XBMC For Android
We have been keeping a little secret.. the kind that is so much fun to share when the time comes.
Today we announce XBMC for Android. Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found.
The feature-set on Android is the same that you have come to expect from XBMC, no different from its cousin on the desktop. Running your favorite media-center software on small, cheap, embedded hardware is about to become a hassle-free reality. And as Android-based set-top-boxes are becoming more and more ubiquitous, it couldn’t be a better time. In fact, primary development was done on a Pivos XIOS DS set-top-box. And that is no coincidence, you will notice that Pivos is now listed as an official sponsor (more on that later). XBMC is stable and works great there, as well as on various tablets and phones. Though with Android, as many of you probably know, that is only the beginning of the story.
Enjoy the stereotypical dev-shot low-quality demo video. More video, including phone/tablet usage in the next post.
So what’s the catch? None… in time. Currently, for most devices only software decode of audio and video is hooked up. We considered waiting until universal hardware decode was ready before making our announcement, but in the end decided that in the spirit of keeping things open and working with our ever-expanding community, it made sense to open up sooner rather than later. We are confident that an OpenMax-based player (similar to the one used for the Raspberry Pi) will spring up very quickly. That said, software playback of most media plays quite well already.
Though, there is one exception. As Pivos sponsored a large portion of the port, we were able to work with their vendors to achieve buttery-smooth hardware-accelerated playback on the XIOS DS. It remains to be seen if such hardware-specific features will make it into XBMC mainline or exist as patches for vendors to integrate.
While, as you can see in the video, the port is fully usable and lots of fun to play with, it’s not quite ready for prime-time. We will begin releasing apks for interested beta testers in the coming weeks. But for those who are up to the task, as you would expect from XBMC, the source code is available. We have decided not to push to Google Play until we are satisfied that users with all kinds of devices get the same great XBMC experience. We ask that our users stay on the lookout for evil-doers trying to cash in on XBMC’s popularity. If you see anyone masquerading as XBMC, please be sure to let us and Google know about it.
There is also the issue of having a proper UI for small-screen devices. Typically, XBMC skins have been designed for use on a TV, so use on a small phone can be clunky. But there is nothing keeping skinners from creating more functional touch-oriented skins, like the included “Touched” skin from Jezz_X. With the community’s help, we’re sure to have a more refined version available for inclusion by the time we release a stable version.
There are still many details left to iron out, mainly related to the wide variety of Android devices in the wild. We have not yet decided what minimum requirements will be set, due simply to the lack of extensive testing on exotic devices.
As for taking advantage of Android itself, we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are so many interesting features that we could take advantage of: launching apps, location awareness, speech recognition, on and on. Once the core port is finished up, you can bet we’ll be exploring many new avenues.
I could write for days about how the port started, how it was accomplished technically, what tricks were used, etc, but I will save that for a (somewhat more personal) follow-up post. There is much to say about the process that would likely bore most readers, but I will try to answer the questions that come up in the comments as much as possible in that post. The port was a big effort with many contributors, many thanks to Davilla, Memphiz, Phaeodaria, Montellese, Topfs2, and everyone else who was involved.
Full disclosure: I have been working for Pivos for the last few months, where I suggested the port-work and XBMC sponsorship. I hope our users join me in a thanking them for supporting XBMC and allowing me to work on the port (among other things) during the day. Be sure to check out the Pivos forums, where discussions and unofficial builds are bound to spring up quickly.
@David
amazon or newegg are the best two options(amazon if you have prime, can have it tomorrow for $3.99 extra)
What great news. Waited for this since I first installed XBMC on my ZBOX. I would really like to beta-test for germany with my Xperia Neo (with ICS v4.0) and Archos 70 (v2.2). Keep up the good work guys.
@Sparks
Hate is a very strong word reserved for people of diminished brain capacity
XBMC is evidence that the open-source products can be at the forefront of proprietary solutions. Hats off to entire team of XBMC.
[Farnsworth]Good news everyone![/Farnsworth]
I have had a reply to an email from AllWinner as follows:
Dear XBMC Members,
Thanks for your keen interest in A10 as well as your great patience. Lately we have received more than 120+ emails from you guys asking for further support on XBMC which has attracted us great attention. Again we have discussed your request seriously and an agreement has been reached that Allwinner will try our best to support the community and in order to support standard firmware like XBMC Allwinner will modify the framework of CedarX if necessary. Weng has always been one of you and he gets to know Allwinner platform as well as CedarX very well with the past years’ of support from Allwinner. We have asked him to contact Gimli and J1nx to figure out your actual needs. Hope with the joint efforts A10 hardware accelerator can be performed on XMBC ASAP.
Again thank you very much for each of you and your efforts on A10 open source projects.
Have a nice weekend.
Best regards,
Eva
I’m loving this.
Tried it on an HTC One X – works perfectly.
Tried it on a Storage Options Scroll Extreme (9.7″) running ICS 4.0.3 – works well, though video playback is pretty choppy. Then again, it’s a single core processor running at 1.2GHz, so I’m not surprised…
any compiling tips i keep getting a a error 2 on libxbmc.so ive followed the directions in the readme.android and i cam successfully compile xbmc for linux just a little stumped here
it dosent boot on a rooted nook running gingerbread…but that’s not saying much.
i just wanted to say how much i love and still use xbmc for the original xbox and im soo excited for the possibility of replacing my xbox with a OuYa and having xbmc on it, gee.
thank you for all your hard work.
i still can’t stream trough my network….
@Matt, open a thread in forums for build questions.
congrats 2 the team!
working nicely here (smooth x264 AVC playback) with a Zenithink zt-282 (C91 Upgrade).
[1GHz A9 Singlecore/Mali400/1GB RAM]
So let’s await arrival of holy pvr.
Can really see how MP TV Server + MP2 Media Server + XBMC Client will be the best media solution
Keep it up!
I remember a while back xbmc was saying that it would be available on the sigma chip (SOC) The new version is launched i think this month, will we see this on some products at some point this year!!!
I have a mini pc android 4.0 I installed xbmc and tried to connect to the video portal has trouble playing the video image slows
Will be possible to control XBMC for Android with another phone/tablet using XBMC remote?
If not, which USB keyboard/remote is recommended to use along xbmc for android?
@Leonardo
don’t know about a remote app but XBMC for Android does have a webinterface in which I was able to play/pause etc media playing on my SGSII from a webbrowser on my pc
I assume a remote app will also work
yes
Hi,
I tested in a Motorola Xoom (ICS) and it does not WORK. When I launch the program, the screen goes black for some seconds and then closes.
Then I tested it in a Sansung Galaxy S (ICS) and the behaviour is similar… the screen goes black, and after a few seconds the “App not responding” dialog appears prompting to force close the app.
I have been using XBMC on the original XBox for years but have been wanting to upgrade to something that can handle HD video playback as well as x.264 videos for a while. I am also a huge fan of Android so I’m very excited about this news and have been watching closely since the announcement.
Something that no one seems to be talking about, or at least not mentioning, is DVD playback. I know that you can get at least one usb DVD ROM (Samsung SE-218BB) that will work on Android but there is very little information out there on how it works and if you can play DVD movies with it. Does anyone know if it would be possible to play DVD’s via XBMC with a usb DVD ROM?
I should mention that I have been planning to build a Linux HTPC, running XBMC, as a single media device but cost has been prohibitive and there are some restrictions like playing blu-rays and running netflix. I can live without blu-rays but would still really like to be able to play DVD’s (I have a modest DVD collection and I don’t think my wife would be very happy if she couldn’t watch or rent DVD’s any more).
Boxy: “It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again!”
So, did Boxy skin the Android mascot or what?
Just sayin’.
Zapy — I meant ‘Zapy’.
I sure hope there are plans to support google tv. I just bought the sony NSZ-GS7 that runs google TV (android). it is a great device and would be and AWESOME device with XBMC support!
I think we should remember this isn’t anywhere near Aplha stge so maybe we should calm down a bit.
There is an Android support section within the forums remember.
@dag
Same here in a Xoom2… :_(
Finally, cant wait to run this on my Samsung Galaxy S3 .. do you guys have plans to run XBMC on the new Smart TV’s ?
Great News … you guys are awesome
I just got a Nexus 7, it’s got the tegra chip in it w/nvidia! I bet xmbc would be awesome on it :)
@Arganaz
Did you get Portuguese subtitles to work?
Tested on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.2 P7500 – does not work – black screen and then it closes the App
Any solutions???
Thanks
This is the most amazing greatest news I’ve heard in a long time. I am so sick of my Apple TVs it’s not even funny. They were a great cheap solution.. but they lag really bad and can’t play the better quality files without skipping and buffering every 20 seconds. And worst of all, I have to admit I own not 1, but 3 apple products. I’ve moved to a WD Live in my living room as it’ll play pretty much anything I throw at it, but it’s not XBMC.
works great on HTC evo 3D/evo v 4g virgin mobile hdmi even works(stock rooted 4.0.3) but it does not work on Toshiba thrive stock rooted 3.2.1
That’s up to Google, XBMC uses native development kit for Android which oddly enough Google only support on Android phones/tablets, they don’t support it on the GoogleTV android variant.
Smart TV’s are all closed systems each unique, no way for XBMC to run on those. Smart TV’s using GoogleTV fall foul of the same problem above.