Thread: RRHD - Road Runner High Definition

This is just an idea. In my opinion, RR has reached the point where it can expand to other platforms such as the HTPC (home theater PC) and UMPC (ultra mobile PC) without any further changes to the source. I know many of you have thought of doing this before so this is in no way MY idea.

I did some research on HTPC software and surprisingly it is nowhere near as streamlined as you would imagine. Personally, some very old releases of XBMC were far more stable and usable than any current HTPC software. MCE offers some of the best TV scheduling and a solid remote but is fussy about DRM and lacks personalization. Media-Portal, an open-source app created by the founder of XBMC (Erwin Beckers) is also great, but is trying to do to much and appears to be buckling under the weight of it's own features.

From my initial testing, RR is capable of drawing at resolutions up to 1600x1000 without any major issues (This is more than sufficient for the HTPC). Couple that with the enormous amount of features and I think RR could easily be the next best HTPC software out there. In fact it already is... people just don't know it yet.

With that said, how many of you are interested in joining me to work on a basic platform for RR HTPC skins?

btw, feel free to move this thread as it is not exactly car-related

Here is a shot of RRHD, a WIP personal skin that runs at 2560x1600 and is controlled by my Hauppauge TV tuner remote via Girder:

hmm interesting.

I am very interested to see how this develops.

nice...

although 1600x1000 is quite acceptable for HD, id like to see higher res.

Looks like you have the new 24in dell. Not sure what the existing limitiations of RR are, but it be nice to have true 1080p resolutions at 16x9 and/or 16x10 (1920x1080, 1920x1200 respectivly). Playing 1080p content is the processor intensive, but one of the nicer perks of using a htpc with quality LCD as a display

d2, It's just a matter of finding out which objects have trouble at these large resolutions. For example, some of the features (fading, drawing backgrounds, thumbnail directory browsing to name a few) that can only go so big.

The dell in the picture is a 30" 3007wfp. The skin you see on the screen was created at 2560x1600 in PS and is being displayed at a native 2560x1600 (nearly 2 times the resolution of 1080p) so it's not impossible, however it may require some tweaking or the sacrificing of features to get right.

1280x720p and 1920x1080i are more standard native HD resolutions. I'm also pretty sure they are also the two current most popular broadcast/recording HD standards. Wouldn't it be better to work with most television/monitors native reslution? I've never heard of or seen of any sets that are 1600x1000 native. At least not at the 42"+ size.

I would still like to recommend u take a look at HTPC frontend called XLobby. Cause its very customizable and im sure itll be easier way for u to reach your goal than converting RR to that direction. That said, If this is direction u wish to pursue, i wish u luck, im interested to see more interaction between car and HTPC frontend scene.

@ppgt94: Certainly. Your exactly right, skins should be released in 1280x720 & 1920x1080. 1600x1000 is just a testing point at which I noticed some features could not go beyond.

The nice thing is that RR skinning and resizing is far more flexible than any other HTPC software. Media-Portal for example, "stretches" the image to the desired resolution and uses xml skins where most of the objects are loaded from a single png file. In RR, ANY resolution can be attempted and the skinner can very easily offer patches for native resolutions other than 720 & 1080