Theme: blue neon night

[mikeraburn 60]

The problem isn't just the wife and me but also the kids or when in at the in-laws and we all watch something.

 

Your situation is just a tad more complicated!

[BAS 225]

The problem isn't just the wife and me but also the kids or when in at the in-laws and we all watch something.

I get it, kids here as well. I helped with the way it worked in Neo and Square back in the day. I'm sure speechles will figure out the best way to implement for you and others.

[shaefurr 1337]

New version: v3.24

 

 

Anyone good with Photoshop and such willing to help a brother out? Apply within this thead and I promise the tasks will be very easy for you to do. Thanks

 

 

. As for your photoshop I'm sure I could dust off my limited skills and take care of it but @@shaefurr could probably whip up whatever your after in mins even if he doesn't use this client.

 

You are correct sir, I dont even own a Roku lol. But ya if you need something just shoot me a PM.

[Angelblue05 4130]

@@speechles

 

Ok, I have tested it. Marking something as favorite when you have additional users does not also mark them as favorites for other users in the session. However, marking as watched or unwatched does affect additional users. Hope this helps.

[mikeraburn 60]

You are correct sir, I dont even own a Roku lol. But ya if you need something just shoot me a PM.

Outsourcing????

[speechles 1920]

Haw, been out all day and responses.. Wow.

 

@@Angelblue05 good news, less work for the app to manage is always a good thing. Thank you for taking the time to follow up too. I am glad the marking played/unplayed syncs across also watching users. I can see complaints if it didnt. Being late to add this means most of the problems have already been addressed too. Win win.

 

@@shaefurr the issue is the app can only be so big for the roku. I am very close to that size so reducing the images filesize while retaining quality is the tantamount priority. There are two themes in the /images folder within the zipfile in the first post. These images are what need optimizing first. After that is done, I can create the 6 new images I need, but then I would need those new images optimized. So the work will be easy for those who know how to do this. I will get back to you with more infos. I appreciate the offer and will take you up on it.

 

@@BAS I see your post with the bug report. Thank you for testing areas I hadnt gotten around to. I will also get back to you when I start addressing these. The bugs you pointed out will take the highest priority and be corrected before the "also watching" and the new music toggles are worked on further. Thanks for helping sir.

 

@@mikeraburn lol.. Not outsourcing, since the images presently are raw jpg with 10% compression and no optimization there is savings to be had by fixing these. That savings reduces the size of the app and saves bytes we can use for other additions. If I make the app too large it reduces the devices which can load it. To maximize the audience so as many roku models as possible can use it is the goal. Fragmenting the userbase is a last resort. When we move to scene graph and os7 features the older roku models will be unable to participate. At that point the present app will be put on hold, and the new app will take priority. Until then I keep maximizing the current app making it as robust as possible.

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited February 15, 2016 by speechles

[ebr 14935]

Sorry speechles, I didn't see your question until now but I see Angel helped you out.

 

The best way to discover end points is Swagger - although, I know it is quite temperamental these days.

 

This is a great feature but it isn't widely used because it takes so much forethought on the part of the user.  I've implemented the thing in a couple clients and even I forget to go switch it on when watching a movie with my kids.

 

One day, when all these devices have facial recognition like the xbone, we can drive off of that .

[shaefurr 1337]

Haw, been out all day and responses.. Wow.

 

@@shaefurr the issue is the app can only be so big for the roku. I am very close to that size so reducing the images filesize while retaining quality is the tantamount priority. There are two themes in the /images folder within the zipfile in the first post. These images are what need optimizing first. After that is done, I can create the 6 new images I need, but then I would need those new images optimized. So the work will be easy for those who know how to do this. I will get back to you with more infos. I appreciate the offer and will take you up on it.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Ok, well after playing with it for a couple mins I can probably get the jpg sizes down by about 50%, The pngs will be less being a lossless format. If you're happy with the results below let me know and ill batch process the rest.

 

For example

HD Movies jpg was 13.1K and is now 6.46K.

HD border png was 6.64K and is now 4.42K

 

Originals

Optimized

 

One other question, do you need specific formats? For instance can the HD movies icon be presented as a png or does it require its a jpg? I ask because for around the same ~7K file size the png would look better over a jpg.

 

Optimized HD movies jpg converted to png 7.33K

Edited February 15, 2016 by shaefurr

[speechles 1920]

@@shaefurr

 

It looks like those jpg can be png. This will be work for me changing all references in code to use png for those rather than jpg, but that part is easy enough to fix. You can see how blocky and amateur my images look. I spent as little time on those as possible and it shows. My strong point is pixel arts and sprites with mspaint. This skill has only marginal value today so I do appreciate any help talented individuals can offer in making these clearer and better filesizes. I will also credit you for any contributions using the "goodbye" dialog of the app so others will know you helped me out. The goodbye dialog pops up and stays on screen for 3 seconds right before the app fully exits. Any message you want can be there, such as, "The awesome @@shaefurr and his image skills were here!"

Edited February 15, 2016 by speechles

[shaefurr 1337]

@@shaefurr

 

It looks like those jpg can be png. This will be work for me changing all references in code to use png for those rather than jpg, but that part is easy enough to fix. You can see how blocky and amateur my images look. I spent as little time on those as possible and it shows. My strong point is pixel arts and sprites with mspaint. This skill has only marginal value today so I do appreciate any help talented individuals can offer in making these clearer and better filesizes. I will also credit you for any contributions using the "goodbye" dialog of the app so others will know you helped me out. The goodbye dialog pops up and stays on screen for 3 seconds right before the app fully exits. Any message you want can be there, such as, "The awesome @@shaefurr and his image skills were here!"

Oh now you confused me, do you need your current images smaller, or them remade/reworked to be more clear? .. Both?

 

 

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

[speechles 1920]

@@shaefurr Haw, I am sometimes like the jabberwocky when I try to explain.

 

I need them smaller in filesize, and as clear as possible without sacrifice quality. If that means converting them to png, this is fine. The other point was some of my images you can tell look like "$h1t". These are fine left as is, but if you wanted to fix their jaggies too when optimize all then this is fine too. Whatever your timeframe allows.

 

Only the blue neon theme needs this optimizing, then later on in the week I will make 6 more images, 3 for each theme. These new images will also need same optimizing.

 

So in effect, I need to reduce the images filesize to allow adding the 6 new images, and not cause the app to be different in filesize.

 

app code + unoptimized images > ~980kb

app code + optimized images + 6 new optimized images < ~980kb

 

So gain new features and images without the filesize restricting the audience of roku models that can participate in using the app. This is the goal. Hope this explains what, where, and why.

 

I am also as I modify the app changing "multiple space" indents to tab indents to save bytes. Also have been removing the word "then" for any multi-line if statements to save bytes.

Edited February 15, 2016 by speechles

[shaefurr 1337]

@@shaefurr Haw, I am sometimes like the jabberwocky when I try to explain.

 

I need them smaller in filesize, and as clear as possible without sacrifice quality. If that means converting them to png, this is fine. The other point was some of my images you can tell look like "$h1t". These are fine left as is, but if you wanted to fix their jaggies too when optimize all then this is fine too. Whatever your timeframe allows.

 

Only the blue neon theme needs this optimizing, then later on in the week I will make 6 more images, 3 for each theme. These new images will also need same optimizing.

 

So in effect, I need to reduce the images filesize to allow adding the 6 new images, and not cause the app to be different in filesize.

 

app code + unoptimized images > ~980kb

app code + optimized images + 6 new optimized images < ~980kb

 

So gain new features and images without the filesize restricting the audience of roku models that can participate in using the app. This is the goal. Hope this explains what, where, and why.

 

I am also as I modify the app changing "multiple space" indents to tab indents to save bytes. Also have been removing the word "then" for any multi-line if statements to save bytes.

gotcha, ill do what I can this week, was going to start on disparity again, but its been months so another week wont hurt

[Guybren 0]

Great app for the roku. Just what I needed to play my mkv files with 7.1, dts, and truehd. Works like a charm. Thanks for all the work.

[mikeraburn 60]

@@speechles

 

Ok, I have tested it. Marking something as favorite when you have additional users does not also mark them as favorites for other users in the session. However, marking as watched or unwatched does affect additional users. Hope this helps.

 

Marking as watched or unwatched does NOT affect additional users for my configuration.

I have made zero changes to the basic install besides creating users.

My user profile is set as admin while the others are not.

[speechles 1920]

Ok I have tried to go through everything in your posts, and confirm if it works, if I glance over something its because it worked as expected and I like the the way you implemented it. I'm a little concerned on the multiple users at once playstate type thing, i would hope that could be like this. Main user signs in, scrolls to bottom row, in options row would be a also watching area, inside would be the option to select what users you are watching with you, not sure how you would report that to the users after turning it on, like whos all watching, as it could easily be forgotten who is watching.... I also am a little concerned I wouldnt want this on the simple version as I don't want someone adding me as watching with them and making my life very sad when it comes to watch marks... lol, lot to think about on that one I would think. As for your photoshop I'm sure I could dust off my limited skills and take care of it but @@shaefurr could probably whip up whatever your after in mins even if he doesn't use this client.

 

Here are somethings i had questions about or noticed.

 

• if episode has no guest stars or cast and crew option, main cast and crew is not a choice in the menu

• also for some reason when the episode does have cast and crew it also appears as a choice in the more menu, so when in the more menu

  with cast and crew and main cast crew the close window option is scrollable to and useable but not really visible, prefer cast and crew just wouldn't show up here again

• season page, love the ability to add show/series to favorites from *

• Is a side effect of having Goto The Flash if entered by the suggested/next up more menu that it also has to appear when your already in the The Flash via the * menu on season page, if so it's a worthwhile side effect to have it from entering at the next up level

• I have all my users preferences set a certain way one of them in particular is being ignored from the server side to the roku client. Hide watched content from latest media is unchecked, meaning i want them to still appear in latest even if watched. Great for when you fall asleep and just want to get back to it quickly, not so great as it disappears on Roku. Problem exists in official Roku client as well.

• When I use the jump in artist area, there is a * menu that I was hoping might let me add that artist to favorites without entering them. Instead I'm greeted with a cast and crew and close menu, either choice crashes me back to the Roku home screen.

•  

  When browsing library for music with music playing if i switch the * selection from audio to video, i get cast and crew which appears to be invalid for me on any of my artists

  and also an option to add that artist to favorite, which i believe should be moved to the audio equivalent menu if possible

• Was wondering while in music library if we could please have either the capability have a * menu with sort by and sort order for the top albums row, as I would love that row to be sorted by Release Date, Descending
• When in any view that uses what I would call coverflow, mainly artists, albums is where im seeing it is there a way to have an item counter in the top right like almost everywhere else in the client.
• Also when going into Artist/Albums I was wondering once again if the resulting page could be sorted by Release Date / Descending so newest to oldest
• Love the clear playing list, one bug here. If user goes clear playing list while music is playing, so you know instead of hitting stop first. The server reports them still playing from the client and the dreaded flash back and forth happens. So I would imagine the clear playing list option just needs to issue a stop command before clearing.. Love it.

Now I'm going to separate out these next problems as it all relates to multiple servers configured in the client. If you don't have another server to connect to I'm sure @@MrWebsmith or myself can help you out, he has way more upload then me.

• When using sign out on the currently connected server, instead of being presented with user select screen for that server the user is taken to select server screen
• If doing the above the last signed in remembered user is also now signed out on any other servers in your list.
• If the last server the client was connected to is offline, the app responds with can't reach server and quits to roku home screen instead of presenting the server select screen

So for example Smith and I both have an account on each others server for our wives to consume more content. I want to signout of my wifes account while connected to my local server and pick my account. Because of the things listed above, this is what happens, I have to pick my server after signing her out, sign in, watch what i want, sign out, pick my server, pick her account, pick change server, do the manual login on Smiths server so its connected to her account there.

 

Now if it's just her switching back and forth from this point for servers via the change server option works perfectly, it's just the stuff that happens when I want to watch something and I have to sign her out of my server when the problems arise with multiple servers configured.

 

Thanks again for all the hard work. Easiest way to get a hold of me is on Skype.

Top section:

#1 - fixed

#2 - fixed

#3 - awesome

#4 - fixed

#5 - fixed via new preference, "hide watched"

#6 - fixed

#7 - fixed

#8 - not fixed, music doesnt have a context menu yet. This is WIP.

#9 - not fixed, this is a limit of the screen used. We would have to use existing areas where text can be displayed to display the index/totals

#10 - not fixed, this falls in line with #8 above. When 8 gets done so will 10.

#11 - fixed

 

Bottom section:

Your part 1 thru 3 have not been addressed yet. I see the issue with multiple servers and can recreate the failure and app crash. I havent put time into solving it yet as I was working on the above.

 

@@mikeraburn I haven't updated the app yet to include "also watching" for multiple signed in users. I was conferencing with others who already have it in their apps and finding out the best solution for us to have it in this app. It will be forth coming shortly. I do this as a hobby, so the speed of some things relies on my life having free time to devote to this app. Sometimes I have a lot of free time and can do more, other times like this week things were very busy and I was unable to do much. I spent yesterday working through all the above issues. You will be impressed at how the app behaves now.

 

 

New Version: v3.26:

 

* correct bugs on many screens

* clean up audio/video context switcher

* correct audio clearing function

 

Shout out if you have any issues, there were major changes to some screens which invariably may have broken something. If you find something broken shout out and lets get it fixed. Enjoy the new app, both the roku store link and zipfile have been updated.

Edited February 16, 2016 by speechles

[Angelblue05 4130]

Marking as watched or unwatched does NOT affect additional users for my configuration.

I have made zero changes to the basic install besides creating users.

My user profile is set as admin while the others are not.

You are right, I've just retested and it didn't mark as unwatched. I wonder why last time it did, maybe a cache issue? Anyway, thanks for verifying

[speechles 1920]

Just to clarify as it may not be clear, on the poster screen (such as tv-series, people/cast&crew, etc..) if you have music playing in the background you can immediately access the music player or the active screen context menus. The context menu changer is smart enabled, so only appears when it cannot figure out which you want to access.

 

Audio = acts on the music player and presently playing song

Video = acts on the screen and control options for the present screen showing

 

After changing the context changer from one to the other the next press of * invokes the chosen type independently. The context changer menu is a quick way to access both context menus under a single button. When I start work on the music context screen, the audio/video terms may change to sound/screen.

 

There will also be a homescreen context menu to control a few user preferences more quickly. Mainly the "hide watched" from latest row, a way to mark/remove favorite items and mark/remove played directly from the homescreen.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited February 17, 2016 by speechles

[BAS 225]

Well if you said it was fixed, I confirmed it.. All works great. Amazing job. Here is a short list for you

1. Going into a actor, presents filmography, mark person as favorite, and more, in the more menu mark as favorite is listed again, not sure you want to clean that out.
2. If I'm understanding correctly in order for a user to do anything with the delete command in this client they need to be marked as admin. So if an admin has granted a user the option to delete on the server, but they are not set admin, this user can see the delete item in the client, but selecting it crashes to roku home
3. Any way from internet trailers in more menu to goto movie item if it exists, only asking as when i enter the movie, the menu option changes from trailer to trailers if a local and internet trailer exist. So I'm assuming there is some logic there based on ID's in the meta to possibly offer this from internet trailers.
4. Any way that the season page watch marks can refresh after an item is watched. Checkmarks seem to update or reflect on details page going in and out of the items but user must exit season page and reenter for them to be reflected there.
5. I believe I've seen it asked in the past as but just in case, When entering a series and looking at the season page I know the app jumps to the current season a user is on, no way to make it jump to the episode in that season they should be on next?
6. When playing an item and user hits * audio is an option but not subtitles thus making user stop playback pick from Subtitles menu then resume playback
7. This last one might be a bit tricky, but one thing the wife and kids desperately miss from Emby Media Center is the ability to shuffle play content. So for example, user enters The Simpsons, when hitting the play button from the focused episode it would play all in a row from here. Would love to see a option in preference, for a Play Menu.. If user has this on, hitting Play from the focused episode would present the options, Play this season from here, Shuffle Season, Shuffle Series.

 

I'm running out of things to find, thanks again for spending what free time you have to make this app/client so much better can't wait for my external users to get their hands on the latest build in simple. Keep it up man.

Edited February 17, 2016 by BAS

[speechles 1920]

@@BAS Good catch on #2. The delete feature was broken because it was attempt to refresh metadata for the deleted item. Of course it cant do this, instead of the refresh it was supposed to close that screen. Ive fixed that for the next release which will be today in a few hours. I will try to find time to add the homescreen * context menu so you can toggle "hide watched items" and mark/unmark played and favorites directly from the homescreen.

 

To disable delete in the app an administrator must log in and change the preference for "allow delete" to no. After this is done any user logged in with the "canDelete" privilege will not be allowed to delete. This allows the administrator to disable deletes within the roku app independently of the server settings. The app will allow users with "canDelete" privilege to delete by default it is when disabling it and reenabling it that must be done from an administrator. After it is disabled no logged in users will be able to delete items with that roku.

Edited February 17, 2016 by speechles

[speechles 1920]

New version: v3.27

 

* Correct delete

* Correct main cast & crew button

 

To add a context menu to the homescreen was more involved than first imagined. It is using different methos to pop dialogs that doesnt load audio context. So we will come back to it later.

 

Updated both roku store links, force and simple and updated the zipfile. Enjoys

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[JonyV 0]

Nice

[speechles 1920]

Has anyone else noticed when using the jump-in for artist/album that it wasnt updating your choices? It was showing right on the screen, but navigating to the music list it is the wrong music. It is like the left/right ability isnt being updated or used, just displayed. This was a major shortcoming for music.

 

Well, now it isnt anymore. The music screens now update and when clicked into load the correct music lists. This makes music now very strong on the roku.

 

Also went thru and fixed every screen to update on changes. Tv, Movies, Music and Photos. With photos it is possible to watch a slideshow while music plays in the background. You can also use the * button to change music tracks while using the d-pad to navigate photos in the slideshow. This is very cool now to use.

 

Still need to add the "also watching" ability and the "shuffle" when using continuous play. Have not forgot about these, was polish other areas first. Also need to see if I can find why when navigating to a series it isnt landing you on the season and episode that is next up. At the moment it only jumps to the correct season on the first episode. I will hunt down how to make this work right.

 

After my testing tonight I will release a new version for everybody to enjoy tomorrow.

 

.. and @@BAS I need your thorough review of what is, or isnt intuitive to users. You are very good at pointing out these things. Be super critical and not afraid to point out issues. Be sure to check this thread tomorrow for the update.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited February 20, 2016 by speechles

[BAS 225]

Don't you hate it when real life gets in the way of your hobby, I figure once you get the latest update out I'll go back through again but I know you have some outstanding things from previous requests still. One thing I always hear is if the descriptions are to long there is no way to read them.  If roku can't autoscroll that section to show the rest of the text would there be a way to at least allow a manual scroll for the description text area. At least for movies detail page and tv episode details page.

 

One dilemma is there no real landing page for a tv shows description, so that info/description when scrolling the tv show library is nice, it comes nowhere close to letting you read the full description.

Edited February 23, 2016 by BAS

[DerekWilliamsUK 2]

+1 for @@BAS last post. Those Roku shortcomings really bug me too.

[mikeraburn 60]

If you already have an item in your library wouldn't you know what the episode or movie is about?