Xbox Media Center
Encyclopedia
XBMC 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
. Its graphical user interface
(GUI) allows the user to easily manage video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, local network, and the internet using a remote control
. The XBMC project is managed by the non-profit technology consortium
XBMC Foundation.
It is a popular alternative to Microsoft
's Windows Media Center
and Apple's Front Row for HTPC (Home Theater PC)
use. Similar to competing software like MediaPortal
and MythTV
, it has a skinnable
as well as user-configurable interface and plugin support. The latest stable release of XBMC also have an integrated digital distribution
platform 'app store' / 'app market' called "Addons Manager" that has a growing list of community driven addon plugins for online content like YouTube, Hulu
, Netflix
, Grooveshark
, Pandora Radio, as well and themes (skins)
and more available from a common official repository
, while still enabling third-party developers to also host their own unofficial repositories for addon plugins that any user can choose to add themselves if they like.
XBMC was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console but is now, since 2010, officially available as a native application for Linux
, Mac OS X
(Snow Leopard
, Leopard
, Tiger
, iOS (iDevice
s (must be jailbroken)), Apple TV), and Microsoft Windows
operating systems, running on most common processor architectures. Also available is a bootable Live CD
and Live USB
standalone version referred to as "XBMC Live" which is made for easy setup on bare-metal installation
s and to be used for interactive demonstrations
.
In addition, as a leader in niche market
of media center software, the source code
from XBMC is used as an open platform
application framework
and technological convergence
platform for others projects to base their Smart TV
entertainment system, set-top box
es, interactive television for hotels, or home media center
software on for over-the-top content
use and more, and today at least Boxee
, MediaPortal
, Plex
, 9x9 Player, and Voddler
are separate derivative products
that are all openly known to initially have forked
the GUI engine and media player core parts of their software
from XBMC's source code. While still using their own brand and customized interface, a few like Boxee
and 9x9 Player, are also affiliate marketing
their software/devices as "Designed for XBMC" and "Powered by XBMC" with official XBMC logo by certified approval from the XBMC Foundation and the Team-XBMC developers.
to simply "XBMC" from its previous old name; "Xbox Media Center") supports most common audio, video, and image formats, playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecasts reporting, and third-party plugins. It is network-capable (internet and LAN
shares). Unlike proprietary
media center
applications like Windows Media Center
from Microsoft
, or other free-software media center applications such as MediaPortal
and MythTV
, XBMC Media Center does not yet include native Live TV or DVR/PVR recording functionality
, nor an EPG TV-Guide interface
of its own, it does however offer the possibility to integrate such functionality through third-party plugins and an official native unified DVR/PVR frontend with EPG which via a common API will support multiple backends via PVR client addons is under development, with experimental builds already available.
Through its plugin system, which is based on the Python programming language
, XBMC is expandable via add-ons that include features such as television program guides, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh
, online movie trailer support, and Pandora Radio and Podcast
streaming. XBMC also functions as a gaming platform by allowing users to play mini-games developed with Python
, on any operating system.
XBMC source code
is distributed as open source under GPL (GNU General Public License)
, it is sponsored via the tax-exempt
registered non-profit organization, XBMC Foundation, and is developed by a global free software community
of volunteering
people working on XBMC for free in their spare time without being motivated by financial or material gain.
Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, XBMC on the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off
project "XBMC4Xbox
", who have completely taken over the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox. The ending of Xbox support by the original project is also the reason that it has officially been renamed to simply "XBMC" from the old from "Xbox Media Center" name. The Xbox version of XBMC also had the ability to launch console games, and homebrew
applications such as emulators. Since the XBMC for Xbox version was never distributed, endorsed, or supported by Microsoft
, it means that XBMC for Xbox has always required a modchip
or softmod exploit
to be able to run on the Xbox game-console.
capable GPU graphics hardware controller for all rendering. Powerful 3D GPU chips are common today in most modern computers, and even some set-top box
es and XBMC is designed to otherwise be resource efficient. It runs well on what (by Intel Atom
standards) are relatively underpowered OpenGL 1.3
(with GLSL
support), OpenGL ES 2.0
or Direct3D (DirectX) 9.0
capable systems that are IA-32
/x86, x86-64
, ARM
, or PowerPC
CPU based.
When software decoding of 1080p
high-definition video
is performed by the system CPU, a dual-core 2 GHz
or better CPU is required in order to allow for smooth playback without dropping frames
and giving playback a jerky appearance. XBMC can also offload most of the video decoding processor onto a GPU graphics hardware controller that supports one of the following types of hardware-accelerated video decoding: Nvidia's VDPAU
(supported from XBMC version 9.04), Microsoft's DXVA
, Apple's VDADecoder, Intel's VAAPI, OpenMAX
, and Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator. By taking advantage of such hardware-accelerated video decoding, XBMC can run well on most inexpensive, low-power systems which contain a modern GPU. However, Intel Core
CPUs with integrated-GPU (or APU
s) are not properly supported yet.
in an XML
-file, which can then be submitted to XBMC's project management
and bug tracking system
tool for use by others. Currently the existing supported languages are Afrikaans
, Basque
, Brazilian Portuguese
, Bulgarian
, Catalan
, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian
, Czech
, Danish
, Dutch
, English, American English
, Esperanto
, Finnish
, French, German, Greek
, Hebrew, Hungarian
, Icelandic
, Indonesian
, Italian, Japanese, Korean
, Maltese
, Norwegian
, Polish
, Portuguese
, Romanian
, Russian, Serbian
, Slovak
, Slovenian, Spanish, Mexican Spanish
, Swedish
, Thai
, Turkish
and Ukrainian
.
to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend XBMC with a multitude of addons, such as plugins, scripts, skins/themes, visualizations, screensavers, web scrapers, web interfaces, and more. XBMC developers encourages users to make and submit their own addons to add additional media content and value-added service
s accessible from within XBMC.
XBMC's latest point-release, (codename: "Dharma"), features a new Addons Framework architecture and Addons Manager GUI client that connects to a decentralized digital distribution
service platform
that serves add-on apps and plug-ins which among other things provide online content to XBMC, the "Addons Manager" (or "Addons Browser") inside XBMC allows users to browse and download new addons directly from XBMC's GUI.
Many of these online content sources are in over-the-top content
high definition services and use video streaming sites, such as Adobe Flash
based content. XBMC has extensibility and integration with online sources for both free and premium streaming content, and offers content from everything from commercial video, to free educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
for addon extensions, WindowXML application framework
(a XML
-based widget toolkit
for creating a GUI for apps / widgets
) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget
scripts allow normal users to add new functionality to XBMC themselves, using Python
scripting language
. Current plugin scripts include functions like Internet-TV
and movie-trailer
browsers, weather forecast
and cinemaguides, Over-the-top content
video streaming services like YouTube, BBC iPlayer
, Hulu
, Netflix
, Veoh
, MLB.tv, Internet-radio-station browsers (example Pandora Radio, Xm radio, Sirius Satellite Radio
), online picture sharing sites like Flickr
, TV-guides (EPG)
, e-mail clients, instant messaging
, train-timetables, home automation
scripts to front-end
control PVR software and hardware (like: MediaPortal, MythTV, TiVo
, ReplayTV
, Dreambox
/DBox2
), P2P
file-sharing downloaders (BitTorrent), IRC, also casual games (sometimes also referred to as mini-games
or party-games
) such as Tetris
, Snake
, Space Invaders
, Sudoku
, and much more.
' scene, is skin
-ability in the tradition of modifications and customization very popular among XBMC users. "Confluence" and "Project Mayhem" are the two official skin
s; "Confluence" is the default since version 9.11, and "Project Mayhem" was the previous default which is now in its third version, commonly known as "PM3.HD" (PM III High-Definition).
Users can also create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites that are used for XBMC skins trading and development. Many such third-party skins exist that are well maintained by the community, and while some skins are originals with unique designs, most initially begin as a clones or an exact replica
of other multimedia software interfaces, such as DivX Connected, Apple Front Row, Windows Media Center Edition (MCE)
, MediaPortal
, Meedio
/MeediOS, HDeeTV, Kaleidescape
, Wii Channel Menu (Xii), Xbox 360 Blades (MC360), Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience (Xperience), and others.
information, cover art
and other related media artwork online through its scrapers
.
Scrapers use sites like themoviedb.org or imdb.com to obtain thumbnails and reviews on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, CDDB
(via freedb
and Discogs
, etc.) for audio CD track listings, and AMG for album thumbnails.
of an installed and concurrently-active XBMC session running on a computer if it runs on an internet tablet or similar device with a touch interface. And yet other still acts like a media manager to allow modifying metadata and artwork in XBMC's video and music libraries.
such as computer games and video game emulators, all from a nice GUI
with thumbnail
and different listings options. However while this feature is fully functioning on the Xbox version of XBMC, it is still in its infant stage on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, thus currently requiring third-party launcher plugins to function properly.
and SMB/SAMBA/CIFS
shares (Windows File-Sharing), or stream them over ReplayTV
DVRs/PVRs
, UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
shares, or stream iTunes
-shares via DAAP
. XBMC can also take advantage of a broadband Internet connection if available to stream Internet-video-streams like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Veoh
, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as Pandora Radio). XBMC also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
and Libre.fm
plus a weather-forecast (via weather.com). It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow
functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke
function and many audio-visualizations
and screensaver
s. XBMC can in addition upscale/upconvert all standard-definition (480i/480p/576i/576p) resolution videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition resolutions.
formats through its native clients and parsers. It can decode these audio and video formats in software or hardware, and optionally pass-through AC3
/DTS audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to S/PDIF
digital output to an external audio-amplifier
/receiver for decoding.
The Video Library, one of the XBMC metadata
databases, is a key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of video content by information associated with the video files (e.g. movies and recorded TV Shows) themselves. This information can be obtained in various ways, like through scrapers (i.e. web scraping
sites like IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, etc.), and nfo
files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and fan art
backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library Mode view allows users to browse their video content by categories; Genre
, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.
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.
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.
The Music Library, one of the XBMC metadata
databases, is another key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file ID meta tags
, like title, artist, album, production year, genre
, and popularity. Automatically downloading and displaying album covers and fan art
backdrops as background wallpapers.
For music playback, XBMC includes its own in-house developed audio-player, "PAPlayer" (which stands for "Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player"), and this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly resampling
of the audio frequency, gapless playback
, crossfading
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Chapter support.
The "PAPlayer" audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports most different tagging standards. XBMC also have support for most popular karaoke
computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G
, LRC
, and KAR
files.
with the options of panning/zooming
and slideshow
with "Ken Burns Effect
", with the use of CxImage open source library code. XBMC can also handle CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files, this feature lets users view/read, browse and zoom
the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first.
for Android devices, It also allows for browsing the media library, and allows for remote controlling
of an installed and concurrently-active XBMC session running on a computer via the Android's device touchscreen user interface.
Several third-party developers have also released multiple unofficial XBMC remote control apps for Android, Symbian
, Windows Mobile
, and Windows Phone
devices, as well Apple iOS devices such as iPad
, iPod Touch
, and iPhone
. Some of these remote control apps are made specifically for controlling XBMC, while some universal remote control apps are capable of controlling many different media center and media player applications, and some of these third-party remote apps cost money while others are free.
of XBMC to computer operating-systems and hardware platforms now exist. Through the processing power of modern computer hardware, XBMC is able to decode high-definition video
up to and beyond 1080p
resolutions, bypassing hardware limitations of the original Xbox version of XBMC.
However in the latest official release of XBMC there is hardware accelerated video decoding
for DXVA
, VDPAU
, VAAPI GPU hardware video decoding, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via ARM NEON, and OpenMAX
, Broadcom Crystal HD. The source code for XBMC is constantly updated on a daily basis by developers in a public subversion repository, this public subversion repository does therefore always contain more features and function than the most recent 'stable' releases.
/x86 and x86-64
based computers, no prerequisite of an operating-system since this is bundled with XBMC Live.
XBMC for BSD: Compatible with FreeBSD
and other similar BSD UNIX
derivatives like PC-BSD
, for IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
, and ARM-based computers.
XBMC for iOS: Compatible with Apple Inc's iDevice
s that uses Apple A4
or Apple A5
(ARM
-based processor) have a jailbroken iOS operating-system, these devices include the second-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. Apple TV 2), iPhone 4
, fourth-generation iPod Touch
, the iPad
and the iPad 2
.
XBMC for Linux: Compatible with IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
, and ARM-based computers or SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
with supported Linux operating-systems that has all the required hardware resources and software dependencies installed.
XBMC for Mac: Compatible with PowerPC, IA-32/x86 and x86-64 based Mac computers
running Mac OS X (Snow Leopard
, Leopard
or Tiger
), and the Apple TV.
XBMC for Windows: Compatible with Windows XP
, Windows Vista
, and Windows 7.
XBMC for Xbox: Compatible with the original first-generation Xbox game-console from Microsoft. The Xbox version is no longer a supported platform by Team-XBMC, it had its EOL on 27 May 2010, so see the XBMC4Xbox
fork instead.
-based Linux distribution
with XBMC for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center
software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. XBMC Live uses XBMC Media Center for all media playback and is implemented as a bootable Live CD
primarily designed for bare-metal installation
s to achieve instant on
type boot
, as well as for interactive demonstrations
.
As a Live CD, the system does not need to be permanently installed to a hard disk drive, as most operating system
s would. Instead, the computer can simply be booted with the XBMC Live CD when media playback is desired. This is a reasonable approach for those who do not need media playback services while performing other tasks with the same computer, or for users who wish to repurpose older computers as media center, and for those seeking a free alternative to Windows Media Center
, or for those who simply want to try out the XBMC Media Center software for the first time without having to install anything. The Microsoft MCE Remote and IR-receiver dongle for Windows Media Center
works with XBMC Live directly out of the box
, which mean that Windows Media Center users with these can try out the XBMC Live without requiring any additional hardware.
Following the principles of Mythbuntu
, KnoppMyth
, Mythdora
, and GeeXboX
, XBMC Live is also designed to simplify a permanent installation of XBMC Media Center onto a computer to be used as a dedicated HTPC (Home Theater PC)
in the living-room, as such the user can directly install XBMC Media Center from the bootable XBMC Live CD to either a USB flash drive
or to an internal hard disk drive as it comes with a complete instant on
(Linux based
) embedded operating system
. When installed onto a USB flash drive or internal hard disk drive, XBMC Live has the ability to save settings and make updates to XBMC Media Center and the operating-system back onto the USB flash drive or hard disk drive that it is installed onto. This is not possible when running XBMC Live off a CD-ROM as they are read-only and any changes to settings are only temporary meaning that they get reset back to defaults once the system is rebooted.
operating-systems. Compatible with FreeBSD
and other similar derivatives like PC-BSD
, for IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
, and ARM-based computers, including hardware accelerated video decoding via VDPAU
API on Nvidia's GPUs and VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon.
's that uses Apple A4
or Apple A5
(ARM-based) processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system. These iDevices include the second-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. Apple TV 2), iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, fourth-generation iPod Touch, iPad and the iPad 2.
operating-system). Third-party packages for most other Linux distributions are however available, and it is also possible to compile XBMC Media Center from scratch for any Linux distribution as long as the prerequired dependency libraries are installed first. XBMC for Linux is currently the only stable version of XBMC to support hardware accelerated video decoding, and this is achieved via the VDPAU
API on Nvidia's GPUs, and via the VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon, S3 Graphics
, and Intel's newer Integrated Graphics Processors, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via OpenMAX
, ARM NEON, Broadcom Crystal HD on systems with supporting hardware. Development version of XBMC for Linux is available at Launchpad
as PPA (Personal Package Archive)
for the standard Ubuntu Desktop version 8.04 and later, as well as DEB packages
for Debian
.
(Lion, Snow Leopard
, Leopard
, Tiger
), as well as on the Apple TV. 1080p playback can be achieved on Apple computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it is powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD.
1080p playback on the Apple TV (a.k.a. "ATV") can only be achieved by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD, the user must replace the ATV's internal WiFi adapter with a Broadcom Crystal HD PCI Express Mini (mini-PCIe) card in order to activate this functionality.
application but runs on 64-bit
Windows and hardware as well, however it is not yet optimized for that architecture so there is no performance gain when running on 64-bit Windows. 1080p playback can be achieved on Windows based computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it's powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding.
Hardware video decoding via DirectX Video Acceleration is now supported although this enhancement currently only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7 due to the author's currently using the DXVA 2.0 API which is not supported in Windows XP.
Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, an XBMC version for the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off
project "XBMC4Xbox
", who have completely taken over the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox.
XBMC for Xbox was never an authorized/signed Microsoft product, therefore a modification of the Xbox is required in order to run XBMC on an Xbox game-console. XBMC for Xbox can be run as an application
(like any Xbox game), or as a dashboard that appears directly when the Xbox is turned on. Since XBMC for Xbox was part of an open source
software program, its development source code
was stored on a publicly accessible subversion repository. Accordingly, unofficial executable
builds from the subversion repository are often released by third-parties on sites unaffiliated with the official XBMC project. It should be noted, however, that executable
builds from development versions typically contain bugs not present in the most recent 'stable' release versions of XBMC for Xbox.
s as possible, as "Powered by XBMC" branded devices and systems. With XBMC being pre-installed as a third-party software component
that commercial and non-commercial companies and ODM
/OEM
's can use royalty-free on their own hardware, hardware such as set-top box
es from cable-TV companies
, Blu-ray Disc
and DVD player
s, game-consoles
, or embedded computers
and SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
built-in to television set
s for web-enabled TVs, and other entertainment devices for the living room entertainment system, home cinema
, or similar uses.
Below is a list of third-party companies who sell hardware bundled with XBMC Media Center or XBMC Live pre-install, or sell uninstalled systems that specifically claim to be XBMC-compatible. Many of these third-party companies help submit bug fixes and new features back upstream to the original XBMC project.
based on Nvidia Ion
chipset, preinstalled Ubuntu
base with XBMC for Linux and a customized AEON skin and Spanish plugins. Other than the modified skin, what is unique with the AIRIS Telebision's XBMC build is that it comes with a digital distribution
service platform that they call their "App Store" which lets users download new Spanish plugins and updates for existing plugins. Telebision also lets users download a Live CD version of their software as freeware
, which lets users install their Telebision distribution on any Nvidia Ion based computer.
and XBMC software installed.
, and Hulu Desktop as applications that can be started from the main menu.
is an open Ubuntu-based set-top device and media extender designed to bring internet television and other video to the television, it comes pre-install with XBMC Media Center.
sells both custom and off the shelf hardware solutions primarily designed for XBMC, such as remote controls, HTPC systems and accessories, including a custom HTPC PVR set-top-box pre-installed with XBMC that they call "PulseBox" Pulse-Eight also offers free performance tuned embedded versions of XBMC that they call "Pulse" which is based on OpenELEC and a custom PVR-build of XBMC that is meant to on your dedicated HTPC system.
, and Firefox as applications that can be started from the main menu. The underlying operating-system is Gentoo Linux
, and CaptiveWorks is marketing the VeuBox as an open platform.
n company Unicorn Information Systems, is a nettop based on Nvidia Ion chipset which came be ordered with OpenELEC and XBMC software pre-installed.
that they call "ZOTAC Boost XL" with all their new motherboard
s and Mini-PCs, such as Zotac's "ZBOX" and "MAG" series of Nettops which Zotac also does demos of with XBMC. This "ZOTAC Boost XL" software bundle consist of the software applications; Auslogics BoostSpeed, Cooliris
, Kylo (HDTV-optimized Web Browser), and XBMC Media Center.
Zotac's "ZBOX" and "MAG" series of small Mini-PCs are all NVIDIA Ion based Nettop, and they are all sold in both as complete ready-to-use computer and as barebone computer
s (without memory and hard drive). Zotac Zbox ID33 and Zbox ID34 are specifically marketed towards the HTPC market, where Zbox ID33 is the barebone model and the Zbox ID34 comes with a slot-loading Blu-ray Disc
optical disc drive, 2 GB RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive with Windows 7 pre-installed, neither does however come with a remote control
.
have over the years become a popular software to fork
and use as an application framework platform
for others to base their own media center
software on, as if XBMC were a GUI toolkit, windowing system
, or window manager
. Today at least Boxee
, MediaPortal
, Plex
, 9x9 Player, and Voddler
are separate derivative products
that are all openly known to initially have forked
the GUI (Graphical User Interface)
and media player part of their software
from XBMC's source code. Most of these third-party forks and derivative work of XBMC is said to still assist with submitting bug fixes upstream and sometimes help getting new features backported
to the original XBMC project so that others can utilize it as well, shared from one main source.
During the period from late 2010 and first half of 2011 different independent third-party developers also announced their development on ports of XBMC to MeeGo
, OtherOS (for Cell microprocessor
), Broadcom
BCM2835 SoC based devices (like Raspberry Pi
), as well as to Networked Media Tank and other Sigma Designs
(MIPS architecture
) based SoC devices.
TV delivery network over internet. The frontend of this media player client uses XBMC's source code as its application framework platform, and 9x9Network as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
, (produced by startup company Boxee Inc.), is a freeware
and partially open source software cross-platform media center and entertainment hub with social networking features that is a commercial fork
of XBMC software. Boxee now supports Windows, Linux, and OSX, with the first Alpha made available on 16 June 2008. Boxee as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
/Live CD
based Linux distribution
providing a HTPC
software suite for personal computers and ARM-devices that since version 2.0 comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC media center as its media player and GUI.
features that is initially a fork
of XBMC and Boxee
software. The first public Alpha release will be as a Linux based
distribution, primarily designed to be installed on a computer's empty harddive to make a computer in to a dedicated HTPC, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box
hardware setup.
is free and open source software media center written for Microsoft Windows that is initially based on fork
ed XBMC source code by Erwin Beckers (a.k.a. Frodo, who was also one of the original founders of XBMC) in February 2004. The reason for this fork to Microsoft Windows was to get away from hardware limitations of the Xbox platform that XBMC development started on, mainly because of the Xbox inability to support TV-tuner adapters natively as Erwin wanted PVR functionality. Now after several years and innumerable feature changes there has been almost a complete re-design of the source code, however the skinning engine of MediaPortal 1.X.X still remains very similar to that of the original XBMC software making it relatively easy for people to port skins/themes back and forth between the two projects, something that is done quite frequently.
ed the source code of XBMC and started a new project called Plex, (previously this Mac OS X port of XBMC was informally known as the "OSXBMC" project). Feingold said that he would still try to collaborate with most Team-XBMC members behind the scenes and at least try to keep Plex skinning engine compatible with XBMC skins. While Plex began as a free software
hobby project
, since 2010 it is commercial software
(freeware
) that is today owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
, Plex, Inc., and today parts of what Plex offers is closed source proprietary software
for a cost.
Feingold was the Team-XBMC member who first initiated the Mac OS X port of XBMC, but soon after he left the original XBMC project due to what was arguably a falling-out with rest of Team-XBMC's developer members over the team's majorities feeling that the XBMC project should aim for strict adherence to the GPL
and always keep to an open-source software
mindset. This disagreement is claimed to be one of the main factors that led Elan to leave the XBMC project and create the Plex fork. Some Team-XBMC members are still quite vocal in the XBMC community forums about the fact that they still think that Plex developers continue to be on the border of violating the GPL and other open source licenses, not to mention that they often feel that Plex developers are violating the spirit and innate essence of open source software development
when they do so.
-powered DVB satellite
, terrestrial
digital television
receivers (set-top box
) that all currently uses Enigma2 for Dreambox
based software as firmware
.
In September 2011 Vu+ Day in Amsterdam it was announced that the next-generation Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 will be using XBMC Media Center software for its GUI
, a development project that they call "XBMC4STB" (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), with beta releases of both the software and hardware said to be made available to XBMC developers before then .
is a commercial video-on-demand service and client software streaming movies and television programming, similar to Spotify
and Grooveshark
but for video. From its first release at 1 July 2009 up until 24 February 2010, Voddler's media player software was initially based on a fork of the XBMC open source code. Voddler violated the license for XBMC's source code by neglecting to release all of their modifications that they used in their application as required per the GPL, and they have been publicly criticized for this.
Voddler
's newer media player software is since 8 March 2010 now instead based on the Adobe Air closed-source application platform.
and IT soutsourcing firm for hotels), ONEvision is a commercial fork of XBMC for use as hotel television system software in hotel environments and in the hospitality industry for in-room entertainment. It offers a platform for in-room service bookings and an IPTV
interface, with custom theme branding. ONEvision is currently used throughout Europe and Asia at hotels such as Hyatt EMEA
, Ramada Vienna
, RIMC International, DWA Bratanki, Rogner International, EH&A, Heritage Hotel Hallstatt, St. Martins Therme, and Heiltherme Bad Waltersdorf. , at-visions as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
providing a complete media center software suite that comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC and third-party addons with retro video game console emulator
s and PVR
plugins. OpenELEC is an extremely small and very fast booting Linux based
distribution, primarily designed to be booted from flash
memory card
such as CompactFlash
or a solid-state drive
, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box
hardware setup based on an Intel x86 processor and graphics.
is a free embedded operating system
designed for use on a Home Theater PC (HTPC) which is connected to a HDTV. Element OS is a Linux based
distribution similar to that of the XBMC Live distro, however it comes preloaded with dozens of applications for listening to, viewing, and managing music, videos, photos, and internet media. XBMC is the pre-installed default media center, but Boxee
and Hulu Desktop are also installable.
distribution that among other applications comes with a preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center.
-based Linux
(i386) distribution designed for Home Theater PC (HTPC) with TV tuner card
for DVR (Digital Video Recorder)
capabilities. yaVDR comes preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center from the "PVR" Subversion
development branch as its primary front-end media player interface, with VDR (Video Disk Recorder)
integrated as its PVR back-end server. It also features xine
as an alternative front-end media player interface to XBMC.
is a third-party developer spin-off
project of XBMC, with still active development and support of the Xbox platform. This project was created as a fork of XBMC as a separate project to continue having a version of XBMC for the Xbox hardware platform. It was not started by official members of the official XBMC project, nor will it be suppoted by the Official Team XBMC in any way. It started when support for the Xbox branch was officially dropped by Team XBMC, which was announced on 27 May 2010.
driven open-source software
project that is developed only by volunteers in their spare time without any monetary gain. The team of developers leading the development of XBMC, "Team-XBMC", encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches
for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs
to the XBMC project.
The online user manual
and is wiki
-based and community driven, and it also works as a basic developers guide for getting a good overview of XBMC's architecture, however to as with most non-profit software project, to delve deeper into programming, looking at the actual source code and the comments in that code is needed.
, XBMC partially uses SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer
) multimedia framework
and OpenGL
graphics rendering
under XBMC for Linux and Mac OS X, while XBMC for Windows based uses Microsoft DirectX
multimedia framework and Direct3D
rendering, as did the Xbox
version of XBMC. Some of XBMC's own libraries as well as many third-party libraries that XBMC depend on are also written in C programming-language
, but are then most of the time used with a C++ wrapper or loaded via XBMC's own DLL
loader.
Because of XBMC's origin with the constraints on the hardware and environment of the old Xbox platform, all software development of XBMC has always been focused on reserving the limited resources that existed on the Xbox hardware and an embedded system
, (which was only a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III and 64MB of RAM in total as shared memory
), the main hindrance of which has been the amount of available system RAM and graphics memory at any one time. Due to this it means that XBMC is programmed to be very resource efficient and can therefore run on very low-end and cheap hardware, especially when compared to other media center software design for HTPC use.
But because of its origins from the Xbox game-console, XBMC's graphics renderer
runs in a game-loop environment rather than using event-driven and on-demand rendering, meaning that it is constantly re-drawing the GUI even when nothing is changing on-screen. This results in very high CPU and high GPU usage, which can easily be observed on low-end machines, and hence high temperatures, fan activity and high power consumption. Work is however ongoing to make XBMC run using much less resources on embedded systems, which will indirectly benefit non-embedded systems as well.
, with its trunk (or mainline source code tree)
is today officially only available for IA-32
/x86, x86-64
, PowerPC
, and ARM
-based processor architecture platforms, and XBMC GUI requires a Direct3D
, OpenGL
, OpenGL ES
, EGL
, or DirectFB
with hardware accelerated graphics GPU
and device drivers that support DirectX
9, GLES 2.0, or OpenGL 1.3 or later with GLSL
in order to render
the GUI at an acceptable frame rate
to the human eye (which is 24 frames per second or faster). XBMC is thus officially not yet available for the MIPS
processor architecture, nor does it as of yet support DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure)
or DirectFB
rendering without OpenGL/GLES hardware accelerated graphics support, even though MIPS, DirectFB, and DRI is the most popular processor architecture and DRI rendering technologies used today by modern stand-alone digital media player
s, such as those based on Sigma Designs
and Realtek
chipsets. An XBMC port to MIPS processor architecture is however currently being worked on by the XBMC development team.
(currently based on Python version 2.4) and its own WindowXML application framework
, which together form an XML
-based widget toolkit
for which can extend the capability of XBMC by creating a GUI
for widgets in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget scripts allow non-developers to themselves create new add-ons
functionality to XBMC, (using the easy to learn Python
high-level
scripting language
), without knowledge of the complex C/C++ programming language
that the rest of the XBMC software is written in. Current plugin scripts add-ons include functions like Internet-TV
and movie-trailer browsers, cinema guides, and over-the-top content
video streaming services like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh
, and Internet-radio-station browsers (example Pandora Radio), and much more.
s) available to python scripts and addon plugins, XBMC features several other APIs for controlling XBMC remotely or from an external applications. These APIs includes a JSON-RPC
server, D-Bus
server, HTTP Web API (HTTPAPI), Web server
, UPnP AV media server (with UPnP MediaServer ControlPoint, UPnP MediaRenderer DCP, UPnP RenderingControl DCP, and UPnP Remote User Interface server), and a multi-protocol Event Server for remote controls.
for its GUI
, with its underlying complex graphical design and layout
library (named "libGUI" in XBMC) it provides a simple abstraction layer
between the application code and the interface, while allowing an extremely flexible dynamic layouts and animations that is easy to work with and make it possible to create completely unique skin
s for XBMC.
, using a standard XML
base, making theme
-skinning
and personal customization very accessible.
2006 Community Choice Awards. In the 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories. Also in the 2008 Community Choice Awards XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.
software. Xbox Media Player development stopped on 13 December 2003, by which time its successor, XBMC, was ready for its debut, renamed as it was growing out of its 'player' name and into a 'center' for media playback. The first stable release of XBMC was on 29 June 2004, with the official release of XboxMediaCenter 1.0.0. This announcement also encouraged everyone using XBMP or XBMC Beta release to update, as all support for those previous versions would be dropped, and they would only officially support version 1.0.0. Not featured in XBMP, the addition of embedded Python
was given the ability to draw interface elements in the GUI, and allowed user and community generated scripts to be executed within the XBMC environment.
With the release of 1.0.0 in the middle of 2004, work continued on the XBMC project to add more features, such as support for iTunes features like DAAP and Smart Playlists, as well as lots of improvements and fixes. The second stable release of XBMC, 1.1.0, was released on 18 October 2004. This release included support for more media types, file types, container formats, as well as video playback of Nullsoft streaming videos and karaoke support (CD-G).
After two years of heavy development, XBMC announced a stable point final release of XBMC 2.0.0 on 29 September 2006. Even more features were packed into the new version with the addition of RAR and zip archive support, a brand new player interface with support for multiple players. Such players include PAPlayer, the new audio/music player with crossfade, gapless playback and ReplayGain support, and the new DVDPlayer with support for menu and navigation support as well as ISO/img image parsing. Prior to this point release, XBMC just used a modified fork of MPlayer
for all of its media needs, so this was a big step forward. Support for iTunes 6.x DAAP, and Upnp Clients for streaming was also added. A reworked Skinning Engine was included in this release to provide a more powerful way to change the appearance of XBMC. The last two features include read-only support for FAT12/16/32 formatted USB Mass Storage devices, and a "skinnable" 3D visualizer.
The release of XBMC 2.0.1 on 12 November 2006 contained numerous fixes for bugs that made it through the 2.0.0 release. This also marked the change from CVS to SVN (Subversion) for the development tree.
On 29 May 2007, the team behind XBMC put out a call for developers interested in porting XBMC to the Linux operating system. Since a few developers on Team-XBMC had already begun porting parts of XBMC over to Linux using SDL and OpenGL as a replacement for DirectX, which XBMC was using heavily on the Xbox version of XBMC.
Development on the SVN codebase is continuing and the versioning scheme has been changed to reflect the release year and month, i.e. 8.10, 9.04, 9.11, 10.05, etc.
On 27 May 2010, the team behind XBMC announced the splitting of the Xbox branch into a new project; "XBMC4Xbox" which will continue the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox hardware platform as a separate project, with the original XBMC project no longer offering any support for the Xbox.
, which assists XBMC project and its developers legal matters such as copyright
, trademark, and branding questions, as well as economic issues such as handling donation
s and sponsors that help the project with expense
s for dedicated hosting service
, and activities such as going to trade fair
s and computer expo
s to tech demo
XBMC, meeting with potential new developers, gain publicity to attract additional users, and more.
for all its supported platforms is made publicly available by Team XBMC under the open source
GNU General Public License Version 2 license
. The group currently maintains a Git
repository for this source code.
Back when Team XBMC supported it, executable
versions of XBMC for Xbox could not be legally distributed. This is because XBMC for Xbox required Microsoft's Xbox Development Kit
in order to be compiled. The only publicly available executable
versions of XBMC for Xbox were compiled and distributed by third parties. This limitation was given as one of the reasons the group eventually dropped Xbox support from XBMC. XBMC binaries for all other platforms that XBMC supports (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and iOS) are legal to distribute by the XBMC project.
to support playing back DVD-Video
movies encrypted using the CSS (Content Scramble System)
encryption. Since it is not a member of DVD Forum
, the XBMC project is not contractually obliged to insert user operation prohibition
such as disallowing fast-forward or skipping during trailers and ads in DVD-Video
s. However, without membership in the DVD Forum, the project also cannot make XBMC play DVD-Video
's encrypted
with CSS (Content Scramble System) except by using the libdvdcss
library, which code was created by reverse-engineering. The legal status of libdvdcss is thus questionable in several nations, the distribution of executable
versions of XBMC containing which was built with this library is likely to run afoul of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
in the U.S. and the EU Copyright Directive in European Union
member countries which have incorporated it into national law. For example, many Linux distribution
s do not contain libdvdcss (for example Debian
, Fedora
, SUSE Linux, and Ubuntu
) due to fears of running afoul of DMCA-style laws, however they still often provide the tools to let the users install it themselves.
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
digital media hub and HTPC (Home theater PC)
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
with a 10-foot user interface
10-foot user interface
In computing a 10-foot user interface is a software GUI designed for display on a large television with interaction using a regular television-style remote control."10 foot" refers to the fact that the GUI's...
designed to be a media player for the living-room TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. Its graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
(GUI) allows the user to easily manage video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, local network, and the internet using a remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
. The XBMC project is managed by the non-profit technology consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
XBMC Foundation.
It is a popular alternative to Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
and Apple's Front Row for HTPC (Home Theater PC)
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
use. Similar to competing software like MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
and MythTV
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...
, it has a skinnable
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
as well as user-configurable interface and plugin support. The latest stable release of XBMC also have an integrated digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
platform 'app store' / 'app market' called "Addons Manager" that has a growing list of community driven addon plugins for online content like YouTube, Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, Grooveshark
Grooveshark
Grooveshark is an international online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music that can be played immediately or added to a playlist...
, Pandora Radio, as well and themes (skins)
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
and more available from a common official repository
Repository Open Service Interface Definition
-Summary:The Repository Open Service Interface Definition is an O.K.I. specification which defines the storing and retrieving of digital content, referred to as Assets...
, while still enabling third-party developers to also host their own unofficial repositories for addon plugins that any user can choose to add themselves if they like.
XBMC was originally created as a media center application for the first-generation Xbox game console but is now, since 2010, officially available as a native application for Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
(Snow Leopard
Mac OS X v10.6
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference...
, Leopard
Mac OS X v10.5
Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
, Tiger
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...
, iOS (iDevice
IDevice
iDevice in its widest sense, is an unofficial general term that can refer to any mobile electronic devices marketed by Apple Inc. that start with "i" or more specifically any mobile devices that use the iOS operating system, which includes:* iPad* iPhone...
s (must be jailbroken)), Apple TV), and Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
operating systems, running on most common processor architectures. Also available is a bootable Live CD
Live CD
A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
and Live USB
Live USB
A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Live USBs are closely related to live CDs, but sometimes have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device...
standalone version referred to as "XBMC Live" which is made for easy setup on bare-metal installation
Bare-metal restore
Bare-metal restore is a technique in the field of data recovery and restoration where the backed up data is available in a form which allows one to restore a computer system from "bare metal", i.e...
s and to be used for interactive demonstrations
Demo (marketing)
In marketing, an in-store demonstration is a promotion where samples of a product are distributed to customers within a store. The goal of an in-store demonstration is to introduce customers to the product in hopes of getting them to purchase that item...
.
In addition, as a leader in niche market
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...
of media center software, the source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
from XBMC is used as an open platform
Open Platform
In software and web-based architectures, an Open platform describes a software system which is based on open standards, such as published and fully documented external programming interfaces that allow using the software to function in other ways than the original programmer intended, without...
application framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
and technological convergence
Technological convergence
Technological convergence is the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Convergence can refer to previously separate technologies such as voice , data , and video that now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.The rise of...
platform for others projects to base their Smart TV
Smart TV
Smart TV, which is also sometimes referred to as "Connected TV" or "Hybrid TV", , is the phrase used to describe the current trend of integration of the internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and these...
entertainment system, set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
es, interactive television for hotels, or home media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software on for over-the-top content
Over-the-top content
In the fields of broadcasting and content delivery, over-the-top content means on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet service provider being involved in the control or distribution of the content itself...
use and more, and today at least Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
, Plex
Plexapp
Plex is a partially open-source freeware media player for Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. It has a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV...
, 9x9 Player, and Voddler
Voddler
Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand service and accompanying media player client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer distribution system...
are separate derivative products
Derivative work
In United States copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work .-Definition:...
that are all openly known to initially have forked
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
the GUI engine and media player core parts of their software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
from XBMC's source code. While still using their own brand and customized interface, a few like Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
and 9x9 Player, are also affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
their software/devices as "Designed for XBMC" and "Powered by XBMC" with official XBMC logo by certified approval from the XBMC Foundation and the Team-XBMC developers.
Overview
XBMC (which has officially been rebrandedRebranding
Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....
to simply "XBMC" from its previous old name; "Xbox Media Center") supports most common audio, video, and image formats, playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecasts reporting, and third-party plugins. It is network-capable (internet and LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
shares). Unlike proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
applications like Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, or other free-software media center applications such as MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
and MythTV
MythTV
MythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...
, XBMC Media Center does not yet include native Live TV or DVR/PVR recording functionality
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
, nor an EPG TV-Guide interface
Electronic program guide
Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...
of its own, it does however offer the possibility to integrate such functionality through third-party plugins and an official native unified DVR/PVR frontend with EPG which via a common API will support multiple backends via PVR client addons is under development, with experimental builds already available.
Through its plugin system, which is based on the Python programming language
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, XBMC is expandable via add-ons that include features such as television program guides, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh
Veoh
Veoh is an Internet television company based in San Diego, California. It allows users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material. The company is a subsidiary of Israeli start-up Qlipso....
, online movie trailer support, and Pandora Radio and Podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
streaming. XBMC also functions as a gaming platform by allowing users to play mini-games developed with Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
, on any operating system.
XBMC source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
is distributed as open source under GPL (GNU General Public License)
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, it is sponsored via the tax-exempt
Tax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
registered non-profit organization, XBMC Foundation, and is developed by a global free software community
Free software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
of volunteering
Volunteering
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...
people working on XBMC for free in their spare time without being motivated by financial or material gain.
Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, XBMC on the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off
Brand extension
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity...
project "XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console...
", who have completely taken over the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox. The ending of Xbox support by the original project is also the reason that it has officially been renamed to simply "XBMC" from the old from "Xbox Media Center" name. The Xbox version of XBMC also had the ability to launch console games, and homebrew
Homebrew (video games)
Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods...
applications such as emulators. Since the XBMC for Xbox version was never distributed, endorsed, or supported by Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, it means that XBMC for Xbox has always required a modchip
Modchip
A modchip is a small electronic device used to modify or disable built-in restrictions and limitations of computers, specifically videogame consoles...
or softmod exploit
Softmod
A softmod is a method of using software to modify the intended behaviour of hardware, such as video cards, sound cards, or game consoles in a way that can overcome restrictions of the firmware, or install custom firmware.-Video card softmods:...
to be able to run on the Xbox game-console.
Hardware requirements
XBMC has greater basic hardware requirements than traditional 2D style software applications: it needs a 3D3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
capable GPU graphics hardware controller for all rendering. Powerful 3D GPU chips are common today in most modern computers, and even some set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
es and XBMC is designed to otherwise be resource efficient. It runs well on what (by Intel Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
standards) are relatively underpowered OpenGL 1.3
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
(with GLSL
GLSL
OpenGL Shading Language , is a high-level shading language based on the syntax of the C programming language...
support), OpenGL ES 2.0
OpenGL ES
OpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL 3D graphics application programming interface designed for embedded systems such as mobile phones, PDAs, and video game consoles. OpenGL ES is managed by the not-for-profit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, Inc.- Versions :Several...
or Direct3D (DirectX) 9.0
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
capable systems that are IA-32
IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
/x86, x86-64
X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
, ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
, or PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
CPU based.
When software decoding of 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
is performed by the system CPU, a dual-core 2 GHz
GHZ
GHZ or GHz may refer to:# Gigahertz .# Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state — a quantum entanglement of three particles.# Galactic Habitable Zone — the region of a galaxy that is favorable to the formation of life....
or better CPU is required in order to allow for smooth playback without dropping frames
Film frame
In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a film frame or video frame is one of the many still images which compose the complete moving picture...
and giving playback a jerky appearance. XBMC can also offload most of the video decoding processor onto a GPU graphics hardware controller that supports one of the following types of hardware-accelerated video decoding: Nvidia's VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
(supported from XBMC version 9.04), Microsoft's DXVA
DXVA
DirectX Video Acceleration is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motion compensation and deinterlacing to be offloaded to the GPU...
, Apple's VDADecoder, Intel's VAAPI, OpenMAX
OpenMAX
OpenMAX is a royalty-free, cross-platform set of C-language programming interfaces that provides abstractions for routines especially useful for audio, video, and still images...
, and Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator. By taking advantage of such hardware-accelerated video decoding, XBMC can run well on most inexpensive, low-power systems which contain a modern GPU. However, Intel Core
Intel Core
Yonah was the code name for Intel's first generation of 65 nm process mobile microprocessors, based on the Banias/Dothan-core Pentium M microarchitecture. SIMD performance has been improved through the addition of SSE3 instructions and improvements to SSE and SSE2 implementations, while integer...
CPUs with integrated-GPU (or APU
Accelerated processing unit
An accelerated processing unit is a processing system that includes additional processing capability designed to accelerate one or more types of computations outside of a CPU. This may include a graphics processing unit used for general-purpose computing , a field-programmable gate array , or...
s) are not properly supported yet.
Language support
XBMC includes full support for many different languages by default. XBMC's structure is such that if the language is not available, or not up-to-date, it can be made by editing simple stringsString (computer science)
In formal languages, which are used in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science, a string is a finite sequence of symbols that are chosen from a set or alphabet....
in an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-file, which can then be submitted to XBMC's project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
and bug tracking system
Bug tracking system
A bug tracking system is a software application that is designed to help quality assurance and programmers keep track of reported software bugs in their work. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system....
tool for use by others. Currently the existing supported languages are Afrikaans
Afrikaans
Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...
, Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
, Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese is a group of Portuguese dialects written and spoken by most of the 190 million inhabitants of Brazil and by a few million Brazilian emigrants, mainly in the United States, United Kingdom, Portugal, Canada, Japan and Paraguay....
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, Czech
Czech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, English, American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
, Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
, French, German, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Hebrew, Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, Icelandic
Icelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
, Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, Italian, Japanese, Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...
, Maltese
Maltese language
Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic...
, Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, Russian, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
, Slovak
Slovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
, Slovenian, Spanish, Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
, Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
, Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
and Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
.
XBMC's Addons Manager and addons
XBMC features several open APIsApplication programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
to enable third-party developers to create capabilities which extend XBMC with a multitude of addons, such as plugins, scripts, skins/themes, visualizations, screensavers, web scrapers, web interfaces, and more. XBMC developers encourages users to make and submit their own addons to add additional media content and value-added service
Value-added service
A value-added service is popular as a telecommunications industry term for non-core services, or in short, all services beyond standard voice calls and fax transmissions. However, it can be used in any service industry, for services available at little or no cost, to promote their primary business...
s accessible from within XBMC.
XBMC's latest point-release, (codename: "Dharma"), features a new Addons Framework architecture and Addons Manager GUI client that connects to a decentralized digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
service platform
Platform (computing)
A computing platform includes some sort of hardware architecture and a software framework , where the combination allows software, particularly application software, to run...
that serves add-on apps and plug-ins which among other things provide online content to XBMC, the "Addons Manager" (or "Addons Browser") inside XBMC allows users to browse and download new addons directly from XBMC's GUI.
Many of these online content sources are in over-the-top content
Over-the-top content
In the fields of broadcasting and content delivery, over-the-top content means on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet service provider being involved in the control or distribution of the content itself...
high definition services and use video streaming sites, such as Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
based content. XBMC has extensibility and integration with online sources for both free and premium streaming content, and offers content from everything from commercial video, to free educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
Plugins and scripts (apps/gadgets/widgets)
XBMC features a Python Scripts EnginePython (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
for addon extensions, WindowXML application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
(a XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based widget toolkit
Widget toolkit
In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...
for creating a GUI for apps / widgets
Widget (computing)
In computer programming, a widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given...
) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets are lightweight single-purpose applications, or software widgets, that can sit on a Microsoft Windows user's computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page...
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget
Widget (computing)
In computer programming, a widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given...
scripts allow normal users to add new functionality to XBMC themselves, using Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
scripting language
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
. Current plugin scripts include functions like Internet-TV
Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
and movie-trailer
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
browsers, weather forecast
Weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
and cinemaguides, Over-the-top content
Over-the-top content
In the fields of broadcasting and content delivery, over-the-top content means on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet service provider being involved in the control or distribution of the content itself...
video streaming services like YouTube, BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
, Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, Veoh
Veoh
Veoh is an Internet television company based in San Diego, California. It allows users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material. The company is a subsidiary of Israeli start-up Qlipso....
, MLB.tv, Internet-radio-station browsers (example Pandora Radio, Xm radio, Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
), online picture sharing sites like Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
, TV-guides (EPG)
Electronic program guide
Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...
, e-mail clients, instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
, train-timetables, home automation
Home automation
Home automation is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC , appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and...
scripts to front-end
Front-end and back-end
Front end and back end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back end can use...
control PVR software and hardware (like: MediaPortal, MythTV, TiVo
TiVo
TiVo is a digital video recorder developed and marketed by TiVo, Inc. and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose features include "Season Pass" schedules which record every new episode of a series, and "WishList"...
, ReplayTV
ReplayTV
ReplayTV is a brand of digital video recorder , a term synonymous with personal video recorder . It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage for later viewing...
, Dreambox
Dreambox
The Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers , produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.- History and Description :...
/DBox2
DBox2
The DBox is a DVB satellite and cable digital television integrated receiver decoder . They were distributed widely for use with Pay television channels. The DBox-1 was the first DVB-capable receiver to be produced and distributed in large quantity. It was commissioned by the Kirch group's DF1, an...
), P2P
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
file-sharing downloaders (BitTorrent), IRC, also casual games (sometimes also referred to as mini-games
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
or party-games
Party game
Party games are games that some people play as forms of entertainment at social gatherings. Party games usually involve more than one player. There are a large number and styles of party games available and the one selected will depend on the atmosphere that is sought to be generated...
) such as Tetris
Tetris
Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
, Snake
Snake (video game)
Snake is a video game that originated during the late 1970s in arcades and has maintained popularity since then, becoming something of a classic...
, Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
, Sudoku
Sudoku
is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid contains all of the digits from 1 to 9...
, and much more.
Skins (themes)
Same as the majority of most applications that originated from a 'homebrewHomebrew (video games)
Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods...
' scene, is skin
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
-ability in the tradition of modifications and customization very popular among XBMC users. "Confluence" and "Project Mayhem" are the two official skin
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
s; "Confluence" is the default since version 9.11, and "Project Mayhem" was the previous default which is now in its third version, commonly known as "PM3.HD" (PM III High-Definition).
Users can also create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites that are used for XBMC skins trading and development. Many such third-party skins exist that are well maintained by the community, and while some skins are originals with unique designs, most initially begin as a clones or an exact replica
Replica
A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...
of other multimedia software interfaces, such as DivX Connected, Apple Front Row, Windows Media Center Edition (MCE)
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition is a version of the Windows XP operating system designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. The last version, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, was released in October 2004.-Versions:...
, MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
, Meedio
Meedio
Meedio is a company that made a media center software with the same name, and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2006. The new software is named ....
/MeediOS, HDeeTV, Kaleidescape
Kaleidescape
Kaleidescape, Inc. is a Sunnyvale, California-based private company, founded in 2001, which designs multi-room home entertainment server systems that store and stream video and audio content to "player" appliances connected to televisions. The company began marketing its products in 2003...
, Wii Channel Menu (Xii), Xbox 360 Blades (MC360), Xbox 360 New Xbox Experience (Xperience), and others.
Scrapers (web scraping for metadata)
XBMC has the built-in optional function to automatically download metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
information, cover art
Cover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
and other related media artwork online through its scrapers
Web scraping
Web scraping is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites...
.
Scrapers use sites like themoviedb.org or imdb.com to obtain thumbnails and reviews on movies, thetvdb.com for TV show posters and episode plots, CDDB
CDDB
CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database, is a database for software applications to look up audio CD information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a unique disc ID and then queries the database. As a result, the client is able to display the artist name, CD title,...
(via freedb
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
and Discogs
Discogs
Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
, etc.) for audio CD track listings, and AMG for album thumbnails.
Web Interfaces
Web Interface addons for XBMC normally allow browsing a media library remotely, to handle music playlists from a computer instead of television. Others allow remotely controlling the navigation of XBMC like a remote for remote controllingTouchscreen remote control
A touchscreen remote control is a handheld remote control device which uses a touchscreen user interface to replace most of the hard, built-in physical buttons used in normal remote control devices...
of an installed and concurrently-active XBMC session running on a computer if it runs on an internet tablet or similar device with a touch interface. And yet other still acts like a media manager to allow modifying metadata and artwork in XBMC's video and music libraries.
Application launcher
XBMC has a "My Programs" section which is meant to function as an application launcher for third-party softwareApplication software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
such as computer games and video game emulators, all from a nice GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
with thumbnail
Thumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
and different listings options. However while this feature is fully functioning on the Xbox version of XBMC, it is still in its infant stage on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, thus currently requiring third-party launcher plugins to function properly.
Audio, video, and pictures playback and handling
XBMC can play media from CD/DVD media using an internal DVD-ROM drive. It can also play media from an internal built-in hard disk driveHard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
and SMB/SAMBA/CIFS
Server Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
shares (Windows File-Sharing), or stream them over ReplayTV
ReplayTV
ReplayTV is a brand of digital video recorder , a term synonymous with personal video recorder . It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage for later viewing...
DVRs/PVRs
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
, UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
Universal Plug and Play
Universal Plug and Play is a set of networking protocols for primarily residential networks without enterprise class devices that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence...
shares, or stream iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
-shares via DAAP
Digital Audio Access Protocol
The Digital Audio Access Protocol is the proprietary protocol introduced by Apple in its iTunes software to share media across a local network....
. XBMC can also take advantage of a broadband Internet connection if available to stream Internet-video-streams like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and Veoh
Veoh
Veoh is an Internet television company based in San Diego, California. It allows users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material. The company is a subsidiary of Israeli start-up Qlipso....
, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as Pandora Radio). XBMC also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
and Libre.fm
Libre.fm
Libre.fm is a music community website that aims to provide a Free Software replacement for last.fm. The website was founded in 2009 by Matt Lee. It is under active development....
plus a weather-forecast (via weather.com). It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
function and many audio-visualizations
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
and screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
s. XBMC can in addition upscale/upconvert all standard-definition (480i/480p/576i/576p) resolution videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p high-definition resolutions.
Format support
XBMC can be used to play/view all common multimediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
formats through its native clients and parsers. It can decode these audio and video formats in software or hardware, and optionally pass-through AC3
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
/DTS audio, or encode to AC3 in real time from movies directly to S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
digital output to an external audio-amplifier
Audio amplifier
An audio amplifier is an electronic amplifier that amplifies low-power audio signals to a level suitable for driving loudspeakers and is the final stage in a typical audio playback chain.The preceding stages in such a chain are low power audio amplifiers which perform tasks like pre-amplification,...
/receiver for decoding.
- Supported formats:
-
- Physical digital mediaData storage devicethumb|200px|right|A reel-to-reel tape recorder .The magnetic tape is a data storage medium. The recorder is data storage equipment using a portable medium to store the data....
: Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
(unencrypted), CDs, DVDs, DVD-VideoDVD-VideoDVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
, Video CDVideo CDBefore the advent of DVD and Blu-ray, the Video CD became the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm optical discs. The format is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc...
s (including VCD/SVCD/XVCD), Audio-CD (CDDA), USB Flash DriveUSB flash driveA flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
s, and local Hard Disk Drives - Network protocol clientsCommunications protocolA communications protocol is a system of digital message formats and rules for exchanging those messages in or between computing systems and in telecommunications...
: AirPlay/AirTunesAirPlayAirPlay is a proprietary protocol stack/suite developed by Apple Inc. that allows wireless streaming of audio, video, and photos, together with related metadata between devices...
, UPnP, SMB/SAMBA/CIFSServer Message BlockIn computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
, AFPApple Filing ProtocolThe Apple Filing Protocol is a network protocol that offers file services for Mac OS X and original Mac OS. In Mac OS X, AFP is one of several file services supported including Server Message Block , Network File System , File Transfer Protocol , and WebDAV...
, DAAPDigital Audio Access ProtocolThe Digital Audio Access Protocol is the proprietary protocol introduced by Apple in its iTunes software to share media across a local network....
, Zeroconf/AvahiAvahi (software)Avahi is a free zeroconf implementation, including a system for multicast DNS/DNS-SD service discovery. It is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License ....
/BonjourBonjour (software)In computing, Bonjour is Apple Inc.'s trade name for its implementation of Zeroconf, a group of technologies that includes service discovery, address assignment, and name resolution...
, NFS, HTTP, HTTPSHttpsHypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with SSL/TLS protocol to provide encrypted communication and secure identification of a network web server...
, FTP, RTSPReal Time Streaming ProtocolThe Real Time Streaming Protocol is a network control protocol designed for use in entertainment and communications systems to control streaming media servers. The protocol is used for establishing and controlling media sessions between end points...
(RTSPU, RTSPT), MMSMicrosoft Media ServicesMicrosoft Media Server is the name of Microsoft's proprietary network streaming protocol used to transfer unicast data in Windows Media Services . MMS can be transported via UDP or TCP...
(MMSU, MMST), PodcastingPodcastingA podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
, TCPTransmission Control ProtocolThe Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
, UDPUser Datagram ProtocolThe User Datagram Protocol is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. With UDP, computer applications can send messages, in this case referred to as datagrams, to other hosts on an Internet Protocol network without requiring...
, SFTPSSH file transfer protocolIn computing, the SSH File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management functionality over any reliable data stream...
, RTPReal-time Transport ProtocolThe Real-time Transport Protocol defines a standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over IP networks. RTP is used extensively in communication and entertainment systems that involve streaming media, such as telephony, video teleconference applications, television services and...
and RTMPReal Time Messaging ProtocolReal Time Messaging Protocol was initially a proprietary protocol developed by Macromedia for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and a server...
(including RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE, RTMPS), DHCP, NTPNetwork Time ProtocolThe Network Time Protocol is a protocol and software implementation for synchronizing the clocks of computer systems over packet-switched, variable-latency data networks. Originally designed by David L... - Network protocol servers: JSON-RPCJSON-RPCJSON-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol encoded in JSON. It is a very simple protocol , defining only a handful of data types and commands...
server, D-BusD-BusIn computing, D-Bus is a simple inter-process communication open-source system for software applications to communicate with one another. Heavily influenced by KDE2–3's DCOP system, D-Bus has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release. An implementation of D-Bus supports most POSIX operating...
server, Web serverWeb serverWeb server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
, FTP Server, and UPnP AV media server, and a multi-protocol Event Server - Container formats: AVIAudio Video InterleaveAudio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
, MPEGMoving Picture Experts GroupThe Moving Picture Experts Group is a working group of experts that was formed by ISO and IEC to set standards for audio and video compression and transmission. It was established in 1988 by the initiative of Hiroshi Yasuda and Leonardo Chiariglione, who has been from the beginning the Chairman...
, WMVWindows Media Video'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
, ASFAdvanced Systems FormatAdvanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media...
, FLV, MKV/MKA (Matroska)MatroskaThe Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks in one file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows...
, QuickTimeQuickTime File FormatQuickTime File Format is a computer file format used natively by the QuickTime framework.- Design :The format specifies a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text...
, MP4MPEG-4 Part 14MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images...
, M4A, AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, NUT, OggOggOgg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, OGM, RealMediaRealMediaRealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. Its extension is ".rm". It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio and is used for streaming content over the Internet....
RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, 3gp3GP3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones....
, VIVO, PVA, NUV, NSVNullsoft Streaming VideoNullsoft Streaming Video is a media container designed for streaming video content over the internet. NSV was developed by Nullsoft, the makers of Winamp....
, NSA, FLIAutodeskAutodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, FLCAutodeskAutodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, DVR-MSDVR-MSDVR-MS is a proprietary video and audio file container format, developed by Microsoft used for storing TV content recorded by Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista and Windows 7....
and WTV - Video formats: MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
, MPEG-2MPEG-2MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
, H.263H.263H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
, MPEG-4 SP and ASP, MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
(H.264), HuffYUVHuffyuvHuffyuv is a lossless video codec created by Ben Rudiak-Gould which is meant to replace uncompressed YCbCr as a video capture format.Despite the "YUV" in the name, it does not compress the YUV color space, but YCbCr...
, IndeoIndeoIndeo Video is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. It was sold to Ligos Corporation in 2000. While its original version was related to Intel's DVI video stream format, a hardware-only codec for the compression of television-quality video onto compact disks, Indeo was distinguished by being...
, MJPEG, RealVideoRealVideoRealVideo is a suite of proprietary video compression formats developed by RealNetworks – the specific format changes with the version. It was first released in 1997 and is at version 10. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile...
, RMVBRMVBRealMedia Variable Bitrate is a variable bitrate extension of the RealMedia multimedia container format developed by RealNetworks....
, SorensonSorenson codecSorenson codec may refer to either of three proprietary video codecs: Sorenson Video, Sorenson Video 3 or Sorenson Spark. Sorenson Video is also known as Sorenson Video Codec, Sorenson Video Quantizer or SVQ...
, WMVWindows Media Video'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
, CinepakCinepakCinepak is a video codec developed by Peter Barrett at SuperMac Technologies, and released in 1991 with the Video Spigot, and then in 1992 as part of Apple Computer's QuickTime video suite. It was designed to encode 320x240 resolution video at 1x CD-ROM transfer rates. The codec was ported to the...
. - Audio formatAudio formatAn audio format is a medium for storing sound and music. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio content – in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its wider use usually refers to the physical method used to...
s: MIDI, AIFF, WAV/WAVEWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, AIFFAIFFAudio Interchange File Format is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices...
, MP2MPEG-1 Audio Layer IIMPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III...
, MP3, AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, AACplus (AAC+)HE-AACHigh-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding is a lossy data compression scheme for digital audio defined as a MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio...
, VorbisVorbisVorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, AC3Dolby DigitalDolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
, DTS, ALACApple LosslessApple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...
, AMRAdaptive Multi-RateThe Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec is a patented audio data compression scheme optimized for speech coding. AMR was adopted as the standard speech codec by 3GPP in October 1999 and is now widely used in GSM and UMTS...
, FLAC, Monkey's AudioMonkey's AudioMonkey's Audio is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey's Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis and Musepack....
(APE), RealAudioRealAudioRealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
, SHNShortenShorten is a file format used for compressing audio data. It is a form of data compression of files and is used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files . Shorten is no longer developed and more recent lossless audio codecs such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio , TTA, and WavPack have become more...
, WavPackWavPackWavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant.-Features:WavPack compression can compress 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating point audio files in the .WAV file format. It also supports surround sound streams and high frequency...
, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+MusepackMusepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s...
, ShortenShortenShorten is a file format used for compressing audio data. It is a form of data compression of files and is used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files . Shorten is no longer developed and more recent lossless audio codecs such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio , TTA, and WavPack have become more...
, SpeexSpeexSpeex is a patent-free audio compression format designed for speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm. Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions and is licensed under the revised BSD...
, WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, ITImpulse TrackerImpulse Tracker is a multi-track digital sound tracker . It was one of the last tracker programs for the DOS platform. It was authored by Jeffrey "Pulse" Lim, and example music was provided by Jeffrey Lim and Chris Jarvis...
, S3M, MODMOD (file format)MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”...
(Amiga Module), XMXM (file format)XM, standing for "extended module", is an audio file type introduced by Triton's Fast Tracker 2. XM introduced multisampling-capable instruments with volume and panning envelopes, and basic pattern compression...
, NSF (NES Sound FormatNES Sound FormatNSF is the DOS 8.3 filename Filename extension of the audio file format originally designated as NESM by the inventor Kevin Horton. This format was originally designed for playback in a custom hardware device named HardNES by the inventor...
), SPCSPC700 sound formatAn SPC700 sound file is a video game music file consisting of scores and music data from RAM used by the SPC700 sound chip on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System or Super Famicom...
(SNESSuper Nintendo Entertainment SystemThe Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
), GYM (Genesis), SIDMOS Technology SIDThe MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID is the built-in Programmable Sound Generator chip of Commodore's CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore MAX Machine home computers...
(Commodore 64Commodore 64The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
), AdlibAdLibAd Lib, Inc. was a manufacturer of sound cards and other computer equipment founded by Martin Prevel, a former professor of music and vice-dean of the music department at the Université Laval...
, YM (Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
), ADPCM (Nintendo GameCubeNintendo GameCubeThe , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
), and CDDA. - Digital picture/image formatsDigital cameraA digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
: RAW image formats, BMP, JPEGJPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, GIF, PNG, TIFFTagged Image File FormatTIFF is a file format for storing images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and both amateur and professional photographers in general. As of 2009, it is under the control of Adobe Systems...
, MNG, ICOICO (icon image file format)The ICO file format is an image file format for computer icons in Microsoft Windows. ICO files contain one or more small images at multiple sizes and color depths, such that they may be scaled appropriately...
, PCXPCXPCX is an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, although it has since been succeeded by more sophisticated image formats, such as GIF,...
and Targa/TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display... - Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSASubStation AlphaSubStation Alpha , abbreviated SSA, is a subtitle file format created by CS Low that allows for more advanced subtitles than the conventional SRT and similar formats. This format can be rendered with VSFilter in conjunction with a DirectShow-aware video player , or MPlayer with the SSA/ASS library...
, CCClosed captioningClosed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
, JACOsub, MicroDVDMicroDVDMicroDVD is a subtitle file format for digital video. Its name is derived from a media player application designed to play DVD videos along with subtitles, originally developed by Tiamat Software. The application was first released in 2000 but development ended in 2001...
, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMISAMISAMI is a Microsoft accessibility initiative released in 1998. The structured markup language is designed to simplify creating captions for media playback on a PC, i.e. not for broadcast purposes....
, SRTSubRipSubRip is a software program for Windows which "rips" subtitles and their timings from video. It is free software, released under the GNU GPL...
, SUBSubViewerSubViewer is a utility for adding and synchronizing subtitles to video content. It was created by David Dolinski in 1999, and offered for download on his personal website, . A friend of David Dolinski created, at the same time, software to extract subtitles from DVD named SubRip.SubViewer became...
, VOBsubVSFilterDirectVobSub formerly known as VSFilter is a software add-on for Microsoft Windows that is able to read external subtitle files and superimposes them on a playing video file....
, VPlayer - Metadata tagsTag (metadata)In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
: APEv1, APEv2APEv2 tagAn APE tag is a tag used to add metadata, such as the title, artist, or track number, to digital audio files.- APEv1 :The APEv1 tag was designed for the Monkey's Audio format....
, ID3ID3ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
(ID3ID3ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
v1 and ID3v2), ID666 and Vorbis commentVorbis commentA Vorbis comment is a metadata container used in the Vorbis, FLAC, Theora and Speex file formats. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number or other information about the file to be added to the file itself. However, as the official Ogg Vorbis documentation notes:- Format...
s for audio file formatAudio file formatAn audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. This data can be stored uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size. It can be a raw bitstream, but it is usually a container format or an audio data format with defined storage layer.-Types of...
s, Exif and IPTCIPTC Information Interchange ModelThe Information Interchange Model is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types...
(including GeoTaggingGeoTaggingGeotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata...
) for image file formats
- Physical digital media
-
Video Library
The Video Library, one of the XBMC metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
databases, is a key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of video content by information associated with the video files (e.g. movies and recorded TV Shows) themselves. This information can be obtained in various ways, like through scrapers (i.e. web scraping
Web scraping
Web scraping is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites...
sites like IMDb, TheMovieDB, TheTVDB, etc.), and nfo
.nfo
.nfo is a commonly used three-letter filename extension of ASCII or extended ASCII text files that accompany other files and contain information about them. Such NFO files can be viewed with text editors or dedicated NFO viewers...
files. Automatically downloading and displaying movie posters and fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
backdrops as background wallpapers. The Library Mode view allows users to browse their video content by categories; Genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.
Video player cores
XBMC uses two different multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
video player 'cores' for video-playback. The first video-player 'core' for video-playback is an in-house developed cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
media player, "DVDPlayer", originally designed to play back DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
movies, and this includes support native for DVD-menus, (based on the free open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
libraries code libdvdcss
Libdvdcss
libdvdcss is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System...
and libdvdnav). This FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
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
ISO image
An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...
DVD-images or DVD-Video (IFO
IFO
IFO is a type of DVD-Video file that stores information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks.An IFO file is one of three types of files that are used on DVDs. It contains important navigational information, such as where a video chapter begins, and where audio and subtitle streams exist...
/VOB
VOB
A VOB file is a container format in DVD-Video media. VOB can contain video, audio, subtitle, menu and navigation contents multiplexed together into a stream form. VOB is based on the MPEG program stream format, but with additional limitations and specifications in the private streams...
/BUP
BUP
A BUP file is a backup of the IFO file on a DVD, which contains the information about the organization of tracks, menus, chapters, subtitles on the disc. BUP files are used in the event that the corresponding IFO file is unreadable, perhaps due to a scratch on the surface of the disc.Other DVD...
) images (even directly from uncompressed RAR and ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
archives), from either local harddrive storage or network-share storage.
The second video-player 'core' for video-playback in XBMC is another in-house developed open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
player, "DSPlayer", which today is only used as an experimental video player in a Git
Git (software)
Git is a distributed revision control system with an emphasis on speed. Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on...
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
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
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.
Music Library
The Music Library, one of the XBMC metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
databases, is another key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of a music collection to allow searching, and creating smart playlists by information stored in music file ID meta tags
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
, like title, artist, album, production year, genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, and popularity. Automatically downloading and displaying album covers and fan art
Fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork that is based on a character, costume, collage, item, or story that was created by someone other than the artist, such as a fan, from which the word is derived from. The term, while it can apply to art done by fans of characters from books, is usually used to refer to...
backdrops as background wallpapers.
Audio player cores
For music playback, XBMC includes its own in-house developed audio-player, "PAPlayer" (which stands for "Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player"), and this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly resampling
Resampling (audio)
Resampling is synonymous with several processes commonly used in manipulating audio, through which a segment of sampled audio is manipulated before being stored back to a sampled format....
of the audio frequency, gapless playback
Gapless playback
Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks without intervening silence or clicks at the point of the track change. Gapless playback is common with compact discs, gramophone records, or tapes, but is not always available with other formats that employ compressed...
, crossfading
Fade (audio engineering)
In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
Chapter support.
The "PAPlayer" audio-player handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports most different tagging standards. XBMC also have support for most popular karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
computer file formats, and is able to play and display timed song lyrics graphics/text from CD+G
CD+G
CD+G is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device...
, LRC
LRC (file format)
LRC is a computer file format that synchronizes song lyrics with an audio file, such as MP3, Vorbis or MIDI. When an audio file is played with certain music players on a computer or on modern digital audio players, the song lyrics are displayed. The lyrics file generally has the same name as the...
, and KAR
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
files.
Digital picture/image display in detail
XBMC handles all common digital picture/image formatsDigital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
with the options of panning/zooming
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
and slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
with "Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
", with the use of CxImage open source library code. XBMC can also handle CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files, this feature lets users view/read, browse and zoom
Digital zoom
Digital zoom is a method of decreasing the apparent angle of view of a digital photographic or video image. Digital zoom is accomplished by cropping an image down to a centered area with the same aspect ratio as the original, and usually also interpolating the result back up to the pixel...
the pictures of comics pages these contain without uncompressing them first.
Mobile remote control software associated with XBMC
XBMC Remote for Android is a free and open source official app released by Team-XBMC on the Android MarketAndroid Market
Android Market is an online software store developed by Google for Android OS devices. Its gateway is an application program called "Market", preinstalled on most Android devices, allows users to browse and download mobile apps published by third-party developers...
for Android devices, It also allows for browsing the media library, and allows for remote controlling
Touchscreen remote control
A touchscreen remote control is a handheld remote control device which uses a touchscreen user interface to replace most of the hard, built-in physical buttons used in normal remote control devices...
of an installed and concurrently-active XBMC session running on a computer via the Android's device touchscreen user interface.
Several third-party developers have also released multiple unofficial XBMC remote control apps for Android, Symbian
Symbian
Symbian is a mobile operating system and computing platform designed for smartphones and currently maintained by Accenture. The Symbian platform is the successor to Symbian OS and Nokia Series 60; unlike Symbian OS, which needed an additional user interface system, Symbian includes a user...
, Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
, and Windows Phone
Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
devices, as well Apple iOS devices such as iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, and iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
. Some of these remote control apps are made specifically for controlling XBMC, while some universal remote control apps are capable of controlling many different media center and media player applications, and some of these third-party remote apps cost money while others are free.
Official Team-XBMC ports of XBMC
Due to the dated hardware of the Xbox and a desire to expand the project's end-user and developer-base many official portsPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
of XBMC to computer operating-systems and hardware platforms now exist. Through the processing power of modern computer hardware, XBMC is able to decode high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
up to and beyond 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
resolutions, bypassing hardware limitations of the original Xbox version of XBMC.
However in the latest official release of XBMC there is hardware accelerated video decoding
Video Acceleration API
Video Acceleration API is an open source software library and API specification. It enables and provides access to graphics hardware acceleration for video processing. VA API is targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
for DXVA
DXVA
DirectX Video Acceleration is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motion compensation and deinterlacing to be offloaded to the GPU...
, VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
, VAAPI GPU hardware video decoding, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via ARM NEON, and OpenMAX
OpenMAX
OpenMAX is a royalty-free, cross-platform set of C-language programming interfaces that provides abstractions for routines especially useful for audio, video, and still images...
, Broadcom Crystal HD. The source code for XBMC is constantly updated on a daily basis by developers in a public subversion repository, this public subversion repository does therefore always contain more features and function than the most recent 'stable' releases.
XBMC platforms
XBMC Live: Compatible with IA-32IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
/x86 and x86-64
X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
based computers, no prerequisite of an operating-system since this is bundled with XBMC Live.
XBMC for BSD: Compatible with FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and other similar BSD UNIX
Berkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
derivatives like PC-BSD
PC-BSD
PC-BSD is a Unix-like, desktop-oriented operating system based on FreeBSD. It aims to be easy to install by using a graphical installation program, and easy and ready-to-use immediately by providing KDE SC as the pre-installed graphical user interface. PC-BSD provides official binary nVidia and...
, for IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, and ARM-based computers.
XBMC for iOS: Compatible with Apple Inc's iDevice
IDevice
iDevice in its widest sense, is an unofficial general term that can refer to any mobile electronic devices marketed by Apple Inc. that start with "i" or more specifically any mobile devices that use the iOS operating system, which includes:* iPad* iPhone...
s that uses Apple A4
Apple A4
The Apple A4 is a package on package system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. It combines an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU with a PowerVR GPU, and emphasizes power efficiency. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad tablet; followed shortly by the iPhone 4...
or Apple A5
Apple A5
The Apple A5 is a package on package system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung to replace the Apple A4. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad 2 tablet, and also powers the iPhone 4S...
(ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
-based processor) have a jailbroken iOS operating-system, these devices include the second-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. Apple TV 2), iPhone 4
IPhone 4
The iPhone 4 is a touchscreen slate smartphone developed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation iPhone, and successor to the iPhone 3GS. It is particularly marketed for video calling , consumption of media such as books and periodicals, movies, music, and games, and for general web and e-mail...
, fourth-generation iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
, the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
and the iPad 2
IPad 2
The iPad 2 is the second and current generation of the iPad, a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, presentations and web content, and is available in black or white...
.
XBMC for Linux: Compatible with IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, and ARM-based computers or SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
with supported Linux operating-systems that has all the required hardware resources and software dependencies installed.
XBMC for Mac: Compatible with PowerPC, IA-32/x86 and x86-64 based Mac computers
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
running Mac OS X (Snow Leopard
Mac OS X v10.6
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference...
, Leopard
Mac OS X v10.5
Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
or Tiger
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...
), and the Apple TV.
XBMC for Windows: Compatible with Windows XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
, and Windows 7.
XBMC for Xbox: Compatible with the original first-generation Xbox game-console from Microsoft. The Xbox version is no longer a supported platform by Team-XBMC, it had its EOL on 27 May 2010, so see the XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console...
fork instead.
XBMC Live
XBMC Live is a free UbuntuUbuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
-based Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
with XBMC for Linux already installed and pre-configured, providing a complete packaged media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software suite for all IA-32/x86-based personal computers. XBMC Live uses XBMC Media Center for all media playback and is implemented as a bootable Live CD
Live CD
A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
primarily designed for bare-metal installation
Bare-metal restore
Bare-metal restore is a technique in the field of data recovery and restoration where the backed up data is available in a form which allows one to restore a computer system from "bare metal", i.e...
s to achieve instant on
Instant on
In computers, instant on is the ability to boot nearly instantaneously, so one can get online or use a specific application without waiting for a PC's traditional operating system to launch. Instant-on technology is today mostly used on laptops, netbooks, and nettops because the user can boot up...
type boot
Booting
In computing, booting is a process that begins when a user turns on a computer system and prepares the computer to perform its normal operations. On modern computers, this typically involves loading and starting an operating system. The boot sequence is the initial set of operations that the...
, as well as for interactive demonstrations
Demo (marketing)
In marketing, an in-store demonstration is a promotion where samples of a product are distributed to customers within a store. The goal of an in-store demonstration is to introduce customers to the product in hopes of getting them to purchase that item...
.
As a Live CD, the system does not need to be permanently installed to a hard disk drive, as most operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s would. Instead, the computer can simply be booted with the XBMC Live CD when media playback is desired. This is a reasonable approach for those who do not need media playback services while performing other tasks with the same computer, or for users who wish to repurpose older computers as media center, and for those seeking a free alternative to Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
, or for those who simply want to try out the XBMC Media Center software for the first time without having to install anything. The Microsoft MCE Remote and IR-receiver dongle for Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center is a digital video recorder and media player developed by Microsoft. It is an application that allows users to view and record live television, as well as organize and play music and videos...
works with XBMC Live directly out of the box
Out of the box
Out of the box is the term used to denote items, functionalities, or features that do not require any additional installation. In addition to being used for tangible products, the phrase is often used in a less literal sense for software, which may not be distributed in an actual box but offer...
, which mean that Windows Media Center users with these can try out the XBMC Live without requiring any additional hardware.
Following the principles of Mythbuntu
Mythbuntu
Mythbuntu is a media center operating system . It is based on Ubuntu and integrates the MythTV Media center software as its main function, and does not install with all of the programs included with Ubuntu....
, KnoppMyth
KnoppMyth
KnoppMyth is a Linux distribution designed for use on Home Theater PCs . As of version R6, it is now called LinHES . The most recent release is based on Arch Linux, though previous versions were based on Debian Linux with configuration scripts from the Knoppix Linux distribution...
, Mythdora
MythDora
MythDora is a specialized operating system based on Fedora and MythTV. Since 2009, the version number comes from the version of Fedora used followed by the version of MythTV used. For example, the current version 12.23 uses Fedora 12 and MythTV 0.23. Like KnoppMyth, MythDora is designed to simplify...
, and GeeXboX
GeeXboX
GeeXboX is a free Linux distribution providing a media center software suite for personal computers. GeeXboX 2.0 and later uses XBMC for media playback and is implemented as Live USB and Live CD options. As such, the system does not need to be permanently installed to a hard drive, as most modern...
, XBMC Live is also designed to simplify a permanent installation of XBMC Media Center onto a computer to be used as a dedicated HTPC (Home Theater PC)
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
in the living-room, as such the user can directly install XBMC Media Center from the bootable XBMC Live CD to either a USB flash drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
or to an internal hard disk drive as it comes with a complete instant on
Instant on
In computers, instant on is the ability to boot nearly instantaneously, so one can get online or use a specific application without waiting for a PC's traditional operating system to launch. Instant-on technology is today mostly used on laptops, netbooks, and nettops because the user can boot up...
(Linux based
Embedded Linux
Embedded Linux is the use of Linux in embedded computer systems such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants, media players, set-top boxes, and other consumer electronics devices, networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment and medical instruments...
) embedded operating system
Embedded operating system
An embedded operating system is an operating system for embedded computer systems. These operating systems are designed to be compact, efficient, and reliable, forsaking many functions that non-embedded computer operating systems provide, and which may not be used by the specialized applications...
. When installed onto a USB flash drive or internal hard disk drive, XBMC Live has the ability to save settings and make updates to XBMC Media Center and the operating-system back onto the USB flash drive or hard disk drive that it is installed onto. This is not possible when running XBMC Live off a CD-ROM as they are read-only and any changes to settings are only temporary meaning that they get reset back to defaults once the system is rebooted.
XBMC for BSD
XBMC for BSD, which is a full port of XBMC to BSD UNIXBerkeley Software Distribution
Berkeley Software Distribution is a Unix operating system derivative developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group of the University of California, Berkeley, from 1977 to 1995...
operating-systems. Compatible with FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and other similar derivatives like PC-BSD
PC-BSD
PC-BSD is a Unix-like, desktop-oriented operating system based on FreeBSD. It aims to be easy to install by using a graphical installation program, and easy and ready-to-use immediately by providing KDE SC as the pre-installed graphical user interface. PC-BSD provides official binary nVidia and...
, for IA-32/x86, x86-64, PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, and ARM-based computers, including hardware accelerated video decoding via VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
API on Nvidia's GPUs and VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon.
XBMC for iOS
XBMC for iOS, which is a full port of XBMC to Apple's iOS operating-system, was first announced and released publicly on 20 January 2011. It supports both 720p and 1080p hardware accelerated video decoding of H.264 videos, and is compatible with all Apple Inc's iDeviceIDevice
iDevice in its widest sense, is an unofficial general term that can refer to any mobile electronic devices marketed by Apple Inc. that start with "i" or more specifically any mobile devices that use the iOS operating system, which includes:* iPad* iPhone...
's that uses Apple A4
Apple A4
The Apple A4 is a package on package system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung. It combines an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU with a PowerVR GPU, and emphasizes power efficiency. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad tablet; followed shortly by the iPhone 4...
or Apple A5
Apple A5
The Apple A5 is a package on package system-on-a-chip designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung to replace the Apple A4. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad 2 tablet, and also powers the iPhone 4S...
(ARM-based) processors with a jailbroken iOS operating-system. These iDevices include the second-generation Apple TV (a.k.a. Apple TV 2), iPhone 4, iPhone 4s, fourth-generation iPod Touch, iPad and the iPad 2.
XBMC for Linux
XBMC for Linux is primarily developed for Ubuntu Linux and XBMC's developers' own "XBMC Live" (Live CD Linux distribution prepackaged with XBMC as a preconfigured media center software applianceSoftware appliance
A software appliance is a software application that might be combined with just enough operating system for it to run optimally on industry standard hardware or in a virtual machine....
operating-system). Third-party packages for most other Linux distributions are however available, and it is also possible to compile XBMC Media Center from scratch for any Linux distribution as long as the prerequired dependency libraries are installed first. XBMC for Linux is currently the only stable version of XBMC to support hardware accelerated video decoding, and this is achieved via the VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
API on Nvidia's GPUs, and via the VAAPI API for AMD/ATI Radeon, S3 Graphics
S3 Graphics
S3 Graphics, Ltd is an American company specializing in graphics chipsets. Although they do not have the large market share that they once had, they still produce graphics accelerators for home computers under the "S3 Chrome" brand name.-History:...
, and Intel's newer Integrated Graphics Processors, as well as hardware accelerated video decoding via OpenMAX
OpenMAX
OpenMAX is a royalty-free, cross-platform set of C-language programming interfaces that provides abstractions for routines especially useful for audio, video, and still images...
, ARM NEON, Broadcom Crystal HD on systems with supporting hardware. Development version of XBMC for Linux is available at Launchpad
Launchpad (website)
Launchpad is a web application and website that allow users to develop and maintain software, particularly free software. Launchpad is developed and maintained by Canonical Ltd....
as PPA (Personal Package Archive)
Personal Package Archive
A Personal Package Archive is a special software repository for uploading source packages to be built and published as an APT repository by Launchpad or similar application. The term is currently used for Ubuntu packages, but targets "Everyone" according to Launchpad host, Canonical Ltd....
for the standard Ubuntu Desktop version 8.04 and later, as well as DEB packages
Deb (file format)
deb is the extension of the Debian software package format and the most often used name for such binary packages. Like the "Deb" part of the term Debian, it originates from the name of Debra, erstwhile girlfriend and now ex-wife of Debian's founder Ian Murdock.Debian packages are also used in...
for Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
.
XBMC for Mac
XBMC for Mac runs natively on Mac OS XMac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
(Lion, Snow Leopard
Mac OS X v10.6
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the seventh major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers.Snow Leopard was publicly unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference...
, Leopard
Mac OS X v10.5
Mac OS X Leopard is the sixth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on 26 October 2007 as the successor of Tiger , and is available in two variants: a desktop version suitable for personal computers, and a...
, Tiger
Mac OS X v10.4
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger is the fifth major release of Mac OS X, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Tiger was released to the public on 29 April 2005 for US$129.95 as the successor to Mac OS X Panther , which had been released 18 months earlier...
), as well as on the Apple TV. 1080p playback can be achieved on Apple computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it is powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD.
1080p playback on the Apple TV (a.k.a. "ATV") can only be achieved by hardware accelerated video decoding via Broadcom Crystal HD, the user must replace the ATV's internal WiFi adapter with a Broadcom Crystal HD PCI Express Mini (mini-PCIe) card in order to activate this functionality.
XBMC for Windows
XBMC for Windows runs natively on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, it is a 32-bit32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
application but runs on 64-bit
64-bit
64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
Windows and hardware as well, however it is not yet optimized for that architecture so there is no performance gain when running on 64-bit Windows. 1080p playback can be achieved on Windows based computers either via software decoding on the CPU if it's powerful enough, or by hardware accelerated video decoding.
Hardware video decoding via DirectX Video Acceleration is now supported although this enhancement currently only runs on Windows Vista and Windows 7 due to the author's currently using the DXVA 2.0 API which is not supported in Windows XP.
XBMC for Xbox
The 9.04 (codename: Babylon) point-release version of XBMC for Xbox which was released on 6 May 2009 as the last 'stable' version of XBMC for Xbox. The original developers of XBMC have since issued a statement said that they will no longer develop or support XBMC for Xbox as part of the XBMC project as of the 27 May 2010. The development of XBMC for Xbox ended because the focus for all Team XBMC developers has completely shifted to the Linux, Mac, and Windows versions of XBMC instead.Even though the original XBMC project no longer develops or supports XBMC for the Xbox, an XBMC version for the Xbox is still available via the third-party developer spin-off
Brand extension
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity...
project "XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console...
", who have completely taken over the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox.
XBMC for Xbox was never an authorized/signed Microsoft product, therefore a modification of the Xbox is required in order to run XBMC on an Xbox game-console. XBMC for Xbox can be run as an application
Application software
Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...
(like any Xbox game), or as a dashboard that appears directly when the Xbox is turned on. Since XBMC for Xbox was part of an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
software program, its development source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
was stored on a publicly accessible subversion repository. Accordingly, unofficial executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
builds from the subversion repository are often released by third-parties on sites unaffiliated with the official XBMC project. It should be noted, however, that executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
builds from development versions typically contain bugs not present in the most recent 'stable' release versions of XBMC for Xbox.
Commercial XBMC Systems
The developers of XBMC state that as long as the GPL licensing of the XBMC software is respected they would love for XBMC to run on as many third-party hardware platforms and operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s as possible, as "Powered by XBMC" branded devices and systems. With XBMC being pre-installed as a third-party software component
Third-party software component
In computer programming, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform...
that commercial and non-commercial companies and ODM
Original Design Manufacturer
An original design manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the brand firm to produce without having to engage in the organization or running of a factory...
/OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
's can use royalty-free on their own hardware, hardware such as set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
es from cable-TV companies
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
, Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s, game-consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
, or embedded computers
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
and SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
built-in to television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s for web-enabled TVs, and other entertainment devices for the living room entertainment system, home cinema
Home cinema
Home cinema, also commonly called home theater, are home entertainment set-ups that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood with the help of video and audio equipment in a private home....
, or similar uses.
Below is a list of third-party companies who sell hardware bundled with XBMC Media Center or XBMC Live pre-install, or sell uninstalled systems that specifically claim to be XBMC-compatible. Many of these third-party companies help submit bug fixes and new features back upstream to the original XBMC project.
AIRIS Telebision
AIRIS Telebision, sold by Telebision in Spain and designed specifically for the Spanish market, is a nettopNettop
Nettop may refer to:*Nettop, a type of computer*NetTop, a NSA project...
based on Nvidia Ion
NVIDIA Ion
Nvidia Ion is a product line of Nvidia corporation intended for motherboards of low-cost portable computers. It uses graphics processing units and chipsets intended for small products.-Description:...
chipset, preinstalled Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
base with XBMC for Linux and a customized AEON skin and Spanish plugins. Other than the modified skin, what is unique with the AIRIS Telebision's XBMC build is that it comes with a digital distribution
Digital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
service platform that they call their "App Store" which lets users download new Spanish plugins and updates for existing plugins. Telebision also lets users download a Live CD version of their software as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
, which lets users install their Telebision distribution on any Nvidia Ion based computer.
Lucida TV II
Lucida TV II, made by LUCIDQ inc, is a nettop based on Nvidia Ion chipset which can be ordered with XubuntuXubuntu
Xubuntu is a Canonical Ltd. recognized, community maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system, using the Xfce desktop environment.The name Xubuntu is a portmanteau of Xfce and Ubuntu...
and XBMC software installed.
Marusys MS630S and MS850S
Marusys MS630S and MS850S are high-definition PVR-ready set-top-boxes with the ability to run Linux-based media players like XBMC, and Marusys is advertising these two devices as compatible with XBMC.Myka ION
Myka ION is a fanless Nvidia Ion based set-top device designed to bring internet television and media stored on the home network to the living-room, it comes pre-installed with XBMC Media Center, BoxeeBOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, and Hulu Desktop as applications that can be started from the main menu.
Modified Konstructs MK-X1
The MK-X1 by Modified Konstructs is an Nvidia Ion based set-top device based on Acer Aspire Revo that comes pre-loaded with XBMC, and the device has a recommended retail price of $300(US).Neuros LINK
Neuros LINK made by Neuros TechnologyNeuros Technology
Neuros Technology is a Chicago, Illinois-based company that produces a number of audio and video devices with the brand name Neuros. Founded by Joe Born in 2001 as a division of Digital Innovations and previously operated under the name Neuros Audio...
is an open Ubuntu-based set-top device and media extender designed to bring internet television and other video to the television, it comes pre-install with XBMC Media Center.
Pulse-Eight
Pulse-Eight LimitedPulse-Eight
Pulse-Eight Limited is a hardware designer and manufacturer based in the United Kingdom producing consumer electronics for the home entertainment, as well as for hotel industry and system integration...
sells both custom and off the shelf hardware solutions primarily designed for XBMC, such as remote controls, HTPC systems and accessories, including a custom HTPC PVR set-top-box pre-installed with XBMC that they call "PulseBox" Pulse-Eight also offers free performance tuned embedded versions of XBMC that they call "Pulse" which is based on OpenELEC and a custom PVR-build of XBMC that is meant to on your dedicated HTPC system.
VeuBox
VeuBox by CaptiveWorks Inc. is an Nvidia Ion based set-top device pre-installed with XBMC Media Center, Hulu Desktop, SopCast, TVUnetworksTVUnetworks
TVU Networks Corporation is a company that manufactures live mobile television broadcasting equipment and offers an Internet television broadcasting platform that uses P2PTV technology. Founded in 2005, the company is based in Mountain View, California.....
, and Firefox as applications that can be started from the main menu. The underlying operating-system is Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Linux
Gentoo Linux is a computer operating system built on top of the Linux kernel and based on the Portage package management system. It is distributed as free and open source software. Unlike a conventional software distribution, the user compiles the source code locally according to their chosen...
, and CaptiveWorks is marketing the VeuBox as an open platform.
Xtreamer Ultra
Xtreamer Ultra, manufactured by the South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n company Unicorn Information Systems, is a nettop based on Nvidia Ion chipset which came be ordered with OpenELEC and XBMC software pre-installed.
Zotac MAG and ZBOX series
Since 10 September 2010, ZOTAC is shipping a software bundleProduct bundling
Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as one combined product. This strategy is very common in the software business , in the cable television industry Product bundling is a marketing strategy that involves offering several products for sale as...
that they call "ZOTAC Boost XL" with all their new motherboard
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
s and Mini-PCs, such as Zotac's "ZBOX" and "MAG" series of Nettops which Zotac also does demos of with XBMC. This "ZOTAC Boost XL" software bundle consist of the software applications; Auslogics BoostSpeed, Cooliris
Cooliris
Cooliris, Inc. is a US corporation. Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Cooliris develops products intended to enhance user experience of online media...
, Kylo (HDTV-optimized Web Browser), and XBMC Media Center.
Zotac's "ZBOX" and "MAG" series of small Mini-PCs are all NVIDIA Ion based Nettop, and they are all sold in both as complete ready-to-use computer and as barebone computer
Barebone computer
A barebone computer is a partially assembled platform or an unassembled kit of computer parts allowing more customization and lower costs than a retail computer system. They are available for desktop computer, notebook and server purposes, and in nearly any form factor...
s (without memory and hard drive). Zotac Zbox ID33 and Zbox ID34 are specifically marketed towards the HTPC market, where Zbox ID33 is the barebone model and the Zbox ID34 comes with a slot-loading Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
optical disc drive, 2 GB RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive with Windows 7 pre-installed, neither does however come with a remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
.
Third-party forks and derivative work of XBMC
XBMC Media Center source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
have over the years become a popular software to fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
and use as an application framework platform
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for others to base their own media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software on, as if XBMC were a GUI toolkit, windowing system
Windowing system
A windowing system is a component of a graphical user interface , and more specifically of a desktop environment, which supports the implementation of window managers, and provides basic support for graphics hardware, pointing devices such as mice, and keyboards...
, or window manager
Window manager
A window manager is system software that controls the placement and appearance of windows within a windowing system in a graphical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment...
. Today at least Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, MediaPortal
MediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
, Plex
Plexapp
Plex is a partially open-source freeware media player for Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. It has a 10-foot user interface design for the living-room TV...
, 9x9 Player, and Voddler
Voddler
Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand service and accompanying media player client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer distribution system...
are separate derivative products
Derivative work
In United States copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work .-Definition:...
that are all openly known to initially have forked
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
the GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
and media player part of their software
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
from XBMC's source code. Most of these third-party forks and derivative work of XBMC is said to still assist with submitting bug fixes upstream and sometimes help getting new features backported
Backporting
Backporting is the action of taking a certain software modification and applying it to an older version of the software than it was initially created for. It is part of the maintenance step in a software development process....
to the original XBMC project so that others can utilize it as well, shared from one main source.
During the period from late 2010 and first half of 2011 different independent third-party developers also announced their development on ports of XBMC to MeeGo
MeeGo
MeeGo is a Linux-based open source mobile operating system project. Primarily targeted at mobile devices and information appliances in the consumer electronics market, MeeGo is designed to act as an operating system for hardware platforms such as netbooks, entry-level desktops, nettops, tablet...
, OtherOS (for Cell microprocessor
Cell (microprocessor)
Cell is a microprocessor architecture jointly developed by Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Toshiba, and IBM, an alliance known as "STI". The architectural design and first implementation were carried out at the STI Design Center in Austin, Texas over a four-year period beginning March 2001 on a...
), Broadcom
Broadcom
Broadcom Corporation is a fabless semiconductor company in the wireless and broadband communication business. The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA. Broadcom was founded by a professor-student pair Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III from the University of California, Los...
BCM2835 SoC based devices (like Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a single-board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Scheduled for public release in December 2011, the foundation plans to release two versions that range from US$25 to $35...
), as well as to Networked Media Tank and other Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
(MIPS architecture
MIPS architecture
MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
) based SoC devices.
9x9 Player for 9x9CloudTV
9x9 Player (by Santa Clara, CA based 9x9Network) is an open source software media player client for 9x9Network's 9x9CloudTV peer-to-peerPeer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
TV delivery network over internet. The frontend of this media player client uses XBMC's source code as its application framework platform, and 9x9Network as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
Boxee
BoxeeBOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
, (produced by startup company Boxee Inc.), is a freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
and partially open source software cross-platform media center and entertainment hub with social networking features that is a commercial fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of XBMC software. Boxee now supports Windows, Linux, and OSX, with the first Alpha made available on 16 June 2008. Boxee as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
GeeXboX
GeeXboX is a free and open source Live USBLive USB
A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Live USBs are closely related to live CDs, but sometimes have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device...
/Live CD
Live CD
A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...
based Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
providing a HTPC
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software suite for personal computers and ARM-devices that since version 2.0 comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC media center as its media player and GUI.
iConsole
iConsole (formerly known under the project codename "Full Circle"), produced by startup company MechaWorks, is a freeware and partially open source media center and entertainment hub with video game consoleVideo game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
features that is initially a fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of XBMC and Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
software. The first public Alpha release will be as a Linux based
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distribution, primarily designed to be installed on a computer's empty harddive to make a computer in to a dedicated HTPC, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
hardware setup.
MediaPortal
MediaPortalMediaPortal
MediaPortal is an open-source media center software project, often considered an alternative to Windows Media Center. It provides a 10-foot user interface for performing typical PVR/TiVo functionality, including playing, pausing, and recording live TV; playing DVDs, videos, and music; viewing...
is free and open source software media center written for Microsoft Windows that is initially based on fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
ed XBMC source code by Erwin Beckers (a.k.a. Frodo, who was also one of the original founders of XBMC) in February 2004. The reason for this fork to Microsoft Windows was to get away from hardware limitations of the Xbox platform that XBMC development started on, mainly because of the Xbox inability to support TV-tuner adapters natively as Erwin wanted PVR functionality. Now after several years and innumerable feature changes there has been almost a complete re-design of the source code, however the skinning engine of MediaPortal 1.X.X still remains very similar to that of the original XBMC software making it relatively easy for people to port skins/themes back and forth between the two projects, something that is done quite frequently.
Plex
On 21 May 2008, XBMC developer Elan Feingold forkFork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
ed the source code of XBMC and started a new project called Plex, (previously this Mac OS X port of XBMC was informally known as the "OSXBMC" project). Feingold said that he would still try to collaborate with most Team-XBMC members behind the scenes and at least try to keep Plex skinning engine compatible with XBMC skins. While Plex began as a free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
hobby project
Hobby
A hobby is a regular activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure, typically done during one's leisure time.- Etymology :A hobby horse is a wooden or wickerwork toy made to be ridden just like a real horse...
, since 2010 it is commercial software
Commercial software
Commercial software, or less commonly, payware, is computer software that is produced for sale or that serves commercial purposes.Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software packages may also be commercial software....
(freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
) that is today owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
, Plex, Inc., and today parts of what Plex offers is closed source proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
for a cost.
Feingold was the Team-XBMC member who first initiated the Mac OS X port of XBMC, but soon after he left the original XBMC project due to what was arguably a falling-out with rest of Team-XBMC's developer members over the team's majorities feeling that the XBMC project should aim for strict adherence to the GPL
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
and always keep to an open-source software
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
mindset. This disagreement is claimed to be one of the main factors that led Elan to leave the XBMC project and create the Plex fork. Some Team-XBMC members are still quite vocal in the XBMC community forums about the fact that they still think that Plex developers continue to be on the border of violating the GPL and other open source licenses, not to mention that they often feel that Plex developers are violating the spirit and innate essence of open source software development
Open source software development
Open source software development is the process by which open source software is developed. These are software products “available with its source code and under an open source license to study, change, and improve its design”...
when they do so.
XBMC4STB project by Vu+
Vu+ (or VUplus), is produced by German multimedia vendor, which is a manufacturer of LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-powered DVB satellite
DVB-S
DVB-S is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Satellite; it is the original Digital Video Broadcasting forward error coding and demodulation standard for satellite television and dates from 1994, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997...
, terrestrial
DVB-T
DVB-T is an abbreviation for Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial; it is the DVB European-based consortium standard for the broadcast transmission of digital terrestrial television that was first published in 1997 and first broadcast in the UK in 1998...
digital television
Digital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
receivers (set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
) that all currently uses Enigma2 for Dreambox
Dreambox
The Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers , produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia.- History and Description :...
based software as firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
.
In September 2011 Vu+ Day in Amsterdam it was announced that the next-generation Vu+ DVB satellite receivers to be released publicly in the end of 2012 will be using XBMC Media Center software for its GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
, a development project that they call "XBMC4STB" (XBMC for Set-Top-Boxes), with beta releases of both the software and hardware said to be made available to XBMC developers before then .
Voddler
VoddlerVoddler
Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand service and accompanying media player client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer distribution system...
is a commercial video-on-demand service and client software streaming movies and television programming, similar to Spotify
Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal. Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service had...
and Grooveshark
Grooveshark
Grooveshark is an international online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music that can be played immediately or added to a playlist...
but for video. From its first release at 1 July 2009 up until 24 February 2010, Voddler's media player software was initially based on a fork of the XBMC open source code. Voddler violated the license for XBMC's source code by neglecting to release all of their modifications that they used in their application as required per the GPL, and they have been publicly criticized for this.
Voddler
Voddler
Voddler is a commercial video-on-demand service and accompanying media player client application distributing movies and television programming using a patented hybrid peer-to-peer distribution system...
's newer media player software is since 8 March 2010 now instead based on the Adobe Air closed-source application platform.
ONEvision by at-visions
ONEvision by at-visions Informationstechnologie GmbH, (an international system integrationSystem integration
In engineering, system integration is the bringing together of the component subsystems into one system and ensuring that the subsystems function together as a system...
and IT soutsourcing firm for hotels), ONEvision is a commercial fork of XBMC for use as hotel television system software in hotel environments and in the hospitality industry for in-room entertainment. It offers a platform for in-room service bookings and an IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
interface, with custom theme branding. ONEvision is currently used throughout Europe and Asia at hotels such as Hyatt EMEA
Hyatt
Hyatt Hotels Corporation , is an international operator of hotels.Hyatt Center is the headquarters for Hyatt corporation...
, Ramada Vienna
Ramada
Ramada is a hotel chain owned and operated by Wyndham Worldwide.- History :The lodging chain was founded in 1953 by longtime Chicago restaurateur Marion W...
, RIMC International, DWA Bratanki, Rogner International, EH&A, Heritage Hotel Hallstatt, St. Martins Therme, and Heiltherme Bad Waltersdorf. , at-visions as a company is also an official sponsor of the XBMC development project.
OpenELEC
OpenELEC (short for "Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center") is a free and open source embedded operating systemEmbedded operating system
An embedded operating system is an operating system for embedded computer systems. These operating systems are designed to be compact, efficient, and reliable, forsaking many functions that non-embedded computer operating systems provide, and which may not be used by the specialized applications...
providing a complete media center software suite that comes with a pre-configured version of XBMC and third-party addons with retro video game console emulator
Video game console emulator
A video game console emulator is a program that allows a computer or modern console to emulate a different video game console's behavior. Emulators are most often used to play older video games on personal computers and modern video game consoles, but they are also used to play games translated...
s and PVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
plugins. OpenELEC is an extremely small and very fast booting Linux based
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distribution, primarily designed to be booted from flash
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
memory card
Memory card
A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
such as CompactFlash
CompactFlash
CompactFlash is a mass storage device format used in portable electronic devices. Most CompactFlash devices contain flash memory in a standardized enclosure. The format was first specified and produced by SanDisk in 1994...
or a solid-state drive
Solid-state drive
A solid-state drive , sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive...
, similar to that of the XBMC Live distro but specifically targeted to a minimum set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
hardware setup based on an Intel x86 processor and graphics.
Element OS
Element OSElement OS
Element OS was a Linux operating system that was intended for Home theater PC computers. It was discontinued in 2011.-Features:Element OS was based on Xubuntu and maintained compatibility with the Ubuntu repositories. It used the Advanced Packaging Tool with Element's own custom repositories and...
is a free embedded operating system
Embedded operating system
An embedded operating system is an operating system for embedded computer systems. These operating systems are designed to be compact, efficient, and reliable, forsaking many functions that non-embedded computer operating systems provide, and which may not be used by the specialized applications...
designed for use on a Home Theater PC (HTPC) which is connected to a HDTV. Element OS is a Linux based
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distribution similar to that of the XBMC Live distro, however it comes preloaded with dozens of applications for listening to, viewing, and managing music, videos, photos, and internet media. XBMC is the pre-installed default media center, but Boxee
BOXEE
Boxee is a cross-platform freeware HTPC software application with a 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the living-room TV...
and Hulu Desktop are also installable.
Sabayon Linux
Sabayon Linux is a full LinuxLinux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
distribution that among other applications comes with a preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center.
yaVDR
yaVDR (which name originated from the abbreviation "yet another VDR") is an UbuntuUbuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
-based Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
(i386) distribution designed for Home Theater PC (HTPC) with TV tuner card
TV tuner card
A TV tuner card is a kind of television tuner that allows television signals to be received by a computer. Most TV tuners also function as video capture cards, allowing them to record television programs onto a hard disk much like the Tivo digital video recorder does.-Variants: The interfaces for...
for DVR (Digital Video Recorder)
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
capabilities. yaVDR comes preinstalled and preconfigured "ready-to-use" version of XBMC Media Center from the "PVR" Subversion
Subversion
Apache Subversion is a software versioning and a revision control system distributed under a free license. Developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation...
development branch as its primary front-end media player interface, with VDR (Video Disk Recorder)
Video Disk Recorder
VDR is an open source application for Linux designed to allow any computer to function as a digital video recorder, in order to record and replay TV programming using the computer's hard drive. The computer needs to be equipped with a digital TV tuner card. VDR can also operate as an mp3 player...
integrated as its PVR back-end server. It also features xine
Xine
xine is a multimedia playback engine for Unix-like operating systems released under the GNU General Public License. xine is built around a shared library that supports different frontend player applications. Another important feature of xine is the ability to manually correct the synchronization...
as an alternative front-end media player interface to XBMC.
XBMC4XBox
XBMC4XboxXBMC4Xbox
XBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console...
is a third-party developer spin-off
Brand extension
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity...
project of XBMC, with still active development and support of the Xbox platform. This project was created as a fork of XBMC as a separate project to continue having a version of XBMC for the Xbox hardware platform. It was not started by official members of the official XBMC project, nor will it be suppoted by the Official Team XBMC in any way. It started when support for the Xbox branch was officially dropped by Team XBMC, which was announced on 27 May 2010.
Programming and developing
XBMC is a non-profit and free software communityFree software community
The free-software community is an informal term that refers to the users and developers of free software as well as supporters of the free-software movement. The movement is sometimes referred to as the open-source software community or a subset thereof...
driven open-source software
Open-source software
Open-source software is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software.Open...
project that is developed only by volunteers in their spare time without any monetary gain. The team of developers leading the development of XBMC, "Team-XBMC", encourage anyone and everyone to submit their own source code patches
Patch (computing)
A patch is a piece of software designed to fix problems with, or update a computer program or its supporting data. This includes fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs, and improving the usability or performance...
for new features and functions, improve existing ones, or fix bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
to the XBMC project.
The online user manual
User guide
A user guide or user's guide, also commonly known as a manual, is a technical communication document intended to give assistance to people using a particular system...
and is wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
-based and community driven, and it also works as a basic developers guide for getting a good overview of XBMC's architecture, however to as with most non-profit software project, to delve deeper into programming, looking at the actual source code and the comments in that code is needed.
Architecture
XBMC is a cross-platform software application programmed mainly in C++C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
, XBMC partially uses SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
) multimedia framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
and OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
graphics rendering
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
under XBMC for Linux and Mac OS X, while XBMC for Windows based uses Microsoft DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
multimedia framework and Direct3D
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
rendering, as did the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
version of XBMC. Some of XBMC's own libraries as well as many third-party libraries that XBMC depend on are also written in C programming-language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, but are then most of the time used with a C++ wrapper or loaded via XBMC's own DLL
Dynamic-link library
Dynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
loader.
Because of XBMC's origin with the constraints on the hardware and environment of the old Xbox platform, all software development of XBMC has always been focused on reserving the limited resources that existed on the Xbox hardware and an embedded system
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
, (which was only a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III and 64MB of RAM in total as shared memory
Shared memory
In computing, shared memory is memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies. Depending on context, programs may run on a single processor or on multiple separate processors...
), the main hindrance of which has been the amount of available system RAM and graphics memory at any one time. Due to this it means that XBMC is programmed to be very resource efficient and can therefore run on very low-end and cheap hardware, especially when compared to other media center software design for HTPC use.
But because of its origins from the Xbox game-console, XBMC's graphics renderer
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
runs in a game-loop environment rather than using event-driven and on-demand rendering, meaning that it is constantly re-drawing the GUI even when nothing is changing on-screen. This results in very high CPU and high GPU usage, which can easily be observed on low-end machines, and hence high temperatures, fan activity and high power consumption. Work is however ongoing to make XBMC run using much less resources on embedded systems, which will indirectly benefit non-embedded systems as well.
Portability
While it is true that XBMC has a very portable code baseSoftware portability
Portability in high-level computer programming is the usability of the same software in different environments. The prerequirement for portability is the generalized abstraction between the application logic and system interfaces...
, with its trunk (or mainline source code tree)
Trunk (software)
In the field of software development, trunk refers to the unnamed branch of a file tree under revision control. The trunk is usually meant to be the base of a project on which development progresses. If developers are working exclusively on the trunk, it always contains the latest cutting-edge...
is today officially only available for IA-32
IA-32
IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...
/x86, x86-64
X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
, PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, and ARM
ARM architecture
ARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
-based processor architecture platforms, and XBMC GUI requires a Direct3D
Direct3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
, OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
, OpenGL ES
OpenGL ES
OpenGL for Embedded Systems is a subset of the OpenGL 3D graphics application programming interface designed for embedded systems such as mobile phones, PDAs, and video game consoles. OpenGL ES is managed by the not-for-profit technology consortium, the Khronos Group, Inc.- Versions :Several...
, EGL
EGL (OpenGL)
EGL is an interface between Khronos rendering APIs such as OpenGL ES or OpenVG and the underlying native platform window system. It handles graphics context management, surface/buffer binding, and rendering synchronization and enables "high-performance, accelerated, mixed-mode 2D and 3D rendering...
, or DirectFB
DirectFB
DirectFB stands for Direct Frame Buffer. It is a software library for GNU/Linux/Unix-based operating systems with a small memory footprint that provides graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction layer, and integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and...
with hardware accelerated graphics GPU
Graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
and device drivers that support DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
9, GLES 2.0, or OpenGL 1.3 or later with GLSL
GLSL
OpenGL Shading Language , is a high-level shading language based on the syntax of the C programming language...
in order to render
Rendering (computer graphics)
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model , by means of computer programs. A scene file contains objects in a strictly defined language or data structure; it would contain geometry, viewpoint, texture, lighting, and shading information as a description of the virtual scene...
the GUI at an acceptable frame rate
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
to the human eye (which is 24 frames per second or faster). XBMC is thus officially not yet available for the MIPS
MIPS architecture
MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
processor architecture, nor does it as of yet support DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure)
Direct Rendering Infrastructure
In computing, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure is an interface and a free software implementation used in the X Window System to securely allow user applications to access the video hardware without requiring data to be passed through the X server. Its primary application is to provide...
or DirectFB
DirectFB
DirectFB stands for Direct Frame Buffer. It is a software library for GNU/Linux/Unix-based operating systems with a small memory footprint that provides graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction layer, and integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and...
rendering without OpenGL/GLES hardware accelerated graphics support, even though MIPS, DirectFB, and DRI is the most popular processor architecture and DRI rendering technologies used today by modern stand-alone digital media player
Digital media receiver
A digital media receiver , also commonly referred to as a media extender, media streamer, digital media hub, or digital media adapter , is a home entertainment device that can connect to a home network to retrieve digital media files from a personal computer or other networked media server and...
s, such as those based on Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
and Realtek
Realtek
Realtek Semiconductor Corp. , a fabless IC design house situated in the Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan, was founded in October 1987, and subsequently approved as a listed company on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1998...
chipsets. An XBMC port to MIPS processor architecture is however currently being worked on by the XBMC development team.
Python scripts as plugins and addons (widgets/gadgets)
XBMC features an embedded Python Scripts EnginePython (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
(currently based on Python version 2.4) and its own WindowXML application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
, which together form an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based widget toolkit
Widget toolkit
In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...
for which can extend the capability of XBMC by creating a GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
for widgets in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets are lightweight single-purpose applications, or software widgets, that can sit on a Microsoft Windows user's computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page...
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget scripts allow non-developers to themselves create new add-ons
Browser extension
A browser extension is a computer program that extends the functionality of a web browser in some way. Depending on the browser and the version, the term may be distinct from similar terms such as plug-in or add-on. Mozilla Firefox was designed with the idea of being a small and simple web browser,...
functionality to XBMC, (using the easy to learn Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
high-level
High-level programming language
A high-level programming language is a programming language with strong abstraction from the details of the computer. In comparison to low-level programming languages, it may use natural language elements, be easier to use, or be from the specification of the program, making the process of...
scripting language
Scripting language
A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...
), without knowledge of the complex C/C++ programming language
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
that the rest of the XBMC software is written in. Current plugin scripts add-ons include functions like Internet-TV
Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
and movie-trailer browsers, cinema guides, and over-the-top content
Over-the-top content
In the fields of broadcasting and content delivery, over-the-top content means on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet service provider being involved in the control or distribution of the content itself...
video streaming services like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Veoh
Veoh
Veoh is an Internet television company based in San Diego, California. It allows users to find and watch major studio content, independent productions and user-generated material. The company is a subsidiary of Israeli start-up Qlipso....
, and Internet-radio-station browsers (example Pandora Radio), and much more.
API (Application Programming Interface)
Other than the APIs (Application programming interfaceApplication programming interface
An application programming interface is a source code based specification intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other...
s) available to python scripts and addon plugins, XBMC features several other APIs for controlling XBMC remotely or from an external applications. These APIs includes a JSON-RPC
JSON-RPC
JSON-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol encoded in JSON. It is a very simple protocol , defining only a handful of data types and commands...
server, D-Bus
D-Bus
In computing, D-Bus is a simple inter-process communication open-source system for software applications to communicate with one another. Heavily influenced by KDE2–3's DCOP system, D-Bus has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release. An implementation of D-Bus supports most POSIX operating...
server, HTTP Web API (HTTPAPI), Web server
Web server
Web server can refer to either the hardware or the software that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the Internet....
, UPnP AV media server (with UPnP MediaServer ControlPoint, UPnP MediaRenderer DCP, UPnP RenderingControl DCP, and UPnP Remote User Interface server), and a multi-protocol Event Server for remote controls.
GUI-engine and skinning (themes)
XBMC is noted as having a very flexible GUI toolkit and robust frameworkSoftware framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for its GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grilled dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients. The term derives from the verb, "gupda" in Korean, which literally...
, with its underlying complex graphical design and layout
Layout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
library (named "libGUI" in XBMC) it provides a simple abstraction layer
Abstraction layer
An abstraction layer is a way of hiding the implementation details of a particular set of functionality...
between the application code and the interface, while allowing an extremely flexible dynamic layouts and animations that is easy to work with and make it possible to create completely unique skin
Skin (computing)
In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance achieved by the use of a graphical user interface that can be applied to specific software and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users....
s for XBMC.
Skin example code in XAML
The skin files are written in XAMLXAML
Extensible Application Markup Language is a declarative XML-based language created by Microsoft used for initializing structured values and objects. It is available under Microsoft's Open Specification Promise...
, using a standard XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
base, making theme
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
-skinning
Skinning
Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...
and personal customization very accessible.
Current Software Limitations
This is a list of software limitations currently in the XBMC source code.- XBMC internal video and audio players (DVDPlayer and PAPlayer) can not play any audio or video files that are protected/encryptedEncryptionIn cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
with DRM (Digital Rights Management)Digital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
technologies for access controlAccess controlAccess control refers to exerting control over who can interact with a resource. Often but not always, this involves an authority, who does the controlling. The resource can be a given building, group of buildings, or computer-based information system...
, meaning audio files purchased from online music storeOnline music storeAn online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
s as iTunes Music Store, MSN MusicMSN MusicMSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
, Audible.comAudible.comAudible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
, Windows Media Player StoresWindows Media PlayerWindows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...
, and video files protected with Windows Media DRMWindows Media DRMWindows Media DRM is a Digital Rights Management service for the Windows Media platform. It is designed to provide delivery of audio and/or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor can control how that content is used.WMDRM includes the...
or DivXDivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
proprietary DRM. Other than using an 'external' third-party media-player, a workaround to this is to first remove any DRM protection/encryption from the music or video file with a third-party program before trying to play it in XBMC. - Without using a third-party plugin there is currently no TV tuner support as of May 2010, although adding support for this is currently being developed
- XBMC does not currently support binary addons. Today XBMC only support addons written in python script language that are interpreted by the Python engine that XBMC is using.
Reception
XBMC won two SourceForgeSourceForge
SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...
2006 Community Choice Awards. In the 2007 Community Choice Awards, XBMC was nominated finalist in six categories. Also in the 2008 Community Choice Awards XBMC won an award for Best Project for Gamers.
History
XBMC Media Center is the successor to the popular Xbox Media Player (XBMP)Xbox Media Player
Xbox Media Player, , now obsolete, was the predecessor to XBMC and XBMC4Xbox, a feature-rich free and open source media player for the Xbox...
software. Xbox Media Player development stopped on 13 December 2003, by which time its successor, XBMC, was ready for its debut, renamed as it was growing out of its 'player' name and into a 'center' for media playback. The first stable release of XBMC was on 29 June 2004, with the official release of XboxMediaCenter 1.0.0. This announcement also encouraged everyone using XBMP or XBMC Beta release to update, as all support for those previous versions would be dropped, and they would only officially support version 1.0.0. Not featured in XBMP, the addition of embedded Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
was given the ability to draw interface elements in the GUI, and allowed user and community generated scripts to be executed within the XBMC environment.
With the release of 1.0.0 in the middle of 2004, work continued on the XBMC project to add more features, such as support for iTunes features like DAAP and Smart Playlists, as well as lots of improvements and fixes. The second stable release of XBMC, 1.1.0, was released on 18 October 2004. This release included support for more media types, file types, container formats, as well as video playback of Nullsoft streaming videos and karaoke support (CD-G).
After two years of heavy development, XBMC announced a stable point final release of XBMC 2.0.0 on 29 September 2006. Even more features were packed into the new version with the addition of RAR and zip archive support, a brand new player interface with support for multiple players. Such players include PAPlayer, the new audio/music player with crossfade, gapless playback and ReplayGain support, and the new DVDPlayer with support for menu and navigation support as well as ISO/img image parsing. Prior to this point release, XBMC just used a modified fork of MPlayer
MPlayer
MPlayer is a free and open source media player. The program is available for all major operating systems, including Linux and other Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS and MorphOS are also available. The Windows version works, with some minor...
for all of its media needs, so this was a big step forward. Support for iTunes 6.x DAAP, and Upnp Clients for streaming was also added. A reworked Skinning Engine was included in this release to provide a more powerful way to change the appearance of XBMC. The last two features include read-only support for FAT12/16/32 formatted USB Mass Storage devices, and a "skinnable" 3D visualizer.
The release of XBMC 2.0.1 on 12 November 2006 contained numerous fixes for bugs that made it through the 2.0.0 release. This also marked the change from CVS to SVN (Subversion) for the development tree.
On 29 May 2007, the team behind XBMC put out a call for developers interested in porting XBMC to the Linux operating system. Since a few developers on Team-XBMC had already begun porting parts of XBMC over to Linux using SDL and OpenGL as a replacement for DirectX, which XBMC was using heavily on the Xbox version of XBMC.
Development on the SVN codebase is continuing and the versioning scheme has been changed to reflect the release year and month, i.e. 8.10, 9.04, 9.11, 10.05, etc.
On 27 May 2010, the team behind XBMC announced the splitting of the Xbox branch into a new project; "XBMC4Xbox" which will continue the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox hardware platform as a separate project, with the original XBMC project no longer offering any support for the Xbox.
Releases
| Color | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Red | Old releases |
| Green | Current release |
| Blue | Future releases |
| Version | Release date | Codename | Significant changes | XBMC Live based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0.0 | 29 June 2004 |
|
||
| 1.1.0 | 18 October 2004 |
|
||
| 2.0.0 | 29 September 2006 |
|
||
| 8.10 | 15 November 2008 | Atlantis Atlantis Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC.... |
|
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) |
| 9.04 | 6 May 2009 | Babylon Babylon Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad... |
|
Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) |
| 9.11 | 24 December 2009 | Camelot Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world... |
|
Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) |
| 10.0 and 10.1 | 18 December 2010 | Dharma DHARMA Initiative The Dharma Initiative, also written DHARMA , was a fictional research project featured in the television series Lost. It was introduced in the second season episode "Orientation". In 2008, the Dharma Initiative website was launched. Dharma's interests were directly connected with fringe science... |
DXVA DirectX Video Acceleration is a Microsoft API specification for the Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms that allows video decoding to be hardware accelerated. The pipeline allows certain CPU-intensive operations such as iDCT, motion compensation and deinterlacing to be offloaded to the GPU... 2.0 (DirectX Video Acceleration) (Windows Vista/7 exclusive) |
Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) |
| 11.0 | Release Target Date: 2011 | Eden Garden of Eden The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden... |
|
Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) |
| 12.0 | Release Target Date: 2012 | Frodo Frodo Baggins Frodo Baggins is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium.He is the main protagonist of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. He was a hobbit of the Shire who inherited Sauron's Ring from Bilbo Baggins and undertook the quest to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom... |
Sigma Designs Sigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home... reference) |
? |
Legality
The "XBMC Foundation", the non-profit organization behind the XBMC project, is legally represented by the SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center)Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
, which assists XBMC project and its developers legal matters such as copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, trademark, and branding questions, as well as economic issues such as handling donation
Donation
A donation is a gift given by physical or legal persons, typically for charitable purposes and/or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, new or used goods including clothing, toys, food, and vehicles...
s and sponsors that help the project with expense
Expense
In common usage, an expense or expenditure is an outflow of money to another person or group to pay for an item or service, or for a category of costs. For a tenant, rent is an expense. For students or parents, tuition is an expense. Buying food, clothing, furniture or an automobile is often...
s for dedicated hosting service
Dedicated hosting service
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server, including choice of operating...
, and activities such as going to trade fair
Trade fair
A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...
s and computer expo
Computer expo
A computer expo or computer show is a trade fair or exposition for computers and electronics. Expos usually include company or organization booths where products and technologies are demonstrated; talks and lectures; and general mixing of people with common interests.- Notable Computer...
s to tech demo
Tech demo
A tech demo is a prototype, rough example or an otherwise incomplete version of a product, put together with the primary purpose of showcasing the idea, performance, method or the features of the product...
XBMC, meeting with potential new developers, gain publicity to attract additional users, and more.
Copyright
XBMC's source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
for all its supported platforms is made publicly available by Team XBMC under the open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
GNU General Public License Version 2 license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
. The group currently maintains a Git
Git (software)
Git is a distributed revision control system with an emphasis on speed. Git was initially designed and developed by Linus Torvalds for Linux kernel development. Every Git working directory is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on...
repository for this source code.
Back when Team XBMC supported it, executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
versions of XBMC for Xbox could not be legally distributed. This is because XBMC for Xbox required Microsoft's Xbox Development Kit
Xbox Development Kit
The Xbox Development Kit is a software development kit created by Microsoft used to write software for the Xbox gaming system. The XDK includes libraries, a compiler, and various tools used to create software for the Xbox. The XDK has the option to integrate itself into Microsoft Visual Studio...
in order to be compiled. The only publicly available executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
versions of XBMC for Xbox were compiled and distributed by third parties. This limitation was given as one of the reasons the group eventually dropped Xbox support from XBMC. XBMC binaries for all other platforms that XBMC supports (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and iOS) are legal to distribute by the XBMC project.
Other
XBMC can also optionally be compiled with libdvdcssLibdvdcss
libdvdcss is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System...
to support playing back DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
movies encrypted using the CSS (Content Scramble System)
Content Scramble System
Content Scramble System is a Digital Rights Management and encryption system employed on almost all commercially produced DVD-Video discs. CSS utilizes a proprietary 40-bit stream cipher algorithm...
encryption. Since it is not a member of DVD Forum
DVD Forum
The DVD Forum is an international organization composed of hardware, software, media and content companies that use and develop the DVD and formerly HD DVD formats...
, the XBMC project is not contractually obliged to insert user operation prohibition
User operation prohibition
The user operation prohibition is a form of use restriction used on video DVD discs and Blu-ray discs. Most DVD players and Blu-ray players prohibit the viewer from performing a large majority of actions during sections of a DVD that are protected or restricted by this feature, and will display...
such as disallowing fast-forward or skipping during trailers and ads in DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
s. However, without membership in the DVD Forum, the project also cannot make XBMC play DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
's encrypted
Encryption
In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
with CSS (Content Scramble System) except by using the libdvdcss
Libdvdcss
libdvdcss is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System...
library, which code was created by reverse-engineering. The legal status of libdvdcss is thus questionable in several nations, the distribution of executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
versions of XBMC containing which was built with this library is likely to run afoul of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
in the U.S. and the EU Copyright Directive in European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
member countries which have incorporated it into national law. For example, many Linux distribution
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s do not contain libdvdcss (for example Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
, Fedora
Fedora (operating system)
Fedora is a RPM-based, general purpose collection of software, including an operating system based on the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat...
, SUSE Linux, and Ubuntu
Ubuntu (operating system)
Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
) due to fears of running afoul of DMCA-style laws, however they still often provide the tools to let the users install it themselves.
See also
- XBMC4XBoxXBMC4XboxXBMC4Xbox is a free and open source media player software made solely for the first-generation Xbox video-game console...
, a third-party developer spin-offBrand extensionBrand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off. Organizations use this strategy to increase and leverage brand equity...
project of XBMC for Xbox, with still active development and support of the Xbox. - HTPC (Home Theater PC)Home theater PCA Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
- Smart TVSmart TVSmart TV, which is also sometimes referred to as "Connected TV" or "Hybrid TV", , is the phrase used to describe the current trend of integration of the internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and these...
- Interactive televisionInteractive televisionInteractive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
- Enhanced TVEnhanced TVEnhanced TV is one example of interactive TV. It is used in particular in reference to Two-Screen Solutions TV + PC services. Generally users of these ETV services have their TV and computer in the same room, and navigate their web browser to a particular program-specific Web site that is...
- Home cinemaHome cinemaHome cinema, also commonly called home theater, are home entertainment set-ups that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood with the help of video and audio equipment in a private home....
- Hotel television systems
- Media multitaskingMedia multitaskingFor other uses, see multitasking Media multitasking involves using TV, the Web, radio, telephone, print, or any other media in conjunction with another...
- Over-the-top contentOver-the-top contentIn the fields of broadcasting and content delivery, over-the-top content means on-line delivery of video and audio without the Internet service provider being involved in the control or distribution of the content itself...
- List of other software video players
- Comparison of video player software
- Comparison of PVR software packagesComparison of PVR software packagesThe following is a comparison guide for popular DVR software packages.-General information:Basic general information for popular DVR software packages....
- List of open source codecs
- List of multimedia (audio/video) codecs
- Comparison of container formatsComparison of container formatsThis table compares features of container formats. To see which multimedia players support which container format, look at comparison of media players.-Information:-Audio formats supported:-Video formats supported:-Caption formats supported:...
External links
- XBMC Official Website
- XBMC Online Manual (Official Wiki)
- [irc://irc.freenode.net/xbmc XBMC Official IRC Chat Room] (on freenodeFreenodefreenode, formerly known as Open Projects Network, is an IRC network used to discuss peer-directed projects. Their servers are all accessible from the domain name [irc://chat.freenode.net chat.freenode.net], which load balances connections by using the actual servers in rotation...
's IRCInternet Relay ChatInternet Relay Chat is a protocol for real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfer, including file...
network) (use an IRC client to join the #xbmc channel)