I am planning on doing some 9400 work, but I do not have a 9400. I was wondering if someone could help me out with some screen measurements in pixels. I know the screen is 320x240 overall in portrait mode.

How many pixels high is the top area? I know on the 9600 it is 60 pixels.

How many pixels high is the bottom area, the area for the firm key labels?

How many pixels wide is the area on the top where the system widgets are kept?

The GUI I am designing for the 9400 is iPod or iPhone like with static screens sliding in from the left and right as menus/screens are traversed. A little tricky as the Pronto is missing some needed features IMHO.

My current effort is mainly textual lists such as CD titles, a list of artists etc. and I am sure most of you can figure out where I am going with this. I handle check boxes and radio buttons on "Setting Lists", Long text titles are automatically "Marqued" when highlighted.

Dynamic Lists and Graphic lists will not be slid into place but "snaped" due to the problems mentioned above. It really does look good though. I just need to properly handle the top and bottom areas, hence the questions.

Barry,

On the TSU7000, the System Area was 51 pixels @ top and 16 pixels at the bottom yielding a 240x253 user area.

Since this is the NG migration platform, I'd suspect as such. You can confirm by downloading the 9400 editor just to check.

The system bar at the top is 25 pixels high, the 4 widgets on the right end of the bar occupy 78 pixels width, the IR widget on the left end uses about 32 pixels width. If you add the date/time/page# to the top area, then it uses 32 pixels. The firm key label bar is 18 pixels high.

My panel size for my backgrounds is 240x278, but that overlaps the date/time, but not the system bar nor the firm labels.

The top is 36 pixels, from the top of the screen to the bottom of the date/time/page number text.

The bottom image is 36 pixels in size, but only 20 pixels till it fades to white.

Thanks to all. Maybe someone will loan me a 9400. (:-)

The editor for the TSU9400 is available here in the files section or directly from the Philips Pronto site. You can use said editor to confirm the dimensions of the default firm key labels and system area header. The Simulator of course is useless with respects to ProntoScript, but at least you'll be able to check out the hard button layout of the remote and so forth.

I anxious to see what you come up with Barry. That sounds like what I was thinking of doing as well, but this would be my first prontoscripting, so I will wait to see what you come up with. I'd love to see your slimserver integration with a coverflow type interface.

The other thing I've been thinking about is the ability to select media like can be done with SlimSever, Windows MCE or Escient, but using a networked Mac mini in the stereo rack running digital audio to the receiver. It appears that SlimServer can be installed on a Mac and you can use slimserver to Pronto without a squeezebox or transport. Is this the best way?

The beauty of controlling Slimserver (now called Squeezecenter) is that the player is transparent to the control device. You want to know how many players there are - you ask. You want to know detals about a player - you ask; you want to know what features are installed in Slimserver - you ask.

A PC to run Slimserver (1U rack mount 500G drive, sans HID's ) should run about $600 from a place like superlogics who will probably even install XP on it for you. That is pretty cheap. You can then use softsqueeze and the audio on the MB, or buy players as you can, and hook them up to existing audio systems. Those taking the player approach might want to google "T-Amp". The players can be placed in drawers, under the bed, anywhere, and if you put them on a shelf or night table they are clocks.

I took an interesting approach (IMHO) to develop the code for the 9400. I am doing all my testing and graphics on a 9600 using Prontoedit for the 9600. I built a basic background for the 9400 which looks exactly like the standard 9400 with its system area and firm button label area, and then restricted my graphics development to the 240x280 area remaining. To make the 9400 version for real I just strip out the background and load the xcf into the 9400 editor and down load it.

Why do it this way? Well I now have a graphics canvas of 640x480 I can play with. As images slide in and out of the 9400 graphic area I can see what is going on. Many do not realize that the x and y coordinates of a graphich can be way off screen. I can deal with many many graphic screen images without having to resort to multiple pages and see them all at the same time to make adjustments.

In the 9400 Slimserver version I am developing, it is somewhat modeled after the not yet released slim Devices remote for the SqueezeCenter, which is modeled after the iPhone, which is modeled after the iPOD, which is ..., I use sliding screens which really do look nice. As menus are traversed down screens slide in from the right, as you backtrack up the menu tree screens slide in from the left. Highlightg is done by cusor up down or the scroll wheel, menu traverse by cursor left right.

The big problem. The screens must be fairly static as the pronto takes way to long to slide multiple widgets which make up a "Screen". I have requested the Pronto team to provide a "MakeStatic" command where a complex graphic structure of many widgets can be made into a single widget (ala a design time "group") and quickly moved around the screen, yet not loose the addressability of the individual widgets (at least their label and visible properties). What I do to simulate this is deal with static screen images that I slide around, but then quickly overlay key widgets such as radio buttons, check boxes and spcecial text lines with current state. Since these overlays are generally graphically small and sparse, you barely see it happening.

I certainly understand that you can get a PC cheaply. I've pieced together my own for years, but I am leaning toward a media center mac and whole house conversion to mac for other reasons. I just want to make sure I'm not shooting myself in the foot too much regarding Squeezecenter. I did download the mac squeezecenter app yesterday, but I don't know if anyone has gotten the mac app to work with your pronto squeezecenter. Thanks.

There should be no problem working with the MAC IF the implementation of the Squeezecenter is the same and CLI is supported as it is on the PC. One of the nice things about TCPIP is that you do not know what you are talking to. You might want to post a query at Slimdevices in their forums as to the degree of equivalence of the MAC vs PC versions with regard to TCPIP and CLI, also HTTP as that is used to retrieve cover art.

For clarification, I am using Barry's Slimserver XCF against a MacPro running Slimserver and it all functions perfectly as I would expect from such a great piece of coding! I am using the Java SoftSqueeze client and iTunes on the Mac and all works fine.

Simon

Thanks for the vote of appreciation. Wait till you see the next version!

Thank posts and Barry. That's just what I needed to know. Barry, I looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the 9400. Thanks for all your efforts.

I am also using Barry's XCF on an iMac running Leopard and Squeezecenter 7.0 out to a Transporter. Note that 7.0 drops out all plugins (not CLI, so Bary's XCF is not affected) and you need to reinstall them in the preference panes as directed in the Slimserver forums. Everything works great, thanks to Barry. I can't wait for the update!

ps. Try a Linn Records 24/96 FLAC download. I am listening to Barb Jungr's Love Me Tender album. The quality is fantastic.

The 9400 version is just about done, and is in final test. As soon as philips releases the firmware which handles dynamic images and the scroll wheel I am good to go with it.

See the post I just made regarding the 9400 version.