On this page you find information on how to paint new skins for Micro DVD Player. Later I will also publish skins themselves here, but so far there are none. :-)

First, click here to download a self-extracting archive with the JPG and BMP files that make the default and example skin.

This archive also contains a file called "Coordinates.txt" in which you'll find a list of all filenames, their fixed coordinates on the player's screen, and their usage.

To paint a new skin, follow these steps:

  1. Edit the graphic components (including colors and the graphic itself) of some or all of those JPG and BMP files in whatever way you want.
  2. You may not change the size of the graphics!
  3. The positions of all graphics also stay the same to make it easier to handle and to adapt to new skins.
  4. This includes the "Jog-Shuttle" area, meaning the buttons for Play, Pause, Stop, Prev, Next, and the round area around it. The positions of those buttons, and that of the circle and of the little indicator ball on the circle are fixed too.
  5. The file type (BMP, JPG) and file names must also stay the same!
  6. To make certain areas of the control bar transparent, see info in the next paragraph under this list!
  7. New skins reside in a directory SKINS under your MDVDP dir. Make another subdir with the desired name of your skin under SKINS, and put all JPG and BMP files in there, also those you did not change.
  8. The skin can be loaded in the configuration dialog. The player will remember the skin last used.

To set the areas of the control bar that have to be transparent (rounded edges etc.), do the following:

  1. Create a file "TransparencyMask.BMP" along with all the .JPG and .BMP files.
  2. This file has to be a BMP (Bitmap) type file, with the same width and height as Controls.JPG, and a depth of 1 bit (2 colors).
  3. In this bitmap, paint all pixels black (RGB color value exactly 0,0,0) that are NOT transparent, meaning that have to be visible. All pixels that have to be invisible=transparent get white color (rgb color value exactly 255,255,255).
  4. When this file is present in the skin's directory, it will be used to set the transparent areas of the control bar.

If you have questions or painted a cool skin you wish to submit, feel free to contact me!