![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe tweaks around MythTV integration have also involved changes at the MythTV end. This is detailed in Display Year In MythTV Recordings<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For a long time I have wanted to be able to listen to my music in the lounge with reasonable quality using the FLAC recordings I have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have gone to quite a bit of trouble to create very accurate, lossless rips of my CDs. This has included full archiving of all the artwork that comes with the CD. I have detailed in my comprehensive post CD Archiving<\/a> and related posts linked within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wanted a solution that would allow me to see the artwork using the full 75″ of my new TV, with the ability to look at the artwork at the same time – it’s quite nice to be able to look at the artwork and lyrics from the CD while listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am somewhat fussy and like things to be easy to use so the tweaks are around cosmetic and functional issues. We now have a Sony 75″ X85L with the tweaks focused around what works with TV. The TV uses Google TV and was released in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I find that skinning Kodi is quite complex and very difficult unless you really want to dig into it and really understand how it works. I did not have the time to do that, I simply wanted some cosmetic type changes to make it work the way I wanted – which is currently to listen to music, watch TV and video recordings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I found a number of changes I made broke things, particularly settings – because I wasn’t making the changes the “right way”, or perhaps doing it the “right way” would not work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I reached a point where I could not devote anymore time to getting everything working perfectly, I decided to focus on getting the bits I wanted and to accept that to do some activities I need to switch skins, to “Amber”, make my config change etc., and then switch skins back. It’s far from idea, but it’s the pragmatic choice I make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was keen to greatly simplify the menu, but it was impossible to do this while retaining access to infrequent menu items. By switching skins, the Zoyinc skin would have the menu items I want with the rest accessible by switching skins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The activities that you need to switch skins includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s not a requirement to have an external keyboard, as the install can be done with a TV remote. However having an external keyboard, such as Bluetooth or wireless usb keyboard, does make life much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty obvious, but obviously the first task is to install Kodi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My most important use is as a frontend to MythTV so naturally we need the “MythTV PVR Client”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Install and configure as normal. Probably the main thing you will need to do is the IP for “MythTV backend hostname or IP”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our backed server is at “192.168.202.44”<\/p>\n\n\n\n As mentioned earlier, the Zoyinc skin is experimental and some functionality doesn’t work or is inaccessible. Thus for some non-core activities you will need to switch to another skin. The skin of choice is “Amber” as that is what the Zoyinc skin was forked from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus install the Amber skin from the repository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This post, and my use of Kodi in general, is focused around Android and Google TV installs and as such, being Linux based, I find NFS share are the best supported although you can still use Samba\/SMB or local drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You will need to have somewhere to store your music, videos etc, that are easily accessible to Kodi. My suggestion is to setup some NFS shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home I am currently using OpenMediaVault and have many posts on the subject – such as Installing Open Media Vault<\/a>. On my “nas2” server I have the following shares that I use with Kodi:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In OpenMediaVault they look like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is needed to install the Zoyinc skin from a zip file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navigate to “Settings | System Settings | Add-ons | Unknown sources”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Press <enter> to enable this – you will get the following dialog, to which you should click on “yes”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I emphasized earlier this skin is designed around what works for me, I don’t need to accommodate the multitude of ways people organize their music files and artwork, I only need to deal with mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I need my music collection to work with multiple things most importantly I need to be able to export my flac files as alac so I can use them on my iPhone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I would suggest you look at my post CD Archiving<\/a> to see how I do things and what the skin expects. The bottom line is you end up with a folder for each album, this contains a high resolution “Cover.jpg” file, all of your ripped *.flac music files, and a sub-folder called “stuff” that contains the artwork, and .cue\/.log,\/.m3u8 files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By default the dates are “mm\/dd\/yyyy” to change them to “dd\/mm\/yyyy” go to “Settings | Interface Settings” then set the “settings Level” to “Expert” and then go to “Regional | Short Date Format” and set it to the one you want, for me that was “(DD\/MM\/YYYY):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under “Settings | Interface Settings | Screensaver | Screensaver mode”, set it to “None”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n My personal preference is to disable splitting the album by disk, This is under “Settings | Media Settings | Music | Split albums into individual discs”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personal preferences are to set:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don’t forget to click “OK” to save<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to “TV | Recordings” and then press the left arrow to get to the Control Menu on the left and enable “Group Items”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow the instructions in Add\/Remove\/Reset music\/video libraries in Kodi<\/a> to create the Music and Video libraries<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have not spent time enhancing the Video pages, however simply switching the view mode to “BigLIst” for videos is huge help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For videos only go back to them under “Settings | Media Settings | Library | Videos…”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then press the left arrow to go to the standard menu control and set “Then press the left arrow to go to the standard menu control and set ViewType” to “BigList”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are some custom files you need to add the Kodi users profile folder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start by downloading zoyinc_kodi_skin-extra_files-v2.zip<\/a> and unzipping it. Inside you will find the following files:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kodi has some settings for which there is no UI to configure them. To set these you a file “\\userdata\\advancedsettings.xml” and put the settings in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More details see: advancedsettings.xml<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For us this file looks like:<\/p>\n\n\n\nMusic<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-2.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nCustomization goals <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Switch skins sometimes<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\n
Prerequisites <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
External keyboard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kodi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Add-ons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
MythTV PVR Client<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Install the Amber skin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
NFS\/SMB share<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-24.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEnable unknown sources for add-ons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-9.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-10.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMusic setup<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Set NZ date setting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-33.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDisable screensaver<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDisable “Split albums into individual discs”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/image-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nMythTV Configuration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-34.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-35.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nInstall Music and Video libraries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Set “BigList” view mode for videos<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/image-31.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAdd custom files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
advancedsettings.xml<\/h3>\n\n\n\n