XBMC 'Atlantis' Beta 1 Released, Now Cross-Platform

An anonymous reader writes with a welcome followup to last year's promise of XBMC being made available for Linux: "The first cross-platform Beta version[s] of XBMC Media Center for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and Xbox have now been released in preparation for an upcoming stable release, code named 'Atlantis.'" Now, though, there are binaries available for download through the XBMC Media Center site, though only for the non-Xbox versions.

Comments

XBMC ?

[yukk]

How can XBMC be available for everything except the XBOX ?

Re:XBMC ?

[PhiberOptix]

the source code is available to all platforms, including xbox.
Just the binaries that are not available to xbox, because the MS xbox sdk does not allows them to redistribute binaries.

Re:XBMC ?

[Anonymous Coward]

To compile XBMC for the Xbox is illegal since it'll have to be compiled using the XDK (XBox Development Kit) which is not available to the average joe (as one may suspect).

That's the reason they don't distribute a compiled version. But if you google for XBMC and T3CH ... you might get something in return.

Oh... the wonders of googling...

Re:XBMC ?

[qoncept]

The developers haven't legally licensed the Xbox XDK, and so they can't legally distribute binaries. So you'll have to find them somewhere illegitimate.

Re:XBMC ?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can XBMC be available for everything except the XBOX ?

it IS avalibile for the XBOX, its just that they (XBMC team) do not host the binaries. In order to be able to compile XBE's for the xbox you have to have the XBOX dev kit..... do you honestly think for one second that MS is going to license the XBMC team with their xbox dev kit?? Thats why you have to get XBMC via usenet or torrent.

Re:XBMC ?

[beanlover]

They cannot distribute the binary version of XBMC for the XBOX because it requires the XDK (XBOX Development Kit) which was only distributed to certain folks by MS. By distributing a binary version built to run on an XBOX it would run afoul of MS license agreements, etc.

There are other avenues of acquring a prebuilt binary and/or XDK.

Having said that...I LOVE XBMC. It's why I have an XBOX to begin with. Running it on a PC (with your choice of host OS) would add the two missing features needed to make it complete: HD and DVR.

Re:XBMC ?

[Anonymous Coward]

because XBMC is no longer an acronym for Xbox Media Center, but the name for the cross-platform app derived from it. They kept the XMBC branding for simplicity.

Re:XBMC ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not Atlantis, but has all the T3ch builds for download: http://t3ch.yi.se/

Re:XBMC ?

[Aphoxema]

How can Windows be available for anything but windows?

Just wait a minute! You'll get it! Or you'll be trying so hard to see what might be funny about it that I'll have time to make a clean getaway with your windows. You can keep the Windows, though.

Re:XBMC ?

[Em Ellel]

The developers haven't legally licensed the Xbox XDK, and so they can't legally distribute binaries. So you'll have to find them somewhere illegitimate.

Even if you own the SDK, which, I think, average joe CAN buy, distributing binaries is disallowed under SDK EULA without MS's blessing, which they will not give for XBMC. This is pretty much same problem as iPhone developers have, except unlike iPhone there are no alternative ways to compile code for XBOX - you HAVE to use the MS SDK and as such MS can sue for distribution of compiled binaries (which then have to be distributed along side of other illegal material like movies and music and thus looks just as illegal).

On the flip side, at least there is no Apple "Fight Club" rules for MS SDK - you ARE allowed to talk about it without getting sued.

-Em

Re:XBMC ?

[MoonBuggy]

I'd assume it's a legal grey area - does anyone actually know whether the idea that the EULA of a compiler can limit the distribution of binaries that it outputs has ever been tested in court?

The fact that the XBMC team don't want to prod MS with a stick and blindly hope that they aren't bankrupted by defensive legal costs, of course, is entirely understandable, but I'd still think that they've got something of a case; it's not like the makers of any other tool get a say in how you use it or what you do with the product you produce with it.

Re:XBMC ?

[Chaos Incarnate]

it's not like the makers of any other tool get a say in how you use it or what you do with the product you produce with it.

Tell that to anybody producing a GPL-licensed library.

Re:XBMC ?

[Em Ellel]

Its a moot point to prod MS with a stick or not. Truth of the matter is that XBox (remember this is XBox, not Xbox 360) is a dead platform and has been dead for a while.

That is why I am so excited that they took XBMC and opened it up to larger platforms. The nice thing about the Xbox was that you get a mini-pc in a tight, cheap package, but the power of it's been lacking these days (sub-Ghz celeron with next to no memory only goes so far) so with new platform support maybe we'll finally get HD, DVR and other extra hardware-based capabilities.

-Em

I'd assume it's a legal grey area - does anyone actually know whether the idea that the EULA of a compiler can limit the distribution of binaries that it outputs has ever been tested in court?

The fact that the XBMC team don't want to prod MS with a stick and blindly hope that they aren't bankrupted by defensive legal costs, of course, is entirely understandable, but I'd still think that they've got something of a case; it's not like the makers of any other tool get a say in how you use it or what you do with the product you produce with it.

Re:XBMC ?

[billcopc]

Part of the problem is there's little or no motivation to release a free SDK (e.g. cleanroom reimplementation), because a modded Xbox is an "illegitimate" platform - you're already breaking some backwards law by modding it, you might as well break another backwards law by releasing unlicensed binaries.

I'm not fond of legally-encumbered distribution, because frankly it's none of Microsoft's business what Joe Random sticks on the internet. The SDK should be open in the first place. It's not like M$ is going to stick XBMC on a disc, draw up a pretty box and stock it at Best Buy...

Re:XBMC ?

[drinkypoo]

The average person can NOT purchase the XDK. It is available only from Microsoft and only with the signing of a development agreement. There is an OpenXDK in-progress. It does not yet do much. You can run Linux without hacking any code on the Xbox (100% legally) but nothing else...

Anyway, even if the developers had somehow legally licensed the XDK they wouldn't be allowed to distribute any resulting binaries themselves. They have to be submitted to Microsoft for signing to run on an unhacked box, and Microsoft won't allow you to use the XDK to create homebrew software.

Re:XBMC ?

[drinkypoo]

I'd assume it's a legal grey area - does anyone actually know whether the idea that the EULA of a compiler can limit the distribution of binaries that it outputs has ever been tested in court?

Uh, the compiler is Visual Studio. The XDK is a set of libraries, which are software. In order to distribute software built with these libraries you must follow the license. In order to get your code signed by Microsoft so it will run on an unhacked Xbox and in order to get their blessing for distribution you must submit the code to Microsoft.

In addition, the XDK is legally available only with an Xbox development kit. So if you don't have a dev kit, and you have the XDK, you broke the law.

Re:XBMC ?

[drinkypoo]

That is why I am so excited that they took XBMC and opened it up to larger platforms. The nice thing about the Xbox was that you get a mini-pc in a tight, cheap package, but the power of it's been lacking these days (sub-Ghz celeron with next to no memory only goes so far) so with new platform support maybe we'll finally get HD, DVR and other extra hardware-based capabilities.

The holy grail of course would be being able to run it on the PS3 or the Xbox 360, either of which could handle HD content. The Xbox will actually do 720p or 1080i and XBMC will probably produce video at these resolutions but you can't feed it data fast enough (that is, the Xbox's 733MHz Coppermine Celeron can't process a HD stream) so it won't help you.

I don't really know the state of X360 hacking, but if it ever gets to where the state of Xbox hacking is today, it will be the ideal platform to run XBMC on once again.

I've run earlier versions of XBMC for linux and they were hopelessly unstable. I hope this stuff is better, because it's just a nice app to have on your Linux laptop.

Re:XBMC ?

[NoPantsJim]

I've run earlier versions of XBMC for linux and they were hopelessly unstable. I hope this stuff is better, because it's just a nice app to have on your Linux laptop.

How long ago was this? Personally, I've been running XBMC on Ubuntu 7.10 since early this Spring, don't think I've had a single crash.

Re:XBMC ?

[jonwil]

Its not a legal grey area, distributing anything linked to the libraries in the XDK is a clear violation of copyright law.

Re:XBMC ?

[Em Ellel]

The holy grail of course would be being able to run it on the PS3 or the Xbox 360, either of which could handle HD content. The Xbox will actually do 720p or 1080i and XBMC will probably produce video at these resolutions but you can't feed it data fast enough (that is, the Xbox's 733MHz Coppermine Celeron can't process a HD stream) so it won't help you.

I am not sure if 360 or PS3 are really that attractive anymore. You could pick up a used modded Xbox for $100-$150 - now THAT was worthwhile, but at the cost of PS3 and X360, its actually cheaper to buy PC - and no hacking or mod-chipping required.

-Em

Re:XBMC ?

[kripkenstein]

I'd assume it's a legal grey area - does anyone actually know whether the idea that the EULA of a compiler can limit the distribution of binaries that it outputs has ever been tested in court?

The fact that the XBMC team don't want to prod MS with a stick and blindly hope that they aren't bankrupted by defensive legal costs, of course, is entirely understandable, but I'd still think that they've got something of a case; it's not like the makers of any other tool get a say in how you use it or what you do with the product you produce with it.

The issue is that compilers often add something to the compiled code: libraries, and so forth, but even headers and metadata might be an issue.

This isn't like a breadmaker machine telling you (well, the manufacturer telling you) you can't sell their bread under so-and-so conditions, this is like a breadmaker that makes bread that includes some 'secret sauce' of theirs telling you you can't redistribute their secret sauce without permission (but of course even this analogy is wrong, since 'redistributing' - reselling - sauce would probably be legal, whereas here redistribution would be copyright infringement).

This isn't limited to Microsoft. If GCC didn't expressly allow it, you wouldn't be able to redistribute GCC-compiled code that wasn't under the GPL. But of course GCC is reasonable and does explicitly allow that; the point is that they do need to be explicit about it.

Re:XBMC ?

[BrentH]

Euh, the XBOX 360 is $199, how wouldn't it be interesting if you could run an HD capable XBMC on there?

Re:XBMC ?

[Em Ellel]

Euh, the XBOX 360 is $199, how wouldn't it be interesting if you could run an HD capable XBMC on there?

Heh, Shows what I know. I was still thinking $400-$500 range. $200 is getting back into realm of reasonable.

-Em

Re:XBMC ?

[drinkypoo]

That's about when I started running it, and it did nothing BUT crash, whether I played mp3s or DVDs. DVDs crashed it quickest. Many MPEG4 streams would do the same. I have built on gutsy and hardy.

Product name whack-a-mole

[damn_registrars]

Headline:

XBMC 'Atlantis' Beta 1 Released, Now Cross-Platform

First line:

last year's promise of XMBC

Then later:

XBMC Media Center

And finally:

through the XMBC Media Center site

I guess someone was so excited about the product that they couldn't take the time to ensure they spelled it consistently.

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[Korin43]

I also like how it changes between XBMC (Xbox Media Center) and XBMC Media Center (Xbox Media Center Media Center).

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[Curtman]

It doesn't stand for Xbox Media Center anymore. It's just 4 meaningless letters now.

Deal with it.

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[damn_registrars]

It's just 4 meaningless letters now.

Does that mean that we can rearrange them any way we like? XBMC == XMBC == XCBM == XCMB == MBCX == CXMB == CMXB == BMXC ad naseum?

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[Anonymous Coward]

If you like. But nobody will know what the fuck you are talking about.

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[HTH NE1]

Does that mean that we can rearrange them any way we like? XBMC == XMBC == XCBM == XCMB == MBCX == CXMB == CMXB == BMXC ad naseum?

"Ad nauseum"? Remind me never to get on a Tilt-a-Whirl with you. There are only 24 permutations.

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[billcopc]

Where are my mod points when I need them ?

+2 funny!

Re:Product name whack-a-mole

[Sloppy]

However you arrange those letters, it sounds like a really scary weapons system.

Great!

[PhiberOptix]

I love xbmc. Anyone knows of a nice (and cheap) pc that could serve as a media center with xbmc, a la asus eee box, but with the ability to run hdtv content?

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

right now, since no GPU video acceleration is used, you need a ~3GHz CPU and a decent video card w/OGL 2.0 support (for post-processing in the future) to get flawless 1080p decoding/playback under worst-case conditions.

Re:Great!

[Lumpy]

the eee? Why would you want to play HD on a device that has less screen resolution than SD? just play regular SD on the eee and call it done.

Re:Great!

[entrigant]

whoosh

Re:Great!

[Zerth]

Not the EEE laptop, the EEE Box It can do 720p, but not 1080p.

Re:Great!

[MoonBuggy]

Not the eee netbook, the eee box. According to AnandTech it'll just about handle 720p video; they complain about the lack of HDMI, which is a problem if you either wanted digital audio or wanted to watch DRM restricted HD content.

Re:Great!

[DCstewieG]

I don't know if it would count as cheap (check eBay), but the Mac Mini is great for this. I've been running Plex (see a few posts up) on mine for a while now and it's just beautiful. The Mini is small, quiet, and comes with a remote. Mine is a Core [1] Duo and acts as my dev server/torrent box/media center with no problems. Of course, if you want to record TV it might not work so well.

Re:Great!

[aztracker1]

The eee box, or msi wind desktop will run xbmc with 720p content, just not 1080p.... just an FYI.. When the dual core atoms ship out, I would expect them to be able to handle 1080p in cpu. Alternatively, you could setup an intel core 2 based itx system from logicsupply.com ... With even a moderate Pentium Dual core cpu (based on core 2, not original Pentium D), or a laptop cpu, you should be able to do a decent media system for under $500US.

Re:Great!

[drinkypoo]

You might look at 3btech, they have some cute smallish barebones core duo/nvidia and phenom systems with DVI outputs. Stuff has been banging someplace between $100 and $200. You can probably get away with as little as 128MB RAM, I'd probably use about 512MB minimum (but honestly, I suspect that is enough.) Add a USB stick for booting. you can get an 8GB for about $20 if you look around. If I had HD I'd go this route today; at SD resolutions (my highest-res large output device is an XGA DLP front projector) the Xbox (at $60 plus maybe $20 in cables and the remote if you go buy refurb at gamestop) is still the best option.

XBMCMC?

[Thelasko]

The first cross-platform Beta version[s] of XBMC Media Center for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and Xbox have now been released in preparation for an upcoming stable release, code named 'Atlantis

Xbox Media Center Media Center? I'm sorry, but when I see XMBC I think Xbox Media Center in my mind. Its use isn't ubiquitous enough that people have forgotten what it stands for.

Re:XBMCMC?

[Chad Birch]

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

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

xbmc rocks

[pak9rabid]

XBMC is the only reason I own an XBox. It's simply an amazing piece of software. I definitely look forward to trying it out on my Linux box...What would be really amazing would be XBMC for the 360 so that we could get true HD support.

Re:xbmc rocks

[yukk]

XBMC is absolutely one of my favourite uses of my XBOX. It was incredible back a year or so ago and it just keeps on getting better. It blows the socks of Windows Media Center Edition.

Re:xbmc rocks

[neo8750]

If you run mythtv you can use XBMc to communcate with it to watch live channels and recorded shows. add the source myth://Comp-name/

I run this on my linux box that i use for my htpc. I like it because it can handle anything i throw at it even HD content (something the orginal xbox couldnt handle) Also i think it looks 1000000x beter then mythtv gui

Re:xbmc rocks

[Moryath]

That's presuming you can get MythTV to work properly, a dicey proposition at best.

I've had FAR more luck getting XBMC to talk correctly to pre-recorded media (of almost any format) from my NAS and winboxen.

As for the GUI... I love the XBMC GUI. I love the fact that the Xboxes I purchased at a flea market for comparative pennies make lovely network video boxes for the spare rooms in my house to pull just about everything I've recorded from NAS.

I'm looking forward to the "new" Windows-based XBMC so my home theater PC can run it and do the HD content thing, but that's a minor concern - and only relevant once they get the surround 5.1 audio upsampling and ATi Remote Wonder support to work properly (neither of which, alas, is in this edition). Till then, I just let VLC play the HD content and run the rest off a standard XBMX-Xbox.

Re:xbmc rocks

[hansamurai]

Agreed, it's the center of my media center at home. I just wish the Xbox could handle 720p, but not a big deal for me right now.

The interface is top notch, my wife can navigate with ease, of course, we have a remote to interact with it.

Re:xbmc rocks

[pak9rabid]

I actually had that setup a few years ago. I had my server which ran mythtv-backend, then the XBox was the frontend via the XBMC MythTV plugin. It was simply amazing. Coupled with MythWeb, there's nothing like it. I would schedule my recordings from work via MythWeb and have a nice list of stuff to watch when I got home :).

Re:xbmc rocks

[Curtman]

LinuxMCE looks like it blows the socks of both of these.

I haven't taken time to play with any of them yet. Anyone tried LinuxMCE?

Re:xbmc rocks

[marcop]

Bill Gates was shown a demo of XMBC and asked how Microsoft could engage the community. Why don't they come out and support it on the 360? I might consider buying one if it did.

Re:xbmc rocks

[ConceptJunkie]

Microsoft doesn't care about engaging the community as long as they can imprison the community.

It's a shame too, because there are lots of ways that they could embrace "freedom" that would win them lots of favor with the very customers they've spent all these years alienating. They could do lots of things like this, but they'd rather try to succeed with a stick than a carrot.

Maybe after the guy with too many Y-chromosomes steps down Microsoft can go back to being part of the community rather than trying to hijack the community.

Re:xbmc rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't the XBOX already support 720p and 1080i? Maybe when you say "handle" you mean something different, but you can enable 720p and 1080i within the XBOX dashboard. After this is done XBMC runs in 1080i fine on my television. Of course you need the high definition AV pack, but those are like $25. As far as I know there is no HDMI support, but component looks great for me :)

Re:xbmc rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

XBMC for xbox can output 720p/1080i, but it lacks the power to decode HD content, and even has trouble with some 480p x.264 stuff

Re:xbmc rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool I gotcha.. as long as it's able to display AVI files and play DVD's in widescreen and good quality (which it does) then I'm happy.

Re:xbmc rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is that Microsoft would have to allow the execution of 3rd party code.

Barring the .01% of the community who would use this to put on say, a web server or a folding@home program, Microsoft is completely aware the other 99.99% would be using it to play "backups." In the console market where the hardware is a loss-leader, losing out on any software sales is a big no-no.

If however, Microsoft could do the port themselves...

Re:xbmc rocks

[aztracker1]

LinuxMCE has a lot more capabilities.. As a media player XBMC is much more straight forward, and far, far, far easier to get setup. LinuxMCE is a real pita to get going with certain hardware... however, if you actually have the hardware to run it as a server, with devices in various rooms, it can be nice... I prefer Ubuntu + Medibuntu + XBMC myself.

Re:xbmc rocks

[neo8750]

I've only had 1 problem getting mythtv to work properly with my mythtv setup and that was using an actual xbox. I could view pre-recorded shows but not live tv. It was strange since it was same build as the other xbox i had been using.

Re:xbmc rocks

[Anonymous Coward]

xbox can handle 720p and 1080i, although the interface gets a bit choppy at 1080i. xbmc on xbox will also upconvert your dvd's to 720p. you just have to buy the right cable bundle. it's fantastic.

Re:xbmc rocks

[Mista2]

Running XBMC under Mint Linux on a 24" monitor in 1680x1024. Absolutely gorgeous. Running XBMC on Unbuntu on my Aspire One Netbook in 1024x600. Absoutely gorgeous. Running XBMC on my old chipped XBoxes (NZ$300 or less each now) and looks pretty good! The best thing is the interface is the same/similar as on the old XBox (of which I have two, one for upstairs one for downstairs, both connected to 33" TVs) so even my 5-year-old can drive it. I was going to pick up an old Mac Mini 1.8GHz model to replace one of the old XBoxes, but now I might just build an atom based uATX PC instead. XBMC rocks!

Re:xbmc rocks

[BLKMGK]

Reports on LinuxMCE are less than wonderful. But then I'm biased having been using XBMC on Linux for months now. Folsk i've spoken to who have tried LinuxMCEhad trouble getting it running much less doing what they wanted - it's much more involved I'm afraid.

Re:xbmc rocks

[hansamurai]

I upconvert, I'm talking about the 720p tv rips that are available from eztv, etc. Don't work for me.

Re:xbmc rocks

[AbRASiON]

You need +15 modding >:(

So so pissed off that Sony blocked XBMC on linux with the PS3 (they closed the GPU loophole)

Re:xbmc rocks

[Samah]

I love XBMC so much I own FOUR Xboxes (one for each room with a TV). Hooked up to my Linux server with about 6 terabytes worth of TV/movies/etc., it's pretty awesome. ;)

It's not that.

[AltGrendel]

They just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Re:It's not that.

[damn_registrars]

They just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

I was paying attention only enough to try to figure out wtf the product was. But when the product name changes every other line, its hard to do that.

The Killer App

[ahoehn]

XBMC really was the killer app for a modded 1st gen XBOX. I dropped a 120GB hard drive in mine, had it auto-sync with my video torrent folder, and had a brilliant little movie/tv show playing setup going on. It makes an Xbox do what Microsoft should have done with its Media Center Extender initiative.

For something that was quasi-legal (if I remember you needed proprietary things from the Xbox developer's SDK to properly compile the source for the Xbox) it had a remarkably excellent UI. Things seemed to work quite well. It seems like a good thing to have some real competition in the media center market, particularly cross-platform open-source competition.

Re:The Killer App

[wireddd]

You are spot on. Running XBMC on a 1st gen XBOX required 'modding' it or using some kind of save game exploit. I really hope the interface works as well on a pc, because it had to be really lean with no bloat to speak of due to the limits of the xbox. I'll certainly be giving it a shot on my htpc.

Re:The Killer App

[Hatta]

I still watch nearly all my TV on my xbox. TVRSS with rtorrent, samba, and XBMC has made broadcast TV obsolete.

Re:The Killer App

[hansamurai]

Modding the Xbox wasn't the quasi-legal gray area, unless you consider modifying hardware you own illegal. It was that the compiled binaries for the Xbox had to be compiled from the developer SDK and that was only available to developers who were approved by Microsoft and paid for it.

Re:The Killer App

[LordSnooty]

I still watch nearly all my TV on my xbox. TVRSS with rtorrent, samba, and XBMC has made broadcast TV obsolete.

A bit noisy, no? Or was the 1st gen Xbox quieter than today's? I achieve the same Az+RSS+Winshares+Samba coverage of old and new TV with a diskless NFS header running mythtv on a mini-ITX board. Didn't bother with broadcast TV but like you say, with BT coverage you don't miss out.

Re:The Killer App

[0100010001010011]

What do you use to get the feeds? I currently use pytvshows. It works great, but I wasn't sure if there were any others out there. (There is TVShows.app for OSX, but development has stalled).

Re:The Killer App

[Hatta]

Oh, I wrote my own using perl's XML::RSS. It was ridiculously easy.

Re:The Killer App

[Maestro485]

Strange coincidence, I was just getting ready to reconfigure my xbox from xebian (which is dated, to say the least) to XBMC and this article pops up. I was hoping you could answer a question for me.

From what I gather from the XBMC website, the drive should be formatted with c:, e:, whatever, like "real" xbox drives. I recall a utility that would format new drives for use in an xbox but it's difficult to find. Also, I vaguely remember the evox or x2/x3 dashboards doing this, but I'm not sure.

How did you get your hard drive set up?

Thanks!

Re:The Killer App

[ahoehn]

I think I always used one of the "All in One" CD's that seem to float around the darker corners of the internets.

Re:The Killer App

[drinkypoo]

I'm still using it. 100Mbps ethernet means more than enough bandwidth to stream a DVD. I rip both to linux/samba and to windows xp and then play them via SMB which the Xbox does inherently. Amusingly XP is not up to the task of streaming a non-transcoded DVD and doing anything else intense at the same time. Linux, of course, no problem. You can also FTP things to a local cache, or use a cute little xbmsp streaming server (windows, linux, java, etc) to play from whatever. The GUI is pixel shader-based so it does all kinds of unnecessary but beautiful alpha tricks and such. Unfortunately the skin that shows it off the most, mc360, has been really unreliable to me. The project mayhem iii skin included with the system is very pro-look anyway. All in all, XBMC was and still is the killer app for the original Xbox, as you say. Beats the living crap out of the MCE nonsense. It's also a really wonderful launcher for your games, and when you combine it with a python script whose name I forget for downloading trainers, it's even better :)

Re:The Killer App

[Paxtez]

A bit noisy, no? Or was the 1st gen Xbox quieter than today's?

Very much so. It has one small fan (I had to get right next to it to hear it). There is a setting that spools down the harddrive when watching something.

XBMC is spelled "XBMC", (not "XMBC")

[Cyberace1]

Someone got dyslexia ;P as it is "XBMC", not "XMBC". XBMC (formerly "XBox Media Center") is now a recursive acronym for "XBMC Media Center" more information on the official website http://xbmc.org/about/

Plex

[AgentUSA]

Mac users should also look at Plex. It's a very nice fork by the former XMBC for Mac/OSXBMC team.

Re:Plex

[Cyberace1]

Plex is not made by "the former XBMC for Mac team", only one guy from Team-XBMC left the XBMC project to start Plex, all other developers stayed with the original XBMC project. XBMC has all the features and functions of Plex and all skins that work in Plex where designed for XBMC and thus just as good if not better in XBMC, (Plex have not made any changes to the skinning engine, however Team-XBMC have updated the skinning engine in XBMC since Plex forked its code from XBMC). Plex is only a software fork of XBMC for Mac (look up âoesoftware forkâ on wikipedia for its meaning), XBMC is the original, they are two separate project worked by two separate development teams, some code copying between the project does take place though,(Boxee is another fork of XBMC that is also available for the Mac). Short story is that Elan Fieldgold, who then as a member of Team-XBMC was the one who originally started porting XBMC to Mac OS X, he then decided to leave Team-XBMC (due to reasons I will not go into here) and go out on his own and start a his own new project based on XBMC for Mac. Plex was never formally named âoeOSXBMCâ, it was only referred to as OSXBMC because Elan previously had a blog on osxbmc.com in which he posted news of the progress on the porting development. I say support the original XBMC.

Re:Plex

[AgentUSA]

I was merely pointing out an alternative. Personally, I don't understand the animosity between the Plex and XBMC teams but I think users should support both projects. I use Plex myself and I'm very happy with it.

Re:Plex

[drinkypoo]

It's dumb to support a hated fork because it just takes effort away from the real deal. If there's any hope that they'll be merged later then it doesn't matter so much, but otherwise it's highly counterproductive to fork or to support a fork (unless there's a real reason why the original should be abandoned, and I don't think there is.)

Re:Plex

[Michael Hunt]

I'd be likely to take you more seriously if you could spell Elan Feingold's name correctly.

Re:Plex

[Michael Hunt]

Depends. Strikes me that at least one of the core XBMC devs is going out of his way to deliberately trash the reputation of the Plex developer, up to and including deliberately misspelling the guy's name.

His fork may be better or worse technologically (that's something you can measure objectively,) but there's no need for name calling.

Re:Plex

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Plex

[itslifejimbutnotaswe]

Where is this "trashing of reputation"? Seems to me all this "Cyberace1/Gamester" fellow (who appears to be a project manager, rather than a "core developer") was clarifying the OP's comments WRT the origins of Plex. There was no "trashing of reputation" in his post, rather a misspelling of Elan's surname. Nice spin attempt though.

OSX Users

[0100010001010011]

OS X Users might want to check out: http://plexapp.com/

This group forked from XBMC a while ago. It was originally called OSXBMC but to differentiate from the 'official' OSX XBMC release they renamed to Plex.

I've played around with it for a while and it is absolutely gorgeous. Each release gets it more and more integrated with OSX. Apple remote, mouse, local file system, etc.

They've also teamed up with CenterStage to work towards a more OSX like GUI.

Currently my XBOX, bought for $75 used, is going strong. Served via the XBMC protocol running on a debian server with 2 TB of data. pytvshows and rtorrent are nearly as good as a DVR (considering I work second shift) and ... There just aren't more words to describe how awesome the XBMC project is and how far it has come in the last 3 years I've used it.

I'll have to check out the other release tonight to see how it compares.

Re:OSX Users

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:OSX Users

[0100010001010011]

Again. I haven't had a chance to check out the 'official' release. But the difference was Plex has had a release now for 4-5 months. This means that I could have actually run it prior to now.

Plex also incorporates Sparkle, which is the autoupdater framework for OS X. (Which would be ideal for a set top box).

CenterStage is also something that is likely to only be in Plex and not OSXBMC.

I downloaded it on my work laptop (XP) and the thing I didn't like is that it
1) changed my resolution
2) started up full screen immediately.

Re:OSX Users

[Cyberace1]

Plex is only developed by one guy who left Team-XBMC and the XBMC project to start Plex, all other developers stayed with the original XBMC project. With the exception of the sparkle auto updater (which Plex implemented only last week) XBMC has all the features and functions of Plex, and all skins that work in Plex where all designed for XBMC (not Plex) and thus just as good if not better in XBMC, (Plex have not made any changes to the skinning engine, however Team-XBMC have updated the skinning engine in XBMC since Plex forked its code from XBMC). Plex is only a software fork of XBMC for Mac (look up Ãoesoftware forkà on wikipedia for its meaning), XBMC is the original, they are two separate project worked by two separate development teams, some code copying between the project does take place though,(Boxee is another fork of XBMC that is also available for the Mac). Short story is that Elan Fieldgold, who then as a member of Team-XBMC was the one who originally started porting XBMC to Mac OS X, he then decided to leave Team-XBMC (due to reasons I will not go into here) and go out on his own and start a his own new project based on XBMC for Mac. Plex was never formally named ÃoeOSXBMCÃ, it was only referred to as OSXBMC because Elan previously had a blog on osxbmc.com in which he posted news of the progress on the porting development. I say support the original XBMC.

Re:OSX Users

[0100010001010011]

He also had binaries on my desktop months ago.

Best to market does not always beat first to market.

Re:OSX Users

[horsthonk]

xbmc is far more stable as plex for me (just pick the mediastream skin and it will look the same)

Re:OSX Users

[billcopc]

I downloaded it on my work laptop (XP) and the thing I didn't like is that it
1) changed my resolution
2) started up full screen immediately.

Well... it's a media center, not a media player. It's designed to be used as your shell, just as you would on the Xbox itself. Compare with MythTV and others like it.

Re:OSX Users

[Anonymous Coward]

ok - I don't think that the intent of this system is to record TV shows. I don't think that you are going to find it on this site either.

If you are thinking that you want to record with this, you are dinking around with the DMCA.

I don't think that you are going to be able to have a 2 TB server with your TV footage, because I don' think that this thing will stream over the internet.

This is not YouTube.

Later -

The Phantom

Re:OSX Users

[iordonez]

Dude, Gamester you posted pretty much the same comment on your release notes. So much for using a pseudonym for your smear campaign, huh?

@Chris, no, Plex is a software fork of XBMC for Mac (look up âoesoftware forkâ on wikipedia for its meaning), XBMC is the original, they are two separate project worked by two separate development teams, some code copying between the project does take place though,(Boxee is another fork of XBMC that is also available for the Mac).

Short story is that Elan Fieldgold, who then as a member of Team-XBMC was the one who originally started porting XBMC to Mac OS X, he then decided to leave Team-XBMC (due to reasons I will not go into here) and go out on his own and start a his own new project based on XBMC for Mac. Plex was never formally named âoeOSXBMCâ, it was only referred to as OSXBMC because Elan previously had a blog on osxbmc.com in which he posted news of the progress on the porting development.

I will not go into any more details as it has already been discussed to death and you will find more if you search for âoePlexâ in our XBMC for Mac forum, please go there if you absolutely feel the need to discuss it further than this.

Comment by Gamester17 â" September 18, 2008 @ 7:08 pm

Re:OSX Users

[0100010001010011]

I just downloaded it... The BIGGEST thing is that Plex acts like an OSX application. You download the DMG and you place it anywhere. OSXBMC comes with an installer, why in God's name does something like this need an installer? Everything should be self contained in the .app.

Second response seems to be quite a bit better with Plex vs OSXBMC.

Re:OSX Users

[itslifejimbutnotaswe]

A quick look at the installer shows that it's only really there to wrap the DMG to run a couple of post install scripts to setup the app for the user's environment (sources.xml etc.). There doesn't seem to be any other reason than that that I can see. If you can suggest an alternative (something within the binary itself to do this at first boot?), perhaps you could notify the devs over at XBMC?

Re:OSX Users

[itslifejimbutnotaswe]

A quick check of the plex git shows that 95% of the commits originate in the XBMC source tree. I'd personally rather let the devs doing the work know directly about any issues rather than rely on a middle man. After all, improving XBMC means users on other platforms benefit as well. Do the plex devs push their changes upstream to XBMC in any active way, or do they just do their own thing?

Re:OSX Users

[B47h0ry'5 CuR53]

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

Re:OSX Users

[Anonymous Coward]

Like someone else said, it's a media center. A comparison to FrontRow makes more sense IMHO.

Re:OSX Users

[0100010001010011]

Every single OSX app I know does that on startup. Everything in the /Library and ~/Library is done on startup. I'm not an OSX developer so I can't explain how it works. Check out TVShows.app because that sets up quite a few things (and is a very basic program).

Who says that I want it in /Applications. Maybe I want it in ~/Applications. Or at least for testing I want it on my desktop on my MBP to decide if I want to spend the money on a Mini. If I want to trash it, I drag it to the trash. It's gone.

Installers give me the heebegeebies. You don't need an installer for this type of application, don't have one. Look at 95% of the properly designed OSX apps, they don't have one. They have a DMG with a .app on it that you can drag anywhere.

Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[houghi]

It is available for Ubuntu, not for Linux. There are other distributions out there.

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[Anonymous Coward]

People have compiled and run it on numerous linux distributions. Check the XBMC Forums.

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[entrigant]

yes.. because clearly in order to make something work for ubuntu you must break it on every single other distribution. Ubuntu and their whacky custom kernel, libraries, filesystem layout... oh wait..

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[eric9]

I have it working on Debian Unstable with no problems. Man up nancy-boy, and compile it yourself.

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[Anonymous Coward]

untrue, Linux source is available. Any proper /.'er should have no issues compiling themselves ;-) Binaries only for Ubuntu at the moment as that is the target/dev environment.

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[Burz]

He's waiting for you to give up your remotes and mouse first, Mr. Manly-man.

Re:Not for Linux, just Ubuntu

[BLKMGK]

Actually it runs on several distros but Ubuntu is the one they are working towards supporting. Atlantis is being done as an ISO for a bootable CD anyway so really who cares what the underlying OS is exactly? If you're going to do a dedicated HTPC you might as well run the supported OS anyway IMO

DVR?

[edmicman]

How can I, or what are my options for, integrating XBMC into a DVR setup?

I used to use MythTV but hated the interface; that combined with the free TV guides going away made me try out MCE 2005, which I currently run.

MCE2005 works, the interface is great (for PVR stuff at least...I don't really like the music manager, though), but the management is crap compared to MythTV. I can't remote onto it easily because it's XP-based, and the web management is garbage, too. I've been thinking of trying out something else, or seeing how MythTV is now.

Basically my setup is this: I have a FreeNAS that I use for file sharing that I have my music and downloaded videos on. I have the MCE box in the living room doing DVR stuff, with connections to the file shares for music and the rest of the videos. And I an original Xbox sitting around doing nothing.

I'd love to be able to put the DVR somewhere out of the way, have it do it's thing, and pump everything to XBMC somewhere. But can you do the live-tv thing with XBMC? Maybe I'm missing some other package out there completely?

Re:DVR?

[Abcd1234]

I used to use MythTV but hated the interface;

Can't blame you there, it is... rough. But it is immensely capable, so I've learned to live with it's rough edges in exchange for the incredible power it provides (and being a programmer, I can't help but love being able to write custom SQL recording rules :).

that combined with the free TV guides going away

You chose a closed solution with little flexibility over paying $20 *per year* for guide data? Really? Meh, to each his/her own, I guess.

Fortunately, you can hook XBMC into MythTV. Wouldn't that be a solution for you?

Re:DVR?

[edmicman]

You chose a closed solution with little flexibility over paying $20 *per year* for guide data? Really? Meh, to each his/her own, I guess.

Mostly it was I got it for free from work, and had grown frustrated with MythTV. I'm thinking of looking back into it, and granted the schedule thing isn't that big of a deal :-)

Fortunately, you can hook XBMC into MythTV. Wouldn't that be a solution for you?

I guess that's what I wasn't sure of. So XBMC can run on an xbox and hook into MythTV? Or does XBMC need to be running on an actual computer (possibly even the same MythTV box?) to actually be able to use the DVR things that MythTV does? Hmmmm...I'll have to look into this - thanks!

Re:DVR?

[Anonymous Coward]

XBMC can act as a MythTV frontend. You used to need a python script to do this, but now support is natively included.

Simply set up your MythTV box to allow connections to the MythTV backend over your network.

Then follow this guide to add your MythTV box as a video source in XBMC.

Re:DVR?

[Abcd1234]

The model would be that XBMC would run on an Xbox, and it would connect to Myth over the network just like another frontend.

Incidentally, from what I can tell, XBMC now has a basic, native MythTV client built in. It can be used to watch and delete recordings, and watch and record live TV. However, it has no EPG support, no commercials skip, etc. See here:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/326091

Looks like an interesting option.

Re:DVR?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can connect to a mythtv backend from xbmc.
live tv works but everything is not done yet.

Re:DVR?

[BloodAngel_Au]

best combo I have found, is if you have a hardware encoder tv card (Hauppage 150MCE for example), us it as the xbmc pc, recording in the background (as it uses a few % of cpu time) with XBMC in the forground playing other videos/music/media. After the videos are recorded, crunchie to convert it to a MPEG4 .AVi file and move it to a specific folder on the server to be watched later. Using Webguide to setup recordings on the MCE machine, and away you go.

ATM, watching live tv unless its from a Myth backend, won't work. But this makes for a good tivo substitute

But download the live version and give it a try first, since it doesn't change anything and it pre-configured for MCE remote control.

Re:DVR?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a Google Summer of Code project that is aiming to add a frontend to multiple PVR backends to XBMC. mythTV is the initial test backend but any PVR could be supported via the API being written.

It's what's been missing for years from XBMC.

Re:DVR?

[Anonymous Coward]

use MediaPortal, allows server config under XP to stream live digital tv to any pc on nework quite good

Anything similar for Wii?

[Just Some Guy]

I want to stream music and video (but I'd settle for just music) to my Wii. I don't want to hack it, so my best bet is probably coming up with a web application to view with Opera on the Wii. I played with Jinzora for a while but never could the Wii part of it to work; I never could figure out how to start the Flash player that was supposed to handle everything.

So, dear Slashdotters, have any of you managed to play music or other media on a Wii from a Unix sever?

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.orb.com/wii/

Stream only so quality is not as good as playing locally like XBMC.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[0100010001010011]

Someone has ported XBMC partially to the Wii. Problem is he won't release his code or his binaries. A very few people have them and say it works great (for alpha).

If you can code donate some time to the XBMC group and get it working.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Just Some Guy]

The idea is great, but that's only for Windows.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Anonymous Coward]

This app sounds like what you need

http://en.jinzora.com/features

It is written in PHP and allows you to browse the media on your computer from a remote location using a web interface. It runs on both Windows and Linux. It has a specific page theme for Wii. No, I have no involvement with them. Just found the app ten minutes ago with a Google search.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Just Some Guy]

I found it about six months ago, which is why I mentioned it in my post. ;-)

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Helmholtz Coil]

I haven't tried it recently but Sockso seemed to work fairly well as I recall. Music only and only MP3s at that but apparently the latest version(s) offer on-the-fly MP3 conversion.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[ShawnDoc]

Orb does this. You run the Orb server on your PC, and then you pull up a flash app on the Wii Web Browser that allows you to stream both video and audio to the Wii.

Re:Anything similar for Wii?

[Just Some Guy]

That's Windows-only, so I can't use it.

On the PS3

[Enderandrew]

I've been really wanting to get XBMC on my PS3. I have it on my original XBox, but is struggled with HD at times depending on the codec because it lacked memory. The XBox also can't put out 1080p.

I'm wondering if I should attempt to install Linux on my PS3, and then compile XBMC on it. Will I have issues because of the non-x86 architecture?

If I have Linux on my PS3, will it still play PS3 games? I think I need to hit up Wikipedia and start reading.

Re:On the PS3

[Enderandrew]

Yes, you can do multiple partitions and keep the PS3 OS (and thusly play PS3 games) as well as a separate Linux partition.

Now I just need to know if I can compile XBMC on the Cell/PPC architecture.

Re:On the PS3

[fishfinger]

Unfortunately, the hypervisor that linux is installed on top of, does not expose the accelerated parts of the PS3 to linux. Therefore XBMC cannot take advantage of them either.

Re:On the PS3

[srecd]

It would probably compile, but Linux on the PS3 runs under a hypervisor that blocks access to the GPU, so it's pretty much useless for everything except audio.

Not that there haven't been attempts or anything. But we all know how quick Sony is to put out firmware updates to prevent things that might actually allow people to use the hardware they paid for.

Re:On the PS3

[coretx]

You should check "Megabox Linux" it's a "XBMC" type distro for the ps3, found @ Megalandia.com It's young, verry young, but it works!

Re:On the PS3

[drinkypoo]

I hear you can play HD video in ffmpeg or ffdshow or something now on the PS3, but XBMC has a pixel shader-based GUI which would have to be replaced with something slow and comparatively ugly.

Re:On the PS3

[CronoCloud]

Yes, you can do multiple partitions and keep the PS3 OS (and thusly play PS3 games) as well as a separate Linux partition.

However there's one little problem in the PS3 partitioning scheme. You can either devote 10GB to Linux and the rest to GameOS, or 10GB to GameOS and the rest to Linux. Neither is optimal, because 10GB is not really enough for Linux, or GameOS.

Re:On the PS3

[BLKMGK]

Sorry, no go. There's not good enough video support in the PS3 jail. There is a HUGE thread in the XBMC forum about this and the answer is no right now it's not running. They would be interested in someone doing a PPC port though.

Re:On the PS3

[adolf]

Dumb question, but:

Couldn't one (on a stock 40GB PS3) dedicate 30GB to GameOS, 10GB to Linux, and plug in an external USB drive to pick up the slack?

Seems reasonable to me. It's not as if Linux software is particularly huge; 10 gigs should be plenty for Linux program data. Local content can be stored on the external device, and with an appropriate filesystem, shared between Linux and GameOS.

Re:On the PS3

[CronoCloud]

Yes, you can, but the problem is you have to set it up to boot with USB storage in the kernel instead of a module. It's also much slower, supposedly the hypervisor makes USB storage access slower than it should be. There's another problem, GameOS can only read FAT drives, not ext3.

I've complained to Sony about the partitioning scheme, I want to be able to choose a 50%/50% split, or better yet any division of it I want.

XBMC vs AppleTV?

[l0ungeb0y]

Anyone have any hands on experience with both or have a link to any information discussing the pros/cons of these two media centers?

I am about to invest a couple thousand into 3 MacMinis and 2 AppleTV units, which hooked up to a 3TB NAS device (drobo) can all share via Airport Extreme from my shared iTunes folder (which is already set up as a media share on the drobo). By attaching a secondary Airport Extreme in b/g compat mode, I hope to use my iPhone as a remote control -- mainly for the NiceCast iTunes radio Station that will be on MacMini Unit1. MacMini Units 2 and 3 will be attached to the AppleTVs and plasma displays for single room entertainment. The home networked radio station is so all rooms can play the same media at once.

Kind of a lengthy post, but I've put some thought into it, and am ready to move on it now. However, I am sensitive to the fact that it will cost me over $2,000 for the Apple hardware and I might be able to achieve the same results for less cost.

So can this media center do all this:
- Allow multiple units to access one iTunes and iPhoto NAS share
- Stream media (mp3s ... or even better mp4/h.264 Video)
- Receive streaming media broadcasts
- Allow 100% control by a remote (no keyboard/mouse req'd)
- Natively support either a network remote or IR remote hardware

And if not XBMC, do you know of another alternative that can do all that? However, I am a busy person and don't have weeks for setup and hair tearing on drivers and other BS. So a solution that could be put into place over a weekend would be ideal. So far the Apple solution is the only one I've seen that fits the bill.

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[Cyberace1]

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

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[WarwickRyan]

On XP at least, support of remote controls is poor. I guess Microsoft want to sell you to a copy of Media Center Edition or the equivelent Vista version, so they withhold the drivers.

I assume it's better on Linux.

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[bigbigbison]

It can stream just about any type of media you can think of. It can't, however, deal with drm. So if you've bought anything from the iTUnes store you best stick with the Apple stuff. It can use the xbox remote but honestly I found using the controller to be easier to use with XBMC. There are scripts which allow it to use youtube and such but there's no web browser so you can't go to hulu.com with it as far as I know.

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Answers for XBMC

So can this media center do all this:
- Allow multiple units to access one iTunes and iPhoto NAS share
I have no idea about this one, sorry.
- Stream media (mp3s ... or even better mp4/h.264 Video)
Yes, I have never had any content on the same computer/xbox that was actually running xbmc. All content streams fine from smb network shares for me.
- Receive streaming media broadcasts
Yes, of almost all types, although only a few flash based streams are supported. Asx/m3u/shoutcast/etc is all supported.
- Allow 100% control by a remote (no keyboard/mouse req'd)
Yes, it was developed on the xbox and relies only on control by the simple original xbox remote.
- Natively support either a network remote or IR remote hardware
This can be a little more tricky, for IR remotes, it depends on the operating system and which remote you are trying to use. There is a $5 application (from a completely separate developer, just uses the web based api built into XBMC) for the iPhone/iPod Touch you can use to control all aspects of XBMC, you can even browse your media with thumbnail support on your iPhone, or just use it a simple remote with directional/enter/play/pause/etc.

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[pike2k]

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

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[mjwx]

So can this media center do all this:
- Allow multiple units to access one iTunes and iPhoto NAS share
- Stream media (mp3s ... or even better mp4/h.264 Video)
- Receive streaming media broadcasts
- Allow 100% control by a remote (no keyboard/mouse req'd)
- Natively support either a network remote or IR remote hardware

I'm about to sink A$700 into a low end PC to do all that. Granted it I'll only have a DVD drive not a blu-ray drive (maybe when they come down in price). Except for the Itunes bit, I absolutely refuse to use Itunes but it will connect to a SMB share on a file server hosting AVI's and MP3's. I was previously looking into things like Ubuntu Media Centre and MythTV/Mythix/Mythbuntu but seeing as I don't want the TV aspect these setups are overly complex for what I want (play media, from DVD, HDD or network). I'll be looking at XBMC over Ubuntu.

However, I am a busy person and don't have weeks for setup and hair tearing on drivers and other BS

Haven't used Linux lately have you? Linux doesn't suffer from the much over-hyped driver problems of 5 years ago, or the even more over-hyped issues of 2 years ago. Even video card driver installation on Ubuntu is ridiculously easy (I almost feel ashamed of how easy it is these days), even more so if you are operating an Intel GPU as their drivers are open source.

Point in short, 1. stick to a well known a popular distro (Ubuntu or Fedora) 2. Someone has done this before you, so help is easy to find (Google, Ubuntu Forums) 3. RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual) A little study before hand saves a lot of pain later. If you want to get a feel for it try using a Virtual Machine to get the procedure down put, VMware server is free (Win and Linux) and while it wont emulate all the hardware (like TV capture cards), you'll get an idea of what to expect. It doesn't cost much to try (some spare hardware and a few hours, if that) and if it works you may save a few thousand dollars, if it doesn't you can say "at least I tried" and walk away with the experience.

So far the Apple solution is the only one I've seen that fits the bill.

If we take out the proprietary Itunes stuff (if we don't take it out there really is no debate to be had and you've already made up your mind) Windows Media Centre does everything on your list. My Xbox, running EVOX and XBMC (2006 version) does everything except streaming broadcasts from the internet, I'm only thinking of replacing it because its getting a bit long in the tooth and I like upgrading stuff.

With Linux and XBMC the only significant Caveat is the you must purchase the right hardware, as I said before someone will have done this before you and will recommend a Video Card, TV capture card and Remote that works well with Linux.

For me the Apple "iLock-in" is too much for me to handle and the price of entry is far too high. I'm not a Linux expert by any means (I do know my way around in Linux though) but I know there is plenty of help available if I look. The only thing preventing anyone from using Linux and XMBC is their own ignorance.

Re:XBMC vs AppleTV?

[Yer Mum]

Use GlovePIE to translate remote buttons to keypresses for XBMC. As for which remote you could use Bluetooth and a Wiimote.

No Mac PPC executable

[azav]

(as above)

Wii version? PLEASE?

[PseudoSchizo]

I've been hoping and praying XBMC will make it to the wii.

GeeXboX is alright, but with one person working on it, updates are.. few and far between to say the least.

Cool

[WolverineOfLove]

I hope this serves people well. If my hardware setup were different, I'd be installing this tonight!
I'm still waiting for a UPnP media server that runs on my Ubuntu box so I may watch my video library on my Xbox 360 with real-time transcoding. TVersity works on my Windows XP box, but that's big and noisy.

uShare doesn't do real-time transcoding,
Fuppes seems to be impossible to configure correctly,
MediaTomb doesn't support the 360,

I'm waiting on a fork of Fuppes called Fuppex to announce a working revision. If anyone knows of other options, please let me know.

Re:Wii version? PLEASE?

[Cyberace1]

XBMC would have do be ported to PPC (PowerPC) first, ...and XBMC for Mac will probably be ported to PPC sooner rather than later, then that need to be applied to XBMC for Linux as well before it will be able to run on Nintendo Wii, just like GeeXboX. I guestimate, XBMC for Mac on PPC Mac's within 6-months, XBMC for Linux on PPC within another 6-months from then, ...then it will be up to the Nintendo Wii developers, if they would not like to step in now already

hmm might have to give it a go

[discogravy]

i had an old xbox set up with xbmc but hosed the install (keeps trying Live on boot but chokes) might have to see how to re-image the damn thing

more colossally bad moderation

[damn_registrars]

How is a post that discusses the text of the article summary off-topic? Sounds like exactly the topic, really.

Looks like somebody has too many moderator points today.

Playstation

[slashgrim]

How long before I can run it on my Playstation?

Re:Playstation

[mweather]

You can already do that.

Re:OSX Users - Boxee

[acariquara]

I am in the Boxee alpha, and it's like XBMC meets web 2.0. It's invite only for now, but you can request an invite at twitter.com/boxee (OSX and Linux only, Windows version coming soon)

Elisa

[sciurus0]

I'll have to check this out. A similar program that hasn't gotten much attention is Elisa. There are packages for Windows and many linux distributions.

Re:Elisa

[fimbulvetr]

I ran XBMC on my gen 1 xbox many years ago. Recently I got a nice HTPC w/ elisa running - and elisa was nice. A few months ago I switched back to XBMC on my htpc, and it's well ahead of elisa. So many awesome things I don't have time to write here, but I'll name a few:

#1. 2 click IMDB scanning and automated from thereon
#2. When you "stop" something from playing, and come back to it later and press play it asks you if you want to start from the beginning or resume (This is a "little thing" but really shows how much work has been put in).
#3. ISO support
#4. Configurable audio/subtitle delay
#5. Amazing codec support. I've never found a file it won't play.

xbmc is damn fine software

[DragonTHC]

I have an xbox and use xbmc on it. it's quite good. this software is just something we all have wanted for so long. It plays anything in any format. It streams music and movies and rss feeds.

it's all function and feature sans vapor.

I don't like TFS...

[uassholes]

Why do I have to read TFA to find out WTF an XBMC is? Fucking lamers. Disclaimer. My key between the "F" and "H" outputs and "L".

Try an Xbox 1 with XBMC!

[Raptor007]

XBMC on an Xbox 1 handles up to 720p content wonderfully. To handle real-time 1080i or 1080p decoding, you're going to need a pretty decent PC instead.

Re: OS X Users

[elan]

Hi Gamester! (Cyberace1?) Gamester (one of the project managers of XBMC) is hardly an impartial observer. There are a number of features that Plex has that XBMC does not, and many report it to be more stable on their Macs. Not to mention he keeps misspelling my last name, which is "Feingold".

Come to the Plex forums (forums.plexapp.com) or download Plex to compare for yourself, but take his statements (posted under a pseudonym) with a grain of salt.

720p works for me...

[Raptor007]

Huh, my Xbox with XBMC handles 720p just fine. It chokes on 1080i though; it's nowhere near powerful enough to decode that real-time.

XBMC for Xbox

[Kamineko]

If you have a not yet softmodded Xbox, and an original copy of Splinter Cell, The Gentlemen's Complete And Unabridged Guide For The Softmodding Of The Microsoft Xbox will help you download all the necessary files to softmod the Xbox, copy them over, install the softmod and install XBMC for Xbox.

Been using it for weeks now.

[sc0ob5]

I've been using XBMC for a few weeks now on Ubuntu 8.04.1 with a Dell GX620 SFF PD 2.8ghz 3GB DDR2 and a nvidia 6200. I have to say it works really really well. I haven't had any issues. Plays everything, gets imdb info, really nice interface. What I really want is for the scripts to work on Linux and for an easy way to transcode DVD's to avi's and a way to rip CD's to mp3's within XBMC. It is a great media centre though and I can highly recommend it. I will be upgrading to the new Beta version when I get home tonight. One word of warning to those installing XBMC on Ubuntu, make sure Ubuntu is up to date before you install XBMC. From a fresh install of 8.04 it won't work for some reason, it'll just crash.

Re:On the PS3 -- power consumption is a problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I was thinking the same a while ago, before I did a power evaluation of the media center options (among other things). Numbers are watts Idle - Loaded:

1) Current XBMC/XBOX: 50-60
2) PS3 with dashboard: 150-160. This is more than my fridge with the compressor on!
3) Off the shelf PC (which is on anyway): 48-110, 57 when playing stuff in XBMC/Linux

Since the media center will be on a lot (if only idling or playing music), the PC was the clear winner. It also happens to do a lot more when it's on.

I have a question

[hairyfeet]

What does XBMC give you that Media Portal doesn't? Not trying to flame here,and I can understand how cool XBMC could be if you have an Xbox,but I don't. So does anyone have a list of features and how it compares to Media Portal? Because I have been using Media Portal on XP Pro for awhile and it is rock solid stable and with plugins it supports my games,shows,etc very well. So are there any cool features that make it worth switching for on XP? And as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:I have a question

[NitroWolf]

There are many features that Media Portal (and every other media player in the world) lack. But what sets XBMC apart bar-none is the fact that it plays just about every format of video known to man. Or at least, every format that you're likely to find online. And it plays them well.

Add in the fact that the UI is first rate and beats any other media center I've seen, and you have a winning combination.

Being able to just drop any type of media file (even RAR'd media) into a directory and XBMC happily plays it is worth it's weight in gold.

The thing that XBMC does not have, and if you need this functionality, you need to look elsewhere is DVR functions. It can't record shows. It's a media streaming/playback solution, not a DVR (such that MythTV et al). If you want to view live shows through your capture card or OTA/cable, then XBMC is not for you. If you want to watch pre-recorded content, XBMC is the only game in town when it comes to the robust codecs and silky smooth UI.

Re: OS X Users

[Anonymous Coward]

Here are some more grains of salt.

Like that stops anyone that can use google?

[cheekyboy]

Jeez, just google it, torrent it, who cares... its all available.. even the full SDK is 3 clicks away from a download. Give MS $$$ for an SDK? You have to be insane and stupid and recursively run that 10000x loops too.

Just put the bins on your website, who cares if MS complains, just put your server in china, communists dont care if the capitalist warlords complain.

Microsoft is a govt and makes laws now?

[cheekyboy]

Since when does MS write laws in 224 countries? Its a licence.... nothing more...

Screw em. Its all 3 clicks away in google.

funny how its everywhere....

[cheekyboy]

'allowed', just like how Tony Soporano wont allow you to run a competing business?

The SDK is easily available, binaries are on all torrent sites...

Whats the problem?