Kodi skin that is most "Emby Theater" -Like?

[Marc_G 92]

Hi folks,

 

Due to some playback issues I'm having with Emby Theater on my small set top windows box (a Tronsmart Ara X5 plus), I'm looking into Kodi. But, I LOVE the simple ET look. What Kodi skins are, or can easily be configured to be, most like the ET look and feel?

 

Marc

[Jdiesel 1114]

Are you running Jarvis (v16) or Krypton (v17)?

 

@@marcelveldt here on the Emby forums is responsible for the skin Titan so you know Emby support is incorporated. 

 

My personal favorite skin at the moment is Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes. I wouldn't really call it ET like but is really quick and has the features I need (kiosk mode, custom home screen entries, and home skin widgets) plus it looks great and is quick. It is also created by Emby members (currently @@Guardian Hope). To be honest there is more discussion on the Kodi forums for these skins as they are enjoyed by everyone not just Emby users.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/forum/110-skins/

Edited December 21, 2016 by Jdiesel

[Jdiesel 1114]

If you really want the ET look and feel you'll need a skin modeled off of the Xbox interface as thats where ET gets a lot of it's UI from. I have zero experience with this skin but you may want to try out Xperience1080 as it looks similar to ET.

[Marc_G 92]

I'm on the 16.1 stable but could upgrade if it helps. I'm just testing things out on my desktop before I put anything on the small windows box I will eventually use in production.

[Jdiesel 1114]

Krypton (v17) has just released it's final beta and is very stable and perfectly fine for daily use. I would upgrade to the latest beta and see if you like the new default skin Estuary. You may find you like that skin as is.

[CBers 6778]

All skins in Kodi will work with the Emby for Kodi addon.

 

I have been running the Krypton betas since the first beta with no major issues.

 

I use the MIMIC skin.

 

The new default skin in Krypton is called ESTUARY and is much better than the older default one, but not sure how customisable it is.

[Marc_G 92]

My main problem with my newby fumbling use of Kodi / Emby for Kodi skins is that the default skins don't respect my library setups... So "Movies" shows anything movie like rather than just the content of my Emby "Movies" library. So I found skins that you can customize nut ran into a problem where it is treating those added shortcuts as music. Arggg! I have separate threads on these issues.

 

I just as t a nice simple interface that groups my media the way I grouped it in Emby, doesn't clutter things up with previews to media I don't own in my library, and is easy to navigate.

 

Thanks for all the support. I will get there eventually!

[Jdiesel 1114]

You will need a skin that does custom home menu items to achieve that. I do this with Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes quite successfully, in my case a menu for movies and 3D movies on my homescreen. If you are interested I could probably help you set it up when I have some free time.

[Marc_G 92]

Thanks. For some reason Arctic Zephyr doesn't show up for me in the "Get More" skins menu in Kodi. Tonight maybe I will dig in and see where to get it. Thanks. I've been playing with Aeon Nox, Chroma, Titan. 

 

The settings issue (Music/Video) seems easy to fix on some skins and impossible (for me) on others. More work needed, I'm still in newby mode.

[CBers 6778]

My main problem with my newby fumbling use of Kodi / Emby for Kodi skins is that the default skins don't respect my library setups... So "Movies" shows anything movie like rather than just the content of my Emby "Movies" library. So I found skins that you can customize nut ran into a problem where it is treating those added shortcuts as music. Arggg! I have separate threads on these issues.

 

I just as t a nice simple interface that groups my media the way I grouped it in Emby, doesn't clutter things up with previews to media I don't own in my library, and is easy to navigate.

 

Thanks for all the support. I will get there eventually!

 

Have you tried any of @@im85288's skins, such as EUNIQUE or ESTUARIZED ??

[Marc_G 92]

Tried Eunique. Looked cool but my cursor disappears.

 

OK, I upgraded to the beta (not nightly) 17.1 build. A bunch of the skins I had from 16.1 went away as no longer compatible.

 

The big thing is the "Emby libraries show up as music" is a problem. Sometimes I can find the place to switch it to videos, in the XML, but often it switches back.

[Marc_G 92]

So, I'm now on Arctic Zephyr From Ashes Danvers.

 

Why do these skins not show a mouse cursor? Does everybody use touchscreens these days? Is there some way to get the mouse pointer to show?

 

Still dealing with the "movies look like music" issue when I add my libraries.

[Angelblue05 4130]

We will be looking into the shortcut issue. Pointing directly to them via video library should avoid the issue of the shortcut being detected as music. You can also make sure of the smart playlists.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited December 22, 2016 by Angelblue05

[Marc_G 92]

Thanks Angelblue05

 

I found for the AZFA-D skin the Music instead of Videos is in an XML called mainmenu.data.xml in:

C:\Users\[MYACCOUNTNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\script.skinshortcuts

 

I edited it, while Kodi was closed, and now when Kodi opens, I get a note about this being a preview (4.9.91-Beta 5), which takes me to a splash screen like this:

 

 

And it just sits there. Clicking around in the window does nothing.

 

Any idea what gives?  

 

EDIT: Never mind. ESC took me out of that. Not sure why neither right nor left click worked.

 

Is there a way to enable the cursor? It's maddening without it.

Edited December 22, 2016 by Marc_G

[Marc_G 92]

I like this skin (AZ-FA-D). I'm gradually getting the hang of adding media and setting it up. I will have further questions, but one last thing for now.

 

PLEASE tell me there's a way to get the cursor to show up! It's driving me nuts.

[Guardian Hope 117]

I like this skin (AZ-FA-D). I'm gradually getting the hang of adding media and setting it up. I will have further questions, but one last thing for now.

 

PLEASE tell me there's a way to get the cursor to show up! It's driving me nuts.

 

@@Marc_G, welcome to the AZ:FA family! AZ:FA has had a long history; it's the successor to @@im85288 and @@badaas' AZ:E which was for Kodi 15. Project has grown quite a lot since the early days a year ago.

 

AZ:FA doesn't display the mouse cursor because it's really geared towards the "10-foot experience" (i.e. remote on a big screen) but it does seem to work quite well with touch too. However, AZ:FA Danvers does [or should] respond to mouse inputs so you can scroll through the library with the middle mouse ball and left click to select the item that's highlighted (I do this when developing only).

 

As for the Emby nodes issue, a workaround I have found with Krypton is to rather than go through "Add-Ons" to select the library, select Kodi's Video Library and go through the prompts to reach where you can select Video Addons and then select the particular Emby library you want to be displayed on the menu. I think there was a discussion here on how to do it a while ago.

 

AZ:FA Danvers has a lot to explore so let me know if you have questions; as for getting stuck on the splash screen that is a little odd.

[Luke 37144]

Have you seen this?

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42760-emby-theater-on-raspberry-pi/

[Marc_G 92]

Have you seen this?

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/42760-emby-theater-on-raspberry-pi/

Saw it Luke! :-) But I don't have a pi. That's no big impediment, as I could easily get one, but I have an assortment of reasons for wanting a Windows box as my main HTPC. 

 

What I really want is the video engine in Emby Theater to evolve to the point where it is smooth on my Win 10 Tronsmart unit. And, having followed MB / Emby evolution since 2009, I actually have little doubt that it will get there sooner or later, since both MPC-HC and Kodi play smoothly on it already. Or perhaps in six months or a year a higher spec (but still cheap) windows set top box will replace my wimpy Tronsmart. We'll get there. For now, I'm committed to the Tronsmart in the media room, which means either ET-with MPC-HC as external player, or Kodi as my player. For the moment Kodi looks like the smoother solution, though I really want to "come home" to ET as soon as possible.

 

Happy Holidays!

[Marc_G 92]

@@Marc_G, welcome to the AZ:FA family! AZ:FA has had a long history; it's the successor to @@im85288 and @@badaas' AZ:E which was for Kodi 15. Project has grown quite a lot since the early days a year ago.

 

AZ:FA doesn't display the mouse cursor because it's really geared towards the "10-foot experience" (i.e. remote on a big screen) but it does seem to work quite well with touch too. However, AZ:FA Danvers does [or should] respond to mouse inputs so you can scroll through the library with the middle mouse ball and left click to select the item that's highlighted (I do this when developing only).

 

As for the Emby nodes issue, a workaround I have found with Krypton is to rather than go through "Add-Ons" to select the library, select Kodi's Video Library and go through the prompts to reach where you can select Video Addons and then select the particular Emby library you want to be displayed on the menu. I think there was a discussion here on how to do it a while ago.

 

AZ:FA Danvers has a lot to explore so let me know if you have questions; as for getting stuck on the splash screen that is a little odd.

 

Thanks. I still wish I could turn on the cursor... is there no back-end switch in XML I could hack? I guess I'm hopelessly old-school. (hey you kids, get off my lawn!  )  The usage I'll be doing is "10 feet" on the couch, just I never got a remote, being more of a keyboard and mouse/trackpad guy. I've figured out the skin does respond to mousing, just without cursor, and I've learned to arrow around, but it's just not my preference.

 

There's a lot to love in this skin, and Kodi as a player generally. I have my main movies set as an icon view, with extra info, and the overlay. My wife will love the overlay, because she always struggles to read the fine type from the couch.

 

Couple more questions:

1. When playing --and this gets to the cursor issue-- is there a trick to getting the progress bar to come up? Sometimes I can get it there, and sometimes not. In other words, if I want to move to any specific point in the film, if I'm not using a visible cursor to click on the progress bar, what method is used? 

 

2. How do I turn off "Trending Shows," "TV Shows Airing Today" and anything else not currently in my library? I don't want it to suggest anything to me, just show me what I've got. When I'm on the home screen, if I mouse or arrow to above the main list of home options (Settings, MyMovies, etc..) it brings up Trending stuff. I need to turn that all off; I find it distracting. I'm sure there's a setting in there somewhere!

 

3. I've noticed the weather sometimes brings up wildly wrong weather information. At the moment, it says it's 86 degrees here in the Indianapolis area...off by about 50 degrees! I do have it set to my zip code (using Yahoo weather). Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Freaky.

 

I'll experiment with the various ways of getting to the Emby libraries. Going through Add Ons \ Video Add Ons \ Emby \ (library) seems to work, albeit with needing to fix the Music vs. Videos thing in XML. One time setup issue, no big showstopper for me now that I've figured it out.

 

Thanks so much for your work and help with this. This skin is a heck of an accomplishment!

 

Marc

[Guardian Hope 117]

Thanks. I still wish I could turn on the cursor... is there no back-end switch in XML I could hack? I guess I'm hopelessly old-school. (hey you kids, get off my lawn!  )  The usage I'll be doing is "10 feet" on the couch, just I never got a remote, being more of a keyboard and mouse/trackpad guy. I've figured out the skin does respond to mousing, just without cursor, and I've learned to arrow around, but it's just not my preference.

 

There's a lot to love in this skin, and Kodi as a player generally. I have my main movies set as an icon view, with extra info, and the overlay. My wife will love the overlay, because she always struggles to read the fine type from the couch.

 

Couple more questions:

1. When playing --and this gets to the cursor issue-- is there a trick to getting the progress bar to come up? Sometimes I can get it there, and sometimes not. In other words, if I want to move to any specific point in the film, if I'm not using a visible cursor to click on the progress bar, what method is used? 

 

2. How do I turn off "Trending Shows," "TV Shows Airing Today" and anything else not currently in my library? I don't want it to suggest anything to me, just show me what I've got. When I'm on the home screen, if I mouse or arrow to above the main list of home options (Settings, MyMovies, etc..) it brings up Trending stuff. I need to turn that all off; I find it distracting. I'm sure there's a setting in there somewhere!

 

3. I've noticed the weather sometimes brings up wildly wrong weather information. At the moment, it says it's 86 degrees here in the Indianapolis area...off by about 50 degrees! I do have it set to my zip code (using Yahoo weather). Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Freaky.

 

I'll experiment with the various ways of getting to the Emby libraries. Going through Add Ons \ Video Add Ons \ Emby \ (library) seems to work, albeit with needing to fix the Music vs. Videos thing in XML. One time setup issue, no big showstopper for me now that I've figured it out.

 

Thanks so much for your work and help with this. This skin is a heck of an accomplishment!

 

Marc

 

Technically, yes, there is a bit that can be flipped to turn the cursor on but it brings up the development cursor texture which isn't pretty because it's just for development. That and while the skin will respond to mouse inputs and whatnot it's really not intended to use the mouse. In fact, OSMC (and other distributions) had to address the issue of mouse pointer being 'out of bounds' earlier this year for From Ashes: https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/artic-zephyr-from-ashes-skin-sadface-on-reboot/17042

 

The point is that it's just best to leave the mouse hidden. AZ:FA Danvers responds to keyboard inputs just fine but I personally like to use my Logitech Harmony of which I have the latest model (the Elite I believe and the Harmony 900 series the latter of which is relatively affordable). Most people use remotes or touch.

 

Having cursor capability isn't even on the development list for the Caitlin Snow branch (Arctic Zephyr: For Another Age, the successor to From Ashes targeted for Kodi 17 and Kodi 18 which on the Kodi forums is pretty much the 'Arctic Zephyr super skin' as it combines AZ:FA and AZ:B into one skin so many new features and an updated new design with the option to go back to classic AZ:FA). I just wanted you to know that in case not having a cursor is a deal breaker.

 

To answer your questions:

 

1) The progress bar will come up if you press down twice. It also brings up the media info. Assuming you have Emby installed (which I'm sure you do), chaptering support should be available based on your Emby settings. 

 

2) "Trending Shows" and "TV Shows Airing Today" are built in functionality but are superseded by anything in your library. In terms of "TV Shows Airing Today," that shouldn't display unless you have no media in your library or you specifically go to the top of the home screen and select it. "Trending Shows" also shouldn't come up normally unless you have no media in your library. It should default to "Spotlight" which will feature shows from your library based on your watching habits and newly added media.

 

If this is not happening then there might be a bug that needs to be addressed. Danvers Preview Beta 6 was released today and should automatically download to your device assuming you are using either Emby Beta Repo or the NBD Repo (or both which is what I recommend because I have to hunt my Emby credentials down to upload to the repo so its usually a day or two later than NBD).

 

3) Weather is as you know, pulled from Yahoo but the last I was told was the widget needs to be addressed to fix an issue.

 

Finally, this skin is an accomplishment of a lot of hard work from its humble beginnings as Arctic Zephyr: Exploded by @@im85288 and @@badaas to Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes by myself and later minus0, now Arctic Zephyr: From Ashes Danvers by minus0, Habitual_Sinner, and myself, and soon Arctic Zephyr: For Another Age.

 

I think I can speak on behalf of everyone from humble beginnings to now that we appreciate your compliments. And the From Ashes Project hopes to continue on for many years to come (or at least for as long as Emby exists because I've used Emby since the MediaBrowser days).

[Marc_G 92]

Thanks so much Guardian Hope for this detailed response on Christmas day.

 

I just finished "Christmas morning with the kids" and have a brief reprieve before they need help with their various gifts, so I dug into your thoughtful reply.

 

With your help over the last few days, I've configured my little set top windows box with Kodi 17.1, AZ:FA-D (and I imagine it will update to the latest beta today). I've sorted through the issues with libraries (music vs videos, no problem now, will document for other newbies like me) and frankly have it pretty much ready to deploy!!

 

The one "big thing" I haven't figured out is the progress bar. Thanks for cluing me into the "down twice" to bring it up! Got that, but do I understand that without mouse support, I can only use the seek functions, or chaptering... there's no direct replacement for "point and click to a specific spot" ? I'm willing to learn a new interface paradigm despite being a crusty nearly fifty year old guy. But maybe I've missed something.

 

Today, I unpack the new AVR with HDMI capability which lets me switch to the new set top box, and currently Kodi is the player platform that seems to work best. I will get to know the interface and I'm sure many of the small issues I've got are just newby-learning-the-ropes stuff. Once I have practical use experience things will settle down, I'm sure.

 

I do note that I've got plenty in my library from Emby (movies and TV series and such), and if I go from home screen highlighting say "Movies" and do "up one" with my keyboard, it brings up either Popular Movies (not in my library) or the TV airing today. Is the skin update automatic, upon loading Kodi?

 

Thanks again!

 

Marc

[Vidman 589]

the movies vs music issue is not a common issue there must be something screwy with your setup as no one else has had this issue

[Marc_G 92]

It's 100% reproducible on two systems. As AngelBlue05 said there are two ways to add media, one is affected and one not. I will post a clear walkthrough later showing the issue. Stand by ... Will provide details later today or tomorrow.