Roku Developer Program

[destruk]

Roku 2 - latest release firmware 4.7 / build 2049 - with the roku client set to 1080p mode, and the "flat-16x9" style type, the breadcrumb text overlays the row and column numbers.
Could you correct the placement for this situation please in a future firmware? It shows fine in the movie style types.

[RokuChris]

You can probably work around that by adjusting the height of the overhang with the GridScreenOverhangHeightHD and GridScreenOverhangHeightSD theme attributes.

[destruk]

hmm, interesting. So if I set it to an overhang height of 19, then the breadcrumb shows up below the index numbers. However, it moves around on the movie poster gridscreen. And it's quite distracting/unsettling user experience to have the text and overhang logo images move from gridscreen type to gridscreen type and poster screen type. Could it be updated for consistency so each screen can be displayed the same way without changing the theme attributes for each screen individually? I suppose half the fun is trying different values until you come across one that 'looks correct'. 🙂

[TheEndless]

The grid numbers are static on the grid itself (as are the row title and icon positions), which is moved up and/or down by the overhang height that you set. The breadcrumb is static to the overall screen. If you look at the Netflix channel, you'll see that they set their overhang height so that the breadcrumb fell just under it. You could simulate the same by creating an overhang graphic that's larger than the graphic you want, but has the same background color as your grid (e.g. top 50 pixels are your graphic, bottom 50 are just the background color of the screen. That would allow you to specify a taller overhang height without having to worry about it tiling vertically. Does that make sense?

[destruk]

oh, it makes sense, it's just annoying trying to make it consistent for the overhang when you set it for 16x9, and then have to create a movie style gridscreen and change it all for the same channel.
What I mean is - the client has this layout requirement.
When the channel first loads, the registration screen is displayed to link the box. This uses the standard overhang image which is 138 px tall and covers the entire screen from left to right.
When the registration is complete, it goes to the standard poster screen - which is perfectly AOK because it uses the same overhang image and offset and values.
From the poster screen, some selections must go to a 16x9 type flat gridscreen using the gridscreen logo - right there, the gridscreen logo is a different size from the standard overhang logo so we can get 3x7 or so icons on the gridscreen.
So it changes size and shape with a different image, fine, I can deal with that. No problem - we'll simply accept the changes.
Now, when a specific category is selected, the movies are broken up into scenes, which goes back to the poster screen 'episode format' and the standard overhang image. Now this is becoming annoying because pressing back makes the overhang logo change again, and pressing back to close the gridscreen changes the logo again.

Now...following along, if I manage to make the 16x9 gridscreen logo the same as the overhang logo for breadcrumb and sizing appearance by padding the image with the gridscreen background color, so it stops jumping around and resizing itself, ... then the client also wants the other gridscreen types to look identical in regards to the overhang. For single clip selection bypassing the scene poster screen, we need those to use a movie type gridscreen at 2x5 like Netflix uses. And that requires me to work out all over again what size the overhang image should be, and get the placement of breadcrumbs and indexes to line up pixel per pixel to the other screens.

So you can probably understand now why it's frustrating - might as well not display a logo this way or draw all the screens by hand. Or am I missing some obvious "idiot moment" ? Self-deprecation is a side effect of frustration is all... Is mixing gridscreens not a recommended or forseen way of designing an interface? 🙂

[TheEndless]

I'm not sure I'm following. Why does the grid style of the gridscreen matter with respect to the overhang size? If you set the overhang size to 138px, then the gridscreen counter and breadcrumb should be in the same place, regardless of which grid style you choose. The description bubble might be pushed off the bottom of the screen with that size overhang, but it's easy enough to adjust that up.

[destruk]

It's not the same. Flat-Movie's overhang size (remaining constant) moves the index numbers from where they were for the 16x9 gridscreen type in 1080p mode with the same overhang height.

With the same height specified, and same graphic used, here's what I get -