First Impressions Of Vision...
This skin is really something, and deserves some proper 'first looks' attention, maybe those guys who did a review of MC360 skin would be interested?
I love the look and feel of the skin, beautiful colours from this default (and only) theme at the moment. The coverflow-esque (or at least 'apple-esque') viewing of huge images on the screen I think really brings this in line with other contemporary offerings in the commercial arenas. (such as AppleTV, which (is? or is not out yet).
Big positives in the viewing areas of the skin, tremendous use of space when viewing media libraries and playing also. One suggestion here: I do like the milkdrop vis's, however, maybe something like... (as an extra), when in full-screen mode, to have the album artwork displayed in the centre of the screen. (and with larger font?)
The font, speaking of which, is lovely, very nice on the eyes, however im slightly torn as to whether the dark(ish) blue is the best choice for highlighted areas on the menus/texts). Also, when playing music.. if you return to hte main menu, perhaps the font showing the alb/artist/song details is a bit small? (I have about a 28" tv, not widescreen (tho i wish it was), but this font size was just a bit small for me. The same I felt for the text on media libraries. It could be said that since this is quite obviously a highly visual skin, that text is not quite so important (since we now have huge displays for the artworks (if using "View: List 2" especially). But it may be something to think about. Just an idea.
When playing music, the main menu displays the cover art in the 'utility belt' area (sorry, not official terms here, just my interperetation); which is a nice touch.
File manager, scripts, weather and settings are tucked away nicely. I do very much like this aspect. I live with a female and she just wants something to watch media/listen media on. Whereas I have a slightly different hat to wear because i sort of setup the xbmc setup and home networking side of things). - it's good to have these things available, but tucked out of the way of the most important things, which is the media! smile.gif thumbs up there!
I can't comment enough about the display of artwork in this skin, for instance in the games/emus/progs menu, having huuuge icons for your items is really nice, and very sensible use of space at the bottom of the screen for the game/emu/prog names (XBE titles). (something that always narked me in other skins) because you'd highlight it and then it would scroll the name. (not that you'd forget what item it is! tongue.gif) because you have images anyways! but it just tidies it up a bit more. kudos.
While talking about use of space, I must also mention the inclusion of 'slide-in' panels. Which you can access from most menus using the Vision skin. They are great for keeping away the clutter, and only are called into view when you move left or right as far as you can go on the sreen you are viewing. They display things such as changing the view type, and also, quite handily, the time and weather conditions). nice!
One thing I think might be quite nice, when viewing music libraries in the List 2 view, I do quite like it when im able to scroll through a list from top to bottom, then when I'm at the bottom, have it loop so im at the top again. (list 2 dosen't work like this, once you're at the bottom, you're at the bottom!, and you're staying there til you move up again).
Pictures: When viewing images full-screen, the text is veeeery small, I do think it would be nice to increase the font size here.
Icons:
My personal opinion is that the best looking icons (used to identify media types and locations), such as.. media on the xbox hard drive, or over network, or on DVD. (as you see when you go into my music, my videos etc..); the best looking/best-designed icons IMO are those used in MC360. They are very clean, very slick. The icons used in Vision, again, im going easy because it's only BETA1), are not quite so nice. It's almost like taking a step back in time regarding icons such as the use of an image of the xbox on the main menu, and heapdphones and cameras to represent a music section or pictures section. In this sense, it's like the Vision skin combines some qualities of apple's aesthetic with some more traditional design associated with xbox media center and it's earlier days.
A suggestion for view types on different 'levels':
One thing I'd quite like, would be a way, perhaps in options, to set view types for different depth levels in media libraries.
To explain, I mean, I have my music organise A-I, J-R and S-Z. At this point, it's nice to view in List 2 mode, and also when I've entered into one of those folders.. to again view in List 2 mode. (cos i can see the huge artwork at the side), but when you then enter into an actual album folder, you would then have to switch through the List view modes, to see it displayed in List 2 fashion. (basically, I'm wanting to keep the album artwork on-screen all the time. so perhaps an option in music options to set different view modes depending on the folder depth levels or something like that? (cos as it stands, I'd have to go into each album, and set to List 2 mode), lotta work!
Well all in all, it seems like EX has almost come early! (despite that this is not EX, it holds some nice features that I think a lot of ppl looking forward to EX will appreciate!)
and so out of the blue too! Great work, looking forward to hearing people's views on the skin and future work that may take place on it!
Top job!
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PS - I think so many of us do quite like the Movie Trailers feature that MC360 built into its Media blade, would be lovely to see this make a return in Vision
And I second the idea of a shutdown menu from the front menu.
This post has been edited by PantsOnFire: Mar 19 2007, 11:24 PM
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Topic: Release: Vision Beta 1 For Xbmc By Ninet9mustang (Read 17101 times)