XBMC, a Google Summer of Code 2008 Project
posted 2008-03-17 by Gamester17 // no comments //  | | XBMC is participating in this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC), which means that we are looking for creative college students who are skilled in the C++ programming language and would be interesting in getting paid by Google to work on new features for XBMC this summer.
Google is this year sponsoring its fourth annual Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a program in which Google rewards students with a stipend of up to US$4500 in order for them to get involved and develop open source code for an existing and established open source project, such as XBMC. So if you are interested here is your chance, XBMC is a cross-platform multimedia-player for Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, and the original Xbox game console.
The student application period starts on Monday March 24th and closes Monday March 31st, so be sure to hurry to sign-up and submit a project proposal by then, however there's no reason to wait for the application period to start before you get involved, so you can begin now deciding on an idea and discussing it with the team. To take part you are required to perform a small qualification task to make sure that you are prepared for your larger project. There is more information and some ideas for qualification tasks and projects on our wiki article for this years GSoC - see the link below. So get thinking about what you'd like to see in XBMC this summer that you may be able to help out on, and post on our forums about your idea for feedback from the team and the community!
UPDATE! The student application deadline has been extended to Monday, April 7, 2008.
Links:
- The XBMC GSoC 2008 Wiki Article
- Google Summer of Code Sign-up
- XBMC community forum discussion
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XBMC recruiting developers for Mac OS X port
posted 2008-02-08 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | Help wanted from Mac OS X programmers! As you may or may not know, back in May last year a few developers from Team-XBMC began porting the XBMC media-player application to Linux (and OpenGL using the SDL toolkit), with the goal of it someday becoming a full port of XBMC containing all the features and functions available in the Xbox version of XBMC, (this Linux-port of XBMC is still in pre-alpha development stage. However, by now it is usable for white box testing by most experienced Linux users).
Now, a little over a month ago a new programmer named Elan joined Team-XBMC and began porting XBMC to the Mac OS X operating-system (from the Linux port of XBMC), currently only targeting Leopard on Intel x86 hardware, and his progress with this "XBMC for Mac OS X" port is going very well. However, this is a huge task which is why we are making this public request. We are seeking C/C++ programmers who are willing to assist with this XBMC for Mac OS X porting project. Whether you have contributed to The XBMC Project in the past or not, please consider doing so now. Those of you who are completely unfamiliar with XBMC can get a good overview of what XBMC offers its end-users by reading through the XBMC article on wikipedia.org
The XBMC code structure uses a fairly modular design (with libraries and DLLs), and we think that there are enough modules/libraries to keep a wide skill-level range of developers busy in the porting of them all. So please, take a look at the source code to assess where we are today and see if there are any areas you'd be willing to help out. Note that we are not abandoning the Xbox hardware, nor the XBMC for Linux port - Our aim is that XBMC will always be a cross-platform software application, supporting both the Xbox and normal computers, (the 'old' Xbox still have a good number of years to live for standard-definition playback, we hope). Developers who would like to volunteer should checkout the "Linux porting development project" and the "HOW-TO compile XBMC for Mac OS X from source code" articles in the official XBMC WIKI for more detailed instructions and contact information.
Note to all end-users of XBMC! Please respect that even though you may play with the Mac OS X and Linux ports of XBMC, Team-XBMC cannot yet offer support to end-users nor accept any bug reports and feature requests for these ports at this time. Additionally, we cannot give you an ETA as to when we will be able to do so. We have, however, added a separate XBMC for Mac OS X forum where early adopter end-users can help out other like-minded end-users. Just understand that you can not yet expect any help from Team-XBMC if you are not a developer.
* XBMC developers forum for the Mac OS X port
* XBMC end-user forum for the Mac OS X port
* Elan's XBMC for Mac OS X blog (with downloads)
* 9to5Mac interview with Elan about the project
* XBMC official web-site: www.xbmc.org
Spread the news: Digg this - Slashdot - Technorati
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New XBMC Website & New Domain (XBMC.ORG)
posted 2008-02-07 by pike // no comments // | | This brand new website has been developed by Granqvist and co-developed by DarkDonno. Chokemaniac made the graphics.
It's been in development for 2 years, and it's "mostly" finished. Much content is unpolished, incidentally this was why we requested a 'content master' a while back, but we never got a suitable candidate for the job. This position is still very much unfilled.
We will also use a new domain from now on, XBMC.ORG which we got from our french teammember Modhack (he's now relocated to XBMC.FR).
Please don't try and use XBMC.COM as this domain is owned by none other than Randy Saaf of MediaDefender (!).
Our old domain xboxmediacenter.com will continue to function, and emails will arrive regardless of used domain.
If you want to help this site by filling it with uptodate content, contact one of the Projectmanagers
UPDATE: Have you logged in but can not post?, here's two examples with solutions.
Discuss this news item
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Happy new year from Team-XBMC!
posted 2007-12-24 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | We the members of The XBMC Project hope you all have a great holiday, (no matter if you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa), we wish everyone a happy new year! The XBMC (XBox Media Center) Project will of course continue on next year, hopefully stronger than ever with another platform officially supported sometime during this upcoming year. We also hope that a new year will mean that more new developers will join the XBMC project, as always we keep we are getting more and more feature requests and new ideas every day, and we never seem to have enough developers/time to fulfil them all. So we say the more the merrier, ideas, people, and help. Come on and join our community you too, together we can make XBMC reach new potential!
Best wishes / Team-XBMC
xboxmediacenter.com
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Boing Boing interview: Team-XBMC on the Future of XBMC for Linux
posted 2007-08-30 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | Freelance writer Joel Johnson recently did and interview with representatives from Team-XBMC for Boing Boing Gadget blog about the Future of XBMC for Linux.
From the interview:
[I]"Joel: How close do you feel you are to a stable version of the XBMC for Linux port? (And by stable I mean "easy enough even a jerk like myself could install and run it."
Team XBMC: We don't have a date yet (it is really to early to know), our best guess today is 6-12 months or so from now but it could be longer. As we are a hobby project we depend on developers own personal interest and free time, making it impossible to set an E.T.A., more 'outside' developers would sure help speed things along."[/I]
You can read the full interview in this blog post on gadgets.boingboing.net
PS! Developers interested in contributing checkout XBMC Linux port project
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XBMC PC environment for skinners and python developers
posted 2006-11-17 by jmarshall // no comments // | | A little over a month ago, I was away from home without the xbox and still wanted to get some development done. To solve this problem, I decided to port parts of XBMC to the PC.
Now, before everyone starts getting too excited, let's make some things clear:
1. It's not a full port, nor is it planned to be a full port. We are not planning on abandoning the xbox anytime soon.
2. With that said, most stuff works - at least stuff useful for the target audience.
3. It's designed primarily for skinners and python developers who can test out their skins and scripts without having to transfer everything to the xbox.
Okay, so with that out of the way, what is it?
Basically, it's a simple port of the majority of XBMC. This includes the entire gui system, file listing, some of the filesystem code (eg local, database files, zip + rar etc.), very simple audio playback, slideshows, python scripts and so on. Video playback is not supported, nor are screensavers or visualisations (basically anything that was relying on the xbox version of directx).
The source code is available in SVN and requires the directx sdk (I use the Summer 2004 version) installed to build the executable. You do not require the XDK. The executable that it produces may be distributed freely - it contains no XDK code whatsoever.
To run it, you basically just grab a full build of the usual xbox version of XBMC, place it somewhere on your PC, and replace the .xbe with XBMC_PC.exe. Note that you'll need a DirectX 8 compatible machine. Most graphics cards nowadays should be fine, but some older chipsets may have issues.
You then have to mount some drives so that the executable knows where to find stuff. You use the subst command under DOS to do so. I use the following .bat file:
[CODE]
subst q: c:\xbmc_pc
subst t: q:\userdata
subst p: q:\userdata
subst z: c:\xbmc_pc\cache
[/CODE]
Obviously you just change the location of q: and z: to reflect wherever you want them. Note that p: is the "profile" directory, and should point to your profile folder if you are not the master user.
That's about it. It logs exactly the same as XBMC does, so if you get errors, it's likely logged about them.
We're not supporting general users running this to play their mp3's or whatever - but we'll be happy to help get skinners and python devs up and running, as that is the target audience.
Ofcourse, others may feel free to have a play all they like. If there's any Win32 developers listening in, then you are free to download the source from SVN and help extend it in anyway you like. One immediate improvement would be to have the executable auto-mount the drives it needs.
Discuss this news item here
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XBoxMediaCenter moves support to Freenode and switches to Subversion
posted 2006-11-16 by pike // no comments // | | Team XBMC is in the process of moving our support channel (#XBMC on EFnet) across to the Freenode IRC network. This is to bring us in line with other similar applications (such as MediaPortal) and also because it's lower maintenance for the ops.
Everyone is encouraged to move to Freenode (#XBMC) as soon as possible. Those unfamiliar with Freenode should be aware of a few differences, the main one being that on Freenode you are encouraged to register your nickname. See here for more details..
The old channel (#XBMC on EFnet) will be maintained for a week or two until everyone has moved over, whereby it will cease to exist.
Due to the superiority of using Subversion (SVN) over CVS, Team XBMC has also decided to move to SVN. This allows better management of the development of XBMC.
In the last few days, we have finished the migration to SVN, and now CVS will no longer be updated. This means everyone who checked out XBMC sources and wishes to continue to do so, will have to install another client and do a complete recheckout.
We recommend using TortoiseSVN. TortoiseSVN is very easy to configure. After it is installed, simply:
1) Rightclick the folder where you want XBMC source folders & files to be downloaded.
2) Choose: 'SVN Checkout'.
3) Enter 'https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/xbmc/trunk/XBMC' as "URL of repository".
4) Hit OK.
To update in future just use 'SVN Update'.
Note that the main trunk of SVN, where the main development work is done should be considered pre-2.1. The 2.0.1 source tree is tagged in SVN and no more development work will be done in it as we move forward towards 2.1.
Please don't ask about release dates for 2.1 - we are currently in full feature addition mode. Expect more announcements shortly of a few of the changes :)
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XboxMediaCenter 2.0.1 released!
posted 2006-11-12 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | Team-XBMC and The XBMC Project is proud to announce the release of XboxMediaCenter 2.0.1. XBox Media Center (XBMC) is an award winning, free and open source media player for the Xbox™ game-console. XboxMediaCenter 2.0.1 point-release source code has now been set in our CVS, and all XBMC users are highly encouraged to upgrade to this version. Know that this point-release version marks the end of the 2.0 era of XBMC, there will be no more 2.0.x bug-fix point-releases. The next point-release of XBMC will be 2.1 (or maybe even 3.0), and it will probably be quite a while before that 2.1 (or 3.0) version sees the light of day with all new major features/functions we have planned for the future, (those who can not wait can always use the latest daily CVS of XBMC).
This XboxMediaCenter 2.0.1 point-release is a stable bug-fix version of the XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 point-release, no major new features has been implemented, for a full list of fixed bugs and tweaks please read the changelog. (For a full list of all features/functions and codecs/formats supported by XBMC please visit the "XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs" page in our online manual). Remember, Team-XBMC only maintain the XBMC source code, Team-XBMC does not release or distribute Xbox executable (XDK binaries), but the XBMC source code needs to be compiled with the XDK before it can be used on an Xbox, also note that XBMC requires a modded Xbox to run. Our thanks goes out to everyone who has tested, reported bugs, and helped fix them in order to make this release possible.
Help is always wanted to keep our online-manual and language translations files up-to-date.
XBMC-Forum discussion: XboxMediaCenter 2.0.1 (Final) Point-Release!
XBMC official web-site: www.xboxmediacenter.com (manual and FAQ)
Note! The old XBMC xboxmediacenter.de domain has been abandoned!
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XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 released!
posted 2006-09-29 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | Team-XBMC and The XBMC Project is proud to announce the release of XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0. XBox Media Center (XBMC) is an award winning, free and open source media player for the Xbox™ game-console. The XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 point-release source code has now been set in our CVS. We consider that the current code in the XBMC CVS is as stable as a point-release should be. All XBMC users are highly encouraged to upgrade to this stable Xbox Media Center 2.0.0 point-release. Remember, the XBMC source code needs to be compiled with the XDK, and requires a modded Xbox to run. Our thanks goes out to everyone who has tested, reported bugs, and helped fix them in order to make this release possible.
There are many new features and functions that have been introduced since the 1.1.0 point-release, that we cannot list them all here. A few that are especially worth mentioning are; the enhanced GUI/skin-engine, the Project Mayhem III skin, DVD-Video menu/navigation support (with ISO/IMG image parsing), RAR/ZIP archive parsing, a new audio/music-player (PAPlayer) with crossfade, gapless playback and ReplayGain support, Karaoke CDG-file display, Xored Trainer Engine (gaming-cheats), XLink Kai (online-gaming) front-end, iTunes 6.x DAAP and UPnP-clients, and two surprise features; read-only support for FAT12/16/32 formatted USB Mass Storage Devices up to 4GB in size, and a brand new "skinnable" 3D visualizer.
For a full list of all features/functions and codecs/formats supported by XBMC please visit the "XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs" page in our new online manual.
Help is wanted to get our online-manual (WIKI), and all the language translations up-to-date.
XBMC-Forum discussion: XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 (Final) Point-Release!
XBMC official web-site: www.xboxmediacenter.com (manual and FAQ)
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XBMC Translator V0.1
posted 2006-06-19 by pike // no comments // | | hi all you translators out there,
this tool is exclusively made for you. ;) since i (bobbin007) am one of the maintainers of the german language file, i thought it would be time to simplify the whole process of updating a language file a little. after a lot of pondering and hacking, i proudly present the first version of my xbmc translator. hope this tool will be useful as it is now, but as always i'm open for suggestions.
feature list:
- create new translations
- keep track of untranslated strings
- keep track of changed strings
- search function to find strings easily
- edit language specific settings, like codepages and date/time format
- the language file is saved with utf-8 encoding
download here
have fun
bobbin007
xbmc forums-discussion: xbmc translator v0.1
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XBMC Widget for OS-X users
posted 2006-04-16 by pike // no comments // | | andy herbert has created an xbmc widget that enables os-x users to drag and drop links onto the widget, which then gets played back on an internet connected xbox running xbmc.
check it out here
thanks andy!
xbmc forums discussion
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XBMC Wins 2 Categories at 2006 CCA
posted 2006-04-06 by pike // no comments // | | 2006 sourceforge.net community choice awards
we won!
thanks to you - our users, xbmc won best multimedia and also best game(!) category.
prize: 'bragging rights' and the logo on our projectpage.
and while i have your attention, we are in need of assistance to get our wiki manual "up to speed" for the upcoming 2.0.0 release. loto is attempting a rewrite, but he is in need of assistance. documenting xbmc is simply too much for 1 individual to handle, see discussion
also don't forget, we will not be including outdated translations with 2.0.0, so if your language isn't uptodate, please make an effort to update your language!
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Xbox Media Center feature-freeze and bug-bash!
posted 2006-03-07 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. we are happy to announce that we have once again put the official xbmc cvs into a feature freeze and thus our third official public bug-bash has begun. this is the first step in the process of getting ready for another 'stable' point release of xbmc. the cvs feature freeze means that in order to minimize new bugs, no major features will be introduced into the cvs until after the source code for the point release has been finalised. this feature freeze will also give skinners and translators a chance to catch up as xbmc's skin-structure has also been locked down. skinners and users alike should note that skins made for earlier versions than 2.0.0 will no longer be supported, and that out-of-date translations will not be released with the 2.0.0 point release. we should all do our best to find and fix most bugs before the release date for 2.0.0 can be set. this means that we now need your help more than ever with finding new bugs and reporting those bugs in a proper and detailed manner. we of course also extend a welcome to other developers; please help us solve these bugs and submit fixes for them. only with your help can we get an xbmc 2.0.0 point release ready in a timely fashion, but please understand that all the members of team-xbmc are non-paid volunteers, so we cannot set a definitive deadline at this stage. we will however do our best to have the first release candidate ready within a reasonable timeframe.
ps! also new since the last point release is the xbmc online-manual. what makes the manual special is the "wiki" format which means that anyone of you can help update it at any time! we appreciate all help with updating the manual to cover everything xbmc 2.0.0 has to offer.
xboxmediacenter forums-discussion: xbmc feature-freeze and bug-bash topic thread (link)
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XBMC DVD-Player Announcement
posted 2005-09-12 by darkie // no comments // | | the day many of you have been waiting for has finally come; xbmc's built-in dvd-player core is now officially open to the public for general usage. the new dvdplayer-core, which a few of our developers have been working on for almost a year has been enabled in our cvs and is of today the default player for dvd-video playback in xbmc. please be patient with it, understand that it can be a bit buggy, it has some limitations, and still needs a lot of work. the basics functions for dvd-video playback (dvd-menus support) is in there and from now on we will accept (properly formatted) bug-reports from end-users and we will do our best to help users of the player. we would also like to take this moment to ask and encourage programmers who may or may not yet have contributed to the xbmc project to step up and assist in the development of this new core for dvd-video playback. please take a look at the source code, its potential, and then look at the many (big and small) features that are missing or lacking, there are things that almost anyone can help with.
a special thanks goes to all people and groups who made a donatation!
xbmc forum-discussion: xbmc dvd-player made public!
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Milkdrop Visualization added to XBMC (updated)
posted 2005-05-15 by pike // no comments // | | 2005-05-15 milkdrop was added to xbmc cvs.
nullsoft kindly opensourced this awesome visualization 2005-05-04, and then it was just a matter of time until one of our devs ported it ;)
here's a screenshot captured using our built-in screenshot function, showing one of the 435 .milk presets currently in our cvs. the screenshot also shows our new seekbar located at top right corner, currently mapped to left-right on the right analog thumbstick.
(click image for fullsize version)
rovastar's page is a resource where more than 3000 milkdrop presets can be found.
another resource is winamp's milkdrop forums.
team xbmc would like to thank ryan geiss for creating milkdrop, nullsoft for opensourcing it, all preset authors (too many to list here) and last but not least mrc for porting it!
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One Year Chokemaniac's Project Mayhem Webpage
posted 2005-03-08 by Hullebulle // no comments // | | quote from chokemaniac.net:
i've come a long way :) many things happened in the past 12 months. when i started this site, i only wanted a couple of screenshots of the project mayhem skin and a download button. but critikill made soo much more out of it. thanks a lot out to you bud. hope your current projects are going well.
a couple of weeks ago the new design was launched and i have t say i really love it. big props out to christian granqvist again for coding it for me! the latest addition is the new project mayhem forum. modhack, alexsolex and chris made it almost alone and i cant thank them enough. i hope all the skinners out there will join me there to take xbmc skinning to the next level.
i also worked a lot on xbmc with (my favorite coder ;) jonathan marshall. we came up with many nice additions like submenu, contextmenus, shutdownmenu, the new slideshow, new filemanager and the new settings system. and i think we're gonna keep improving xbmc. i'm looking forward to it. big props to you too j. and thanks for you patience with me ;)
by now i released more than 20 skins for all kinds of xbox apps. more than 110.000 downloads so far and counting. not too bad i think. project mayhem iii is around the corner now. i planed to release it today but i'm not completely happy with it yet. so guess you gotta be patient a little longer. i think this will be my last skin for xbmc. i'ts a lot of work to keep 3 skins up to date. but anyways: i'll keep suprising ;)
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XBMC Screensaver Competition Winners!
posted 2005-03-02 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | the contest is now over. we would like to thank all who contributed in one way or another. the standard was very high, and we are really impressed with what you guys came up with. the 5 winners were easy to choose since 5 people entered the contest. each of the winners receive an x2vga-adapter each, (winners will be contacted shortly in regards to shipping). in no particular order, congratulations to:
siw (for "cpblobs")
dinomight (for "greynetic")
sylfan (for "stars")
jme (for "planestate")
mrc (for "shade worm")
thanks again to neoya for sponsoring the competition!
link: xbmc screensaver competition discussion
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Project Mayhem Website Redesign
posted 2005-02-08 by Hullebulle // no comments // | | from chokemaniacs website: "it's finally online. the new project mayhem website. it was about time to give it a general facelift. think it turned out pretty good. there's plenty of new stuff to check out. new skins, updated gallery, news archive, wallpapers and much more to come. the man, who put all this together so nicely in top notch php is christian granqvist from sweden. thanks a lot chris! i owe you big time. now that i'm thru with this site for now, i will go back to the xbox stuff. i hope i don't have to let the xbmc project suffer for the new job im starting on february 14th. not sure yet how much of my time it'll consume. next up i gotta update the xbmc skins. haven't had much time to look after them during the making of this site. maybe i'll also make some more skins".
project mayhem website: www.chokemaniac.net
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xForm is calling out for your help!
posted 2005-02-04 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | from arddrive of xform.xbox-scene.com: "hi everyone, arddrive here at xform. i am please to announce that xform [an xbmc skinning tool] is now open source and i am looking for .net c# programmers to help work on xform to work on custom objects and fun stuff like that (you will need a good knowledge but not need to be an expert because i can always check your code). i'm also looking for people who are willing to write a manual in html for xform. this will be complied into one big free html manual with help from others. if you are interested in joining the xform dev team drop me an email at gutterdrive -at- hotmail.com to chat about things."
xform homewebsite: xform.xbox-scene.com
source code (cvs): xbmc skinning project
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Multimedia one of Xbox-II primary goals
posted 2005-01-06 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | in an interview yesterday with cnet news.com bill gates outlined multimedia playback as one of microsoft's primary goals with xbox 2; quote: "this whole story of the windows media connect and how all the formats and rights management and that simple media center menu that's just got tv, photos, music right there--those are common elements we're bringing to all the home devices. we didn't do xbox just to do a video game; we did it to be part of our vision of the digital lifestyle, and with the next generation, we really get to go there. in the first generation, we had one simple goal, which was to establish credibility as a great video game platform. we've done that. actually, the last few months in the united states, we outsold sony with the playstation. so even though they have the biggest installed base, we are a very strong, credible no. 2 in that. as we go into this next generation, it's much broader. yes, great video gaming but videogaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity. and at the same time, we move up to things like high-definition graphics and wireless that the chip breakthroughs allow us to get to. so just for the games alone you'd go, wow, but the concept now of bringing in your music, your media, connecting to the pc, connecting xbox live to messenger--that just makes it a very big deal. edia center pc and xbox become totally complementary. you've seen a bit of that, where we let you take music from pcs and put it into game titles, and we have this extender concept where the media center can project through the xbox, but that's just the start of what we can do there."
read the full interview with bill gates on news.com
...in the meantime xbmc is still going strong on the first xbox (but modded of course)
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XBMC and XLink Kai (Updated!)
posted 2004-11-10 by runtime // no comments // | | apologies for the somewhat delayed news post, by now you've probably already heard that we've added a major update to our cvs. support for the free multiplayer online gaming service xlink kai has been massively improved. amongst many new features, it has a voice chat function (using team-avalaunch's port of speex). players can use voice chat within xbmc to communicate directly or chat in "groups" with other players on xbox's and pcs that also support xlink kai. in addition team-xbmc has open a dedicated support forum for xlink kai in xbmc (link). if you don't know what we're ranting on about then head over to team-xlink's website www.teamxlink.co.uk for more information and nice screenshots, plus for support on the actual kai engine that runs on your computer you have to of course turn to team-xlink's own forums (link).
    
quote from thedaddy (team-xlink): "xbmc now supports private arenas, creating arenas, avatars, invites and lots of other kaiui features. xbmc is also your friend if you intend to use a linux-router like the wrt54g to run your kai engine - you could get a really nice setup, with xbmc and kai - so no computer would be needed"
update (14/11-2004)!: new in todays cvs are a slew of new online features for xbmc's xlink kai support, these includes; "auto-play" from harddrive, "kai toast" notifications (last picture above), "my avatar", network status dialogs, plus a number of bug-fixes. for more information on these news please see this topic thread (link) in the forums.
xlink-kai quick-guide for xbmc version 1.1.01 (pdf) => http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xbmc.....01.pdf (thanks to puma81 and juice)
xlink-kai user-guide for xbmc version 1.1.01 (pdf) =>http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xbmc.....01.pdf (thanks to puma81 and juice)
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Donations for DVD-menu in XBMC campaign
posted 2004-10-29 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | we have had this idea in mind for a while and were planning to kick of this campaign at a later date but after a recent post in mplayer-dev mailing-list we have decided to bring forward the announcement. the 'donations for dvd-menu in xbmc campaign' basic concept is to encourage xbmc end-users to make donations (via paypal) into a fund in order to motivate the xbmc developers to prioritize programming dvd-video menu/navigation support for xbmc. this concept has been brewing for a few month now as many people have either posted in the forum or e-mailed us directly offering to donate money to this specific cause, which has been the #1 requested feature for quite a while. so come on, be generous and help support the xbmc project. give donations for how much you feel xbmc is worth to you as a whole if this feature were added to xbmc's already very long feature list. the xbmc developer(s) who code this huge feature will collect the fund-pot on completion as a reward - they have adready started coding.
update (9/11-2004): just thought we let everyone that the campaign is going very well which shows the demand for this feature, the fund have already received over 100 donations and so far the fund total is at just over $1,800(us), which includes one very generous donation today of $500(us) from team-xecuter (who said they will also donate 5 x x3-modchips to the fund). short progress-report on the actual code development; our xbmc devs working on this internally have got basic dvd playback working and menus are also partially working, all showing great promise.
make your donation towards dvd-menu support in xbmc via paypal: $25, $50, $100 or other.
if like to make a none-paypal (money or maybe a gift) donation please contact gamester17.
forum discussion: donations for dvd-menu in xbmc campaign (link)
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XForm v0.1 Beta coming this monday!
posted 2004-10-15 by Hullebulle // no comments // | | news story from xbox-scene.com: received news from arddrive who has been working on xform (previously called xbmc-skinner), a win32 tool that will allow you to easily make skins for xboxmediacenter: "i know you have all been waiting a long time for xform but the beta release will be coming this monday! in this beta version some of the functionality will be missing but here at xform we hope to have a fortnightly update for you guys and girls out there who want it. however you will already be able to add most things to your skins – buttons, labels, images, thumbnails, spin controls, ...you get the picture. the download will be made available on monday from xbmc-skinner.xbox-scene.com. thanks for your patience".
update (14:45 18/10-2004)!: xform v0.1b is now available from xbmc-skinner.xbox-scene.com
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X-addons generic LCD-display mods
posted 2004-09-20 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | team-xaddons (addons.com) have officialy announced a generic lcd-mod (adds a parallel and a spi-bus interface to your xbox) and a lcd-con (lcd-connector board) xbox-mod add-ons. the lcd-mod has several pin-headers and sockets to ensure compatability with a wide range of console versions and mod-chips. the most popular add-on device so far being lcd-displays. the lcd-mod allows you to install a lcd into any xbox-console and can be used with applications like our very own xboxmediacenter, (code supporting x-addons lcd-mod/con is already in xbmc cvs, but note that contrast-adjustment from gui is not yet working). example; in conjunction with x-addons lcd-mod and a x.b.i.t-chip you can install a lcd completely solderless (a cable for a solderless connection with the x-b.i.t is included)! in conjunction with modchips that use pinheaders you can just put x-addons lcd-mod between the pin-header and the modchip. view x-addons manual for details. the lcd-con (lcd-connector board) is an adapter device to provide an easy way to install a lcd in your console and is designed to work perfectly with the lcd-mod. you can also use the lcd-con without the lcd-mod to ease the install of a lcd. a cable for a solderless connection between lcd-con and lcd-mod is included. note! a special cable to connect the lcd-con to a smartxx, xenium or any other modchip that requires soldering to existing parallel interface is available and sold separately.
team-xaddons official-website: www.addons.com
official reseller of lcd-mod/con: gamefreax.com
(xbmc-forum discussion: compatible lcd-mods)
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Microsoft Xbox price drop in Europe
posted 2004-09-08 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | microsoft has as of last week (better late news than no news) officially dropped the rrp (recommended retail price) of their xbox® video game console in europe. the price was lower by Ł30/€50 making the new rrp Ł99.99/€149.99, (a price that now match the xbox price in north america which was dropped to $149.99 u.s. in march this year). sony has already followed suit and matched the price drop for their playstation 2. analysts has not yet given their opinion but one can predict that there will now not be another price drop in europe for neither of the two companies video game console until after x-mas.
link: xbox® official website (xbox.com)
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Xbox-Scene.com holding a XBMC poll (UPDATED!)
posted 2004-08-26 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | fyi, xbox-scene, the largest xbox homebrew news-site is currently holding an anonymous poll to try to find out how large percentage of their readers have xbox media center installed on their xboxes, so head over to www.xbox-scene.com to register your answer to "is xboxmediacenter installed on your xbox?" (it's anonymous and just two clicks are required). alternatively you can visit this xbox-scene.com page (link) to view the result without voting.
update (1/9-2004)!: the poll is now over and the end-result is in; 14025 people, 81% voted "yes" stating that they have xbmc installed on their xbox, only 19% (3360 votes) voted "no" stating they do not have xbmc installed. now, not everyone who has a xbox visits xbox-scene.com (english speaking site) and not all of those who do register their vote, plus keep in mind that the poll was directed only to those who already modded their xbox, however as a conclusion of the poll we can estimate that currently 81% of all modded xboxes in the world have xboxmediacenter installed. but who's to say how many xboxes been modded?, not even microsoft knows that.
news source: www.xbox-scene.com start page (top left corner)
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New Version of RelaX solves issues with XBMC
posted 2004-08-16 by Hullebulle // no comments // | | relax v0.79
# relax now works with xbmc!..... if you don't use xmbc then don't download this release
# just put in xbmc the path like "xns://yourip:1400/" for the root and "xns://yourip:1400/divx" for your divxes.. etc
# here is the changelog!
* relax now works with xbmc.. to do that i had to rework the internal file system. that's why the following doesn't work anymore.
- disabled iso support
- disabled xiso support
- disabled zip support
- disabled shoutcast support
- disabled intergrating directorys
- disabled directory flattening
+ filesize reporting
+ filedate reporting
* fixed the filelister reporting incorrect filesizes!
* xbmc scan's for thumbs for each directory.. thats why it's a bit slow when entering a directory with loads of directory's.
* when u disable logging... directory changing in xbmc will become faster.
- some other stuff might now be broken. just mail me and i'll see what i can do.
# when i have some spare time i'll try to rebuild some options again in the v0.xx branch before going back to work on the rebuild again.
official site: http://www.raforce.nl/
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XBMC Skinning Contest Wrap-up
posted 2004-07-10 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | the winners of the xbmc skinning contest has now been finalized, but first we like to offer a public apology for our delay in this decision, (we had some copyright issues to sort out and real-life/work stuff came up too that had to be dealt with first). 15 out the 20 submitted entries has been validated as winners and we like to congratulate the creators of those 15 skins, you can see who they are in the list bellow. know that we do not have a ranking for this contest, there are only winners and non-winners. the winners should contact gamester17 as soon as possible (if they haven't already) with your shipping address so that we can arrange to send one xenium modchip for each valid entry that you submitted, (prizes are courtesy of team-ozxodus and xbox-gear.com).
the winners are (listed here in alphabetic order):
blackblue beos, by leonardo
blackblue classic, by leonardo
fauvism, by alx5962
hifi, by onkel bouncy
oceanic light, by ph03n1x
organic apple, by agentash
project mayhem, by chokeman
reder, by britneyspairs
retro, by floink
simplesimon, by guybrush (a.k.a. kaze-san)
simplified, by pin87a
stylus, by lazyguru
symbol, by kotix
visor, by bobrooney_78
xbmatik, by webmaster_p
non-skinners, please make a donation to help pay for the winners modchip shipping cost.
more info: xbmc skinning contest rules and conditions
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XboxMediaCenter 1.0.0 announcement!
posted 2004-06-29 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | xbmc 1.0.0 point release source code has now been set in our cvs, so believe it or not, the day that many of you been waiting for is finally here, today, now! we felt that we had been holding off doing release candidates for so long that we now consider the xbmc cvs to be as stable as a point release should be, so we decided that we were ready to go final (gold) without a release candidate process. yes, there are still a few known bugs but none serious enough to stop you from fully enjoying xbmc. know that we will keep the cvs feature freeze for a few more days, just in case any huge bugs are discovered in this release (in which case we fix them then set and announce a 1.0.1 point release src). all xbmp and xbmc-beta users out there are highly encouraged to upgrade to xbox media center 1.0.0 point release which is now officially the only supported version. for those of you who are new to xbmc (and/or xbmp) please understand and respect that we do not release nor distribute xbox executable (xdk binaries) at all, so please do not ask us where to find/download compiled versions of xbmc (which you do require to run xbmc on your xbox). please read through our faq and the online-manual carefully before you post anything in our forums.
update note! no serious bugs has been found yet so the cvs feature freeze has been lifted,
meaning our team-devs are again adding new features and independant coders can too (link)
ps! love it if people would go ahead and update/translate 1.0 strings.xml to other languages
xbmc-forum discussion: xboxmediacenter 1.0.0 point release (final)!
download: xbmc 1.0.0 source code (of faq: what is source code?)
xbmc official web site: www.xboxmediacenter.com (currently down)
xbmc official mirror site: www.xboxmediacenter.de (currently online)
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XBMC Skinning Contest UPDATE!
posted 2004-06-20 by Gamester17 // no comments // | | this is just a simple reminder that there is now very little time left to submit your xboxmediacenter skin if you made one for our skinning contest. we will officially accept (valid) entries until 12:00 am g:mt 21st of june 2004 (that is 12 o'clock noon tomorrow greenwich mean time), so make sure you get in yours on time. please double check that your skin does not violate any copyrights before you submit it, (read the whole forum thread linked bellow for ongoing discussions and issues). the prizes on stake are 20 xenium modchips courtesy of team-ozxodus and xbox-gear.com.
non-skinners, please make a donation to help pay for the winners modchip shipping cost.
more info: xbmc skinning contest rules and |
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