Themes for the WDTV Live Hub

[extremedigital]

1) I am getting one next week after the video from psychothc and the info provided by juliojs and thumbgen....

2) it seems that hub pulls up the jpg directly from the internet which requires you to be connected at all times ?? is this true you guys that have one already ??

for example these line of code will fetch the picture from themoviedb

http://hwcdn.themoviedb.org/posters/284/4c60d0215e73d63460000284/avatar-cover.jpg



http://hwcdn.themoviedb.org/backdrops/a1e/4bc9584d017a3c57fe027a1e/avatar-poster.jpg



So i am hoping that thumbgen is right and the xml can be modified to allow for premade sheets that you can store locally..


However saying that all in all it looks like wd has been rather clever in taking parts of the custom firmware and adding it to the hub...in other words whilst the left hand gives you something (themes and movie info) the right hand is taking something away (full blown custom firmware)

The browsing mode looks alot like sheet mode to me

I do hope that the talented people on this forum do find a way of at the very least 'soft-modding' the live hub..... i do hope b-rad does find a way around the security on the live hub ie firmware whilst not been a full blown custom firmware allows us to continue with some of the work done here..

I for one will start looking at what is possible to soft mod once i get one next week (however i am neither a graphic designer or a linux guru LOL) but i will try and see what is possible from a streaming point of view


Also psychothc once i get hold of one myself i definately would be interested in manually loading your theme (purely for testing purposes LOL) perhaps you and juliojs can post your themes here when they are ready ??

[extremedigital]

i have just ordered my live hub i can't wait to begin testing out this new box of tricks....starting with the themes and seeing how to implement premade moviesheets

[extremedigital]

My box arrived today i have played around a little with it....i will post my findings later on....just to say that updating to Anodized by PsychoTHC was as simple as copy and pasting into the (WDTVLiveHub\.wd_tv\theme) folder over my network

As to be expected from PsychoTHC the theme is excellent i must say whilst Mochi the default theme is nice i can see this theming of the box becoming very popular.......

(cheeky point whilst i have never been a huge fan of the wood floor effect sorry Psycho i must say that i really like your brushed metal effect on this theme )

Also whilst Anodized and OsdModHub are not online yet it is possible to download the legacy template which looks boring in comparison.


I also had a quick look at the xml files in the (WDTVLiveHub\metadata\movie) folder and it seems to be fairly straightforward....

There is a main file called movie.xml which references your movie locations...and each movie has 2 corresponding files eg Avatar.mkv would have Avatar.jpg and Avatar.xml....

Will talk more about the movie info screens but i have to mention whilst it's basic but adequate and it does have a very interesting feature of using more than one background (it pulls ALL the backgrounds from themoviedb which is normally around 8 however one movie had around 30)

The backgrounds change about every 2 or 3 seconds sometimes with an animated fade effect....

If you have a large collection then the online update is time consuming and since it just drops the files into a viewable folder i see no reason why the xml files cannot be modified to a local location.

[note4shawn]

Is someone interested to load it manually on the LiveHub for testing the theme?

If you guys can tell me exactly how to load it up and as long as it will not brick my HUB I am more than willing to help out and test. I have used all the custom fw and made moviesheets in the past for my WDTVs but it has been a while since I hacked in so will need some assistance.

Let me know!

[tommyboy]

I am so glad to see that you guys are starting to work on themes for the Hub, i purchased this the day it came out thinking what you guys would be able to do with it

[extremedigital]

Hello notes4shawn i am sure that PsychoTHC will update you guys very soon about the progress of his mod...

All i can say is that it is EXTREMELY easy to apply the mod you simply copy the files to a folder on the live hub internal drive and then you can change from the menu.

However for 90% of the users it will be as simple as downloading directly from the internet as you should be able to download from wd servers ( )


I am really enjoying testing the mod ...Thanks but i am a massive fan of both PsychoTHC and Juliojs (thats a hint if you want me to test your mod as well)

So makes difficult choices..... i dont want to have to buy 2 boxes HAHAHAHA LOl....no seriously you can easily switch between osd mod so it makes the best of worlds.....

[note4shawn]

Thanks Extremedigital,
I figured it was that easy. I just thought I would make sure.

Hey a couple questions for the HUB owners...
Has anyone been able to connect to a media server with it yet? Like Tversity or Playon? I am wanting to see if getting internet feeds like Hulu is possible.

Also is there a way for the HUB to go out and get the thumbs and metadata from IMDB automatically for the entire collection? My collection is on a NAS server. I can do one movie at a time but have not figured out how to do the entire collection. I have hundreds of movies and shows in the thousands so it would take forever. Maybe it can do it if they on the local drive. I will have to test that.

Does anyone know if WD will be adding apps to the HUB?

The last thing, has anyone upgraded to the new firmwares? If so, are there any issues? I still have the factory fw and it works pretty good for me but would like to update if they do not break any of my needs.

Thanks again.

BTW...I have been a big fan since my first Gen 1. Still use it all the time. I would love to be a beta tester

Hey are you guys going to start a Live HUB section?

[extremedigital]

Hello note4shawn

Yes it is ok to update to the newest firmware...main thing i noticed was that accuweather now allows you do a search for your location by name or postcode.


Yes you can use Playon / Tversity / Orb with the Hub however for it to work properly you must use the 'Files' menu not 'Video' i have played Hulu, and many more internet feeds through both Playon and Orb.


No idea when/if they will be adding more apps but i would assume that Deezer and Flingo should be added soon..

Point to note on the non/usa model Netflix and Blockbuster are NOT installed on the boxes at all....(it means that if you have a non/usa box you lose nothing by applying a custom firmware ohhhh maybe i shouldn't start that conversation now)


WOW ... i am priveleged to have tested both PychoTHC and Juliojs mod and all i can say is decisions decisions oh the choice is great to have....

There is no clear winner to be honest between the two...... the only winner is the users who can update the Hubs very soon........

If you guys created these mods without talking to each other imagine what your next versions will look like once you do...HEHEHEHEHEEEE

[spareshirt]

Hi,

The themes look great. I wanted to know what the extent of the themes can be.

Can you change the main menu?

I want to give this to my parents fully loaded with Movies and TV shows. Ideally, what I would like is a theme that when you turn the Hub on, the only thing that would pop up is the option for Movies or TV shows (nothing else!) and from there, go into the various sub menus.

Is that even possible?

Cheers in advance!

[note4shawn]

Yes you can use Playon / Tversity / Orb with the Hub however for it to work properly you must use the 'Files' menu not 'Video' i have played Hulu, and many more internet feeds through both Playon and Orb.

Which one of these is better? More selections? Better quality? Easier to install?

I am installing Playon right now. Hopefully it will go smoothly. I may pick your brain on setup if I have issues if you don't mind. WDTV is not a supported device but they say people have got it to work.

Thanks for the info. Feeling better about the purchase.

I want in on the beta testing of the themes. Pleeeeeaaaaase