This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by:                  Sascha Volkenandt <sascha@akv-soft.de>

Project's homepage:          http://www.magoa.net/linux/contrib/

Latest version available at: http://www.magoa.net/linux/contrib/

See the file COPYING for license information.


Description:
------------

This plugin is designed to load and interpret a set of files describing the
layout of the On Screen Display and to make this "Skin" available to VDR via
Setup -> OSD in the main menu. Of course it is possible to load more than one
text-based skin this way and to choose between them while running VDR. All 
skins may be themeable (you can create your own color-theme) and translateable
as the author of the skin wishes.


Prerequisites:
--------------

For loading images in format other than simple XPM, you will need an image 
library. You can choose between two supported libraries, ImageMagick or Imlib2,
from which the first one is the default. You can specify which library to use
(if any) in the first few lines of the Makefile. Here is an overview of the
advantages and drawbacks of each solution:

No library
 - you can only load XPM files
 - XPMs don't support partial transparency / alpha channels

ImageMagick 
 + you can load many different image types including animations

Imlib2
 + you can load many different image types
 - CRASHES WHEN USED TOGETHER WITH THE GRAPHTFT-PLUGIN!

Using both libraries at the same time doesn't make sense anyway.

HINT: Although the manual of ImageMagick claims that the used library Magick++
is part of the source distribution, some binary distributions may have to 
install Magick++ separately.

Some skins may use True Type Fonts, which requires the FreeType package to be
installed. If you don't want to use FreeType font rendering, you may disable
that in the Makefile, too.


Installation:
-------------

Install text2skin like any other plugin. In this example I assume that you have
changed to the folder where the VDR sourcecode is located, and that it is 
version 0.0.1 of the plugin you wish to install. During the build process, 
there will be generated two files called SKINS and SKINS.de, the skin format
documentation.

root@linux # cd PLUGINS/src
root@linux # wget http://www.magoa.net/linux/contrib/vdr-text2skin-1.0.tgz
root@linux # tar -xfz vdr-text2skin-1.0.tgz
root@linux # cd ../..
root@linux # make plugins
root@linux # ./vdr -P text2skin

There are several patches included, which can be applied to VDR, but all of 
them are considered optional.

vdr-1.3.17-dvbplayer-buttons.diff
 - demonstration on how to use the colorbuttons in replay mode (no skin makes
   use of that so far)

vdr-1.3.17-osdbase-maxitems.diff
 - allows dynamic height menu lists, i.e. when some part of the list is 
   overpainted with a special message


Where to put the skins:
-----------------------

As you might know, VDR has a subfolder "plugins" inside it's configuration 
folder, where all plugin-related files should reside. If you don't know, where
this could be, look into the folder you gave to VDR with the -v parameter 
(or the -c parameter, if that was given). "plugins" should be inside that 
folder.

Inside that "plugins" folder, create a subfolder called "text2skin". Inside
"text2skin", create one folder for each skin. These skin-folders must have the
same names as the skins residing in them.  Each skin must at least have a file
carrying the same name, but ending in ".skin".

Example (the Skin is called myskin):
/video0/plugins/text2skin/
/video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/
/video0/plugins/text2skin/msykin/msykin.skin
/video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/channeldisplay.png

The other files inside the skin-folder are additional description files (for
Themeing and Translation), images, logos and symbols.

If you download a skin, you usually just change to plugins/text2skin and unpack
it there.


Where to put the fonts:
-----------------------

Font files (.ttf) can be placed either in the directory of the skin itself or 
in a subfolder fonts inside the text2skin directory.

Example:
/video0/plugins/text2skin/fonts/arial.ttf
/video0/plugins/text2skin/myskin/arial.ttf

