Changing MythTV Themes, and OSD (On Screen Displays)

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Revision as of 21:52, 30 April 2008 by Sethj (Talk | contribs)

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Changing the look of your MythTV

The standard mythtv theme that is installed by LMCE is the original G.A.N.T. theme. While effective, it is not very easy on the eyes. Also the default OSD (On Screen Display) is not the best for the "LMCE Look". As this is after all, mythtv, the themes and OSD's can be changed quite easily.

Mythtv stores its OSD, and theme files in: 

/usr/share/mythtv/themes

As a previous MythTV user, converted to LMCE, I miss some of the OSD's and themes I used before. As for my preferences, I use the MythTV MediaCenter as the theme, and Mythtv MediaCenter OSD. I think these compliment LMCE rather well, but you can decide for yourself. Just point your browser at MythTV Themes

To install a theme in LMCE/MythTV, download the .tar.gz, .bz2, or .tgz file for both the theme and OSD you want to use, and extract them to: 

/usr/share/mythtv/themes

My example as root user from a KDE Desktop terminal (konsole): 

cd /usr/share/mythtv/themes
sudo wget http://files.radixpub.com/MythTVMediaCenter.0.20.tar.bz2 
sudo tar xvjf MythTVMediaCenter.0.20.tar.bz2
sudo wget http://files.radixpub.com/MythTVMediaCenterOSD.0.20.tar.bz2
sudo tar xvjf MythTVMediaCenterOSD.0.20.tar.bz2

Now to enable your newly acquired themes, from the same terminal launch mythfrontend 

sudo mythfrontend

After it is loaded, using your remote or the keyboard, go to 

Utilities Setup
Setup
Appearance

Using arrows on keyboard or remote, go up to "Theme" and use the left/right arrows/remote keys to change to the new theme. After you have selected it, go back down to "Next>" and continue hitting the space bar or ok/enter button on your remote. When you get all the way through, the frontend will reload, and you will now be in the new theme.

Now onto the OSD Go to: 

Utilities/Setup
Setup
TV Settings
Playback

Using the space bar or ok/enter button on your remote go ahead to the 8th screen. At the top you will see "OSD Theme" Again using the arrow keys, or the remote directional keys, go up to the "OSD Theme" selection box, and using the left/right arrows, or the left/right direction keys, change to the theme of your choice. After selecting the theme, arrow down to "Next>" and complete the sequence with spacebar or ok/enter as needed until you are back to the previous menu.

Thats it. Exit from your terminal session, logout (or leave up) KDE, and go back to your orbiter. Fire up "TV" from the media menu, and test out your new theme, and OSD.

There are many combinations of themes/OSD's find one you like, change it as you see fit. Remember to read the notes on some themes. The newer themes like Glass, require mythtv 0.21 version or better, these will not work for us just yet, but eventually.....

Have fun. Hope this makes your LMCE experience even better than it already is.

Any questions or suggestions, feel free to edit or e-mail me at Seth

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