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.
It wont run on a xoom anyway anything with tegra2 will not run it as it doesn’t have NEON like the story says you need
Great news.
Now only full Airplay implementation (with sync bytes) is waiting for making xbmc the perfect solution, or an open source alternative (better).
@classicspam
The XIOS DS uses an Amlogic 8726-M1 chipset which has a VPU (video processing unit) the video decoder is not present in the Mali GPU. So no any device which has a Mali 400 GPU will not benefit.
@classicspam, no, Mali GPU has nothing to do with hardware video decode.
@fluidman
Couldn’t agree more galaxy nexus and ouya all the way!
Works very good for a pre beta. XBMC for Android pre beta 12 7 14 . I got it from the news groups. Plays MKV MP4 & Xvid. thats all i had to test it on. I plays Xvid the best. MKV the worst. MP4 was in the middle just being a little choppy. This was tested on my HTC Thunderbolt with Stock Rom/ Rooted.
Would love to help test this on a Asus TF101, have installed 20120714.apk but sadly it’s not working for me. Thanks nonetheless for all the hard work.
Best summer ever!! You guys rock!
works fine on gfalaxy s2
but keep asking for password for steaming in my own network… hmmm what could that be?
I would love for Logitech Revue support, I bought one on the first day of the firesale hoping for someone to eventually put XBMC on it :)
https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/1/topics/136
Here is the pre beta I tried.
[link removed as XBMC would prefer only those capable of compiling use the code right now]
The main question now is if it can output to an external DAC.
http://dl.miniand.com/miniand/xbmc-a…g-20120714.apk here is the link for the apk
I am thinking the Ouya just got another trick up it’s android sleeve. They have way more pledged on Kickstarter than they were asking before this was announced and now a $100 XBMC machine that you don’t have to jailbreak makes it more appealing. Though I have already built my PC, I am enjoying this on my HTC Rezound at the moment. Just search google and you can find a site linking to a compiled version.
Nice, will I be able to play movies on my Android tablet from a Windows network share then? I hate using ES File Explorer to log in, wait while transferring a movie to the device then play in Moboplayer, its tedious so I’m looking for something more seamless.
I would like an option to set it up as the default launcher. Also, allow running android apps from the programs menu and have all the android apps listed there.
Been doing some searching and the Pivos box in the UK seems to be the Sumvision Nano 1 Slim:
http://www.sum-vision.co.uk/productinfo/nano/nano.asp
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=113555&r=GOOG
£76 delivered – might wait until I have full confirmation that this spec is above minimum spec for good XBMC performance :-) But exciting stuff – at last a cheap alternative to my XBOX1 :-D (discounting the raspberry Pi as that’s not in a neat package and not readily available)
Good news and a good moment to check out the XIOS DS. Unfortunately there is no shipping to europe yet. But I was waiting for a manufacturer with genuine support for Android devices so long. Maybe this blog post will help to get international reseller.
Awesome job.
Tried the build from MK802 on HP Touchpad running CM9 late June 2012 nightly..
SD video plays well. Shutters playing 720p mkvs
Installed on a TF300 (eePad Tranformer) and it works like a charm!!! Especially for an alpha build.
AVI’s and mp4 run smoothly, the big mkv’s are a bit too taxing on the wifi bandwidth I suppose.
But darn … does XBMC look good on my eePad! Thanks a bunch!
The readme.android on the site is missing the installatoin of autoconf. The ./bootstrap step fails without it installed on my computer (current kubuntu LTS)
I really wanna see this on my Nexus Q!
@Mike
See my post above yours – seems to be identical:
Also additional link to NANO 1 Slim + (RJ45 wired network socket and an extar USB port as far as I can tell) £79.99 delivered :-D
http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_7&products_id=113931 box
Will we be able to run add ons? I am interested in using Mythbox and mythtv backends with my xbmc android front end.
@Hannu
https://plus.google.com/u/0/109944805317147383619/posts/gnzpC8HETpP
@Hannu
Nexus Q with XBMC :-)
https://plus.google.com/u/0/109944805317147383619/posts/gnzpC8HETpP
Very very impressed, and so very pleased I won’t be forced to buy IOS products :-)
When hardware decoding comes it will be great, running “retouched” skin on Galaxy Nexus Xbmc
APK available at:
https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/1/topics/136
i just creamed my pants
@nicknowsky
indeed, google tv would be cool!
Tried it on HTC Sensation XL, everything worked but choppy playback. Probably bad compile, did it in a hurry: https://github.com/xbmc/android/blob/android-rebase-8/docs/README.android
Update: I was in a hurry, tried other playback software on the device. What i learned was that I have a lousy device (Stock ICE HTC Sensation XL).
@Jeff: Ofcourse you’ll be able to run Add-ons – in the video TheUni ran TED talks for example. This is a full port of XBMC, just like you have on your HTPC/ATV2/iOS device etc.
Im using this on my tf201, no problems so far:
http://dl.miniand.com/miniand/xbmc-android/xbmcapp-armeabi-v7a-debug-20120714.apk
@Noir
i’m just waiting for xbmc on android and then i will be sold to ouya
Tested it on my DHD, a little choppy but the features are simply awesome
Took a video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlu4O97JpZg
Keep it up guys, awesome work
I have checked it on my galaxy S3 and I must say it’s already nearly flawless. Playback of 720p MKV was perfect and smooth and of course looked amazing. Looking forward to the future of possible features a phone can bring to XBMC. The future is bright for this and I’m exciting for it.
SWEET !
I’ve got it running on my Samsung Galaxy S2 ! (already had it on the iPad)
Streaming from my Synology NAS in full glory !
Pick me, Pick me! – I’ll beta test! as well.
I have an Android GT 7.7, Sony Sony NSZ-GS7 and Google Android 4.0 Amlogic Cortex A9 1.2G media player to test it on if that is any help.
I am willing to test on HP touch pad with CM9 and Droid-X.
my weekend has officially been made.
i was messing with alternatives for my incomming mk802, glad to see that this is making progress, cant wait!!!
Samsung GT 7.7 working and looks pretty good for alpha – weather not saving location atm
http://i45.tinypic.com/91kq40.jpg
I will do almost anything to get this to work on my Logitech Revue. ANYTHING.
Is XBMC’s Pivos/Amlogic hardware video decoding support going to be open sourced as well? I couldn’t find it in the github repository yet, although I know it’s still early days. Is XBMC using the Android player library that Amlogic provide, or more direct access?
(Great work, btw!)
Tested on Galaxy Note N7000. It works almost perfectly!
Have been waiting on this for a while, and have already tried it out of a couple of different devices..
Sadly to say the apk downloaded did not work for my Xoom
Also tried it out on an Mk802 1Gb Mini Android PC.. All loaded up properly but was unable to navigate using the mouse, and only the Keyboards arrow keys would interact with the menu. Did manage to set up a DroidMote profile to fake touchscreen interaction, so I know it will work for this device, just need the mouse and buttons/touchpad/keyboard sorted via a recompile from someone.
Working flawlessly on my Galaxy S3!
YA BABY ! I just ordered an Android Pivos today !
Can’t wait to try it out with XBMC once it arrives !
You guys rock … i.e. the XBMC Team !!!!! :)
Great news. I hope they make version that is specifically for Google TV.
Not work with samsung galaxy tab (p1000). Is-it work only with android 4 ?