XBMC 9.11: Camelot
It’s been quite a while in the making (and maybe a bit late), but Camelot has arrived for Windows, OSX, Linux, and XBMC Live, and just in time for the holidays. Noteworthy changes include a revamped user interface via the new default skin “Confluence“, DirectX support by default for the Windows platform, a complete reorganization of the settings menus, automatic video information extraction, and smoother video playback. In addition, all scrapers have been updated, new remotes are supported out of the box, and codecs have been updated for more reliable playback. For a full changelog, see the end of this post.
Look to the download page for the good stuff. We wish to thank our community for helping to make XBMC what it is. Several new skins and plugins have been created since Babylon, be sure to check them out as well.
For the developers, this is where the fun starts. To quote the great Linus Torvalds, “A release is not so much of a birth of a new version, it’s more of a laying-to-rest of an old one. It’s also an end to a fairly quiet period.” It’s now open-season for us to start looking forward and begin merging in all those new features that have been brewing. Enjoy our latest offering as we get back to work!
As a brief aside, we’re looking to recruit a talented web developer as well as a graphics designer for a few future endeavors. If you’re interested in more detail and have serious skills (no weekend warriors please), drop us a line.
Update: It looks like there’s a problem with the live installer causing installation to fail. Please hold tight while we look into it.
Update #2: Turns out the live issue was brought on by a last-minute upstream change. We’ll get this fixed ASAP, though due to the holidays, we ask for your patience.
Update #3: Download links updated for 9.11 repack. Installer should now work correctly.
Read on for the condensed changelog:
GUI:
Improved XBMC GUI Skinning Framework making it even more flexible and powerful
Powerbutton follows “shutdown function” in settings/system/power saving
Updated translations for most languages (help is always wanted with translation)
Skinnable Weather Plugin API enabling third-party Weather Plugins (Python Scripts)
Edit button for RSS feeds in settings, (needs RssTicker script installed, see SCRIPTS section below)
New screensaver option to turn off the screen (using VESA DPMS)
Always On Top option to advancedsettings.xml when XBMC runs in Windowed Mode
Better support for multi-monitor setups
Settings have been re-organized and cleaned up to sync with new featuresPlayback:
High Definition, Surround Sound, and Subtitle Flagging and Filtering in Video Library
Added support for SingStar and UltraStar Karaoke Lyrics Format
Updated FFmpeg (libavformat and libavcodec) audio/video codec and demux library
Speed up RAW image loading and handle more file extensions
Implemented better WAV/PCM handling on 64-bit operating-systems
Added support for additional tags in CUE sheets (Genre/Year)
Added support for MPL2 (Blu-ray) subtitles format
Added support forVPlayer subtitles format (which unfortunately is still in use)
Added support for RTMP (Flash) live video streams, plus skip, pause, and resume feature
Added proper MMS/MMSH streaming client (libmms) support
Added audio and subtitle delay pop-up to the GUI (similar to volume control)
Improved Commercial Skipping, EDL (Edit Decision List), and SceneMarker support
Options for smoother video playback (syncing the video to the refresh rate of the display)
Smart Playlists support for video resolution, aspect-ratio, codec, audio, and subtitles
Extension of ExternalPlayer enabling multiple external players based on file-extension
Added overlay renderer for dvd/vobsub/xsubLibrary:
Performance improvements to SQLite (database) queries (help is always wanted here)
Support for movie sets and a sortorder tag in the Video Library
UPnP MediaServer compliant with DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standards
Ability to view pictures over UPnP in XBMC, also loads of fixes to the UPnP library
Added scan for new content command to HTTP API, extended XBMC.updatelibrary call
Reorganized MythTV directory structure to separate TV Shows from Movies
Support importing MythTV movies into the Movies Library (including scraping)
Added support local actor thumbnails (store as actor_name.tbn under .actors directory)
Scrape studio info for TV Show/Season/Episode, info is available via studio field item
Changed handling in Scrapers and NFO replacing «thumbs» with multiple «thumb»
Added library update on resume if we are coming from suspend/hibernate
Ability to scrape and scan TV Shows into the video library by air-date via TheTVDB.comScrapers:
TheMovieDB.org (TMDB) movie scraper upgraded to version 2.1
Added Movie Trailer scraping from dtrailer.com to TheMovieDB.org scraper
TheTVDB.com TV Shows scraper scraper improvements and enhancements
MTV (Music Videos) scraper improvements and enhancements
New freebase music scraper (with Artist FanArt support via htbackdrops.com)
New Polish music scraper combining allmusic.com,merlin.pl, and lastfm.pl
New mymovies.dk (Multilanguage) movie scraper (*commercial)
New fdb.pl (Polish) movie scraper
New cinefacts.de (German) movie scraper
New filmdelta.se (Swedish) movie scraper
New world-art.ru (Russian) movie scraper
Updated imdb.cn (Chinese) movie scraper
New cine-passion (French/English) movie scraper
Fixes and additions for the mymovies.xml scraperSkins:
Confluence is the new default
PM3.HD set to secondary
Removed legacy PM III (farewell old friend)Windows-Specific:
Changed from Open GL to DirectX for GUI and video rendering.
Added Crash Dump for Windows
Support Milkdrop visualizationsLinux-Specific:
Added support for Debian building and packaging to the XBMC SVN
External libraries options when compiling XBMC for Linux making it more distro agnostic
Support for PPC (PowerPC) processors in XBMC for Linux (OpenGL support required)
Avahi Zeroconf (Zero Configuration Networking) for XBMC webserver
Added DeviceKit.Disks integration
Added DeviceKit.Power and ConsoleKit.Manager integrationOS X Specific:
Logitech Harmony Universal Remote support
Added support for CoreAudio API and removed the PortAudio API code
AC3 and DTS digital audio pass-through to SP/DIF on Apple TV (thanks to CoreAudio)
Support for running external Applescripts
Support for command-tab application switching
support for OS X Spaces (virtual desktops)Live-Specific:
New installer with disk partitioning support, network setup and language selection
Uses Beatzeps08’s variation of duduke’s great “spinner black” usplash theme! Thanks Beatzeps08!!
Based on Ubuntu Karmic
NVIDIA drivers: 190.53 (VDPAU included on supported GPUs)
ATI/AMD drivers: Catalyst 9.11
Includes the magic tvheadend package, which brings live TV in XBMCLive
The plugin “SVN Repo Installer” is also included, thus installing new scripts/plugins/skins will be easier
@commanderflash
There’s a bug in the installer. Team XBMC is working on it.
Why not 9.12? It’s December, the 12th, not 11th!
Awesome. Thanks for the hard work and dedication. Xbmc is a shining example of OSS at it’s best.
Superb. You got it all right, and it’s only getting better. Feel proud, and have confidence in your continued work. Respect!
Thanks for all the work
And of course we will have patience :-)
We wait patiently for the live version, enjoy your holidays :-)
@Livio
Haha, I was wondering who would ask first. It was originally 9.10, though we didn’t make that. It’s a pain to rename all the strings after we’ve branched for release, so we decided to stick with 9.11.
@theuni
D’oh! What a pity. 9.12 would look even nicer as a Christmas present (in Poland and many other European countries we celebrate Christmas even on 24th of December in the evening – just for folks from America) ;) .
Now all that XBMC is missing from being almost perfect in my mind is a great “App Store” style interface directly in the GUI settings, similar to that of Boxee’s “App Box”, that would allow us to very easily installation new plugins, scripts, and skins, etc. :)
Sorry but I think the SVN Repo Installer is not user friendly enough yet, the GUI for it needs to be integrated into the skin, and not a separate plugin.
I feel that Boxee has got the right idea here with their App Box”, which basically steels the idea from the iPhone “App Store”, for easy install, updating, and uninstall of Boxee plugins ;)
I had beta 1 running on an Acer REVO 3610 with ion and it worked perfectly. Once I installed it i could no longer play the HD videos off the Nvidia Ion and they are being offloaded to the CPU. I also cannot select XBMC to play the video file using the DSPlayer instead of the default one. Am i missing something or is that a bug in the code?
How do I revert back to RC1 after updating to final.
Cheers
Probably because you were using the experimental DS player branch which hasn’t made it into the main trunk version of xbmc yet (which is what this is)
@Fanatix – we’re with you on the addons stuff – rwparris2 (and TheUni) have both been working hard at getting something nice and scalable hooked up on the addons front. We were hoping to have it ready for this release, but it wasn’t quite up to the standard that we set ourselves and thus we held off on publishing something we weren’t 100% happy with. The plan is another release in the New Year once we have a couple of the new feature branches merged, so we’ll get it sorted for that one.
does anyone know where to get XBMCLive 9.11 RC1? (I deleted my partition when i tried the final install)
I think I might do a RC1 install then and upgrade manually to the final version.
Thanks
found it! if anyone needs it:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc/files/XBMC%20Live/pre-release/xbmc-live-9.11-rc1.zip/download
Good Working !!!
You’re all stars in the development team. This is the best Open Source app I’ve ever seen and used!
@Fanatix
now is possibe use passion installer script http://passion-xbmc.org/downloads/?cat=17 :)
but plugins and other is not latest :(
Great! Hope to see that in a future stable release then, no rush, let the WAF decide if it is really ready :D
Maybe add a web-page here for uploading? MeediOS’s “OpenMAID” repository framework is open source.
http://www.meedios.com/OpenMAIDOS/
Awesome! Hugs and kisses to everyone involved in the best open source project there is! Thanks a bunch!
All is XBMC missing is finished PVR frontend, but we can wait with the unfinished one since it works, and it’s what counts.
In te old XBOX days we had the XBMCScripts script for this.. it was a seperate script, but it was easy as hell, and looked exactly like the default PM skin on the Xbox. :)
It says “Changed from Open GL to DirectX for GUI and video rendering.”. Does this mean GPU acceleration on windows?
Library button(enable library) in 9.11 is missing,library mode not working!
I updated my XBMC (update from 9.10 to 9.11) successfully. The new version is great, but I have a problem. When I play video files or DVD I have voice only, but no video. Instead of the video I have only a white full-screen.
Merry Christmas guys! Great product and very very cool gift for all of us. The best media centre software on the web!! Thanks all
Looks excellent. Should I go 32 or 64 bit under Linux on an Asrock 330?
Soon but not yet
Thanks !!!!
@Tiberiu Oprisiu
I also got problems playing HD videos with rc1 and 9.11 final. It only works smooth on Beta1-2.
Asrock ION 330
Will this run on a modded original xbox?
IMHO all that is missing now is Spotify support via despotify for us XBMC users with Spotify premium accounts :)
That and plugins for SVT Play, TV4 Play, and Kanal 5 Play would make most Plex users from Swedish move back.
Voddler access directly from XBMC would not hurt either, since Voddler Player don’t allow playback of local files ;)
who cares about all this? Boxee stole(was given) some code for their system, now they have surpassed XBMC….can someone explain why this is better than Boxee?
Thanks a lot for yet another release of the best ‘media center’ software!!!!!!!!!1
I installed this on a fresh installation of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic using the streamlined install procedure suggested on the XBMC website. When I start up XBMC, my mouse cursor lags and jumps around the screen so bad that it takes several tries before I can click on the button to exit XBMC. Once I’m back to the Karmic desktop, the mouse works normally again… anybody have this problem or know what the issue is??
will this work with Vista 64bit ?
Don’t get me wrong, I love the new GUI installer for XBMC Live… but I find it incredibly hard to understand.
Who wrote this? IBM circa 1985?
This might sound ridiculous but I cant see a default.xbe file in the folder I downloaded so what do I link to in the evox.ini file? Any help would be very much appreciated.
It depends on what you want. XBMC has tons of flexibility and customization options for both the appearance and behavior of the program, great for tech-savy people and a/v nerds. Boxee on the other hand has less customization but is very straight forward and simple, may be better for the common man that wants simplicity and not a lot of options.
@Dylan
yea i was wondering about which one to pick because its called XBOX Media Center with no XBOX download link. What is this?
@Mossy
You cannot get the xbox version from this website due to copyright/requiring the Xbox SDK from MS to build.. there are places to find it.. just not here.
I just want to thank the developers for this great release which made me and my family so much joy using it. And of course it was great to follow the development on trac and help them debugging and testing, This is a great release with so much great new functions in it. I feel it is time for me to donate again.
Thanks again,
Alan from Hungary
@AleXXX
I have the same problem. It looks like you need a graphic card which is directX9 compatible or at least a new driver. There should be also a OpenGL version for windows available which will work for you. Look in the forums.
@Jezz_X
Thanks for the info. Should be in the changelog..
Thanks team XBMC!
This is a great release for me.
I’am looking forward to the futere releases.
DUDES, PLEASE DONT STOP SUPPORTING THE XBOX!!!!!!!!!!!!
I so dont want 9.04 to be the last stable release ok’d by you guys. Cause that means my xbox is obsolete. It’s STILL the best/cheapest media center out there!!!!
@baka
you can search key words:”xbmc xbox” in google web site ,and you’ll find it. perhaps ,you’ll wait some days,XBMC 9.11 Camelot XBOX version hasn’t been released yet.
Hello @ all,
after the repack of the live version installer I have another issue.
1. Installation works fine on usb stick with and without VLM (don’t really know what this is)
–> without
Startlogo appears. Prompt console to login in XBMC. Type xbcm leads to message ‘cannot start x-window’
–> with VLM
Startlogo appears. screen turns black.
Could anybody help here ?
@Timey
Opened forum thread –> http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=466540#post466540
@virtualdiver
I had the same problem on Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 – my motherboard is a Sapphire PI-AM3RS785G.
Installing the proprietary AMD driver solved the issue!
Same here..
DON’T DUMP THE XBOX!
I keep hearing 9.11 “will” be available, but the latest T3Ch is still XBMC-9.04.1-FIXED.
That was months ago, ugg…