XBMC Discontinues Xbox Support

Xistic writes with news that the XB in XBMC won't mean Xbox any more. Quoting the project's own website: "The last official release for the XBOX by the XBMC team was Atlantis, over 18 months ago. Since then, one brave soul (Arnova) has been merging code from the main codebase into the XBOX branch in our repository. Because there were many users out there that took advantage of these updates, we had no problem with this. But times have changed. The XBOX has hard limits for what it can handle. Some users are satisfied with these limits, and we encourage them to use XBMC there if they are happy. But it is a popular misconception that official XBOX development is still taking place by the team, so we have decided to set it free. We have enough on our plates already, and worrying about a deprecated platform just increases our workload. A few days ago the XBOX branch was finally removed from our subversion repository."

XBMC4XBOX Lives

[TheRealQuestor]

We have been working on taking over the xbox branch for the last couple of months. http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/ [xbmc4xbox.org] so if you feel you can help head on over. We still have tons of work to do but it's getting really close to being back on track with continued development.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy something with hdmi and nvidia ion and I'm sure you can run xbmc with hd content.

I'm less sure about how good chipset acceleration is in standard intel atom netbooks etc.

Re:the irony of this

[qortra]

The XBMC, which abreviates "XBOX Media Center"

If you don't know its history, you'd find it a joke what XBMC stands for.

You might as well just say it. It now stands for "XBMC Media Center". Perhaps it's somewhat funny, but recursive acronyms [wikipedia.org] are hardly new, and they have a long and proud tradition in Free Software. GNU [wikipedia.org], the name for the userspace tools in most Linux-based operating systems, is among the oldest of currently used recursive acronyms in free software.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[GraemeDonaldson]

Yes, Zotac ION [silentpcreview.com] boards do it exceptionally well according to pretty much every review I've read. I'm going to build a HTPC based on one of these.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy something with hdmi and nvidia ion and I'm sure you can run xbmc with hd content.

I'm less sure about how good chipset acceleration is in standard intel atom netbooks etc.

I have both, as well as a couple of small VIA boxen.

Basically, for 1080p IMAX content, get an ION based atom. I have a Zotac N330 running the latest XBMC. It can do the aforementioned quality at 60fps, has an onboard HDMI out (including audio!) and was extremely simple to set up.
Zotac ION UK price: £130 plus a stick of ram and a case. It's great value! Just remember to offload the graphics using VDPAU (it's a setting inside XBMC).

The Atom DG (Intel reference) doesn't do anything like it. The VIA equivalents don't have graphic support for linux VDPAU either. Net result - they struggle with anything over SDTV. forget 720p or above with those.

Re:Dull surprise

[DirePickle]

GeForce 8800 GT not enough? Maybe somewhere in the chugging menus there was a setting to enable video acceleration that defaulted to 'off', but woo. I'd honestly never seen a program run that poorly on that computer.

Re:Other Platforms

[pumkinut]

I've been using XBMC for over 5 years now. Up until last year it was completely on two XBoxen. It was fine for it's time, but as more and more HD content became available, the XBox started revealing its limitations in a big way.

I started using XBMC on a computer with the Live version on a USB thumbdrive. I would boot the thumbdrive on my work laptop and plug into my HDTV via a VGA connection. Last summer I built a full fledged mini-ITX HTPC with a Zotac Intel motherboard and integrated nVidia graphics. I don't use a mouse to control it. I use my Wii remote or a PS3 Bluetooth remote. Both work well. The Wiimote works almost completely out of the box, the PS3 remote takes some work.

If you visit the XBMC boards, you see that there are plenty of people using it on computers both hooked up to televisions and those that aren't. It's available for Linux, Windows, and OSX. There's even a GSOC project for porting it to a Beagleboard platform.

If you can't understand why someone would use it on a comp, then you haven't seen it lately.

Re:Xbox still great!

[damien_kane]

Wii has emulators for every older console available for it, and the classic controller is closer to those older controllers than an xbox-controller.

Re:Dull surprise

[qortra]

Configuration failure. I've seen XBMC running flawlessly on various chipsets from vintage 2007 integrated ATI chipsets and old 5xxx series Nvidia cards to 4xxx series ATI cards and newer AMD/ATI integrated chipsets. In fact, I doubt that it is even an XBMC configuration problem - sounds like DirectX or your NVIDIA drivers are out of date. Either way, head over to the XBMC Forums" [xbmc.org] for support. It's a fantastic community that will almost certainly help you out with your problem. Only, try not to slander XBMC until you figure out how you mis-configured your system.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[PouletFou]

ASRock ION 330 works like a charm for £260.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[0100010001010011]

Just get something that supports VDPAU. Contrary to what most new system builders think, you do not need a quad core 2.5gHz CPU to play back video when you have hardware acceleration.

I bought the cheapest CPU/Mobo bundle with gigabit ethernet at Newegg. It was a 1.8gHz Celeron with 1GB of RAM. Everything accelerated with a GT220.

I've played a blueray rip with 0 studdering. The only time I get studdering is when SABnzbd is finishing unrarring a file. As long as you are using it for JUST an HTPC you should be fine. It's not completely fanless, but I can't hear it behind from 12' away.

Asus Revo 1600s are on sale for $140-160 refurbed and should work great.

Re:Can a nettop that can run media centre software

[b0bby]

CAn any nettops run media PC stuff reasonably well?

Look for the Acer Revo - $200 for the single core Atom version, ION chipset, does full HD easily, small, quiet, HDMI out... I have the dual core version which was $330, but that also comes with twice the RAM, a wireless keyboard & mouse, & Windows 7. There are a lot of places with information on XBMC & Windows MC setups, search for Revo HTPC. I really like mine, it's recording OTA HD & works great.

Apple-TV

[anethema]

I find Apple-TV to be a wicked XBMC platform.

By itself the Apple-TV is pretty junky. You can buy stuff from iTunes store or rent etc, and stream your iTunes stuff over to it for easy playing, but overall not worth the money.

BUT, i threw a Broadcom Crystal HD (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Broadcom_Crystal_HD for some info) in it (replacing the wifi card which I did not need) and put XBMC on there and it is fantastic. Will play 1080p HD no problem, and damn near any format used in online downloading without a hitch.

This way, the features that weren't so compelling on an Apple-TV before are now great perks to my XBMC install. I can instantly rent a movie in HD if my download doesn't complete or the file ends up corrupt. If I can't find a move online, I usually can on iTunes. They are fairly complementary.

All in a tiny little box 7x7x1.

Only real disadvantage I've run into is the limited remote.