/resource/image Pallate is NUTS!!

[scanman0]

I am attempting to skin the box, as Trilight is....

I chatted with him tonight, and he is also facing the same problem with the damed pallate.


Basically, I want to replace the images in the MFS:/resource/image area.

Now, I have the .tcl code figured out with wildcard even, to make it work with all versions out there. (Thanks AlphaWolf!!!)

I tried Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and a few lesser quality programs....To no avail....

I have loaded the "origional" art.

I have saved the palate, I have "locked" the pallate.

I have placed my new image and scaled it pixel perfect, and pallate exact....
.
No matter what I do, even simply editing a few pixels and saving the same image.....Once I replace it...The colors are beyond a rainbow effect....More like a fireworks display!

I have attached my "test" image, that I have replaced about...oh 30 times now....and the sun is already up. I give up!


modifythumbsup1.tcl: (Works just fine)
*************
#!/tvbin/tivosh

EnableTransactionHoldoff true

set db [dbopen]

ForeachMfsFile fsid name type "/Resource/Image" "" {

RetryTransaction {

set resobject [db $db openid $fsid]
set resname [dbobj $resobject get Name]
set resfsid [dbobj $resobject get File]

set newfsid [ToMfs smily.png]

if { [string match ThumbUp1-256.* $resname] } {
dbobj $resobject set File $newfsid
}
}
}



RetryTransaction {
set swsysa [db $db open "/SwSystem/ACTIVE"]
set resgrp [dbobj $swsysa get ResourceGroup]
foreach res $resgrp {
dbobj $res remove "CompressedFile"
}
}

dbclose $db

*************************
The origional file: ThumbUp1.256.8.png

My crazy pallate replacement file: smiley.png

And what should be a nice Yellow Smiley face, with the EXACT Pallate, and even using the same "purple" transparency color as the origional .png. Same pixel count, and color depth.

I want to skin the GUI so bad.....Once I break thru this barier, I'll have the whole box skinned....

This is my first post in this section BTW :)

Thanks,

Scan :eek: :confused: :confused:

[scanman0]

Ok,

I tried all the old angles....

I even attempted to go back and forth with osdman.exe to convert from compressed and uncompressed tga format, and good god, I even tried to convert .cs22 even...

What a waste of time...

[scanman0]

This was from a standalone 1.2...mabe 1.3.

Has this splash ever been reported anywhere ?

:)

[mrblack51]

Originally posted by scanman0
This was from a standalone 1.2...mabe 1.3.

Has this splash ever been reported anywhere ?

:)

yup. it occurs if you forget to plug in the fan on your hard disks on your dtivo, among other things.

[scanman0]

I read somewhere that the dtivo didn't have a fan sensor....I learned that first hand, and cooked 2 drives till it rebooted, (I cooked those maxtors for 2 days after the last trip to the pc) I lost one of the 2- 80 gig drives about 2 weeks later.

Without the fan plugged in, things get toasty QUICK!

Dtivo dont spash this, nor shut down...I've got a brick (drive) I can show ya! And yes, 80 GIG was the bigest brick out there at the time (OUCH!)



This happened at rev 2.02 I believe, Whatever rev was when we were all waiting for dual tuners to "get there" My unit came with a grey cap over the second tuner, with a card and sticker stating "for future use"...or some other lame crap. I bought it as it hit the market. And my lifetime sub, for the standalone has been offline since.

I bought the origional Tivo when the lifetime sub was at $250 with a $100 mail in rebate....I.E. $ I got it for $150.




Please keep this thread alive on my origional question, as it's burning a hole in me!

It's just teasing me up.....

Please help me figure out the pallate of the beast.


Thanks,
Scan

[scanman0]

^^ BUMP ^^ (Since I edited & not replied)

[SR712]

Scanman-

I haven't tried to insert pngs into my TiVo yet, but you might try this as a test.

[TRILIGHT]

I'm not really working on a "skinning project", scanman. I've just changed a few things and plan on changing a few others to customize things. When people refer to a "skin", they usually refer to everything being changed. That's not what I want to do. I think many things are just fine as they are. I like thumbs and checkmarks, etc. I just want to make a few subtle changes that I feel would enhance the overall effect given a certain color scheme. You'll see what I mean when I get around to making my own full image.

As for the palette problem, it is due to the very limited palette available to work with on the TiVo. You have to have the colors exact or they will flip to the next closest color in the palette when displayed. This is the cause of a color not being the same. As for the crazy flipped out stuff you're seeing, it was because you didn't have the transparency set correctly on the file you were using. I didn't try it but the one SR712 posted looks like it might work for you. Whenever I have more time to play with it, I'll post my findings. I just don't have the time right now.

[AlphaWolf]

I had the whole palette issue sorted out a while back, but its been so long and I didn't take any notes, so I can't remember everything thats necessary.

IIRC, the first successful attempt I made involved creating a new image file and reducing the bit depth to 8, then opening an already existing tivo .png file and pasting the new image into it, then saving the changes making sure that the .png file didn't have its palette altered. I believe I first did this in paint shop pro.

[scanman0]

Thanks guys,

I'll continue this when I have time. The last 2 weeks have been overtime hell, as my co. layed off way too many people...

Gotta pick up the slack :(

I have PSP installed....still wish there was some "defined" pallate...some way to understand the "locked" colors.....

I have tried many load-change-restore attempts, and they all come up with colors all f*cked up.


Any help in this area would be GREATLY APRECIATED!

I have all the tools, PSP, Photoshop, and ANYTHING you can give me, (a palate file) would be great for all, as I'd make a replacement skin, or several.....This is holding me back! I have some custom artwork, I already want to use...but cant insert it!

Alpha, Please look at your old stuff, when you get a chance....

Thanks,'Scan.

[scanman0]

SR712


I tried your posted .png, and it came out different. As the colors seemed ok and NOT rainbowed, but the actual bitmap was altered!, it apears as a broken smiley, with about 3 broken bits of a smiley above it, and a first row is a partial smiley....good news is the colors were not all over the place....Progress ??


I've been in 8 bit color mode in PSP all night, and rebooted my box, about 20 times, to find colors are all f*cked.... No matter my
pallate, no matter by bitmap, iIt's out of control!!!

HELP PLEASE.

Thanks,
Scan

[scanman0]

Trilight,

PLEASE, Explain what you mean by "trancparency" I understand the use of a certain color as the transparent color. I have seen this in the .png's as a purple color. I'd love to understand the color pallate, as well as the transparent color.

Trilight,

If you understand the color palate of the .png format the Dtivo uses, you are a smarter man than I am. Please let me in on the secret. I have seen your replacement bar thing...Did you "guess" the pallate of the blue bar, or do you ubderstand the selection ???

Please explain your selection ????



Thanks,

Scan

[TRILIGHT]

The "transparancy" color I was referring to is a "pure purple". That is to say that, given RGB color information, R and B have 255 values and G has a value of 0. Now, this is on the balls for the boot screen. Before, I took a PNG from the TiVo and saved it's pallete in Photoshop and then loaded that pallete for my work. This did not work with the "boot balls" but was fairly accurate for the background. It's a bit of a pain in the ass, really. My best suggestion would be to open the file you are working with and make your alterations and then save it. I am saving the Color Table that I saved in Photoshop. I've had varied success with it so I can't give you any guarantees. You're welcome to play with it though. I simply have not had time to mess with anything lately. Unfortunately, I am too busy with other things right now.

[SR712]

Originally posted by scanman0

I tried your posted .png, and it came out different. As the colors seemed ok and NOT rainbowed, but the actual bitmap was altered!, it apears as a broken smiley, with about 3 broken bits of a smiley above it, and a first row is a partial smiley....good news is the colors were not all over the place....Progress ??


ScanMan-

Sorry bud, I've been real busy. That's good news. Palette must be OK then. Might be an interlacing issue, then. Let me see if I have time later tonight to try a few things.

[SR712]

Try this. This is with no interlace, and still using TiVo's palette.

[scanman0]

SR712,

I just tried your "non-interlaced" test2.png file, and Damed if it didn't work. Thanks for the assistance.

Now if you could elaberate on what tool you used to create it, and save it as sutch....I'll be off to start a skinning project.


Thanks again!

Scan

[SR712]

OK. There are only a few things in play here.

First, it appears that the TiVo can only correctly display graphics that have the official TiVo palette. There also seem to be several different palettes for different graphics functions.

The easiest way to create a graphic that will display correctly is to modify an existing one. This will then have the correct palette already. Ideally, you could create a "blank" graphic that has only the "transparency" color, and paste your new one on top of that. The colors of the "paste" graphic will change, and remap to the available colors in the TiVo palette. Some of the colors will change, but there looks like enough selections there to make it look OK.

The transparency color is a color that is used by the display software to "key" or "mask" out and show the graphic underneath, much like we create graphics for television. The transparency color is usually the first color in the palette, palette position 0. Some display programs use the color for the mask, and some use the palette position. In this case, TiVo is using a purple (Magenta- RGB 255,0,255) in position 0. If you were to use a graphic that was just completely this purple color, when displayed, you would not see any part of it, as all of the purple was "masked out". You would see all of the graphic underneath, instead.

Also, when you save your finished graphic, which is a .png, you have the option of saving with different attributes, like most other graphic formats. It seems like the TiVo wants a non-interlaced .png, with the transparency color selected as palette position 0, the purple. I use Corel Photo-Paint, as it was the only real graphics program for the Intel platform when I started fooling around years ago. I have PhotoShop, too, but hardly ever use it. They both do the same things, though. Both very good. When I export/save a .png in Corel, it gives me the option of a transparency color, and allows me to pick one from the palette. It also gives me the option of interlace, or non-interlace. We need non-interlace, here, I guess.

That's really it. Like I said, the easiest way is to take a graphic that has the correct size (42 X 42), correct bit depth (256 Colors), and correct palette.... and paste your graphic into it. Then export/save it, saving as non-interlaced. It should work.

I am attaching a Blank graphic that you should be able to paste you own stuff onto, and save for the TiVo. Give it a try. When you open it up in PhotoShop, you should see nothing, just the checkerboard "background" indicating that it is all "masked". Paste on top of that.

Don't think I have explained this well. But try it. :)