Roku Developer Program

[DukeOfMarshall]

I have been able to get a grid screen app up and going. It retrieves the information from my server and plays a video upon selection.

Now my issue is that it doesn't seem like the grid screen is filling the entire screen or either there is a bar on the left and right side of the screen. I don't know which. However you can see some spectres in the top left and top right once you go down from the top row. Attached is a screen shot of what it looks like and what I'm talking about.

So how can I make this grid screen full screen?

Thanks

Screenshot:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7pkex ... sp=sharing

[Romans_I_XVI]

Can't see the attachement.

[RokuJoel]

Some of what you are seeing is a firmware bug that has been around for...like forever. This has something to do with the color scheme, usually. The other part (at the top) may be that you need to set the overhang height parameter in your theme to the same height as your overhang. And you may need to adjust the size and position of the grid screen info box to handle anything weird at the bottom right. Also, you should make most of your grid screen settings before you call Show().

- Joel

[DukeOfMarshall]

I tried to edit my post, but the attachment still wouldn't come up. So I uploaded to my Google drive, set the sharing permission, and you should be able to click on the link and see the screenshot I'm talking about.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7pkex ... sp=sharing

[TheEndless]

You don't appear to have an overhang defined. If that's intentional, you could try setting the "GridScreenOverhangHeightHD" and "GridScreenOverhangHeightSD" to "0". The grid screen is expecting that top area to be obscured by your overhang, in which case the extra posters bits on the edges wouldn't be seen.

It's probably also worth noting that those edges will fall within the overscan area on most televisions.

[RokuShawnS]

Attachments don't work properly ... I forgot I had that still enabled.

C. Shawn Smith

[DukeOfMarshall]

TheEndless,
Thanks again for further, helpful instruction. Your suggestion didn't seem to work at first, but I kept playing around with it and finally figured out that the first thing the app has to do is call the code to set the theme.

Sub Main()
    set_the_theme()

    .....rest of code.......
End Sub

Sub set_the_theme()
	app = CreateObject("roAppManager")
    theme= CreateObject("roAssociativeArray")

    theme.GridScreenLogoOffsetHD_X = "0"
    theme.GridScreenLogoOffsetHD_Y = "0"
    theme.GridScreenOverhangHeightHD = "0"
    theme.GridScreenOverhangHeightSD = "0"
    theme.GridScreenBackgroundColor = "#FFFFFF"
    theme.BackgroundColor = "#FF0000"

    app.SetTheme(theme)
End Sub

This is something else that isn't mentioned in the documentation for roAppManager. Could have definitely saved me 30 minutes there.

So your suggestion seemed to take care of the issue there as far as the top of the screen goes. However, I have now set the background color to white just for testing. It doesn't show up on the screenshot that I provided, but there is actually a light gray line that starts out in the top left hand corner, goes to the bottom of the last row (not screen), heads right until it gets to the left side of the description box, then heads up to right below the title line, then heads right to the right side of the screen where it goes back up to the top. On the left and right side the line seems to be about 20-30 pixels from the edge of the screen.

Is this like the edge of the canvas drawing for the grid? Is there a way to set the color of this line or remove it completely?

roAppManager
http://sdkdocs.roku.com/display/sdkdoc/roAppManager

New Screenshot
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7pkex ... sp=sharing

[RokuJoel]

This is something else that isn't mentioned in the documentation for roAppManager.

If you look at the example files in the SDK, pretty much the first thing that happens in almost every example is a call to initialize the theme.

- Joel

[DukeOfMarshall]

True. This is actually how I eventually figured out that it needed to be the first thing that was done. I was having trouble with it not setting the theme/colors and after playing around with different variations, I finally had the notion this might be the case and consulted the videoPlayer example from the SDK examples.

However, explicit notation that this is required would have saved some time and confusion and made things clearer. An examination of the SDK examples doesn't really specify the difference between required code flow and the simple personal preference of the code author to structure the code in a certain way.

[TheEndless]

"DukeOfMarshall" wrote:
So your suggestion seemed to take care of the issue there as far as the top of the screen goes. However, I have now set the background color to white just for testing. It doesn't show up on the screenshot that I provided, but there is actually a light gray line that starts out in the top left hand corner, goes to the bottom of the last row (not screen), heads right until it gets to the left side of the description box, then heads up to right below the title line, then heads right to the right side of the screen where it goes back up to the top. On the left and right side the line seems to be about 20-30 pixels from the edge of the screen.

Is this like the edge of the canvas drawing for the grid? Is there a way to set the color of this line or remove it completely?

The grid screen is a composite of the video plane (used for the actual grid) and the graphics plane (used for the overhang, focus frame, and description bubble). The line you're seeing is the frame around the video plane. In my experience, it's only really noticeable when the device is set for 1080p output, which would suggest it's a scaling artifact. Set your Roku to 720p and see if it goes away. Your best bet is to just play with the background color a little until you find a color that blends better. You'll have much better luck with darker grays than lighter. Darker is probably a better way to go anyway, as bright backgrounds can be blinding for the end user in a darkened room.