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 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

[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

[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

[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 ?

[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.

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

[Hatta]

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

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...

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/

Re:XBMC ?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

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

[Michael Hunt]

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

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

[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: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

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: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: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: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:XBMCMC?

[Chad Birch]

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

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

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.