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.
@spiff
So, for those ‘living in the 90ies’ (wow, what a way to treat your long-time supporters), where can we, in the future, download PM3 non-HD? Now we can get it from the latest stable build I guess, but will it be added to the skins page?
@vlasbaard
See the first paragraph of the post.
Thanks for the great release I love the DirectX work for Windows it brings the great improvements that where made for Linux to many more users. I think the new skin is a great idea as it brings new users a lot nicer look and feel then the rather tired look of the old skin. Though I do have to say I like certain other skins better (Aeon) but fair enough that is what the skinning engine is for.
One thing I am still missing though is a central DB solution. I know this will only cater to advanced users but then again there seem to be quite a few of them out there.
Oh, and while you are at it please make the menu’s also rendered on a DX surface, currently using Aeon my dual core CPU peaks at 50% usage just for displaying the menu’s, when I play a movie it drops to ~5 – 10% (E8400, 4GB mem, 8800GT, Windows)
@vlaasbard; don’t take everything i say so serious. none of us were even playing our files on computers in the 90’s ;)
@rob; the gui is of course rendered using dx as well
How does automatic refresh rate (23.976/50/60Hz) work on windows, assuming you use either a motherboard with AMD 785 chipset, or a geforce 9300 (or ion) based MB?
Thanks (still in the process of deciding whether to go HTPC over a standalone mediaplayer)
Am I the only one that thinks this looks like a Mediastream rip-off?
Confluence does look good, good release guys
The bug Rob is pointing out is that vsync is still not working on nvidia cards and that the UI is still eating up all available cpu (the UI is re-rendering itself even when not needed.
This is a very old bug and I hope it is going to be fixed soon.
Also, for 4:3 screens the aspect ratio is not exactly right.
Keep up the good work !
@XBMCfan: As clearly indicated in the news post, a Confluence takes from many “streams” – thus the name. It’s base was Mediastream_Redux, whose (design) base in-turn was Mediastream. So yes, indeed, it is a “rip-off” of Mediastream. It’s also a “rip-off” in this sense of a bunch of other XBMC skins (see the Aeon influence in the settings screen, and the list view.)
I think you agree that it would be completely silly to ignore what works well in other skins when building a new one. Great things are built by observing what has worked and hasn’t worked in the past :)
@cbrunhaver
That’s hilarious.
Keep up the great work!
Ahhh. Would probably help if I didn’t skip the description and go right to the gallery! My bad.
Hit one snag when I upgraded: runXBMC assumes the xbmc user has an id of 1000 and is hardcoded within the code. In my case, user xbmc is user id 1001 so xbmc failed to start. Otherwise looking good.
I was playing and editing my videos from mid -90´s with my computer + some AV HW :) (and that was not professional, mainly holiday “movies” etc..)
Xbox original remote + IR dongle don´t work on this(b) version either :(
Back to old version. PLEASE get it to work on stable.
HOW YOU PPL CONTROL YOUR XBMC´s ???
WHAT YOU ADD TO PROGRAMS SECTION ??? (any change to some blu-ray solution?)
what is this skin like compared to aeon stark? dont tell me about the bugs, everything else, thank you
by the way i think the settings background should change from silver bullet hole wall to something more professional looking, but that is only my opinion and not a request
@kevin; imo. aeon is unusable. this is highly usable. it’s light night and day
I’m usually a T3ch release ‘guy’. Anyone got a tip on where to find a Xbox build of this version?
@Telejeesus
Works for me. Maybe you need to update your lirc config’s.
Please update XBMC Live with latest LIRC, currenty version 0.8.6 which doesn’t yet come with Ubuntu, plus upgraded module lirc_it87 so that this way the media center remote and CIR receiver that comes with the very popular Asus P4-P5N9300 can work out-of-the-box in XBMC Live.
kalimero has posted configuration intructions in the forum, see the few modifications required:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=47651&page=8
Loads of people have like me bought the Asus P4-P5N9300 as a HTPC just to run XBMC Live.
This version don’t use GPU acceleration. I got gforce 9600 GT and AMD X2 Dual 3800 processor usage is about 80% (Win XP), alpha version worked fine (processor usage 5%) while movie playing.
So now with DirectX support in XBMC will we see native Xbox 360 controller support in XBMC anytime soon?
Today I installed the live version on a USB drive and tried beta 1 on my ASRock ION 330. The menu delays for 3-5 seconds after I hit an arrow key, although I managed to set the video render method to VDPAU. Didn’t try to play video, but the live version doesn’t seem to work for me.
@snal: sounds like ’somebody’ chose the wrong graphics card to me. in any case, log or no way to help. take it to the forums btw
Great, the live install is here! Just installing as we speak, cannot wait! Like the new install procedure, looks a lot more professional than the regular live install. Looking forward to the new skin, and looking forward to the final release. Keep up the good work, donation on the way!
@spiff
Now you mention it, I think Grub (1.5 yay!) said something about push ‘Esc’ for options in 3..2..1..0. I might have a clue who that ’somebody’ might be :-) Will try it soon, cheers.
My mouse works erratically on your site, or it stops working altogether. As soon as I close XBMC down, it works normally again. What can I do?
RMVB files play very slowly about 16fps on three different computers. These are the computer setups:
1) 4ghz Core 2 Duo with Nvidia Geforce 260 GTX.
2) a 2ghz single core Atom with Ion
3) 3ghz Core 2 Duo with Nforce 730i, which comes with Gefore 9300 onboard.
RMVB files utilize about 5% of CPU but plays only at 15-16fps. I’ve been getting this problem on the Xbox 1 also. A year ago, the XBMC builds were able to play RMVB files at full speed on the Xbox 1. I hope this will be fixed eventually.
Does anybody know what ubuntu version the new live cd is based on?
@Telejeesus
Use eventghost and the original remote works fine. In fact I think the original remote works better as it reacts faster plus you can program keys yourself for example I set a key to delete saves me going through the menu.
LOVE the new Confluence skin. I cant get over how good xmbc looks now let alone how good the functionality is. Big thaanks to all those involved.
Great skin …
I would really love to see an option to have a horizontal main menu at the bottom, like in the MediaStream_Redux_Mod skin.
Thanks !!
@Michael
Karmic
@Jezz_X
Thank you for clearing that up!
And like the others say, great work on the new skin. Only thing i’m not too crazy about is the background for the settings screen. Compared to the others, it doesn’t quite fit in :)
But again, all of you guys hard work is really appreciated.
GREAT WORK PPL!
I have XBMC on an old mac ppc g4 and this version run as faster as my old girl can thanks to the new cleaner program and the smothest skin.
Really, great great GREAT! work
Thanks =)
Thank you for your providing a new version of XBMC. But, I have a question below: when I run XBMC9.11 beta1, I click the Video Menu,
and then found path of the video. I could not broadcast the video file the reason of XBMC crushed. Would you please tell me why ? thanks a lot!
@spiff
I was >.>
Longtime pc video user circa 1998/99
128mb crappy .asf rips and such
Just because there weren’t any good front-ends, and you didn’t use a spare pc as a media pc doesn’t mean noone did.
wow I can wait for beta 2 :/
Hey all.
Just wanted to say THANK YOU. You fixed even the smallest bugs there. THANK YOU.
@Telejeesus
I use my own XBCD profile that makes my xbox controller work right in the windows version. My thread is http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=258168 if anyone wants it
what are the plans now? Beta 2 and final release, or already coming next the Final Release?
thank you guys.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=9.11_Release_Schedule
Great work!
I download the source code, but when I compiled it, so many errors!
Where are the brightness/contrast settings on AppleTV? The contrast is way too high and the video looks bad this way.
@ bianjun you need to be more specific than that! also make sure you read the relevant readme for your platform.
Thanks for the hard work guys, you rock!
wow, you guys really screwed the pooch on this release. fail :(
JOKES, this roxx…except the dvd playback
I still can’t get it to pick up the DVD album artwork online. I guess I’ll continue to use boxee
got beta1 with confluence, but with this new skin i have no mouse pointer. is it normal?
@Nick
Works perfectly here, don’t know what you’re doing wrong…