix:
I changed the way I calculate the percentage so that the caculation won't overflow: I divide first, then multiply.

The catch:
Although I've updated the code to fix this problem, I am adding a feature to the picture editor so that you can get to the bottom corners of the image even if it's taller than the screen. This will help people that use large sized images on smaller screens (like I do). Since the picture editor portion is torn apart, I'll have to wait until I put it back together before I can compile and post a new version - hopefully this upcoming weekend sometime.

mav7256

03-15-07, 09:25 AM

hi efong,

i remembered that i installed office 2007 enterprise edition before this all happened. it is probably the culprit. :confused: :p

anyway, thanks again! i'll just wait for the next release! :D

efong

03-20-07, 04:15 AM

Changing the picture editor is harder than I thought. Still working on it - I'll hopefully have something by this weekend...

For people who sometimes use images bigger than their screen (like me), painting or manually cropping from the bottom of the image was almost impossible. I am adding two editor views: full image, which is scrollable, and "Four Corners", which shows the four corners of the image, where most of the painting will be anyway. "Four Corners" sure looks strange, but I think it'll be a great addition. Oh, and you can zoom in from 1x (normal) to 5x in both views.

efong

03-25-07, 02:22 AM

Although it's not perfect, I put enough of the picture editor back together to compile a new version.

I've spent about 12 hours on it - this is my third version of the way I handle dragging the crop edge markers.

At first I added the "Four Corners" view, then I added the scrollable "Full Image' view. With the full image view in the program, the four-corners view really isn't needed, so I may remove it unless people find it useful.

Notes:
Using the Full Image editor vs the Four Corners is different for now.
In the full image view, if you left-click on one of the crop lines, you can move the line. If you left-click anywhere else in the picture, you can preview applying paint / transparency. You have to click it again to actually apply it.

In four corners mode, each section acts a little differently, if you left-click in one of the four corner areas, you can preview applying paint / transparency. left-clicking again will allow you to apply or cancel the paint. Clicking on the crop lines does nothing. Right-clicking in one of the four corners will set the crop box's corner. If you are in the upper-right box when you right-click, it will set the upper-right corner of the crop box where your mouse cursor is. In the four edge sections, top, bottom, left, and right, you cannot paint, but if you right-click, you can set the crop edge. If you are in the bottom edge box, then right-clicking will set the bottom crop edge to where your mouse cursor was.

I'll probably add the dragging of the crop lines into the four corners mode eventually.

There are a couple of tweaks I plan to make in the next week or so, but other than that, it's back to no major updates to the program in a while.

jorel9

04-14-07, 01:19 AM

hello,
i have been using this program on my xp computer since it first came out. and i am very happy with it. i just bought a notebook running vista, and i'm having problems installing it. here is the error.... "Run-time error '339': component 'tabctl32.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid." any suggestions? thanks in advance.

jorel9

04-17-07, 03:35 PM

efong, help please.....thanks

questing222

04-22-07, 05:12 PM

Great thread... This is almost exactly what ive been doing recently to make the UI a bit more appealing, although ive been using photoshop which can be a bit of a pain especially when doing multiple tasks at speed.

I'll give this a try as it seems a much easier way...

This is what i managed to create with photoshop. Its a bit plain but it gets the job done.

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9169/54052066qv2.jpg

A decent representation of how it looks on the M5000

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3756/52439986gt1.jpg

pagercam

05-13-07, 08:02 PM

Absolutely fantastic program, great work!!!!
Does anyone have the positions of the text that are overlayed (icons and directories), it might be helpful to include an overlay of a sample scenario so that when you layout the wallpaper you can work around the over items that will be on the screen to get even spacing and proportions.

Thanks, this is a terrific program, unfortunately there are always a few more feature that could be added, SW is never totally done!

base428

05-26-07, 10:41 PM

I had problems installing it on WinXP SP2 when both the installer files and the latest WIB-T.exe file were in the same directory. Separating the two files in different directories prior to installation was the solution.

Many thanks for a great Tvix application. My wife will love this.

Tux

06-22-07, 07:03 PM

Hi.

Just wanted to thank you for this software. Great job efong :)

Cheers.

Charlie97L

06-27-07, 11:35 AM

nlindholm

06-28-07, 02:23 AM

can you set this up with an episodic summary as well? this works with the 4100 as well?

looks pretty sweet. the only thing holding me back from getting a Tvix 4000/4100 is the user interface.

now, question, does this allow for thumbnails prior to the main selection screen you've posted pictures of? i've read the whole thread and i'm not clear on that.

Yes Charlie it does allow for thumbnail
This however has nothing to do with efongs program but rather the tvix itself
insert a "folder.png" or a "folder.jpg" into the folder you want a thumbnail on
and add a blank notepad icon and name that "icon.tvix" in the folder "above"
this and you will have a thumbnail looking like whatever you have made as a
"folder.jpg". For best results make them 100*136 big
Hope that helps you
:rolleyes:
Nick

cdukes

07-22-07, 06:53 PM

Hi, just found this program and was messing around with it.
I run Linux, so I was a bit disappointed to see it only ran in windows...I couldn't get it to load using Wine either.

Anyhoo...

I have about 300-400 folders, so I wrote a small perl script that will go out and grab info from Yahoo movies/Imdb and create a description in the movie's folder based on the directory name as well as grab a cover.jpg file.

In linux, I just change to my "Movies" directory and run:

find . -type d -exec /scripts/tvix/tvixinfo.sh '{}' ';'

Here's the contents of this shell wrapper, which is used to call the perl script:

#!/bin/sh
wd=`pwd`
td="$1"
title=`basename "$td"`
if [ "$title" != "." ]; then
cd "$td"
echo "Searching for $title..."
/scripts/tvix/imdb.pl "$title"
echo
fi

Here's a copy of the perl script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use WWW::Yahoo::Movies;
use LWP::Simple qw(get);
use Text::Wrap;
use Text::Wrap qw(wrap $columns $huge);
$columns = 65; # Wrap at 65 characters
$huge = 'die';
$huge = 'wrap';
$huge = 'overflow';

my $title = shift || 'troy';
my $matched = get_movie_info($title, 1);
for(@$matched) {
print "Found [$_->{title}] ...\n";
#get_movie_info($_->{id});
}

sub get_movie_info {
my $title = shift;
my $ret_match = shift || 0;
my $ym = new WWW::Yahoo::Movies(id => $title);
#print "Get info about [$title] ...";
my $plot = $ym->plot_summary;
$plot = wrap("","","$plot");
$plot =~ s/\.\.\..*/...\n/;
$plot =~ s/\n/<br>/g;
$ymtitle = $ym->title;
$imdbid = "IMDB-ID=".$ym->id;
$yr = "YEAR=".$ym->year;
$rt = "RUNTIME=".$ym->runtime;
$mp = "MPAA=".$ym->mpaa_rating;
$dt = "DATE=".$ym->release_date;
$dis = "DISTR=".$ym->distributor;
$gen = "GENRES=".join(", ", @{ $ym->genres }) if $ym->genres;
$widinfo = "[General]\nFile Type=WIB-T Data File v1.0\n$imdbid\n$yr\n$rt\n$mp\n$dt\n$dis\n$gen\n[Text]\nTitle=$ymtitle\nDescription=$plot\n";
open (WID, ">folder.wid");
print WID "$widinfo";
close WID;
if ($ym->cover_file) {
my $cover_img = get($ym->cover);
open (JPEG, ">cover.jpg");
print JPEG $cover_img;
close JPEG;
}

return $ym->matched if $ret_match;
}

Now, my problem is this:
Is there a name I can give the cover.jpg files so that this program will automatically import it as the cover icon for that directory so that I don't have to click browse every time?
Also, can you please add an option to not pop up a message ever time saying it has saved the wallpaper? that gets fairly annoying after 100 or so times :-)

I'd *LOVE* to see someone re-write this for Linux :-)

- Clayton Dukes

mkopel

07-26-07, 11:17 PM

When I try to load the file structure for the first time the program sits there for a while and then the hour glass comes up. The program then says it is unresponsive and I have to kill it with the end now button. I am trying to read the directory structure from z: and I can browse my NAS no problem over the pc.

any ideas?

Thanks for the great software, I just hope I can get it working..

jabear

08-05-07, 04:22 PM

This is a BRILLIANT piece of work. That is all.

VidSavage

08-06-07, 01:39 PM

Just wanted to add my .02 and say thanks for the software, its a fine piece of work, I am much happier with the interface of my 4100 now days.

Great Work!! and thanks for all the effort!!

killerx

08-15-07, 12:16 AM

Great work! Love it so much!

FCBelser

08-25-07, 07:35 PM

1) The TViX displays every file it associates with Audio, Video, or Photos and does not display anything else. (This is why the folder.wid and folder.wig files do not show up) The only way to hide a file is to change its extension, but in the case of a VIDEO_TS folder, I think the .VOB and .IFO files must be named that way. I don't know if there's a way to edit the .ifo file to point to a non-vob file, but I doubt it.

2) TViX is supposed to support transparancy on icon files, so you could create a n icon file the correct size (100x136) filled with transparancy (TViX uses RGB color 255,33,252 as transparent) and put your "real" icon in the middle. That way the TViX won't try to rescale the icon. My program cannot really help with this, and since the icon is still 100 x 136, the TViX won't let you put more of them on the screen.

3) If the main file is "VIDEO_TS.IFO", then you should (I don't think I've tried it) be able create an icon of whatever you want, save it as "VIDEO_TS.jpg" or "VIDEO_TS.png" and that will be your new icon. This feature may be dependent on your firmware version.

I don't know of any way to specify where the icons go. I don't use the icon view for this reason. I can be reasonably sure of where my safe space is by using the file listing mode, and by separating the VIDEO_TS files into a separate folder.

My 4100 is on the way, so I haven't had time to experiment with it yet.

I'm wondering if an icon could be created that is the same size as the wallpaper and completely transparent except for a "Play" symbol. This would position "Play" (or some other symbol or text) anywhere over the wallpaper. Does the TViX firmware allow this or would it rescale the icon and make this idea useless?

Thanks for the GREAT software!

kennyGzor

09-03-07, 09:37 AM

Any luck with auto. adding covers etc from imdb or other pages?

globalhopkins

09-10-07, 09:57 AM

pagercam

09-10-07, 01:22 PM

I tried installing / running the program and I get an error message stating that file "vbalcbex6.ocx" is missing. After doing an internet search I see that it is 'trusted' and a program from Mindsoft Utilities use it.

I installed the Mindsoft Utility called Registry Cleaner but that didn't help. I still get the error.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might be causing this? and how to fix?
This file is in the Full Installer version at the top of the page at http://wib-t.wyri.net/downloads.asp
After you have installed that you can write the EXE versions on top to get the latest.

globalhopkins

09-10-07, 11:22 PM

That worked! Thanks for the Info!

Tim Smith

09-11-07, 11:00 AM

Ya know, it might be useful to make this a web-based app. Use imagemagik for the image manipulation and amazon's API to grab title info.

The benefit of using the web is that other users' creations could be hosted on the site and people wouldn't need to create their own. For example, you could enter a title like "A Bug's Life" and before trying to fill in info about it, the site would return a list of pre-existing jpgs created for "A Bug's Life."

If nothing already exists the user could create it and it would be saved for the next user.

Now, if only I had the time.

globalhopkins

09-18-07, 01:22 PM

After having just created JPGs for 20 movies to see how it goes, this sounds like a great idea. I have 100's more movies to go. This could really be useful and a timesaver. I would be willing to upload the ones I have. Could be done based on different backgrounds.

pagercam

09-18-07, 01:54 PM

I was looking for way to automate the building of these pages and found the Ant Movie Catalog software that automates much of this.

http://www.antp.be/software/moviecatalog/

It is free software so the price is right. You enter the name of each film (get a directory off the ftp of your disk) and it creates a database of your movies. It has an internet search option that fills in all the parameters for each movie. They have multiple search options one of which searches Amazon to get an image of the DVD package and then gets the director, actors, film length (time) ratings and texual synopsis of the movie from IMDB.com. This is all the info you would need to populate the fields in WIB-T. This search is intelligent enough to pull all the available images off Amazon (or another source, there are at least 100 options) so you can select the cover from the widescreen, fullscreen, special double disk version, etc.. if there were multiple releases. It also lets you select from the multiple synopsis' as IMDB ussually has 3 or more for each movie.

The Ant software can repeat this search on each movie in your collection, I was able go through about 120 movies in 90 minutes or so, its a reasonably quick process. Some movies can be processed without any user intervention in 20 seconds, others like a Star Wars movies that has had 10+ releases requires you to check out the versions and this can take a couple of minutes.

I was planning to write a script that takes the Ant output and reformats it to the WIB-T format so that everything could be ready for each movie. The WIB-T software isn't designed for any batch processing, so you need to manually load files for each movie. The WIB-T supports reloading of saved parameters including image but there is a bug that it doesn't upload the image. So you can build a template, use a script to insert all the info and text, into the template file (I've done it manually and it works), load the template into WIB-T and manually load the image and save the output.

Its a little hand work but not bad. I was hoping the athour efong would come back fix the few bugs and add this functionality but he hasn't returned yet. Once I write the script it should be only 3 hours to go from a listing of 100 movies to having backgrounds for each.

Huckster

09-22-07, 07:39 AM

pagercam - When you are done, will you make your resulting scripts available? I'd REALLY like to use these tools but I can't bring myself to learn about templates and all this other stuff.

jofa

09-22-07, 08:04 AM

I used Ant Movie catalogue and tried to make a script that output an HTML page suitable for Tvix and then use HTMLtoJPEG conversion software to get the 720x480 jpeg.
But it always failed in the HTMLtoJPEG step in that the file size almost never became 720x480. That's another way of doing it. Perhaps anyone can give some help on the conversion step?

I also found Med's Movie Manager
http://xmm.sourceforge.net/ which does similar things as Ant Movie Catalogue. It can fetch movie names from directory names, it's open source and could perhaps be extended to create JPEGs. I haven't got the time to look into how difficult it would be yet. Anyone with more sparetime is welcome to look into that option as well.

/J

s41nt

09-22-07, 11:18 AM

[QUOTE=cdukes;11096500]Hi, just found this program and was messing around with it.
I run Linux, so I was a bit disappointed to see it only ran in windows...I couldn't get it to load using Wine either.

Anyhoo...

[Snip]/QUOTE]

This is an excellent piece of work. Now all we need to do is automate creating the image.

I presume WIB-T can't be updated to run from the command line? We could update your Linux script to call it (running via Wine) to do this automatically?

Would the author consider adding this functionality?

Kind regards

S41nt

pagercam

09-24-07, 05:10 PM

If I ever get it working I'd be happy to release it to the community.

Worked on the basics while I was waiting on getting my backordered 4100, once I got the 4100 I've been too busy watching videos to work on script.

Maybe its time to get back to working on a pages for each movie!

carlsberg112

09-27-07, 12:53 AM

Well its a great little prog , i been using awhile now .
Hope u can release it soon .

alicandemir

10-09-07, 04:19 AM

please somebody take a video for how can do it(sory for bad english)

carlsberg112

10-23-07, 05:47 AM

Hello ..
Can u update it so it works in vista ?
Get error's that its missing files .

/Carlsberg

jorel9

10-27-07, 02:15 AM

After you have installed that you can write the EXE versions on top to get the latest.

don't know much about installing programs, can you please help me on how to do this. how do you write the EXE version on top after installing the full installer?

pagercam

10-28-07, 02:20 AM

don't know much about installing programs, can you please help me on how to do this. how do you write the EXE version on top after installing the full installer?
Install the program, then copy the new .exe into the same folder. This overwrites the original and the new exe runs.

5100sh martyr

10-28-07, 10:17 AM

Can anyone confirm this will work in a M5100SH.

I think the only difference is the shape of the unit, but I will defer to anyones experience or knowledge

carlsberg112

10-28-07, 10:25 AM

Yes it will work .

5100sh martyr

10-28-07, 06:06 PM

Many thanks for the confirmation.

Just need to read through the guide a few times to familiarise myself with what needs doing.

I'll let you (all) know how I get on.

5100sh martyr

10-31-07, 06:21 PM

How long to transfer a dvd?

I am downloading a full length feature film, all the .vob and .ifo files found in the videots folder on the dvd.
I copied them to the share folder for the Dvico Netshre folder then used the copy function on the remote control, to pit them in the Video folder on the hard drive of the M5100SH
.

Each of the 5 single Gb .vob files eem to take around 10 minutes to transfer.

Is this normal, or just indicative that I have yet to connect my 5100Sh into my network correctly.

Is direct usb, with the full speed rear connections of my pc, a quicker option next time?

5100sh martyr

10-31-07, 06:36 PM

Checking from time the files were created until the final one was copied took 1 hour 9 minutes.

I have enabled NFS as the instructions said this was quicker.

is this typical?

TPeterson

10-31-07, 06:53 PM

martyr--

You're posting your questions OT in this thread. I suggest that you read and try the M-5100 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=825089) instead. (Briefly, NFS has nothing to do with ftp transfers or, I think, the copy function. Yes, hooking up the unit as a USB HDD to your PC is much faster)

5100sh martyr

10-31-07, 07:30 PM

Duly noted,
and thanks for your patience.

chris98007

11-03-07, 05:12 PM

Hey guys,

huge program!! this makes it so easy to take the navagation to the next level. I was wondering if anyone ever figured out how to put a play button on the movie page???

alfadog

11-19-07, 11:07 AM

Hey guys!

Where can i download WIB-T installer?
The link in this thread is dead/dont work for me...

/alfadog

pagercam

11-19-07, 12:21 PM

Hey guys!

Where can i download WIB-T installer?
The link in this thread is dead/dont work for me...

/alfadog

Worked fine for me.

alfadog

11-19-07, 12:35 PM

Still no luck with this link for me...
wib-t.wyri.net/downloads.asp

"Server not found" says FireFox and IE..

I can see the cached page via Google but i can´t download any files :-(

carlsberg112

11-19-07, 02:27 PM

http://www.sendspace.com/file/z7pjqz WIB-T_0.89_bld_19.rar

http://www.sendspace.com/file/1q6q34 setup_0.70_bld_4.rar

1ste one is a update for the prog , the second one is the full prog

alfadog

11-19-07, 03:35 PM

Thanx!

jofa

11-20-07, 08:19 AM

Hi,

hmm I never thought of it but this could work:
if you create a "icon.tvix" file in the actual movie directory you will get icon mode and the nice WIB-T background.
You then create a JPG-icon looking like a play button, with the same name as the movie file.
Experimenting with the icon size and WIB-T layout could perhaps create an acceptable combination of Play-button icon and movie info background.

Please inform us of any successful combinations.
I won't have time to test this anytime soon...
/J
Edit: forgot to quote of course... :p Anyway this is a response to the question of Play-button and movie layout.

hooby

11-24-07, 09:01 AM

Hi, i recently bought a Tvix but i was wondering how i can add a box cover image of a movie to my folder. I want to create a folder that has the box cover of a tv series and then when i click on it it go's to next folder where i can select the episodes. Like in this picture: "http://www.hooby.be/00481067.jpg"
I found this picture on the internet so it's possible to do it but i can't figure out how. I can add a picture of a box cover to an .avi file but it doesn't work for a folder in the same way right?

hooby

11-24-07, 10:11 AM

Never mind allready found it.:)

chris98007

12-07-07, 11:37 AM

jofa

12-08-07, 07:34 AM

hey all, I have been using this and its great. Very simple. I was wondering if anyone ever found a way to replave the title of the movie with a play button?

Once you get to the movie page and it shows a pic and description the title of your movie is listed above it. Mine are all .ISO. Would love to find a way to replace the movie link with a button to start the move.

Thanks
Well
apperently you didn't read or understand my post 3 posts above.
Now I've had time to test the theory and it works and could probably look very nice. I'll try to explain it better.

1. Create the movie folder and info as usual with WIB-T or the new tool (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=951350)
2. Add an icon.tvix file in the folder where your .iso file is.
3. Create or find a play button picture, such as this
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:rDcq9b70jY20qM:http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/381029/2/istockphoto_381029_play_button.jpg
4. Place the play button image in the same folder as your .iso and rename it to the same name as the .iso (but keeping the extension)
I.e. You have Movie.iso then name the image Movie.jpg or Movie.png
Preferably the icon shall have transparent background.
5. The original upfolder icon will be on top of the WIB-T cover art, so you need to move the cover art some, and preferably create a smaller upfolder icon by creating an upfolder.png or .jpg

I can't post any pics since I currently don't have any camera :(

I.e. the following folder contents:
Movies/
Movies/icon.tvix
Movies/Movie/
Movies/Movie/folder.jpg <-- this is the DVD cover which appears on the folder level above
Movies/Movie/Movie.iso
Movies/Movie/Movie.jpg or.png <-- this is the play button
Movies/Movie/upfolder.jpg or .png <-- this is a better/smaller looking upfolder icon
Movies/Movie/tvix.jpg <-- this is the usual WIB-T generated movie background

If you manage to find or create good looking Play and upfolder icons please post them here. I haven't found any that makes it look great yet.

/J