Updated: XBMC 9.11 Beta1: Introducing Confluence
As the testing portion of Camelot continues, we would like to introduce Confluence as the new default XBMC skin. We have also stopped including the original Project Mayhem III skin (Don’t worry, PM3.HD is still there). It will be added to the gallery soon, but for now you can find it here.
A ‘Confluence’ is the coming together of many things into one point, and the skin lives up to that for sure. Jezz_X started it as a progression of his MediaStream_Redux, but it has evolved into something entirely different from its origins. You’ll surely notice that it shares a home-screen ‘blade’ with MediaStream, a settings screen feel with Aeon, views from many other skins, etc. In short, he’s used ideas from existing skins to make a coherent amalgamation that is both sexy and easy to use. Feel free to visit the gallery for screenshots or the forum to discuss the skin.
Confluence 'Fanart' View
Soft String Freeze
Also for this release, the settings cleanup is in the final stages. For the most part, we’ve reorganized and renamed everything that needed attention. All that’s left now is the finishing touches. As a result, you may notice that some of your settings have reverted to the new defaults. Please double-check this before submitting bug reports.
While strings are not completely frozen yet, we ask at this time that translators begin submitting their translations, paying special attention to the settings and Confluence. There should be no new strings and no drastic changes from here on out, only tweaks where they are needed.
Skin Freeze
We’re introducing a skin freeze for this release in an effort to improve the experience of users and alleviate some of the stress for skinners. From this point on, the XBMC skinning engine should be considered frozen, meaning that only bugfixes will be committed. We ask that all skinners take this opportunity to be sure that your skins work with Beta1. Starting with Camelot, the skin gallery will reflect the skins that work in the current STABLE version of XBMC. If skinners wish to link to skins that work on unstable versions of XBMC, they should make the distinction VERY clear on their skin page and optimally link to their forum for all necessary information. We hope that this will help to clear the confusion for the many casual users of XBMC who don’t visit the forum, but want to see the skins that will work in the latest stable version.
Downloads
As always, head to the download page for the latest stable and pre-release versions. Update: All versions should be up and in working order now. There was a packaging accident which disabled vdpau in linux builds. This has been fixed, and PPAs and Live builds are now ready.
Confluence looks jaw dropping good. Keep up the good work!
This is so awesome as the default skin. Thanks guys. Xbmc keeps taking it to the next level.
Awesome release and great looking skin!!!
The new skin looks amazing. Can’t wait to put my hands on the stable release.
Awesome. I’m currently running XBMC live 9.11 Alpha 2, and I’m eagerly awaiting a Beta release of the live distro.
Well it good to see things are moving, new default skin and lots of promising improvements lets home that when I press reboot or shutdown form skin it actually does it…
Does this work on xbox?
I have this strange bug in 9.11 that were not in the former version, menus seem to lag a lot now :S
*fingers crossed* the xbox dvd remote/dongle starts working again in beta 1
Please take all your issues to the forum, this is not the venue for those.
(and remember the debug logs! :)
@mark, please report there if it’s not working for you.
@KlavKalashj, please report there (make sure to read up on what is required with every bug report)
It’s really funny because XBMC developed on Linux(Ubuntu) and Ubuntu packages always release later then Win&OSX packages :)
@queeup: We have devs working on all platforms – that’s the great thing when so much of it now has been abstracted. The only reason the Ubuntu packages take longer is that we don’t build them. Launchpad does. All we do is initiate the upload and ask it to build. This time around PPC OS X was the first build ready.
Yes you are right I know that. Just complaining… :) If launchpad not exist building different Ubuntu packages(Hardy,Intrepid etc.) much more difficult… Wow what a bad English I have… I need to learn grammar.
Ummm… is a default skin? I upgraded to beta1 this morning (Ubuntu) and it came up with the same good old skin which is usd for any other versions of XBMC or …. did I miss something?
Thanks
K.
Amazing! Just keeps getting better and better. Thank you to everyone for all of the hard work.
Hey guys… I have two questions…
First of all I love your work… in my opinion XBMC is the best MC out there…
Is there a changelog containing the diffs between 9.10 und 9.11 available?
Will there be TV Support (talking about the OS with a lot of windows and gates)?
Thanks…
As much as I appreciate the effort, I still think Project Mayhem is designed with no consideration for the fact that XBMC is meant for display using a TV. Look at the synopsis there. The font size is tiny. The screen is clogged with all kinds of widgets and controls. Please, at some point, start reducing the UI to what’s crucial and leave out all the mess. Less is more. It really is.
Does Confluence as fonts to support SD screens or is it purely HD?
cjl :
Awesome. I’m currently running XBMC live 9.11 Alpha 2, and I’m eagerly awaiting a Beta release of the live distro.
+1
Love the new skin and best of all, unlike a lot of the more graphically pleasing skins, works great on the rather weedy Apple TV.
wow thats awesome. you guys are actually freezing additions to skins and strings. I come from a few video game mod groups and the fact that you guys have so much steam and dedication is awesome. all the best!
I should check the homepage more often.
Fantastic work on the Confluence skin Jezz_X and hats off to the Devs making the best HTPC software money can buy…. wait
So xbox support (SD/Porgrams) has officially ended?
Nice skin, but not what I want. Why does all skins have to be library-based now a days? I want to organize my files in folders and subdirectories, not a database. It sure would be nice to use IF you were able to map “Movies” and “TV Shows” to folders instead.
The community around this project amazes me every day. You guys are just awesome.
@cjl
Same here, alpha 2. Can’t wait for the live version too :-)
@sho: sorry. And btw, I solved it, now is very nice :)
I think this is a skin problem but…
In main menu, the arrows below the items that have submenus didnt desapear fast enogh, and are shown for a miliseconds under items that doesnt have submenus
Awesome work guys! I’m a relatively new user and love the direction this is going and the pace of innovation and development.
I really like the new default skin as well. Even my 4 year old girl can navigate the music and movie libraries and is having a blast. Unfortunately, that means listening to “I like to move it move it” on repeat but such is life.
@ andreas svalås; feel free to make your own skin. don’t expect the rest of us to live in the late 90’s.
@ mdavid; only hd. see ^^^
@ pidikun, svn of course holds all the info you need. just diff between the tags
@ gumbo; that ended a year ago
@ kingaru; we’re not an evil app that goes behind your back and changes your setting. enable the skin in settings. if you had done a fresh install it would be chosen.
If you use an Nvidia card and windows, check that:
1. at nvidia driver’s options you have vsync as ‘let app. choose’
2. At XBMC – vsync is ‘always on’
3. A ‘full screen window’ mode is on at XBMC
That combination dropped a CPU usage from ~90% to ~25% at UI and slowdowns are all gone :)
@KlavKalashj
I just updated my package manager in Ubuntu Karmic and I saw that the latest version of xbmc is the beta 1 but after updating it I cant activate VDPAU at my asrock ion 330 any more. Any ideas?
daviid, that seems to be a problem with karmic – http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=62250&page=4 – something about conflicting headers/libs, not that that means much to me
@ daviid:
Same problem here. Afaik it’s a build error which only affects karmic users.
I don’t mean a problem WITH karmic, I mean a problem with XBMC ON karmic. Anyway, if you’re running karmic, need VDPAU and haven’t updated yet…don’t.
Now if only I could find a build for the Xbox.
i can see our influence in the fanart view but it doesn’t really look finished ;)
Having problem with a/v sync. I have a Asrock ION and use SPDIF optical out. I’m trying to use “Sync playback to display – A/V sync method – Video clock(Drop/Dupe audio)”. Any one else seen this problem. I’m using VDPAU on jaunty. Wonder if it’s the same problem as ticket 5755? Is this issue fixed in this version??
Wow! Just wow! Fell in love with Confluence at once. I miss just one Rapier feature (Search for Subs online from video GUI), but probably just assign this script for some button. Unfortunately, Beta1 still crashes somewhere during scanning my real messy and huge Lossless folder, but probably it’s time for me to sort it somehow anyway. Still haven’t figured out why windows version missing separate audio and passthrough sound ports (ubuntu/live version have those settings), so I’m not ready to switch to W7 on HTPC yet. But all in all – still, it’s best XBMC yet, as wth almost any version since it replaced XBMP on xbox ;-). Hooked on it since then. Thanks a lot to developers! Absolutely fabulous work all those years! Keep it up!
New build of beta 1 for karmic has VDPAU in it now, thanks!
Confluence skin really look awsome and “2010 ready” ;)
Bad thing for me is that on my laptop HP nx7010 with old ATI Radeon graphics I get white screen when playing video :(
Is there a changelog somewhere? I have Alpha1 installed and I’m curious what changed other than this (AWESOME) new skin.
@AlmtyBob Go check out the log>/a>. Alpha1 was revision 24249. Beta1 is revision 24886. Have fun reading 600+ commits :)
Heh, HTML fail :p
Where can i get this Camlot version? I can only see Babylon :s
I Just love XBMC and the good old Xbox original remote control + USB IR-receiver. Have been using that remote since first xbox and XBMP(Xbox Media Player). Now I read that remote would work in beta so I install it ASAP (it didn´t work on alpha and remote is MUST). And XBOX REMOTE CONTROL = PERFECT ;) only needing DiNovo when rename etc…(somehow defaults don´t work 100% same as in old xbox but writing is easier with DiNovo.)
I have also one Xbox with XBMC and XBMP in use. Just for fun + 10 xboxes for parts, some might work(don´t have heart to trow them away lol)
I miss some Xbox XBMC/XBMPlayer features (or am I just stupid lol) like media info when playback, skip right to timepoint you input etc.. (time golds memories ;)
IMPORTANT feature wish blu-ray playback (THAT WOULD BE AWESOME to SUPERB soft.) (or how you play your blu-ray´s ?)
Can I get USB IR-dongle drivers for original remote control to LIVE distro ???
THANKS for your softwares !!!
@xboxer
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Awesome product you guys have here. I use it at my dedicated HTPC setup.
I am however concerned about the trac usage. It seems to be filled with old tickets. Also lots of new tickets get filled in wrong by users. I’d suggest cleaning this up and reorganizing this a bit to help you guys have an overview of the problems.
Yeah, Xbmc 9.11 Beta 1 rockz on Ubuntu Karmic + VDPAU.
@titester: Thanks, but Intel and Linux :) But I think it was this setting I changed, actually to always off ;P Not sure though.