XBMC V11 Eden Has Been Released

New submitter themib writes "After only two release candidates XBMC v11.0 Eden has been released. The latest version contains many updates and new features, including: Addon Rollbacks, Confluence improvements, Dirty region rendering, a new JPEG decoder, movie scraping, better network support, a new upgraded Weather service. This announcement also heralds the new XBMCbuntu Final."

Comments

frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[Anonymous Coward]

we all know what frosty piss is, could you tell us what XBM (bowel movement?) C is?

Re:frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[smi.james.th]

Because, of course, clicking on TFA is far too difficult.

As is googling. Far too hard.

In seriousness though, XBMC is quite popular, how could you be a /. reader and not know what it is? Especially with all the hype around Raspberry Pi at the moment?

Re:frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[Anonymous Coward]

A few years ago a couple of guys put together a small company named Google where they store links to a variety of subjects on the Internet. It was built to allow people, much like yourself, to find information on exactly what they're researching within seconds instead of spending long hours searching. You might want to give it a try. I've read it's pretty good.

Re:frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[ThePeices]

Why do you assume that he didn't read TFA or do a Google search because he found it too difficult?

He did neither of those things because he couldn't be arsed.

Re:frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is a BIG company. You are full of whatever shit is called just before it comes out.

Re:frosty piss V11 chugger has been released

[viperidaenz]

Like all BIG companies, they were started by a small number of people. Usually one or two.

Just installed

[ArhcAngel]

I just installed it on a Windows 7 system and it is smooth as glass. It looks more polished than most commercial offerings I've seen. Kudos to the team and their efforts.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

Kudos to the team and their efforts.

And kudos to timothy: he's managed to edit a submission without one of his customary fuck-ups.

Huzzahs all round!

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

It's eating up a lot more CPU than 10.1 did, and it's causing stutter in the same 1080p content that v10.1 played with no problem.

XBMC FAIL.

Re:Just installed

[hairyfeet]

Question: What advantages do you see over Windows media center in Windows 7? Not having run XBMC since leaving XP in 09 I am curious as to what advantages you find over what is built into Win 7, is it better on resources? does it give you more Internet TV options? How is its hardware acceleration? Because while i can see the advantages clearly for something like the pi, where you are talking about a device that takes less power than your average cable box I just don't see offhand what advantages one could get from XBMC running on top of win 7.

Re:Just installed

[ChatHuant]

I just installed it on a Windows 7 system

I have a Win7 HTPC connected to my TV, running the built in Windows Media Center. I use it for storing music, movies and photos, recording a few TV shows, serving media to extenders in other rooms, Netflix/Hulu and just a bit of Youtube. Could you please tell me what advantages you find in using XBMC over WMC? Thank you!

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Psychopath]

It's eating up a lot more CPU than 10.1 did, and it's causing stutter in the same 1080p content that v10.1 played with no problem.

XBMC FAIL.

I'm not having these issues at all. Anonymous Coward FAIL?

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Psychopath]

Question: What advantages do you see over Windows media center in Windows 7? Not having run XBMC since leaving XP in 09 I am curious as to what advantages you find over what is built into Win 7, is it better on resources? does it give you more Internet TV options? How is its hardware acceleration? Because while i can see the advantages clearly for something like the pi, where you are talking about a device that takes less power than your average cable box I just don't see offhand what advantages one could get from XBMC running on top of win 7.

Primarily it's format agnosticism and skin capabilities. 99% of my library is in MKV format, which WMC does not care for, and the Alaska Revisited skin is gorgeous.

It does take advantage of hardware acceleration.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

Customizability

Re:Just installed

[BLKMGK]

I see under 25% CPU utilization with an ATOM\ION box that draws less than 20watts decoding 1080P and surround sound audio. It easy to control with my phone, an IRDA remote, or a WEB browser. It plays nearly any format and can play audio or video from my iPhone as well as display pictures from it. It also didn't cost me anything to install since Linux is free and so is XBMC. Since I run multiple HTPC this is nice in that it saves me money. It's nice that it's constantly improving too!

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

99% of my library is in MKV format, which WMC does not care for,

I have no problem playing any MKV I download from usenet on my Win7 Media Center. I can't imaging what you're doing wrong.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

The interface doesn't suck. Normal people do not know how to use windows media craptastic player. It is beyond me how a multi-billion dollar company can truly not see the mess windows media player is.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

The freedom to not use windose.
The freedom to play most anything you can throw at it.
The freedom to not have family members bug you on how to actually use it.
The freedom to customize it.
The freedom of knowing there is a very large community available to help.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you shouldn't try to run 1080p concent on a potato then.

Re:Just installed

[Lussarn]

I just this weekend dropped my homebuilt system I have been using for over 10 years, have not seen anything which has ALL the features I want before. I'm very impressed by this piece of software. Scales really well to big collections, nice fast "GF proof" UI and pretty stable. HD Audio (DTS-HDMA, TrueHD) is still missing in the Linux version which is a bummer but I can live without that and start from the CLI when I need the full experience, don't happen that often. The scraper (matching movies to get actors, descriptions and so on) works really well and altough some cleaning up was needed it didn't take too long. There are cheap iPhone and android apps to browse and start movies, also without using the phone as a remote, and more as a browser. Using as remote pretty much sucks on a touchscreen since you can't feel the buttons. I'm very glad I tried this and hope it will be a keeper for years to come. Now of to install the new version since I installed the RC yesterday.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

I just installed it on a Windows 7 system

I have a Win7 HTPC connected to my TV, running the built in Windows Media Center. I use it for storing music, movies and photos, recording a few TV shows, serving media to extenders in other rooms, Netflix/Hulu and just a bit of Youtube. Could you please tell me what advantages you find in using XBMC over WMC? Thank you!

You don't have to support the monopoly.

Re:Just installed

[AliasMarlowe]

99% of my library is in MKV format, which WMC does not care for

Apparently, WMC as-shipped lacks MKV support (how dumb can MS get?), but it can be added later. Use this Google-obtained advice at your own risk, etc. Our media server is a Synology box which runs Linux and handles many formats.

Re:Just installed

[GNious]

Going through the setup of Windows Media Center on a new Win7 Home Premium, it fails repeatedly during a set where it needed to download something from Microsoft - have tried a few different times, and verified that there is no apparent network issue here.

So XBMC is better than Media Center in that it runs on Win7.

Re:Just installed

[bazorg]

One advantage you might want to consider is that one day Microsoft may "be forced" into an agreement with a digital rights enforcement organisation and have to prevent windows media centre from playing stuff that was not rented or licensed via Zune Market or one of the legal app stores. With XBMC running on some variant of Linux, the music and videos you can play today are likely to be playable 10 years from now.

Re:Just installed

[BLKMGK]

For the Metadata on movies and TV shows I've found a 3rd party tool works best. Ember is what I use and I really like it. there are others, you can find them in the 3rd party tools section of the XBMC forums. While you're at it check out Sickbeard, SABnzb, and maybe Couchpotato. There's another tool for music too but it's apparently not well supported and I've had no interest in it. The bitstreaming works on windows with the right build but honestly DTS is fine for me right now and I believe it will downsample THD etc. as needed.

Anyway, lots of good stuff out there for XBMC!

Re:Just installed

[hairyfeet]

Uhhhh...did you and the other Linux guys not even bother to read before responding? The question was " What advantages do you see (((over Windows Media Center in Windows 7)))" which means talking about Linux makes ZERO sense in regards to the question! Its not like any of the major distros actually come with Media Center software with a 10 foot interface so you pretty much HAVE to go DIY but with Win 7 that isn't the case.

So while I'm glad you got it to run,the question has ZERO to do with Linux and has no bearing on the thread and doesn't really address in any way shape or form what myself and the other poster was discussing and thus is completely pointless, sorry. Glad it works for you, wouldn't take Linux on a bet, really only want to hear comparisons between WMC and XBMC, kthnx.

Re:Just installed

[hairyfeet]

Excuse #267 "ZOMG M$!!!" and you know what? RMS may turn into a superhero and fly by lighting his own farts. If you want to dislike the UI, or some feature, that's cool but when you are so desperate to hate something you have to come up with something they MIGHT do in the far flung future it makes you sound more than a little batshit.

Oh and BTW your Linux? ILLEGAL, just nobody has busted your collective asses for it yet. Most of those codecs like X264? ILLEGAL in any country that signed Berne, all that? Is patented. So unless you live in a country that hasn't signed Berne you might as well be running a pirated version of Windows because you are on the same legal ground. Like it or not ALL the major formats ARE PATENTED and unless you have bought the right to use the codecs (I believe there is a grand total of one company that sells Linux codecs and they don't cover all the major formats) then legally you can't. Both MSFT and Apple paid for the rights to use those formats, your distro? Did not. You can scream about copyrights and patents but until the law is changed it IS the law.

So standing on a soapbox proclaiming MSFT may burn the customer in the future while you violate patents right this very minute is more than a little pot meet kettle. Oh and mark my words, tried to warn ya but nobody would listen, now that Flash is all but gone now that you don't have Adobe paying for the right to play H.264 on Linux when H.265 gets released you WILL pay your license fees, MPEG-LA will see to that. Mark my words the next version of H.26x WILL have DRM support which means if you try to reverse engineer protected path you WILL be on the hook for DMCA, and probably some extra charges like facilitating copyright infringement.

But considering MSFT has had support for DRM in Windows since WinXP and you don't hear anybody complaining, everything "just works" and if anything thanks to WMC Windows is easier than ever to copy content your doom and gloom prediction doesn't seem to have much of a leg to stand on. Frankly after pulseaudio, the trashing of the DEs, the mess that is the Linux driver model? MSFT could charge triple what they currently do and DRM the shit out of it and it'd be cheap at twice the price. I would go back to running OS/2 Warp on a Pentium 1 before I'd ever touch Linux again.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

Get back to me when Microsoft and other multi-nationals start regarding laws as things to be *followed* rather than *tools for manipulating users and markets*.

Meanwhile, your attempts to act as their apologist are somewhat amusing, but hardly convincing.

And we're very sorry you had a bad experience with Ubuntu, but Ubuntu != Linux so you may now kindly STFU.

Re:Just installed

[rikkards]

Even easier is download the K-lite codecs. It gives you all of the linked above and no registry-fu needed. On a side note, I too have a Synology NAS (411J) and what do you think of the new gui? I love it but was still surprised that they didn't include DNS as a supported package, I know that someone repackaged DNSMasq but I would prefer to have it from the company.

Re:Just installed

[MMC Monster]

I think the power of XBMC isn't in the default installation. It's in the streaming add-ons that are available.

I've got one installed called freecable. It lets me stream from any TV episode that's available on basically any TV show's website. ie: The official CBS website will stream episodes of CSI. On XBMC, I just go to Free Cable -> CBS -> CSI -> Full Episodes. My wife and I are seriously thinking of getting rid of our cable subscription completely. Haven't watched anything that wasn't streamed through XBMC in several months.

With XBMC v10, add-ons are easy to install and update, via repositories. v10 add-ons (and repositories) seem to be compatible with v11, so there's a lot out there already.

Re:Just installed

[tepples]

Microsoft may "be forced" into an agreement with a digital rights enforcement organisation and have to prevent windows media centre from playing stuff that was not rented or licensed via Zune Market

Which would mean everyone with a camcorder would have to buy a Mac or install Linux just to edit and play videos shot with a phone's camcorder in a public place (that is, not in a movie theater). I don't see Microsoft allowing any MPAA-affiliated organization forcing a requirement for digitally signed videos onto Windows.

Re:Just installed

[Moryath]

Your system is probably overpowered to run it.

The problem is, XBMC 11 is a backwards motion; it hogs CPU for unnecessary things, causing previously usable systems that were near the hardware minimums to no longer meet them. XBMC 10 was good because it actually made the system leaner and eliminated a lot of the "gameloop" style coding that was necessary to run on an original Xbox but just caused Windows or Linux systems to waste power when it was "running but idle."

Re:Just installed

[futuresheep]

I had the same problem. The issue was the date in the BIOS was off by a few years, the time on the PC reflected it. Once I fixed that everything worked fine.

Re:Just installed

[atamido]

Your system is probably overpowered to run it.

The problem is, XBMC 11 is a backwards motion; it hogs CPU for unnecessary things, causing previously usable systems that were near the hardware minimums to no longer meet them. XBMC 10 was good because it actually made the system leaner and eliminated a lot of the "gameloop" style coding that was necessary to run on an original Xbox but just caused Windows or Linux systems to waste power when it was "running but idle."

Do you have a citation for this? Things like "dirty region rendering" should significantly reduce CPU load, so I'm curious what was added that would require additional CPU, and where.

Re:Just installed

[Flammon]

That's just the tip of the iceberg for me. The scrapping quality, the PVR intergration, the plugins, the hardware support, the multi-os support, ease of use, foss, the community, etc etc etc...

  The product is head and shoulders above the competition. There's really nothing out there that you can reasonably compare it to. It's that good.

Re:Just installed

[Flammon]

s/scrapping/scraping - Slashdot really should let you edit a comment for a few minutes after a post. I know that's what the preview is for but for some reason, I only notice mistakes after posting!

Re:Just installed

[AliasMarlowe]

On a side note, I too have a Synology NAS (411J) and what do you think of the new gui? I love it but was still surprised that they didn't include DNS as a supported package, I know that someone repackaged DNSMasq but I would prefer to have it from the company.

We have a DS207 which is outward-facing (1 TB, web server, mail server, etc.) and a DS211 which is inward-facing (6 TB, file server, media server, etc.). I'll probably upgrade the DS211 from DSM 3.2 to DSM 4.0 soon enough. The DS207 can't be upgraded past DSM 3.1, due to its age. However, I'm very happy with both of them; they give excellent bang for the buck, despite not being the cheapest of NAS boxes. Since we're in a rural area, they share a small UPS with the router and with their external USB backup disks.

DNS is not a big issue for me, but if it were available, I'd probably stick it on one of them. Similarly, I wouldn't mind seeing a few domain support and user authentication packages. But these are not an issue for me and would be very low priority items.

One thing which would be sort-of useful would be a utility for changing UID and GID per user and group or of defining UID/GID when adding users. At present, users have to be added in the same sequence on both Synology boxes, to get matching UIDs, and then the corresponding UIDs must be set on the Linux desktops to match. Alternatively, I'd have to do a little binary editing on the Synology to get its UIDs in line with those existing on the workstations (I actually did this once - it was quite an annoyance).

Re:Just installed

[Stalks]

Runs real smooth on an Intel Atom based system (Acer Revo R3600 & R3700). Can't get much more under powered than that.

I think the trick is to use a graphics card that can offload the video playback.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Psychopath]

I'm running it on an Intel Atom D525 Win7 64-bit system. Definitely not overpowered.

Re:Just installed

[hairyfeet]

How EXACTLY is it offtopic to explain that a certain zealtry bunch is completely ignoring the topic? Fine lets use a /. car analogy shall we? The TFA is about a new car GPS system and someone posts "I replaced the one in my Focus with this unit and it runs great" and so another poster asks "What makes this unit better than the one in your Focus" and suddenly a bunch of zealots pop in with "It works great in my Honda ricer herp derp".

Now how EXACTLY is a question about the Ford Focus in ANY way shape or form require multiple comments about Honda ricers? Answer IT ISN'T but sadly FOSSies are like Moonies and can't STFU, even when the subject doesn't have a God damned thing to do with their crap. you got more time than money and want to waste it dumpster diving and forum hunting for fixes? that's cool, its your time to waste but do NOT waste everyopne else's time chiming in on subjects that have fuck all to do with your busted OS, kay. Nobody cares, your OS is lower than JavaME and will NEVER even crack the 10% mark EVAR. So let the grownups that actually have money talk occasionally, okay sparky? Go compile something as we are really sick about your harping on about your "freedoms" especially when you are running Windows at work and probably dual boot just to get shit done.

Re:Just installed

[axlr8or]

Yore funny lookin.....

Re:Just installed

[Mr_Silver]

Primarily it's format agnosticism and skin capabilities. 99% of my library is in MKV format, which WMC does not care for

Not quite. If you install Media Browser and the Shark007 codec pack then MKVs - as well as a number of other formats and containers - will play just fine in Windows 7 Media Center.

Both are free and Media Browser is released under the GPL.

Re:Just installed

[hairyfeet]

Proving that FOSSies can't even stay on topic, gee, what a surprise. I'd be happy to post endless statistics to show that frankly nobody gives a shit about your "4 freedumbs" but that would mean taking you away from your rampant circle jerking to bash scripts and I'd hate to bother, since most of you can barely copypasta.

So please go back to posting pointless blather about an OS nobody uses and we'll all go back to completely ignoring it, as we have for the past 20 years.

Re:Just installed

[salmonmoose]

There is of course the basic issue of licencing, you can build a basic htpc that will play 1080P for around $150, comparable to most out of the box solutions - with Media Centre, you need to add Windows to that price.

Re:Just installed

[Anonymous Coward]

I see under 25% CPU utilization with an ATOM\ION box that draws less than 20watts decoding 1080P and surround sound audio. It easy to control with my phone, an IRDA remote, or a WEB browser. It plays nearly any format and can play audio or video from my iPhone as well as display pictures from it. It also didn't cost me anything to install since Linux is free and so is XBMC. Since I run multiple HTPC this is nice in that it saves me money. It's nice that it's constantly improving too!

I also have an atom/ion combo. Do you use Ubuntu on it? Because I still notice lag or jerky video sometimes on it. It doesn't quite handle the 1080p for me. Are there any tricks to making it run just a little more smoothly?

Also cannot get AirPlay to work, even after enabling it in the settings.

Re:Just installed

[dave420]

I had quite the different experience on my Dell XPS M1530. 1920x1200 screen, and it chugs along terribly. Media Center, however, really is smooth as glass on that box, and can even play back media without stuttering.

Re:Just installed

[dave420]

When that day comes, I'll switch to XMBC. Living in fear of a possible future, and denying oneself better tools in the mean time, is ridiculous.

Re:Just installed

[webheaded]

Good lord, people still use K-Lite? That overblown piece of crap...I haven't used that in at least 5 years. Try out the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack) as it is a much leaner and cleaner implementation of the same idea. It also registers all the filters, codecs, etc in the system for you all nicely which allows WMC to use it AND it has its own control panel for messing around with the settings.

Re:Just installed

[webheaded]

If only they had a Netflix plugin that wasn't an IE window implementation. One of the biggest reasons I use XBMC is for the remote so having it launch an IE window to play Netflix is kind of pointless because I can't control anything. I just end up using my PS3 instead. :-/

Before anyone mentions it, yes, I have tried Plex and they have their plugin is a piece of shit. It either freezes and never plays my content or it crashes and never plays my content. I don't understand why Netflix doesn't put out their own program or something so I can just have XBMC launch that...a program that has Media Center Remote support. *sigh* Maybe some day. You'd think that if they could make Android and iOS apps for their damn service that they could make a Windows/Linux program too. But no, instead I'm forced into a shitty browser plugin. Great.

Re:Just installed

[Flammon]

Yes, the lack of a good Netflix plugin is a sore spot but that's a Netflix problem, not XBMC. I'm running XBMC on an ATV2 so it's pretty simple to exit XBMC and run the Netflix app from Apple.

Re:Just installed

[GNious]

Thanks for the hint - wasn't it, and still not able to do much of anything, but was worth a try :)

Cheers!

Re:Just installed

[BLKMGK]

Actually it's pretty straightforward - I have hardware and I have a choice between buying Win7 to install on it or going with Linux. I LIKE Win7, hell I liked Vista! I'm far from a Linux zealot and I still run both of those Windows OS at home today. Really when it comes to Linux I'm still learning and this project was one of my excuses to learn by doing, so cool your jets.

When faced with building multiple HTPC boxes that were going to cost me $200+ each anyway I didn't feel like paying a half to one third just for the OS. Linux was FREE to try, I tried it, and I "got it to work". Really, you make it sound like it was some really tough thing which is amusing. I followed a Wiki entry, Google, and asked questions when HDMI audio proved to be a PITA. I had it "working" in a day. I'd have followed much the same path had I done this on Win7, in fact I have because I've played with those capabilities on my desktop some too.

While this might not ship on the disk with a standard distro you CAN go into the tool that does ship and ask to install it and it will install binaries just like any other program. You can also download OpenElec or the XBMCbuntu distro and in that case yes indeed it DOES come built in or built specifically to run this program. Since HTPC tend to be dedicated this makes great sense.

What makes this program great is it's extensibility, it's looks, it's ease of use, it's ability to be used by those NOT skilled with a computer once setup, and the fact that it's FREE. Does that help?

Re:Just installed

[TranquilVoid]

I'd say the offtopic was about turning this into a Linux vx Windows discussion, however your post was almost the opposite (pointing out your parent was doing exactly that), just depends on your point of view.

The mention of Linux is still an answer to the question, maybe it would make more sense like this;

Q: What advantages do you see over Windows media center in Windows 7?

A: One advantage is that it is free and cross-platform, so it can be run on a free OS such as Linux.

Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

I seriously have no idea, I could look it up, but I'm not going to bother.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

It took more effort to write that little rant than it would have to just fucking google it.
*slowclap*

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[MichaelSmith]

Its a media player.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it also takes less effort to hand somebody a fish than it does to teach them how to fish, but I keep hoping somebody will read the post and learn that their submissions SHOULD include such useful information.

One day, perhaps, it'll get through to people.

But it certainly won't if silence is the answer.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

When I go to a restaurant, I expect the fish to be handed to me.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 insightful.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Granted, but do you expect them to explain what chicken is?

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

I certainly expect them to tell me what's on their Chicken Ala Whateverini

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[Anonymous Coward]

Granted, but do you expect them to explain what capybara is?

TFTFY.

Re:Could they try to have identified what XBMC is?

[webheaded]

If you went to actually RTFA and didn't know what it was, there is a menu at the top that says "About" for fuck's sake. Yes, they could have explained, but you could also stop being an indignant shit head for no reason. Just saying.

XB-emmma Wha?

[dmomo]

That's great. Next time, tell us briefly in the summary what it is and why we should care. Honestly not trying to Troll. It would be nice to know if clicking through and reading more would be a waste of my time or not, though.

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[icebraining]

"XBMC site:slashdot.org" returns 6000 results, so they probably assume /. readers already know what it is.

In any case,

XBMC Media Center (formerly Xbox Media Center) is a free and open source cross-platform digital media hub and HTPC (Home theater PC) software with a 10-foot user interface designed to be a media player for the living-room TV using only a remote control as the input device. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily browse and view videos, photos, podcasts, and music from a harddrive, optical disc, local network, and the internet using only a few buttons.

(From Wikipedia)

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[Mr Z]

Ok, it's not just me then. I was wondering if I had accidentally landed on a foreign version of the site that was in another language.

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's great. Next time, tell us briefly in the summary what it is and why we should care. Honestly not trying to Troll. It would be nice to know if clicking through and reading more would be a waste of my time or not, though.

FYI
"XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, and Windows. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages."

Essentially it will run on appliance devices as a media server that is remote capable and can be network controlled or can be used as a server. It is fully dlna capable in both directions. Essentially it is a opensource equivalent to Media Room if you want to use it in house as a hub. You can create AVs and network broadcast it with it, or you can just puddle around and do whatever you want with it because it is opensource.

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[fotoguzzi]

A 10-foot user interface? Really?

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[game kid]

Yup, that's a technical term! You definitely wouldn't want the usual 2-foot computer UI when you're on your couch fairly far from your screen. Heck, I have my occasional issues with it when I'm not so far...

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[TemplePilot]

Yes Sir, Ten Foot Interface! That is if you have the space & range and a nifty projector to throw it up onto your wall. I'd have suggested the R2-D2 Projector from 2007, but haven't seen them around lately.

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[Black Parrot]

"XBMC site:slashdot.org" returns 6000 results, so they probably assume /. readers already know what it is.

I kill way too much time here, and I've never heard of it before.

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[dmomo]

I googled it before my post. My point was though, that a good summary would have included at least a sentence about what it is. It just makes a better quality summary. I guess this thinking isn't shared by the majority of Slashdot, seeing as I was perceived as a -1 Troll! I would have gladly accepted, and maybe even aggreed somewhat with "off topic".

Re:XB-emmma Wha?

[Dog-Cow]

You think complaining about some random, bad summary is going to change anything (other than your karma)? You must be new here!

iOS but no Android

[manekineko2]

I find it bizarre that iOS has a version of XBMC when it can only be run on jailbroken devices.

Meanwhile, Android devices, which actually compromise the majority of the market these days, could run XBMC out of the box with no modifications, and there seems to be zero interest in creating a version for Android. It would even be allowed on the official Android market.

Still, considering the heritage of the project, maybe this all makes sense....

Re:iOS but no Android

[Anonymous Coward]

The only reason there's an iOS version is because of Apple TV.

Re:iOS but no Android

[icebraining]

s/compromise/comprise/

Re:iOS but no Android

[tapspace]

When there is a nice sub $100 android set top box that'll push 1080p, then I think you can expect an android version.

Re:iOS but no Android

[stms]

XMBC is developed for ios because of appletv. I've tried for my iPhone and it sucks (mainly becuase the interface isn't made for a phone). There are ports of mplayer for android use one of those its practically the same thing.

Re:iOS but no Android

[Gaygirlie]

There are ports of mplayer for android use one of those its practically the same thing.

Mplayer is just a simple player, XBMC is a lot more than that. The two are definitely not "the same thing."

Re:iOS but no Android

[stms]

I know what they are. My point was that the main decoder for XMBC is mplayer. So a good mplayer front-end should be just as good as XBMC for playback and superior because it has an interface for a phone.

Re:iOS but no Android

[crash123]

mplayer is not the 'main decoder' for XBMC. XBMC uses its own media player called dvdplayer and ffmpeg.

Re:iOS but no Android

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Your Pacific rim drop-shipper of choice has a fair number of offerings (these ones are reasonably representative); from ~$70 to ~$170 depending on the phase of the moon, number of ports and media readers, and chipset.

Many, if not all, allegedly support at least some sort of '1080p' decode, though exactly what hides in the details may or may not be a pleasant surprise.

To the best of my knowledge, though, development interest in these remains somewhat mired in their variety. It is highly unlikely that the firmware developers on those things spent any time or effort actively hindering 3rd party developers or replacement firmwares; but it isn't a whole lot more likely that they wasted a whole lot of time on 'quality' or 'compatibility' either. Apple, by contrast, actively hates you; but they don't have 30-odd different aTV variants, each broken in a different way.

It is almost certainly the case that there would be some good candidates, if somebody could pick through them and then establish a reliable supply of purchasable units guaranteed to be the same hardware, rather than a totally different board in the same case(purchasers of wireless cards and routers will be familiar with the fact that model numbers are merely suggestions...); but that is at the level of forum anecdote at present...

Re:iOS but no Android

[crash123]

Work is being done on a port for Android but it is slow. See http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=119705

Re:iOS but no Android

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize you can just enable the web front end, which has smartphone specific interfaces that can be accessed via a touch phone's web browser?

Re:iOS but no Android

[stms]

Really? I swear I remeber reading that XMBC used Mplayer for playback. Still there are probably players that use ffmpeg on android (when VLC is finished there will be one for sure).

Re:iOS but no Android

[Anonymous Coward]

That's because it does use mplayer for playback guy above you does not know what he is talking about.

Re:iOS but no Android

[Gaygirlie]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC#Video_player_cores

Video player cores

XBMC uses two different multimedia video player 'cores' for video-playback. The first video-player 'core' for video-playback is an in-house developed cross-platform media player, "DVDPlayer", originally designed to play back DVD-Video movies, and this includes support native for DVD-menus, (based on the free open source libraries code libdvdcss and libdvdnav). This FFmpeg based video-player 'core' today supports all widespread mainstream formats. One relatively unusual feature of this DVD-player core is the capability to on-the-fly pause and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG DVD-images or DVD-Video (IFO/VOB/BUP) images (even directly from uncompressed RAR and ZIP archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.[2][13][16]

The second video-player 'core' for video-playback in XBMC is another in-house developed open source player, "DSPlayer", which today is only used as an experimental video player in a Git development branch of XBMC for Windows and not in any other versions of XBMC. This "DSPlayer" is a Direct Show based media player which with the help of FFmpeg can play practically all common media formats and in addition also make XBMC for Windows handle all formats and containers normally supported in Windows with the help of third-party proprietary Direct Show filters installed on the system.[58]

So, no, it does not use Mplayer.

Re:iOS but no Android

[universalconstant]

It used mplayer on the original version that ran on Xbox, but moved to DVDPlayer later when it became multi-format IIRC.

Re:iOS but no Android

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually no XBMC cannot be run on Android without any modifications.

  To run XBMC as is on Android one would need to port a f**kload of libraries to Android. (there is a list on the XBMC port to android page on their website)

  Now about running XBMC live (which is XBMC atop a linux kernel and some libraries) on an ARM set-top box or an ARM SoC like the ones that are powering most of the Android devices : Yes this is possible and quite easy but because there are so many different SoCs and they don't rely on a unified media layer for example, it takes a lot of time.

  Right now XBMC supports OMAP 4 with veideo decoding, and the OpenMAX media library, with more to come.

OpenElec

[okle69]

Can't wait til the OpenElec final is released

XBMC is

[wisnoskij]

Formerly a program/OS for the original Xbox and called XBox Media Center. They have since stopped supporting the xbox but have ported it to many OSes. I imagine it is used for computer media center for a TV setup as the interface is far to clunky for regular computer use.

It was/is (see xbmc4xbox) great on the Xbox, but I really don't see the appeal of installing it on a computer.

Re:XBMC is

[okle69]

The appeal is having a dedicated low power, small box to just push media to your home theatre that can be controlled via remote, instead of moving around windows between displays and having to worry about your other activities interfering with your movie watching, etc.

Re:XBMC is

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't install it on a regular use computer, but on a HTPC system or such. XMBC is an outstanding system for HTPC use, and makes library management a breeze. So, it's definitely good for computers, but not for your primary desktop.

As XBMC has been ported to practically everything, it's pretty easy to get running on any random hardware, making building a HTPC easier and cheaper than ever. Even runs on a $35 Raspberry Pi!

Re:XBMC is

[Gaygirlie]

It was/is (see xbmc4xbox) great on the Xbox, but I really don't see the appeal of installing it on a computer.

I do not really know what you mean with "a computer" here; I suppose you're trying to say "a device with a smaller screen."

If that is what you meant then yes, XBMC's UI is quite clunky. But it still does serve a purpose because it's not just a media player, it is a media collection manager; the larger the collection of various movies, TV and anime series and whatnot you have the more you'll start to appreciate how easy it makes it to browse it all. It even handles downloading of subtitles for the current title from the Internet, something I haven't seen any media player do.

If on the other hand you really meant computer as in a PC, a non-console - device: words "HTPC" and "multi-screen setup" should provide more than enough counter-argument. For example my desktop PC has a 24" screen as the main display and I can game, browse the web and all that on it, while I have XBMC running on my 42" 3D-TV over HDMI at the same time. Coupled with the XBMC Remote for Android it really is quite a damn nice setup.

Re:XBMC is

[Lifyre]

Can it be installed on a Pi?

Re:XBMC is

[Deltaspectre]

Yes!

Re:XBMC is

[Lifyre]

Sweet! Link cause everything I've seen said no Arm beyond iOS..

Re:XBMC is

[pr0nbot]

Here you go: http://bit.ly/GNCkXg

Re:XBMC is

[Zorque]

Personally I use it on my desktop as well as on my media center, I keep my desktop in my room and it's nice to be able to watch stuff from bed using a USB remote. It's also got several Android apps (the best being the one made by the XMBC team themselves) so you can access your library and control playback over wifi.

Re:XBMC is

[dcherryholmes]

"It even handles downloading of subtitles for the current title from the Internet, something I haven't seen any media player do."

Of course I am aware of the relationship between boxee and xbmc, but from the average consumer's perspective, boxee does this as well.

Re:XBMC is

[futuresheep]

It even handles downloading of subtitles for the current title from the Internet, something I haven't seen any media player do.

I use the Mediabrowser plugin for WMC7. Mediabrowser has some excellent plugins available, one downloads subtitles for you.

http://www.mediabrowser.tv/

Re:XBMC is

[Lifyre]

So what you're saying it no. They are working on it but not yet. Gotcha.

Re:XBMC is

[webheaded]

I really don't see the appeal of installing it on a computer.

And that XBOX was what? A fluffy kitty? :p

Computers are used for the same things people used XBOXes for (gaming, playing media, random stupid apps). I used to use the program on my XBOX back in the day and that was the first program in my mind when I built my Media Center PC because it is a damn well made program. There's nothing out there as good as XBMC. I've been using the damn thing for like 10 years.

Re:XBMC is

[DedTV]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/571

Never got the "point" of XBMC

[pla]

I've tried a few versions of XBMC (and have 11 downloading in the background, just to take a look), and I never really understood the big deal about it.

With the original XBox, okay, cool, you had a fairly high-functionality networked media player running on a $99 console gaming system. Neat.

But on a modern PC? Running a variety of programs to handle each individual media type in a manner I prefer for them doesn't present any sort of burden to me or to the system. I have no real reason to stay within the context of a single program that can do-it-all - I just make a new desktop shortcut to my preferred handler of format-X, and bam, I have it always instantly available to me.

So tell me, Slashdot - What have I missed here that makes XBMC so impressive?

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Deltaspectre]

This is for the people who want a 10 foot interface on their little nettop hooked up to the TV.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[acariquara]

XBMC on an Apple TV. Still a $99 system.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Laebshade]

XBMC is meant for media centers. If you're not using it on a PC you're using as a media center, then XBMC is likely not for you. It is called "XBMC Media Center" for a reason.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[HogGeek]

Now you can get it running on a $99 dollar media player (Apple TV 2, and 3 (when it gets jailbroken))

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a front end for a htpc device, same as windows media center, or a mythtv front end. That's the appeal of it, no mystery.

It's not like a bunch of people are sticking it on their PCs in order to replace VLC or Mplayer.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[niftydude]

But on a modern PC? Running a variety of programs to handle each individual media type in a manner I prefer for them doesn't present any sort of burden to me or to the system. I have no real reason to stay within the context of a single program that can do-it-all - I just make a new desktop shortcut to my preferred handler of format-X, and bam, I have it always instantly available to me.

XBMC is about the interface. XBMC is all-in-one, and it is nice and remote control friendly. Your solution with desktop shortcuts requires you to have a mouse and a keyboard, and so that solution is a burden to you, even if it isn't a burden to the system.

Not only does XBMC handler MCE remotes correctly out of the box, with the libCEC library it can also handle signals from the remote controls of most television remotes from the libCEC signal which is sent over one of the wires on the HDMI interface. It makes for a much nicer browsing and viewing experience when your pc is connected to a large screen on the other side of your room.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

I am going to go get money from the ATM machine.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

Its so impressive because non idiots can use it as a MEDIA CENTER. Its not meant to be a media PLAYER on your PC whilst you sit in front of it. Its meant to be a MEDIA CENTER connected to your TV. So you can watch all your media on your television. On a TV.

GET IT? Of course not. Oh well.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[traycerb]

Is XBMC any good for streaming, e.g. from Hulu, Netflix, etc and live TV/DVR? I looked into XBMC once, and it seemed to be primarily for stored media, and not TV or internet streaming. For example, there wasn't an official browser plugin to go to the various sites I use. Has this changed, or are there other options for this?

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, I always used the XBMC for original XBOX with the DVD remote.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Psychopath]

I've tried a few versions of XBMC (and have 11 downloading in the background, just to take a look), and I never really understood the big deal about it.

With the original XBox, okay, cool, you had a fairly high-functionality networked media player running on a $99 console gaming system. Neat.

But on a modern PC? Running a variety of programs to handle each individual media type in a manner I prefer for them doesn't present any sort of burden to me or to the system. I have no real reason to stay within the context of a single program that can do-it-all - I just make a new desktop shortcut to my preferred handler of format-X, and bam, I have it always instantly available to me.

So tell me, Slashdot - What have I missed here that makes XBMC so impressive?

You're missing a wife. Because mine (despite having a masters in engineering and a CCIE) is completely unwilling to use a PC connected to our home theater. She wants to access media the same way she uses a DVR, and with the same remote. XBMC provides that experience. Plus it works with Airplay.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

I am going to go get money from the ATM machine.

I'm going to get my money from the Asynchronous Transfer ATM Mode machine.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[nahpets77]

UPnP; I use it mainly to connect to my mediatomb server. It works really well.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Osty]

It is called "XBMC Media Center" for a reason

This may be pedantic, but it's not called "XBMC Media Center". It's called "XBMC", originally from "Xbox Media Center". "Media Center" is part of the abbreviation. Calling it "XBMC Media Center" is akin to calling an ATM an "ATM machine" or a PIN a "PIN number". "Media Center", "machine", and "number" are all part of the preceding abbreviations, respectively.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[sehryan]

I know this will sound snide, but you obviously do not have a wife, or if you do, she is a geek like you.

While your setup doesn't present any problem for you or probably me, for any non-technical folks in the household that want to use the system, remembering to use this at these points but not for this other thing, then you have to do X+Y+Z...it is impossible for them to remember all the details.

XBMC - and all the other 10ft interfaces - theoretically solve this problem. One interface to bind them all, if you pardon the paraphrase.

Of course, my experience is that none of them can do 100% of the things I and my wife would like them to do, so we are still using a fractured system, much to her dislike (and she lets me know about it every time she has trouble). I am hoping that Eden solves this.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

They have a couple plugins for stuff like Al Jazeera news and Youtube. But no Amazon, Netflix, etc. I think it comes down to an issue with DRM and the fact XBMC is open-source. They do have a cool remote-control app for Android that lets you share a youtube video you are watching on your phone or tablet directly to the tv.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[TheCycoONE]

It doesn't do TV yet though it is planned and being worked on (forever). For TV you're probably better off with mythtv.

I haven't tried 11.0 yet, but I've been using 10 since it came out. Streaming for various sites is supported through 3rd party addons, so quality varies by addon. I don't watch Hulu or Netflix, but I have one for watching Canadian TV shows and another for Ted Talks that work quite nicely. Otoh, I haven't had good luck with the Youtube or Yahoo Music addons.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Deltaspectre]

Well, original Xbox isn't supported anymore.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[TemplePilot]

With just the right plugin's you can be watching streaming tv shows on demand, or movies by way of an aggreator. Check out Navi-X for instance. Its a great way to catch up on Season 1 Game of Thrones. You can even download them for later viewing. With XBMC you just need to spend time exploring its capabilities and the forums to learn to make it your all in one Media Experience, that truly does everything. I run mine off one of the two 22" external monitors attatched to my laptop, with plans to drop in a 42" HDTV into the works soon where I'll then move XBMC for an actual enhanced Home Theatre PC setup. Been loving it so far.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

It's funny, I was just on XBMC's site a couple days ago, and I really couldn't tell what they had made. Ultimately, I assumed it was just a media-centric file manager with an interface suited to remote controls. I didn't grab it, because one click in Thunar fires the movie up fullscreen with mplayer, and I can't tell if XBMC is going to screw with that functionality, or just do its own thing (whatever that is).
It sure looks pretty - I'd rather have that, than a one-colour background and one type of icon.

From the "About" section of the XBMC website : "It is difficult to put into words all that XBMC can do..."

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

It is pedantic, and also stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome#Reasons_for_use

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Scyber]

Well the Eden logo in TFA refers to it as XBMC Media Center. In addition the logo used on wiki.xbmc.org (similar to the eden logo) also refers to it as xbmc media center. So you can keep "correcting" people if you want, but if the official site uses XBMC Media Center it is obviously an acceptable name for the product.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[BLKMGK]

In order to do Netflix and the rest you can stream via PlayOn running on a desktop computer - this will give you an amazing array of choices. Likewise XBMC supports live TV from an HDHomerun but frankly Myth or an STB might be better for that IMO.

XBMC's strongpoint is being able to beautifully a stored library of movies, TV shows, Music, and pictures. I have a bazillion movies and TV shows stored on servers and any of my TVs can display them via small network attached XBMC front-ends. I've yet to see anything come close!

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[BLKMGK]

Actually no it's called XBMC Media Center. I suggest you goto XBMC.org and examine the logo for the Eden release which clearly says so....

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[mab]

XBMC is not an acronym

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Osty]

Well, that's interesting. Only the Eden logo has the "media center" subtitle. Everything else (the site header logo, the about page, every other single reference to "XBMC" on the web site) refers strictly to "XBMC" and not "XBMC Media Center". So I'll stick with the more consistent representation of the name as "XBMC" with the "Media Center" as part of the abbreviation.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

It is pedantic, and also stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome#Reasons_for_use

I can't believe you posted this at 5:00AM in the morning!!

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Osty]

As long as I'm being pedantic, that is correct. It's an abbreviation. An acronym is an abbreviation that intentionally forms a word. So unless you pronounce XBMC as "ex-buh-muck" and not "ex bee em see", it's only an abbreviation.

And it certainly is an abbreviation, as the original project was called "Xbox Media Center". That the abbreviation is now the name doesn't make it not an abbreviation (see KFC, IBM, etc).

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[wanzeo]

Yup. XBMC can be more for the people you live with than it for yourself. For instance, there are iphone and android apps that work as a remote through the wifi. Not only is this practical because you skip the tedious IR remotes, but people absolutely LOVE the idea of using their phone as a remote. I even bought a $50 Samsung Repp (low end android phone, no contract) that just sits on the coffee table as an XBMC remote.

A nice added bonus is that it provides a way to retire old desktops without throwing them away or having to buy specialized AV gear. And it has even been demonstrated to run on the Raspberry Pi! In fact, now that I mention it, I REALLY LOVE XBMC!

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[phoenix_rizzen]

Salvage parts from old PCs, from the AthlonXP / Athlon64 era, including an ancient ATi RADEON 9800, 2 GB of RAM, and a component video cable. Stick it into a smaller-ish desktop case. Connect it to your TV. Configure it to auto-login to Windows (or Linux), map a couple of network shares to your main computer, start XBMC, and give you a nice 10' display to your video library (sitting on the other computer).

Voila! You have the equivalent of an AppleTV, for hardly any dollars (since you have all the spare parts, or they can be had for under $15 each), that can play 720p x264 video files (should be able to handle 1080p, but don't have access to an HDTV to test it with).

Works beautifully. All controlled from a wireless mouse, while sitting on the couch. Could hook it up to a proper remote, but that seems like work to me. ;) Especially since this setup is easy enough for the wife to use. :D

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[phoenix_rizzen]

It stopped being "Xbox Media Centre" back in 2011 when they stopped supporting the Xbox.

It's now "XBMC Media Centre", as it runs on various OSes and devices ... with the exception of the original Xbox.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[phoenix_rizzen]

XBMC v10 supports the Xbox. Hence, that release is "Xbox Media Centre" (aka XBMC).

XBMC v11 does not supprt the Xbox, and is thus called "XBMC Media Centre".

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[thereitis]

That should be on the xbmc front page. I discovered as much after installing all the build dependencies and compiling/installing from source. What I really want is something focused on streaming over my wireless network. No gui front-end necessary. Something that can give me a quick selection of _legal_ shows I can download and watch.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[adavidm]

posting to undo bad moderation, sorry

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[I(rispee_I(reme]

Don't forget your PIN number.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

Or kids...

I got a passivly cooled Atom based box with a small SSD and HDMI. Put all video's on a NAS with a share to the mediaplayer. I installed openelec which is a xmbc fork with a pretty optimized linux distro bundled in. Installation was just extracting a zip files content to a partition and editing grub.

Everything works out of the box directly on the tv, even the remote. It starts up faster then my dvd or ip-tv box, ui is simple enough that anyone from my 3yo daughter to my wife can use it without problems. Any file I tried worked, and so do subtitles / different audio tracks. Also there are plenty of add ons for anything you can imagine.

The thing I don't understand is why everything else sucks so badly.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[amorsen]

It doesn't do TV yet though it is planned and being worked on (forever).

You can turn a TV capture card into a streaming source with HTS Tvheadend, which is very easy to set up. XBMC speaks the Tvheadend protocol, so it works fine for live TV.

What you can't do is control recording etc. from XBMC, unless you use the PVR branch which is indeed being worked on forever. For that you need to use the Tvheadend web interface.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

To be honest, I think that Apple TV works very smoothly as is, nicer in use with iPhoto libraries and iTunes playlists than what seems to be possible with XBMC.
I do find far too many nested menus and submenus with XBMC for pleasant couch potato operation.
Next to the Apple TV I also run a WD TV Live gadget and a big hard disk for all movies in various formats. Indeed it is in the end a two box solution but it works very well.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean his personal PIN number. :p

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Astronomerguy]

1.) Extensible via add-on streams and apps 2.) Navi-X add-on program 3.) Stream just about any TV show or movie over the Internet (with appropriate add-ons) 4.) Run it on a rooted AppleTV (Sure, you can run it on a desktop PC if you want. I do as a test environment and for watching stuff when my wife is using the TV). 5.) Full access to your media files on your network shares with minimal/no fuss It excels as a HTPC environment, which is the whole point of it. This is how it was used on the XBox. Now it can go on many different devices. My AppleTV 2 is the perfect HTPC. Small, unobtrusive, can be controlled via my iPhone, low power... Goodbye Satellite TV.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

I even bought a $50 Samsung Repp (low end android phone, no contract) that just sits on the coffee table as an XBMC remote.

I even bought a $50 Logitec programmable universal remote (programmable via PC through a USB cable) that just sits on the coffee table as an universal remote.

I think you got screwed.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[wanzeo]

Perhaps you are talking about one of the Logitech Harmony remotes? Because I got one of those first, and let me assure you, THAT is the ripoff. Say you want to control stuff in a cabinet, you either have to buy a bunch of IR repeater stuff with a sensor outside the cabinet, or you can spend over $100 for the RF versions, which still have to use IR repeaters, but you get to skip the sensor on the outside of the cabinet. Then, just when you system is almost set up, you are bound to realize that you have five devices, and the repeater stuff you bought only supports four.

Or, 1 device (xbmc), no IR repeaters (use wifi), can play games, browse the web, check emails, read Slashdot, and is "programmable" in a much broader sense of the word.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

Support was dropped before v10. Name change was done in 2009

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

If I understand you correctly you are looking for some sort of legal video stream proxy, correct? I have never looked into that, and I'm not even sure any exist. What I use is a DLNA server (MiniDLNA).. you could set up a RSS feed downloader and have MiniDLNA serve the downloads to a DLNA client. Often these clients are built into TV's and such (my Samsung supports DLNA). Not an elegant solution to say the least, but one that might work.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

That's really interesting - thanks, I will check it out.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[potat0man]

What have I missed here that makes XBMC so impressive?

Being reclined on the couch at 10pm and being able to use the remote with one hand rather than get up and find the wireless mouse beneath the pile of supermarket flyers, takeout menus, and unread magazines on the coffee table.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[cyclomedia]

This

it's a "Media PC" skin for standard Humans to use. Mine is a low end single core Atom (which XBMC manages to squeeze 1080P out of!) wedged into an old DVD-recorder case. It runs windows 7 but starts XBMC on boot so everyone else who is in my house who isn't a hacker can press the power button and pick up the remote and select things to watch/listen to. The keyboard and mouse is also usually stashed away and only comes out when I'm playing steam. Portal 2 on a 42" screen is loads of fun for your inner ear I can tell you :)

I also have an original XBOX running the latest backport (XBMC4XBOX) and that is soon (when I get a 360) going to live in my children's bedroom having being loaded full of Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks, er, "backups" to replace the essentially dead collection of VHS tapes they have. And also so if I fancy playing Halo I can just fire it up.

Re:Never got the "point" of XBMC

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll fill you in....

I started with MythTV, recording shows that I want to watch later. That got harder as HDTV started becoming more popular, and I discovered that you can download shows and movies fairly easily off the net. Won't go into much detail here, but you all know what I'm talking about.

MythTV didn't handle it very well, and looked at XBMC. XBMC + sab + sickbeard + couchpotato and everything is 100% automatic. It downloads stuff, organizes files, adds descriptions, and you can sit on your couch and watch TV without fiddling with a computer. You can also stream stuff using plugins, play music with it, and so on.

While you may not have a need for it, others do. And those who complain about the price, you can always look into Raspbmc. XBMC on a Raspberry Pi for 30 bucks.

When will they rename

[atari2600a]

It's been years since the XBOX Media Center supported Xbox.

Re:When will they rename

[Deltaspectre]

I seem to remember when they gave up support on xbox, the official name was changed to just XBMC. So it's not an acronym anymore.

Re:When will they rename

[atari2600a]

THat doesn't change the fact that XMBC Media Center sounds retarded. I mean, with GNU you get a recursive acronym, with XKCD you get a blatantly random sequence of characters, but XMBC is like the dead fetus hanging off of a child, & to make shit weirder they include half of the acronym AFTER the acronym!

Re:When will they rename

[Deltaspectre]

Does XBMC sound better to you?

Re:When will they rename

[Anonymous Coward]

THat doesn't change the fact that XMBC Media Center sounds retarded.

Good thing they don't use that then.

OS-X but no *BSD, either?!?

[storkus]

Did the XBMC guys drop a bunch of platforms?

Also just noticed that their competitor www.mythtv.org is about to have a release early next month as well.

Re:OS-X but no *BSD, either?!?

[crash123]

No a developer called Fneufneu is still working on it. The pull request wasn't finished/merged in time for Eden. https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/37

Re:OS-X but no *BSD, either?!?

[BLKMGK]

Not sure I'd call Myth a competitor, more like they work together. considering what a tin plated bitch Myth has been to install in the past and how much more easily XBMC is installed I'll be interested to see what the Myth guys come up with for this release. the only PITA with XBMC is getting the HDMI audio working sometimes but that's ALSA and Pulse screwing with things...

Original Xbox

[gearloos]

But does it still run on my original Xbox 1 ? Just curious in these days of programmers trying to jam every new feature they can into an already decent product making it essentially bloatware.

Re:Original Xbox

[Anonymous Coward]

They discontinued support of the Xbox version quite a while ago, but it's still being worked on by the XBMC4Xbox project.

"Dirty region rendering"

[pr0nbot]

Does "dirty region rendering" de-pixellate Japanese porn or something?

Re:"Dirty region rendering"

[Spodi]

Dirty region rendering is where you only redraw areas that need to be updated instead of drawing the whole screen every frame. It was a lot more common in the older days, and can still be useful for low-power, low-performance devices to keep a larger screen up-to-date. This is precisely why XBMC is implementing it - to reduce overhead of a mostly-idle screen (lower power usage when not viewing media). And I am very happy to see that - too much software doesn't care how much demand it puts on the system as long as it looks good. There is so much being put into trying to make hardware more energy efficient, but an even easier low-hanging fruit is the software.

Re:"Dirty region rendering"

[Megatog615]

I wonder if the port to Raspberry Pi had anything to do with this development?

Re:"Dirty region rendering"

[Anonymous Coward]

It was the result of trying to improve performance on the BeagleBoard http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/06/19/working-with-dirty-regions/

"4% of the internet!"

[It'sVersusItsGuy]

XBMC had especially superb value when the Icefilms / MegaUpload plugin was working. That was a great period in history. Now it's not so exciting on desktops, but it does make a good interface for a dedicated media center.

Re:"4% of the internet!"

[Astronomerguy]

Check out "1Channel". Also, Icefilms seems to be back at or very near to its old goodness.

Trakt.com support

[Jonah Hex]

If you use Trakt to keep track of your shows, make sure to get the development version here until it gets released to the production channel. If you don't use Trakt... you don't know what your missing! - HEX

Re:Trakt.com support

[Anonymous Coward]

Honestly, i dont get it. What exactly is the purpose of this Trakt? The website absolutely does not help.

Re:Trakt.com support

[emilv]

I think it's like Last.fm for movies and TV shows. You install i plugin for your media player which tells Trakt.tv what you are watching and it suggests similar movies for you. At least that's what I figured out by reading the about page.

Re:Trakt.com support

[Jonah Hex]

For me the most important aspect is keeping track of all my shows and movies, and helping me figure out what episodes/seasons I'm missing.

Re:Trakt.tv support

[Jonah Hex]

Damn it, trakt.tv not .com - HEX

Re:XBMC vs. WMC

[TemplePilot]

WMC is 'nice' for OTA HDTV if you have a CM4221 antenna + ATSC tuner combo ( or QAM if you have a cable connection), which I do enjoy. XBMC on the other hand with plugin's and aggreators... gives me online access to so much more than WMC can and greatly enhances usablilty between my pc & HDTV, its the epitome of convergence in technology at this stage of the game.

Now, if I could only get XBMC shoehorned stand alone into a high end "smart" HDTV with wifi to my LAN. It just might make for the ultimate home theatre pc experience I so crave.

Re:XBMC vs. WMC

[JakartaDean]

Now, if I could only get XBMC shoehorned stand alone into a high end "smart" HDTV with wifi to my LAN. It just might make for the ultimate home theatre pc experience I so crave.

Indeed, this is the exact reason I've signed up for two of the Raspberry Pi boards. One for fun, one for my TV.

On another note, one of the things I was hoping to do with my new computer (kubuntu/nVidia but I could change the OS) was connect HDMI to my TV and have that as a separate display device for movies only. I can make it an extended desktop, but that isn't what I want at all. I thought this would be a fairly common thing, but I haven't been able to find anything with Google. Sound over HDMI is still a problem for me also. Sigh

kudos to all developers

[hakova]

It is open source, it is free (both as in speech and beer), it has a fairly high quality both under the hood and on skin. I have been using it for more than 2 years now and it has not failed me like some android phones did. Very easy to use, quite stable. Heartfelt kudos to the developers, maintainers and the whole community.
-----
"Look like you are or be like you look"
Rumi

Re:XBMC vs. WMC

[A Nun Must Cow Herd]

It's not quite your stated ideal, but I'm happy with XBMC running on a rooted Apple TV. Cheap, easy and the videos look fantastic (without having to run iTunes or transcode anything!).

Re:XBMC vs. WMC

[dcherryholmes]

Sound over HDMI is why I bought a boxee box, after running it alongside mythtv in my own system for years. Got tired of trying to fight it, and losing.

I thought Berne was about copyrights, not patents

[tepples]

Most of those codecs like X264? ILLEGAL in any country that signed Berne, all that? Is patented.

I thought Berne was about copyrights, not patents.

ALL the major formats ARE PATENTED

True, but all patents essential to VP8 are licensed permissively.

Mark my words the next version of H.26x WILL have DRM support

I thought digital restrictions management was a feature of a container, not a codec. For example, CSS is part of the DVD container, which is based on the MPEG-2 container, and doesn't touch the codec at all. The closest thing to DRM in a codec is BD+, which warps parts of the frame to make them friendlier to the underlying codec (and can disable unwarping in an environment that appears not to conform to the system's C&R rules), and I haven't seen anything other than Blu-ray that implements anything remotely like BD+.

What happened to "Add Source?"

[Anonymous Coward]

I just upgraded to the new 11 and now there doesn't seem to be a way to add anything to the library, at least not where it used to be. Did they move it or something? I can't find it anywhere.

Pi scalping

[tepples]

You don't install it on a regular use computer, but on a HTPC system

The problem here is in getting people to build an HTPC system in the first place. Most people who aren't in Slashdot's geek demographic don't want yet another box connected to their TV along with the DVD player, game console, and/or cable or satellite TV decoder. A lot of people already have trouble hooking up just those. Most pre-built desktop PCs are way too big and noisy to fit well in a living room, and Best Buy appears not to sell a lot of ready-to-run PCs in HTPC cases.

Even runs on a $35 Raspberry Pi!

How much has Raspberry Pi shot up to on the scalpers' market?

Re:Pi scalping

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a ton of Atom based nettops that are extremely tiny, extremely quiet and play 1080p video without issue. That's what I use.

Re:Pi scalping

[tepples]

There are a ton of Atom based nettops that are extremely tiny, extremely quiet and play 1080p video without issue.

A lot of people don't want to go through the hassle of paying postage and packing, waiting for delivery, and being home to sign for the delivery. (checks bestbuy.com) Is Acer's Veriton any good?

Re:Pi scalping

[Anonymous Coward]

If you mean the ones that are basically the same as the Ace Revo then yes (N260G, N270G, N281G and N282G according to Wikipedia). I have 2 generations of the Revo and they are both more than capable of handling XMBCLive and the new XBMCUbuntu.
They have Nvidia ION chipsets which allows hardware acceleration on the GPU which means they do 1080p without even stressing the system.

HTPCs are for geeks

[tepples]

I do not really know what you mean with "a computer" here; I suppose you're trying to say "a device with a smaller screen."

Exactly, The general public, that is, non-geeks, see a "computer" as something that sits on a desk in another room, not something in the living room. Please see previous comments by FunkSoulBrother and CronoCloud.

words "HTPC" and "multi-screen setup" should provide more than enough counter-argument.

"HTPC? Isn't that a company that makes smartphones?" The general public tends not to appreciate the advantages of an HTPC over dedicated "consumer electronics devices".

Re:HTPCs are for geeks

[Gaygirlie]

And your point is? XBMC is not aiming itself at the average citizen, so everything you said is irrelevant.

Debian packages still fubar'd

[anarcat]

The Debian packages are really strange for XBMC. First off the Linux instructions are aimed primarily at Ubuntu. Then the other problem is that there is some kind of a fork between the "official packages" for Ubuntu and the Debian packages provided on debian-multimedia.org, the latter not being up to date (only rc2 is available).

I also note that the Ubuntu packages have an Epoch while the Debian packages do not, which makes it hard to switch between the two.

Short of adding a Ubuntu PPA to my sources.list, I am not sure how I can get this thing installed on Debian, which is a bit annoying.

I wish those great products would actually go the extra mile and work with distributions for their products to be packaged, especially since they seem to be familiar with Debian pacakging...

Re:Debian packages still fubar'd

[emilv]

The Debian packages are really strange for XBMC. First off the Linux instructions are aimed primarily at Ubuntu. Then the other problem is that there is some kind of a fork between the "official packages" for Ubuntu and the Debian packages provided on debian-multimedia.org, the latter not being up to date (only rc2 is available).

...

Short of adding a Ubuntu PPA to my sources.list, I am not sure how I can get this thing installed on Debian, which is a bit annoying.

I've compiled it myself for Debian, using the instructions from Compile XBMC for Linux. I've spent some hours figuring out which packages to install prior to compilation, but most of them is listed in the README.linux file (which you get when you checkout with git as part of the installation procedure).

When you're done compiling, instead of doing a make install, use checkinstall to get a .deb package.

The best thing about this is that you can run the latest code without waiting for a release. The code in the repository have always been very stable for me, and I've had access to most of the features in 11.0 since February. Once you've managed to do your own compile it's just a matter of git pull to get the latest changes downloaded and then doing a recompile and build a new package.

XBMC Developers have iPhones...duh...

[bornagainpenguin]

Your Pacific rim drop-shipper of choice has a fair number of offerings (these ones are reasonably representative); from ~$70 to ~$170 depending on the phase of the moon, number of ports and media readers, and chipset.

You forget the Logitech Revue.

You can say that the bootloader is locked, but then so is the AppleTV locked. You listed a bunch of "Pacific Rim" devices which are also presumably available for use, but then excuse away the lack of XBMC port by pointing to incompatibilities across SOC hardware as if this was a new thing.

Bottom line? Most of the XBMC developers probably have iPhones and simply don't care about Android. Considering the AppleTV is only $99, it's hard to blame them.

What about backward compatibily?

[guidryp]

Does this keep all your old settings and movie library intact if you install it? I have custom configuration to use MPC-HC to play the movies and I don't want to rescan my library.

Could my Mom use this?

[Sark666]

I'm thinking on building a media box for my mom. Just to play videos and stuff from stuff I ripped from all her dvds.

If so, can anyone recommend a barebones no fuss box to install this on? She has no 1080 content but I guess it would be nice if it could handle it for the future.

Re:Could my Mom use this?

[cyclomedia]

Apple TV, tho you need to jailbrake it IIRC.

Re:Could my Mom use this?

[Sark666]

I thought that, although I've never still bought an apple product and don't want to do so, I read you can only jailbreak the first version.

Re:XBMC vs. WMC

[repvik]

I'm shoehorning my Raspberry PI into my TV. Planning to leech power from standby circuit, and using HDMI-CEC to use the TVs remote control the RPI. Network via 802.11N.