mediate ice - new free DirectX based front end - Page 10

peijffertje · 12-29-2007, 02:23 PM

Hi, I keep getting an error when I try to start this..
"Failed to read application configuration"
Encountered problem whilst parsing preferences XML: Unknown content type withing Clientpreferences"

I get this right after i installed it.

Will there be a web browser for this great FE?
Its pretty complete for my needs but it would be fantastic if there was an option for internet (with an osk)

3kgtslflip · 12-31-2007, 01:05 AM

Any updates on this?

athomemedia · 01-03-2008, 09:21 AM

Hi All,

Firstly apologies for not posting in a while... life has become a little less hectic lately so we're back to working on mediate again. Stuff in the pipeline includes iphone/itouch like scrolling (almost there, but needs a little more tweaking to work with touch screens and slower h/w), a new theme and the theme designer.

We're using the theme designer in house to produce the new theme so developing the two in parallel whereas previously we've just been editing the raw xml files to produce the themes. The theme designer should make this process very easy for the end user to customise or build their own themes.

The next theme is in prototype stage at the moment - the image below is just a mockup in Inkscape and we'll need to add a few features to support it (such as album art, plus support for the home, parent, shuffle and repeat functions). We're planning to show off the new intertia scrolling which is why the usual up/down buttons have gone.

This is a work in progress so things like font colours/positions may change plus the odd gradient/shadow added here and there but the overall layout feels okay. Any thoughts would be welcome...

Also we're working on a number of ideas for the main menu screen. Ideally I'd like something to show off our 3d rendering engine and the use of scrolling/animation to navigate between features rather than the usual static screens. Any suggestions on that also welcome :-)

Hopefully we'll be able to post more regularly now and should be able to release the new scrolling feature with the current theme soon - a few more bugs to squash first.

Happy 2008 everyone!

athomemedia · 01-03-2008, 09:27 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by peijffertje

Hi, I keep getting an error when I try to start this..
"Failed to read application configuration"
Encountered problem whilst parsing preferences XML: Unknown content type withing Clientpreferences"

I get this right after i installed it.

Will there be a web browser for this great FE?
Its pretty complete for my needs but it would be fantastic if there was an option for internet (with an osk)

It would be useful for future reference if you could post a copy of your preferences.xml file - this may be found in c:\program files\@home media\conf\preferences.xml - then we can check for any corruption that may be there. Once you've done that just delete the file to restore mediate to its default configuration - it will then create a new file when next started.

If the problem reoccurs then please post so we can investigate.

As for a web browser, this should be possible to embed. We've experimented with embedding Firefox with limited success, so need to improve the embedding functionality a little first. Once that's sorted it should be possible to pretty much embed anything - at present its a little app dependent. We'll get there with this, but the new theme/designer is the priority at the moment.

peijffertje · 01-03-2008, 10:12 AM

Sorry, I though I did a clean install of Mediate ice but old XML files were still there from an install before.. I threw everything away, installed it and its works again.

Thanks!

3kgtslflip · 01-20-2008, 05:36 PM

Can't wait for more updates! My carputer went down, hard drive went bad, so I can't do anything right now

ClanLee · 01-21-2008, 01:42 AM

I'm trying it out and it's the best intuitive front end I've used. Everything looks good. Great work!

Requests:
1. Want to change the Time Format to AM/PM.
2. Want to change the Date Format to MM/DD/YYYY (for those of us across the pond).
3. Phone support through bluetooth.
4. Anyway to disable the startup sound when launching mediateICE?

Otherwise, I will keep watching this thread for updates.

Thanks!

ClanLee · 01-21-2008, 02:59 AM

I found one problem. When watching a DVD, I noticed that I could not exit nor get the option to go to the main menu. The only way to exit was to press ESC, but that gave the option to restart/quit/etc. If I were using this on the carputer, I wouldn't be running a keyboard, just the touch screen. Request that there is an option to exit a DVD and get to the main screen.

Thanks.

brandensin · 01-21-2008, 07:14 AM

Great app... runs great on my desktop... my little umpc's video card doesn't do 3d. Does that mean I can't use this? I am getting directx error. 9.0c is there and tested sucessfully...

nst6563 · 01-21-2008, 04:44 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by brandensin

Great app... runs great on my desktop... my little umpc's video card doesn't do 3d. Does that mean I can't use this? I am getting directx error. 9.0c is there and tested sucessfully...

This is the biggest problem I can see happening with carpc's. Most people use onboard graphics which are very weak for mini-itx setups and smaller.

athomemedia · 01-23-2008, 06:06 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by nst6563

This is the biggest problem I can see happening with carpc's. Most people use onboard graphics which are very weak for mini-itx setups and smaller.

mediate ice works just fine on my M10000 m/board with onboard gfx (crappy CLE266) in the car - only issue is that video playback has to use VMR7 rather than VMR9, so the video texture can't be mixed with the user interface, but at some stage we'll implement a custom video renderer to sort that.

As for UMPC gfx, that should work. We don't use any of the really advanced DirectX techniques yet such as pixel shaders so any DirectX 9 compliant card should be okay. Post your error message and DirectX diagnostics log and we'll try to diagnose the issue.

Cheers

@home media.

athomemedia · 01-23-2008, 06:21 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by ClanLee

I'm trying it out and it's the best intuitive front end I've used. Everything looks good. Great work!

Requests:
1. Want to change the Time Format to AM/PM.
2. Want to change the Date Format to MM/DD/YYYY (for those of us across the pond).
3. Phone support through bluetooth.
4. Anyway to disable the startup sound when launching mediateICE?

Otherwise, I will keep watching this thread for updates.

Thanks!

Okay, most of these we can sort...

1. Open the base-LanguageDescriptor.xml file in C:\Program Files\@home media\themes\ice.
Look for the string "system.timeformat" as shown below:
<Text name="system.timeformat">h:nn</Text>

Change this to read
<Text name="system.timeformat">h:nn am/pm</Text>

Save the file and restart mediate.

2. Open the same file and change "system.dateformat" from:
<Text name="system.dateformat">d/m/yy</Text>
to
<Text name="system.dateformat">mm/dd/yyyy</Text>

3. Bluetooth support is planned, but will be after the theme designer and radio support gets added.

4. Simplest way (other than switching off all sound effects in the settings menu) is to delete the file "startup.wav" in C:\Program Files\@home media\themes\ice\resources

You can also replace that file with another with the same name if you wish - WAV format only.

The theme designer is about 60% complete now and looking pretty good. Once its done changes such as these can be made really easily without having to edit the XML. The new theme is also coming along as we develop the two in tandem to prove the theme designer works. Stick with us, this will be here in a few more weeks time.

Cheers,

@home media

nst6563 · 01-25-2008, 09:56 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by athomemedia

mediate ice works just fine on my M10000 m/board with onboard gfx (crappy CLE266) in the car - only issue is that video playback has to use VMR7 rather than VMR9, so the video texture can't be mixed with the user interface, but at some stage we'll implement a custom video renderer to sort that.

As for UMPC gfx, that should work. We don't use any of the really advanced DirectX techniques yet such as pixel shaders so any DirectX 9 compliant card should be okay. Post your error message and DirectX diagnostics log and we'll try to diagnose the issue.

Cheers

@home media.

Ahhh...ok. I was under the assumption that the crappy onboard graphics on the my old i845gv board were not DX9 compliant. Turns out it is...but only to a point as not all DX9 functions are supported (which to me means it's not DX9 compliant if it doesn't support all the features....but that's another thread for another time

)

I'll have to give it a shot when I have some time and I'll let you know the results.

ClanLee · 01-26-2008, 12:05 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by athomemedia

Okay, most of these we can sort...

Cheers,

@home media

Brilliant! Can't wait for the next update.

salmanq · 01-31-2008, 05:13 AM

Hi, this post is very informative; however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

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