[Phat Phreddy]

It occurred to me that even though I have promoted the use of Talisman on the HTPC forum to hide Windows and provide a GUI for Home Theater, I have never mentioned it in here...


Although it is OT as far as digital projectors (I can say in my defence I have just added digital projector phase and tracking under the setup screen http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/cool.gif ) I thought that many of the target audience of this GUI may not come into the HTPC forum so...


If you have a HTPC and run at SVGA resolutions this GUI can be installed so you can launch it at startup or completely replace the windows shell... It will launch applications (once you configure it with the application path of course) and the most recent looks like this...

http://www.htpc-ui.gadgetland.net/images/screen32-1.jpg


For the PC phobic it makes the HTPC experience much more intuative (my GF now happily manipulates my HTPC) and any way to aviod seeing Windows is a blessing...


There are other GUI's (called 'themes' with Talisman) on the website that links on my sig..


Apologies if this is too far OT but I figured many digital projector users may be using a HTPC for the performance but dont tweak and play (and dont hang out 25 hours a day in the HTPC forum !!) too much.. This app just gives that UI layer a 'cleaner' interface...


Hope it is useful



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[email protected]
HTPC without using windows... GUI Front Ends for Home Theater


[This message has been edited by Phat Phreddy (edited 04-28-2001).]

 

[Martin P]

Looking better all the time PP. If this trend continues the rest of the family will be able to run the HT and then where will I be.

Do you explain how to configure for individual setup in the HTPC area?

 

[Mark Hunter]

Phred,


I don't think that this is OT at all! We talk scalers and HTPC in this forum all the time, as we are always looking for the way to get the most out of our digital projectors.


This is looking really good! Thanks for sharing.

 

[kelliot]

Why won't it run in XGA?


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Ken Elliott

 

[Phat Phreddy]

kelliot, there is no reason that this cannot be done to run at XGA or for that matter at any custom T&R, HDTV resolution etc (in fact in my HTPC forum post you may notice I am asking people to come forward and make it clear what resolutions are most required) but....


The way Talisman works relies on positional placement of image / button / screen items... This image placement is screen pixel X,Y coordinates and as such if you put my SVGA UI's on a XGA (or other resolution) the formatting gets screwed up.... Unfortunately it doesn't 'scale' keeping image placement....


We can solve this one of a few ways...

• You can petition me with what resolutions you want and I will try and make them as time permits... This will probably be the slowest but I will do my best.
• You can use the Themes (included GFX) I have made now and tinker around with repositioning the items (Talisman is very easy to get to grips with) I have had a look at making a XGA version and if I resized the background image to 1024x768 even though the menu choices would be a little smaller in relative terms than SVGA it would still work visually.. I could also add some DD DTS and THX logo's to the blank space above the menu choices to balance out the blank areas... This is really only a couple of hours work (max) and anyone could accomplish this easily. If anyone does a XGA (or any other) repack I will happily host it and credit them for the help (I really welcome any and all collaboration). This method will not work to take it up to SXGA as then the GFX will just be too small to look OK so...
• Lastly I have all (I think !!) the image files that make up this theme in macromedia fireworks format... There is a 30 day trial and if anyone wants I will email the GFX and they can export to .BMP at sizes that work for the resolution that they want.. This obviously will be the best result but the most work (but this is what I will offer to do if no one else takes up the baton and it is wanted... just expect it to take longer as I have no use for these resolutions so priorities may slip...)

Future versions will be anamorphically pre-stretched (once the Pannie hits my doormat) and I have some grand ideas (that I am unsure I am capable of creating) of an animated intro of red velvet curtains opening to reveal a cinema screen of menu choices.. The menus could be selected with rollover buttons on 'footlights' with the appearance of projecting the choices from the lights... this kind of stuff can be done with Talisman but I am unsure if it can be done by me with Talisman http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif !!


Installing and setting up for your own preferences is easy (you just have to set the properties for each application launching button to have the correct path) I have already set up all the buttons with my own settings so where you would see a buttons properties to include 'C:\\Program Files\\dTV\\dTV.exe' If thats not where your application executable is then just alter it. But to give peace of mind I will prepare a full README.TXT and repack the themes with it this weekend.. This will be a step by step on installing Talisman, unpacking the theme, changing the settings for your setup, etc... I dont think it is really required if you have a go you will see it is pretty straight forward. Any problems email me and I will assist.


I will resist the urge to populate this forum with too much (self) promotion of the UI and will restrict it to the HTPC forum but when any new changes come out I will announce it with a thread link here.



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[email protected]
HTPC without using windows... GUI Front Ends for Home Theater