OpenELEC 1.0 released
Team XBMC would happily like to congratulate Team OpenELEC on their release of v1.0.
OpenELEC, for those who don’t know, is somewhat similar to XBMC Live. The basic concept is that the user interacts with XBMC without once having to visit a non-XBMC screen. The similarities between XBMC Live and OpenELEC end there though. Live is based on a modified and stripped down release of Ubuntu. OpenELEC has been built from scratch specifically to act as a media center. Live is based on minimal Ubuntu, thus you can easily install all services and applications that are available on Ubuntu repositories, and as a pre-requisite, Live includes all the system files necessary for the Ubuntu ecosystem. Essentially, the user who is looking for an XBMC-optimized customization of the standard Ubuntu OS would likely prefer XBMC Live. The user who would like XBMC stripped down to the very most basic essentials for ultimate boot time would likely prefer OpenELEC.
In the streamlining process, OpenELEC cuts out any and all unnecessary drivers and optimizes those drivers that are present. In furtherance of this, specific NVIDIA ION and AMD Fusion-based systems have been developed, in addition to the generic build.
Beyond enhanced boot time, perhaps the most interesting features of OpenELEC are the network of additional addons that are separate from XBMC-proper, which allow for LiveTV functionality, GUI configuration, self-updating, and media downloading, among other things.
With release 1.0, OpenELEC becomes fully compatible with XBMC 10.1 Dharma. Now that most of the underlying architecture is in place, OpenELEC should be able to update to XBMC Eden relatively quickly, once Eden has been released.
For a relatively easy to follow guide on installing OpenELEC, feel free to check out the Lifehacker article on OpenELEC. And, of course, go to OpenELEC to download the goodness. For those of you who have already tried out OpenELEC in the past or are going to in the near future, head to the comments to let us know how the experience went.
Love OpenELEC. Too bad I don’t have any AMD hardware to test out 1080p, as all my boxes are ION or NVIDIA. And those work awesome. Also like the auto update feature.
Pre-Eden versions already exist for the adventurous :-) http://sources.openelec.tv/tmp/image/openelec-eden/ Surprisingly stable too.
did xbmc-live for a few monthes. Then I learned of OpenELEC, and I never turned back =]
Using the 1.01 version I like it but i think i will go back to xbmc live when Eden drops!
As always thanks for making my digital life a pleasure! :)
Running Pre-Eden builds of OpenELEC at the moment. If you want to have XMBC “as an appliance”, this is the way to go people
Nice! Any further XBMC machines I build besides my main setup will probably run this. My main one is still XBMC on Windows 7, though, so I can have Bluray playback, HD audio bitstreaming, and “Full HD 3D” playback. If these features ever hit Openelec (and I hope they will), I can ditch Microsoft completely!
I have high hopes for the HD audio, actually, what with the AudioEngine project and all. As for bluray, well, I know Eden will play unencrypted blurays now (without menus), but really I’d like to be able to just pop in a disk bought in the shop, and have it play with menus, 3D and all. For that, I unfortunately need PowerDVD, and therefore Windows. meh.
Still, congrats on Openelec – it looks fantastic!
@HwyXingFrog
My ASRock ION 3D (ION2) can play 1080p just fine and I’m pretty sure that even the first generation ION is able to as well.
OpenELEC is an absolute breeze to install, and setup!
Its good fun, and I’m running Eden Dev build and its stable.
Takes me 7seconds or less to bootup from cold…
Running a Zbox ID41 and its super smooth even with 25gb .mkv’s.
Really puts XBMC-Live to shame. I cannot believe that XBMC *STILL* allows no easy way to update the system. Not interested in nightlies, just basic bug fixes and updates. Sigh.
Openelec is exactly what i’ve been looking for! Can’t wait for an official Eden – Openelec!!!!
I was using the pre Eden build and it worked like a charm, however I did not manage to build boblight into it so I will have to wait (and hope for) a guide.
Very nice, boots very fast!
Too bad there is still no HDMI Audio for ION machines, just like every other distribution :(
Would expect that especially from the ION build :)
Well lets hope for 1.1…
i have ion 330 and it works with 1080p playback no problem..
i use xbmc live cause i also use my mediacenter as incomming ftp @ home. installed glftpd. to much work on openelec for that to work :)
Can HULU be played via OpenELEC? This is the one thing that i need my internet browser for currently in my windows setup.
If it can play HULU is it via an standard video add-on or is it a program add-on of a browser with flash capabilities?
Been running pre-eden builds of Openelec for months…. and they have run fantastic. I have a Zotac MB with an Atom 230 (Single Core) processor, and Avatar BluRay rip plays perfectly.. something I could never quite achieve using XBMC-Live. Congrats to the Openelec team for the release, and Congrats to the XBMC team for being very well represented.
I built an HTPC box XBMC Live based for a friend a while ago and, because he insisted on using AMD hardware, despite my best efforts, HD content was unwatchable. I then decided to give OpenELEC a go after reading AMD support was being added. Guess what? For the most part, HD content now plays fine.
From now on, I’m gonna recommend OpenELEC to all my friends building HTPC boxes. Those more tech-savvy can still play with other options (XBMC Live). For the rest of the chaps, OpenELEC is the way to go.
Well done, guys. Congrats!
Great news! Only disadvantage (for some users) is that the OS-partition is read-only. So you don’t have the Freedom to change whatever you like.
@Tuxie
I know that 1080p works on ION1 and ION2, that’s why I only have ION boxes. I’m curious if AMD can do it with OpenELEC.
I have had a Revo 3610 running Live for the last few versions. Has been running fine. However I decided to switch to OpenELEC a few weeks ago, mainly attracted by the auto update feature. Boy I was impressed with how smoothly it all installed and worked. It just did! I also didtched the harddrive at the same time, and stuck in a 16GB SD card and boot from that – no noise from the HDD fan.
I was excited when release 1.01 came out. Sure enough it just downloaded and updated XBMC itself. Gone were the days of a new Live release, and having to take a deep breath before immersing myself in the week or so it takes to get the system running properly – audio, network, remote, etc.
Well done to everyone concerned and thanks for your efforts.
I put this on an old Celeron laptop and it will play 720P content perfectly. Since my other box is an ATV2, it is the perfect bedroom device. Only reason I will use something different now is if we decide we want Skype on the TV.
I have been using Openelec for a couple of weeks and has been a great expirience. Installation is so easy that my 8 years old could do it.
Good job!!!
@Pete
Actually, HDMI audio works for my ion box and there’s even a tutorial in the OpenElec forums that walk you through the process.
Would this work on a Mac Mini as well? ION based…
@Jaccoh
I have it working on my second gen mac mini (first intel version, no hdmi). mac mini is NOT ion based. core2duo processor. use the generic download
Really looking forward to trying this out – the only two things that I like from my full ubuntu install that I’m unsure of how this handles it – can you configure it to host samba shares and run transmission?
The current set up I have i really like that I use it to download, stream over the network to other computers, and watch on xbmc. Does anyone have any suggestions?
@bulkzooi
This is one thing I don’t like about OpenELEC.
I changed over from XBMC live for the quicker boot time, but there were a few tweaks I wasn’t able to make. Such as when using confluence in media view 2 for movies, I changed the rating to the year. Something I can’t do on OpenELEC.
Get NFS built in on the next release and it will be exceptional.
Easy as pie to do on openelec – Usign SSH (e.g. WinSCP) Copy the default confluence skin to your addons folder (which is writable and in .xbmc) – rename in the xml file to MyConfluence or whatver, and make your changes. Piece of pie.
Already supported via simple netmount.conf system (or amnual mounts in autostart.sh) with the current Dharma release and will be supported native in Eden releases.
Seriously folks, the storgae part of openelec is default writeable so simple skin tweaks, basic shell script stuff, advancedsettings.xml etc, adding .zips like weather packs or whatever – all of these are possible in Openelec very easily.
It’s only driver chantges and the like that you can’t really do as in Live, but all the normal xbmc tweaking stuff is easy.
My 2.0 ghz celeron laptop seems to be worthless, even with generic openelec installed. Cpu@ about 97%. Any hope?
@Matt
But it has VDPAU nVidia..
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-mac-nvidia-ion,6849.html
Installed OpenElec 1.01 on a new Asrock 152d D525 atom/nvidia system with 60GB SSD in 10 minutes. Performed the mod for audio over HDMI as specified on their website. Plays 1080p very well indeed & all skins even with a lot of fanart all operate very quickly. Everything worked as expected remote & all! 10 second boot as well – great!
@Cocheese
Use one of the Pre-Eden builds of OpenElec and enable Dirty Region rendering (http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/06/19/working-with-dirty-regions/)
This will probebly help your laptop to run OpenElec just fine.
As with the Live version, can’t get my wireless N Linksys USB stick to work. Only way for me to hook up to my network :(
I may consider OpenElec when the Eden version comes out as I only use XBMC as an HTPC. At the very least, I’ll test it on another drive.
Did anyone have issues getting OpenElec to work with their HDTV, in terms of getting a 1080P resolution? I assume you can tweak some settings ala the xorg.conf file in XBMC live to get it to work if necessary?
After reading so much about OpenELEC I installed yesterday in my HTPC (ASRock NetTop ION 330HT-BD). From entering the OpenELEC website to download it until it was installed (on a USB stick) and scanning my library it did not take me even 30 minutes. I was impressed that the remote worked out-of-the-box (it took me quite some time and effort to get it working the first time with XBMC Live Dharma). Can’t wait to try the Eden version… and hopefully it will update itself. Great job, team!
Openelec works very well with an atom and broadcom crystal hd chip. Thanks.
@Matt
I tried OpenELEC on 2010 mini and wireless wouldn’t work and neither did the alu Apple remote.
Anyone got the Logo Script working with OpenElec? I have my stuff sitting on a NAS (Samba) and OpenElec complains about “Error in Path”… worked flawless with the prior live i had installed… atm the logos are not shown and the logo script doesnt work… anything else works like a charm….
didn’t work for me. I found the trick to use the plop boot manager in order to boot from USB as my bios does not support that. However, internet doesn’t connect as there must be no driver for my ethernet card. I don’t understand how one would use this if the drivers don’t happen to be in the build. Should I expect my Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-850 to also ‘just work’? My hardware is a 9 year old gateway tower machine with P4 and GeForce 7600 – NVIDIA so it seems this should be enough. I like the idea of this product as the holy grail for me would be something that works for live TV, PVR and my ISO files without being a linux guru.
I wish there was a newer Eden nightly than October 16th. I’d LOVE to use this with my current setup but the later MySQL versions from around the 23rd on changed the DB around – Otherwise it’s awesome. Can’t wait for a new Eden build. This was EXACTLY what I needed for my Ion.
@Adam
Hulu works just fine via the Hulu plugin. Been running OpenElec for the last few months with no problems on my Zotac IONitx-G-E. Full 1080p and HDMI audio work just fine if you know how to setup your xorg the right way.
@mark
please add a feature request at http://openelec.tv/forum/19-feature-suggestions so we can add support for your ethernet card. we add drivers for unsupported hardware on request.
@Kujo
I just realized how silly my question regarding xorg file was. I
Is there a generic version of pre eden? generic is the only one that even attempts to install.
@TheCooK
This only works in the pre-eden builds.
@Cocheese
http://sources.openelec.tv/tmp/image/openelec-eden/OpenELEC-Generic.i386-devel-20111026023515-r8630.tar.bz2
This is the latest pre-eden generic build.
Is there no pre-eden build for the Apple TV Version1 With Crystal? I see the link and see every build EXCEPT for the appletv.