Xion... A new skinnable media player

skin it with just a .psd !!!

http://xion.r2.com.au/
from WinCustomize Forums
A new skinnable media player arrived on the scene in August, say hello to Xion. This is a very capable little player, but by far the most interesting thing about it is it's skinning format. To skin this player you simply create the interface in Photoshop, making sure all the different elements are on individual layers, (which many of us do anyway) and then you give the layers specific names and just dump the .PSD file in the skins folder of the player...... That's it!!!! The software does the rest and converts your layered .PSD into a skin.

This is surely a step forward for ease of skinning. No code to write, no XML to battle through, NO SLICING UP OF IMAGES!

I made two skins within an hour of downloading the software, and they work perfectly. So well done to r2 Studios, the creators of Xion, they really have an innovative Player AND skinning system here. It even supports animation too.

I hope some of you guys will support this player and make a few skins for it. They deserve to have some success, and I think you will enjoy skinning it.
43,793 views 53 replies
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
  
Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Holy skinnable player Batman! This is just awesome. 'Bout time somebody took advantage of all those layers for something really useful

So does Stardock have any plans to do something like that for DesktopX or WindowBlinds sometime in the future - like maybe in time for the Vista release Seriously, get on the ball here guys, you gonna let yourself be outdone by some independent punks?! (punks = geniuses)
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
nvm it just wont let u download it from Firefox all i had to do was go into Internet Explorer so anyone who wants to download it, download it from Internet Explorer
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for this great link and info.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
nvm it just wont let u download it from Firefox all i had to do was go into Internet Explorer so anyone who wants to download it, download it from Internet Explorer

Microsoft conspiracy! J/K

I still can't download it even through IE, could somebody maybe mirror it
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Looks good, downloads fine in Opera btw.

Impressed with the sound quality, better than iTunes (not difficult I know), anyone know what it uses for output? (eg it's own decoder, Windows Media etc).
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I DLed it in FireFox. It has a damn good sound. I have 1 by 1, iTunes,QMP.Winamp MusicMatch,WMP, foobar, and probably a couple more, but this sounds good. I have always said MusicMatch sounded better than any of them, but this little thing is KILLER. Playin' through Bose speakers. Something I have never been able to figure out. The sound comes through the same sound card, and out the same speakers, so why does each player have it's own unique sound.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Managed to download. Man, I tell you, making skins using PSD files is like an eye-opening experience - no saving PNGs, BMPs with pink (ugh!) or TGAs, no slicing images, no hastle! I don't know how I'll ever go back to skinning DX objects, it'd be like going back to Win 3.11 . I don't think it completely replaces scripting though as of course we are limited to what the author has thought of, but imagine combining the power of DesktopX scripting with PSD based skinning - it'll blow microsoft and yahoo widgets, gadgets or whatever they call them out of the water.

I DLed it in FireFox. It has a damn good sound. I have 1 by 1, iTunes,QMP.Winamp MusicMatch,WMP, foobar, and probably a couple more, but this sounds good. I have always said MusicMatch sounded better than any of them, but this little thing is KILLER. Playin' through Bose speakers. Something I have never been able to figure out. The sound comes through the same sound card, and out the same speakers, so why does each player have it's own unique sound.

That's interesting. I myself haven't noticed a difference, but then again I'm listening through cheap headphones It is strange that different players have different sounds, I mean they all go through the same hardware... the only thing I can think of is maybe their "zeroed out" equalizers have actually different levels.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There is a very good tutorial section on making skins for the player here: http://xion.r2.com.au/index.php?page=help

I'm going to have a go at an animated skin for it (if I ever finish this WindowBlind that I'm making), It looks like fun, and as it says, the possibilities are endless.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Try this download page..... http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/0,239030384,10558548s,00.htm
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I couldn't download it either. The version at CNET Australia is xion_v1.0b56. I found an alternative download at Link

works fine for me
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you type "Xion Media Player" into google, you will lots of download sites.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For those who are experiencing download problems with Xion. I have tried and easily downloaded Xion from the r2 Studios website http://xion.r2.com.au/ with all possible web browsers,

IE (6 and 7), Mozilla Firefox (v. 1.5.0.7), Netscape (v. 8.1) and Opera (v. 9.01 Build 8552) using a pc with Windows Xp Professional.

All downloaded installers worked just fine and installed correctely with no hassles or problems. After installation, running the small software was a breeze with no crashes (yet), no weird bugs (yet).

One thing I DEFINITELY DON'T like is the "simple playlist"/"simple library". It is really way too "simple" with info about the track and the singer all together in a messy list.

Other than that, the skinning easy is really cool as it can be a first step for those interested in skinning, sound quality is good and clear.

We shall see if the project goes far with the program itself, the skins and the add-ins...

Time will tell.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I like it
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well I hate to say it but I did the google thing and the direct link thing and every single download was a crash after installing and running and even rebooting and then running so I guess I will not get to have the fun everyone else is going to have or is already having. Good luck to you guys!!! Maybe that I will try again on my next wipe and reload!

Speedy
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
huh. I'm using FF, just downloaded newest build from Link
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
AppName: xion.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.58 ModName: unknown
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 616c6975

Here is the error code^^

Man this sucks Ireally wanted to play with this

Speedy
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Downloaded fine, installed fine, loaded fine, audio quality = no difference.

To me, foobar and Xion sound the exact same. I have replygain, and a bunch of configured settings in foobar however. But all that configuration is a given if you plan to use foobar... Out of the box, Xion is pretty nice . It uses almost 20 MB of memory for me tho . Foobar is a small 4 MB.

I'll stick with foobar, but thanks for the link. Nice little program ^__^.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My system info (without all the bells and whistles of software list) :

Computer Type ACPI Multiprocessor PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Internet Explorer 7.0.5700.6
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name
User Name
Logon Domain
Date / Time 2006-09-26 / 00:06

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4 630, 3000 MHz (15 x 200)
Motherboard Name Asus P5AD2-E Premium (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 1 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset Intel Alderwood i925XE
System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-533 DDR2 SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (03/23/05)

Display:
Video Adapter Radeon X1900 GT Secondary (256 MB)
Video Adapter Radeon X1900 GT (256 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon X1900 GT (R580)
Monitor Model DELL 2407WFP

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter C-Media CMI9880 @ Intel 82801FB ICH6 - High Definition Audio Controller [B-2]
Audio Adapter Creative SB Live! 24-bit (SB0410) Sound Card

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2652
IDE Controller Intel(R) 82801FB/FBM Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 266F
Storage Controller ITE IT8211 ATA/ATAPI Controller
Storage Controller Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller
Storage Controller VAXSCSI Controller
Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive
Disk Drive Generic Flash HS-CF USB Device (117 MB, USB)
Disk Drive Generic Flash HS-COMBO USB Device
Disk Drive ST3400832AS (400 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive ST3400832AS (400 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive ST3750640AS (750 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
Disk Drive USB2.0 CardReader CF RW USB Device
Disk Drive USB2.0 CardReader Combo USB Device
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8525B SCSI CdRom Device (52x/32x/52x CD-RW)
Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8164B (16x/52x DVD-ROM)
Optical Drive KA2711H PQV908H SCSI CdRom Device
Optical Drive PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716AL (DVD+R9:6x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/4x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/24x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Input:
Keyboard Logitech PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Logitech HID-compliant G5 Laser Mouse

Network:
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (X 2)

DMI:
DMI BIOS Vendor American Megatrends Inc.
DMI BIOS Version 1005.002
DMI Motherboard Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
DMI Motherboard Product P5AD2-E-Premium
DMI Motherboard Version Rev 1.xx

Ok, this is a lot of info but when you have problems installing software, it might be a good idea to give out some info about your system (OS, Ram, Processor and so on) so that somebody can help you out to figure your problems..

I installed this Xion in 5 different computers and one of those computers has Window Vista RC 1 (Build 5600) : while other players game me a hard time on Vista (consider the same WMP 11 crashes all the time on Vista !!!), this installed and played really smooth on all systems)...
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi all!

Sorry that some of you are experiencing problems downloading a running Xion Audio Player, hopefully I can help you out.

It shouldn't matter which browser you use, in fact I use FireFox all the time and not IE and the link seems to be working fine. It's possible that the server is under a bit of pressure with all of the recent downloads so it might be worthwhile hitting download again.

As for the crashes, I'm not sure what would be causing this. It is possible that drivers are causing the issue, so if you could ensure you have the latest sound drivers for your card installed, then we can cross that off the list.

The official Xion forum can be found at http://xion.r2.com.au/community/ . If you are still experiencing crashes after updating to the latest Sound Drivers, then please come by and let me know so that I can work with you to fix the crash.

I'm glad that you are all enjoying Xion and in response to LoveSensualityDevotion, yes I do plan to upgrade those components in the future. I will be releasing a component SDK which will also open up the field for component developers to create new and fantastic components.

Hope to see some great skins from you all!

Warm regards,
Cliff

r2 Studios
http://www.r2.com.au/
http://xion.r2.com.au/