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.
I have updated to pre eden, added dirty regions to advanced settings, looks like celeron( 2 ghz) will not push xbmc effeciently. Anyone want a cheap cheap toshiba satellite a15-s127?
works perfectly (dual boot with other OS), ASUS EEEPC EB1501
Also mini keyboards/mouse remotes such as Logitech di Novo works with all the media keys, somthing that does not work with XBMC Live.
Does anyone know if there are any iOS remotes that will work with OpenELEC out of the box?
I’ve installed OpenELEC on old Core 2 Duo PC, connecting last to LCD-TV via HDMI-cable. MKV and Blu-Ray (BDMV) – no problems :))) SPASIBO (RUS)
For now, use the Generic build, it works fine on ATV mk1
I also have an EeePC EB1501 and OpenELEC makes it smoother than ever! The previous small but noticeable lag on AEON-type skins has dissapeared! :) I do use one of the experimental builds though since it also supports AirPlay from my iPad.
Great stuff, the remote/ir-reciever works flawlessly out of the box! Which has been a major difficulty in getting XBMC-Live onto it!
@Eric
By iOS-remote do you mean apps?
If so, most should work. I’m using Constellation but I can’t see why others wouldn’t.
If you can find the updates share folder, download the pre-eden version. The updates folder should be empty. Place system and kernel file in updates folder. Ignore the md5 files. Reboot. And thats it. On windows xp i found updates in my network places.
I tried on my ASRock NetTop ION 3D 152D, and it’s amazing :) Remote and wifi works instantly, bootup and shutdown is fast, there are good tutorials on website, and it has a simple config. But there are 2 downsides (as for me):
– wifi connection dropped after 2 days uptime (lost connection with the router, but both are on ups, so no power outage. sleeping is disabled on the machine. it connects back after restart)
– transmission config is in /storage/.cache, so i have to set transmission every time i restart the computer
Maybe there’s a simple workaround for these problems, but i could not found it. :(
Media Centre Machine – OpenELEC-Generic.i386-1.0.2, Intel I7 920, 6gb ram, 6x 2tb + 1x 640gb drives, nVidia 9800GTX, Sony 7.1 Bravia Amp, Sony 36″ Bravia TV, HDMI. It took about 2 minutes to make 8gb (all I had laying around) USB key (on LinuxMint9 x64), about 60 seconds to install from key to 640gb test drive, 35 seconds to reboot into a working XBMC. Add sources, add Transparency Skin, customize skin and screens etc – All up from scratch about 15 minutes to a working media system. Everything works ‘Out Of The Box’.
Fantastic – so quick and easy – can’t wait for full stable Eden version which will become my permanent version to replace standard Mint plus XBMC..
(The OpenELEC-Generic.i386-devel-20111026023515-r8630.tar.bz2 version made a key but wouldn’t boot – only blank screen.)
Will this work on my Mac Mini 2010 ? and with my HDHomerun ?
@Tuxie – I have an Acer Aspire Revo 3610 (Atom 330 + ION) and 1080p works flawlessly.
I would also like to know how this works on Mac Mini Early 2009 with nvidia graphics, and what build to is the besto one to use?
Cool! Seems like the perfect 1-click solution to get XBMC working! I don’t have time to tinker with setting up Linux XBMC or even XBMC live. This sounds like a great solution for the rest of us.
You have to correct the colour space settings in XORG if you’re running a Revo 3610. All the colours were very dark. It also doesn’t work with keyboards over IR like MCE Keyboard so your remote configs on harmony may get screwed up as it won’t have as many buttons. Also on the Harmony 500 series MCE Remotes work a lot slower than MCE Keyboards so you’re forced to use another remote.
Does OpenELEC support LCDproc (and hd44780 LCD )?
Has any one loaded openelec on to the new Zotac Nano? Contemplating an upgrade. Any comments or links? I also noticed that there isn’t a custom kernel for AMD, am I blind?
excellent program, got it up and runnig in just a few minutes on an Asrock coreht-231d
who needs an OS if you have openelec :-)