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Just about any decent hardware will work fine with XBMC. Zotac Ion seems to be a popular choice at the moment. If you want to seriously research out what to buy, visit the XBMC Hardware Discussion forum

How hard would it be to write a "Usenet""Online Forum" thingy? "EVERYONE" uses webmail however some of us still prefer thunderbird or other real mail clients.

Take.. http://forum.xbmc.org/ for example.
You'd still need to register on the web and login to usenet with your password. All of the separate forum groups would be a separate group (does usenet support spaces, if not change them to an underscore).

It would require a separate server process, but for large dedicated forums it shouldn't be too hard.

Aside from the fact that this isn't news, it hasn't been a problem either. The patch to add the so-called "DRM" support to XBMC was made available within a few hours of the BBC change.

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/8971

http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/8971 adds support to use librtmp which supports RTMPE including SWF Verification and Adobe's so-called "Secure" Token authentication.

it's worth repeating that there is absolutely zero security of any kind in Adobe Flash RTMPE. everything can be obtained publicly; or is "magic constants", or is simply a complex chain of algorithms, the result of which is merely an increase in CPU usage, heat generated and money wasted, along with the dangerous illusion of security.

http://xbmc.org/ turns a linux box into a full-screen media player with good usability. Mine has an old NVidia 6200 card, works great. Add a home theater keyboard http://www.walmart.com/ip/SPEC-01027-Wireless-Mini-Trackball-Keyboard-for-HTPC-by-Ergoguys/13215118 and you're set.

Crystal HD would also be a valid solution.

XBMC supports it. I'm not sure if mplayer itself does yet.

It turned my AppleTV into a 1080p beast. Just need a Mini-PCIe slot.

And if you're reading this and HAVEN'T heard of XBMC you're missing out on hands down the best HTPC front end ever made.

I've used it since '05 and on an original XBox and they've come a long way.

Crystal HD would also be a valid solution.

XBMC supports it. I'm not sure if mplayer itself does yet.

It turned my AppleTV into a 1080p beast. Just need a Mini-PCIe slot.

And if you're reading this and HAVEN'T heard of XBMC you're missing out on hands down the best HTPC front end ever made.

I've used it since '05 and on an original XBox and they've come a long way.

I like Apple's Front Row but could go for something a little more powerful. Any suggestions?

I'm a big fan of XBMC, which started out on the original Xbox but is now available for the major platforms.

Boxee is based on XMBC, so whatever XMBC supports should also be supported by Boxee. I haven't had to download anything yet, but I've just used Boxee as a front-end to my iTunes library, Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu.

For quite a while I was trying all sorts of these media players; trying to find the perfect one. After a few years, many dollars and countries (searching korea) later I discovered that they all suck in one way or another. The best thing? A simple ubuntu box with a logitech mini wireless keyboard.

If something breaks, or some new feature is required you can easily fix it. Once you have a working solution, just freeze it.

Software I like:
XBMC http://xbmc.org/
Boxee http://www.boxee.tv/
YAMJ http://code.google.com/p/moviejukebox/

Not sure about Intel. But Nvidia has VDPAU which is very nice. Feature Set C even added MPEG4 decoding and SD content upscaling, all in GPU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDPAU#NVIDIA_VDPAU_Feature_Sets)

Broadcom finally released Crystal HD drivers for Linux, which means if you have a mini PCI-E slot, you can get HD content. (http://xbmc.org/davilla/2009/12/29/broadcom-crystal-hd-its-magic/)

If you want to know what is available for what GPU/Platform, keep an eye out on the XBMC guys are doing. They seem to be at the forefront of getting hardware acceleration working on different setups
http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=Hardware_Accelerated_Video_Decoding

I used to swear by SageTV up and down. I was a very early adopter of this software and was promised "Free Upgrades" when I originally purchased it. Apparently "Free Upgrades" only applied until version 5.0+ was released, then it started costing money for every major revision.

It's still good software, however I have a problem with advertising "Free Upgrades" and then skipping out on that claim. I stopped using them on that alone. (Don't lecture me on how they need to get paid for their work, I get that. Don't advertise "free upgrades" if you aren't going to follow up with that claim.)

I have since moved to XBMC http://xbmc.org/ running on an ASRock ION 330 plugged straight into my home theater receiver and it plays 1080p pretty well, 720p flawlessly. The only drawback of XBMC is that it doesn't record (it was never meant to). Its playback capabilities are unmatched in my opinion (mplayer backend, if mplayer can play it, so can xbmc). It's crazy easy to install and use. I use the genuine Microsoft MCE usb remote control which is supported out of the box with no special LIRC knowledge.

I use MythTV with a Hauppage HD-PVR back end for video recording, and although I believe there is a MythTV FrontEnd addon for XBMC, I simply share my recordings directory via CIFS and let XBMC mount the share directly for playback. I like the seperate MythTV backend because I have two XBMC/ASRock installations and both can then read from the same source for playback in either room.

XBMC: Free (Please Donate, its really that awesome)
MythTV: Free (Please Donate, its really that awesome)
ASRock ION 330: About $350 on newegg
Hauppage HD-PVR: About $200 on newegg

It doesn't solve the problem, but on your own stuff you can just do it yourself. We just do a simple redirect, and get the benefit of tagging an analytics campaign as well.

Example: http://xbmc.org/3015

TheUni

And that should do it. After a fair bit of disk-churning, you should have a Matroska file containing all of the elements from the original DVD title.

Some emphasis added. Also, although I recognize this would be considered anecdotal evidence I've in the past encountered MKVs engineered to work this way, with title screens, commentary, multiple audio streams, etc so I do know they exist and that it is possible to do so. While the article is intended for people who want lossless quality, I'm sure it is possible to adjust parameters when encoding to bring about the file sizes you want without ending up with junk. I've seen anime (yes I know anime is different, but still it worked so the files were) encoded to be a mere forty megabytes in file size while retaining their high definition quality.

So, yeah there's some work involved in it, but it is possible.

Also if you need a player and don't want to just use a PC hooked up to your TV with XBMC then you could always try popcorn hour, or some of the machines listed here. You might have to research for awhile but you should be doing that any way, right?

--bornagainpenguin

There's a way to watch/play mythtv recordings/live tv on xbmc using the myth:// protocol. I find that xbmc works a lot better than myth for existing media and don't bother running the mythtv frontend.

1. XBMC on ARM Branch can be viewed here: http://xbmc.org/trac/browser/branches/xbmc_on_arm
2. Discussion about XBMC on ARM with a lot more background info is going on here in the official forum: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35139&page=14
3. You might want to link to the first source i.e. the official xbmc webpage: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2009/10/23/xbmc-on-arm-gles-2-0/
4. XBMC is not called Xbox Media Center anymore, just XBMC.

1. XBMC on ARM Branch can be viewed here: http://xbmc.org/trac/browser/branches/xbmc_on_arm
2. Discussion about XBMC on ARM with a lot more background info is going on here in the official forum: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35139&page=14
3. You might want to link to the first source i.e. the official xbmc webpage: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2009/10/23/xbmc-on-arm-gles-2-0/
4. XBMC is not called Xbox Media Center anymore, just XBMC.

1. XBMC on ARM Branch can be viewed here: http://xbmc.org/trac/browser/branches/xbmc_on_arm
2. Discussion about XBMC on ARM with a lot more background info is going on here in the official forum: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=35139&page=14
3. You might want to link to the first source i.e. the official xbmc webpage: http://xbmc.org/theuni/2009/10/23/xbmc-on-arm-gles-2-0/
4. XBMC is not called Xbox Media Center anymore, just XBMC.

Have there been improvements since this post? I just headed over to the XBMC forums and looked for relevant posts, and came across this post claiming they had some dropped frames with the Zotac IONITX-C-U and the Zotac IONITX-D-E:
http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=411435&postcount=5

Thanks!

Hardware Decoder...

Right now people are working on getting the CrystalHD from Broadcom working under OS X and Linux. Supposedly they can't release it for NDA reasons.

Then there is also VDPAU. I know there isn't an ARM port (YET!). Feature Set C decodes nearly everything in HD. I was playing 1080p with 10% CPU.

There are a ton of those set top box devices from WD and other companies that advertise to 1080P with a small fanless device.

Ah, but my machine does NOT spend all sorts of time at 100% usage. In fact I am using it to watch 1080P content now, CPU usage is 10%. The ONLY time it hits 100% is during a compile process when I use -j4 to load all 4 cores. I play MKV files with H.264 compression ripped from BD that I compress myself - I use some pretty serious settings too. Obviously I rip\compress on another box - an I7. This box pushes out 5.1 audio via HDMI too.

The reason why my CPU usage is so far below yours is because it's an ION. No shitty Intel graphics here, this is an NVIDIA 9400m (as in mobile). It supports VC-1, H.264, and MPEG acceleration via VDPAU in XBMC under Linux. I've never run Windows on this one but other ATOM I've used were pretty snappy with XP.

You can learn more about all of this here -> http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54705

Frankly, this box works WAY better than the C2D I had that also had a 9400m on it. Quieter, WAY less power usage, smaller, and looks great. You sure you're using one of these? I wouldn't expect a CNC machine to require tons of CPU, mostly I/O. For a nettop or small server these boxes are pretty ideal save for their lack of space for many disks.

You'll need an LIRC setup. Which means either a generic USB/Serial IR receiver, or I just went with a cheap HP MCE remote from ebay (With that Ugly Win Logo). With LIRC you can map any button to about any function. Eject, Sleep, Power, etc

Only thing most people don't seem to have gotten perfect yet is sleep, but I think that's more of a Linux thing than anything. I haven't timed my boot, but I think it's in the 50 second range with nothing fancy on a debian install.

Check out the forums. http://xbmc.org/forum/ for answers to almost all of your questions, including step by step walkthroughs.

It's entirely possible I'm missing something, but why not just put XBMC on it and be done with it?? http://xbmc.org/

i still use my original xbox as my media box with XBMC. The main downside is the slow processor which limits what can be decoded, but there is a pretty good HOWTO in the wiki for tailoring the settings of h.264+ac3 for output on the xbox.

Isn't that what XBMC is for?

Look no further, check out the ION offerings. They can be run fully passively without any moving parts (although manufacturers tend to build complete systems with a single (smallish) fan, you can get a passive Ion mobo with a passive fan from Zotac) yet fully capable of playing back anything. And yes, it does run Linux (http://www.xbmc.org/).

BrokenCodes, who claims he's been working on Windows GPU acceleration for XBMC, has claimed that he's one of the three people.

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=369624&postcount=210

There have been a lot of doubt as to whether BrokenCodes actually does have GPU acceleration on Windows working for XBMC (no code has been shown yet), although he's been talking the right talk in my limited DirectX/DxVA experience.

I think we can assume he's either telling the truth on both counts, or lying on both counts. If he's lying, status quo. If he's telling the truth, there's a small (IMO) chance of him releasing what he's done so far, but probably status quo.

The Boxee client for the most part is opensource (being based on the GPL'd XBMC http://xbmc.org/, it has to be). However, the part of Boxee that handles Hulu, Netflix and the like is NOT open source. Instead, the Boxee client loads a proprietary, closed-source executable that then loads the Firefox flash or silverlight plugins. Encourage Boxee to open things up - it's clear that they're not gaining anything by having this stuff closed off.

The XBMC threads are still "we're working on it." I wish Boxee would play nice and roll out the source of the updates.

Hulu Development Thread
Hulu Release Thread

The XBMC threads are still "we're working on it." I wish Boxee would play nice and roll out the source of the updates.

Hulu Development Thread
Hulu Release Thread

Sorry... though I appreciate VLC, I think its far from the best media player. My vote would go to the numerous incarnation of MPlayer. From Xbox Media Center to SMPlayer on Linux and Windows to MPlayer OSX Extended on Mac OS X, MPlayer has always been able to play whatever weird codec or container I toss at it. Meanwhile, every time I've attempted to use VLC (mainly on OS X) I've become frustrated by hangs and crashes... Maybe I'll hate this version a little less?

http://xbmc.org/trac/ticket/5941

assuming that Mac Mini is silent, combining it with XBMC would be heaven!

A Mac Mini looks to be a decent media center if you get a wireless keyboard+mouse and download HandBrake+VLC.

The Mac Mini also has a built-in infrared receiver, so you can use it with a remote as well including the Apple remote, some universal remotes, and the Harmony remote. Also, there are some great media center applications for Mac including Boxee, Plex, and XBMC.

I manually installed the Hulu plugin on the newest T3CH release of XBMC. Here's the plugin, but apparently it's broken right now.

Buy and old xbox. It's not going to do HD content, but Boxee is a fork of XBMC. Using XBMC+rtorrent+pytvshotws I have what can be assumed to be a near identical setup. The 'server' is in a different room and it has 2TB of space.

Here or here or here if you want an older All-In-Wonder with S video. There are plenty of choices right now in the $15-$20 range and most have nice features like remotes and MP4 capture so you can take your time and get the features that interest you. I just checked and I'm afraid the place where I picked up a couple for $5 each has sold out, but the Sabrent and Kworld cards I have placed into customers computers in the past and they are quite happy with them. I myself picked up an "Easy TV FM" for $15 which I watch cable and listen to the radio with.

they are quite fun to play with and you can add Media Portal if you have XP to make a really cheap media center. Some prefer Xbox Media Center for Windows but I've had better luck with Media Portal. Anyway I hope this helps, and have fun!

Sure if you want HD content the 733mhz P3 in the XBOX ain't going to cut it.

$400 http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9999386 an MCE remote, and a little work with Ubuntu will have you with the times. HDMI audio\video capable of 1080 display. You'll want to overclock to about 3ghz though.

More here -> http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33 Can you say MAC, Linux, AND Winders ports?! :-O it will even run on an aTV just don't expect it to play too much more than your old XBOX :-( All of this still being tweaked mind you but it's looking pretty good.

Oh and Plex is a good MAC fork http://elan.plexapp.com/ and Boxee is a good fork on most every platform http://boxee.tv/

XBMC.org maybe? SVN code log? http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/xbmc/branches/?view=log Forums maybe? http://xbmc.org/forum/index.php They have their own Wiki too that has instruction on compiling http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO_compile_XBMC_for_Linux_from_source_code

XBMC.org maybe? SVN code log? http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/xbmc/branches/?view=log Forums maybe? http://xbmc.org/forum/index.php They have their own Wiki too that has instruction on compiling http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=HOW-TO_compile_XBMC_for_Linux_from_source_code

I just dumped Mythbuntu and switched to XBMC Media Center. I don't actually have a TV signal, just use the machine for DVDs and recorded movies, music and pictures across the LAN. And for those purposes, I found it so awkward to work with as to be unusable. Particularly the interface for managing your music collection.

This article seems to focus entirely on the aspects relating to managing TV signals and shows. Is there anything in this new interface that might make me want to switch back?

I'd go with a web based system and integrate zone minder in as a security camera system to have a single application for everything. You could also include a Tivo Control or a media center like XBMC. Web based also gives you flexibility as more and more devices include built in browsers. You could control your house from a Wii or pull up a web page on the screen on your internet refrigerator.

Never heard of Roku, but in my experience, nothing can yet beat XBMC on either my old Xbox, or a low-spec HTPC.

Posting anonymously because the Myth mods will get me otherwise :-)

Apparently that's all he had, binaries, without any source code.

Here are some more grains of salt.

Could be a case of a copy and paste propagating a typo.

Beta1 of XBMC for ATV was announced just today http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=37345

Actually that's correct, XBMC is a recursive algorithm for "XBMC Media Centre".

See here: http://xbmc.org/about/

FYI; they are currently running internal Beta testing on XBMC for Apple TV, if you got an hacked Apple TV you can sign up here: http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36902

How is Plex different other than a different logo?

I've played around with it for a while and it is absolutely gorgeous.

The gorgeousness is a skin, looks like MediaStream, which is also bundled with XBMC. Anyone can download it from http://teamrazorfish.co.uk./

Each release gets it more and more integrated with OSX. Apple remote, mouse, local file system, etc.

Seems no different from the official Mac release, which seems to support everything you just mentioned, plus iTunes and iPhoto support.

I don't see any reason in supporting a fork, when the official team seems just as interested in porting it to OS X.