Customize XBMC With These Five Awesome Skins
Windows/Mac/Linux/Xbox: What could make the already awesome Xbox Media centre even better? An infusion of eye candy, of course. Read on to see some awesome XBMC skins and learn how to install them.
What is this media centre magic we speak of? Originally an open-source package designed to run on modified Microsoft Xboxes and turn them into full-fledged media centres, XBMC gained such a popular following that it has been ported to Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you’re new to XBMC, you’re in luck. Lifehacker has much love for XBMC, and we’ve written guides to help you install it on a classic Xbox, install it on your Mac, run it from a thumb drive, and covered the first completely cross-platform release XBMC Atlantis.
Once you’ve grabbed a copy of XBMC and installed, the customisation can begin. The default skin on just about every distribution of XBMC is Project Gotham III and its HD variant, the original skin is show at right. It’s a beautiful skin and if no one could customise it away, very few people would complain. You’re not here to keep things stock though, so admire Project Gotham for being so awesome it was made the default skin and prepare to customizs!
Installing skins is about as straightforward as customising software can be. Depending on which operating system you’re using XBMC on, you’ll need to extract the contents of the archive you’ve downloaded into one of the following directories:
- Windows: C:Program FilesXBMCskin
- Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/skin
- Linux: ~/.xbmc/skin/
You’ll most likely never come across a skin that doesn’t have the directory structure already carefully mapped out, all of the skins below can simply be extracted into the skin folder and all the necessary components will be neatly placed in skinSomeFancySkin automatically.
Once you’ve extracted the skins, switching from the default is as easy as navigating in the XBMC menu to System -> Appearance, and selecting your new skin.
Different installation packages and releases for different operating systems have different skins included. Some of the following skins may be bundled with the installation you downloaded, MediaStream comes with XBMC Atlantis for example. Check your /skins/ directory before downloading, you may luck out and already have the skin. Note: Each of the following skins was downloaded and tested on both a classic Xbox and HTPC running Windows XP with a 1080p display, with stunning results. The screenshots below—except some for the Focus skin—are from the respective websites of each design team, their media collections were far more varied and interesting than this humble tester’s.
Aeon
Aeon was built from the ground up to look stunning in HD. Although you can display Aeon on a SD display, the skin was designed to be native to 1080p. XBMC will scale everything down accordingly, but be forewarned that if you’re using the original Xbox as your XBMC platform, using the rich 1080P background images you see in the screenshots above will cause stuttering—the same is true of any of the skins here that use HD background images. The eye candy factor on Aeon isn’t from the over abundance of items and menus on the screen but on how seamlessly and almost transparently they interact with each other. The skin functions more as a frame to show off your media collection than anything else. The default background for each main menus is an abstract Mac-esque swish of colour. The awesome images seen in the screenshots above were pulled from the hundreds of HD background images available on the Aeon website.
MediaStream
MediaStream has menus with a weightier appearance than Aeon, but the skin still maintains a minimalist approach. Menu text is solid and bold, the menus slide out in a blade-style system that is snappy, and navigation is easy. Since version 0.90 there has been support for SD 4:30 viewing ratios, so if you haven’t made the leap to a HD TV yet you can use MediaStream without any scaling. Like Aeon you can set customs backgrounds and use fan art. If you’re having trouble keeping up on which of your shows you’ve watched, take advantage of the unwatched media menu to get a fresh list of all the things you haven’t watched yet.
Focus
Focus is by far the most minimal skin in our roundup. It isn’t overly flashy but the transitions between menus are smooth and pleasant. The menus themselves are well laid out with frequently accessed items like unwatched television shows placed near the top. None of the skins we tested felt unwieldy or intrusive by any measure, but Focus was especially quick to melt into the background and make you forget there was even anything there between you and your pile of media.
MC360
MC360 is the most complete clone of the XboX 360 dashboard available for XBMC. The animations are spot on and you can even use your real Xbox Live Gamercard info for your profile. The game save manager is very polished, something that isn’t a high priority for some of the other skins in the roundup. MC360 has native support for all SD and HD resolutions up to 1080i—the highest resolution the classic Xbox can display with the component video pack. The skin has three themes: the default 360 skin, the high transparency Glass skin, and Carbon a smokier version of the default. If you’re using an Xbox with a supported modchip, MC360 can change the colour of the LED on the chip.
Xbox Classic
If the purists among you are shocked and scandalised by all of these non-traditional skins, especially that nonsense about putting the Xbox 360 skin on a classic Xbox, don’t worry. The same team behind the beautiful executed 360 skin has a classic Xbox skin that is just as accurate and stunning in its own right. The interface of the original Xbox wasn’t a marvel of flashy transparency but it was a very well implemented—and green!—design. The Classix Xbox skin pays hommage to that design and remains very faithful to the original interface. Love the design but not sold on the bright green? There are themes included to turn the skin fiery red and deep blue.
The screenshots here can’t even begin to do justice to the stunning work these design teams have done. Most of the skins are fairly small, 50-100MB in size, it’s more than worth it to download them all and see which one looks the best on your setup. Between the hard work of the XBMC design team and the teams behind these skins, the experience is so seamless and enjoyable you’ll be amazed you didn’t pay hundreds of dollars for the pleasure.
Love a skin that isn’t featured here? Have a cool hack for XBMC you’re dying to share? Sound off in the comments below and help your fellow readers get more out of their media centres.
Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
So what does a 4:30 ratio look like? Uber-widescreen? Ooh is it that curved Alienware TV shown off at CES (I think)? I wants I wants I wants. Oh and I think you meant 4:3.
wow a typo hay everybody i found a typo
Wow I literally just finished searching for and installing the Mediastream skin for my XBMC. I hope you guys do a Popcorn Hour article next :)
Is XBMC worth it?
I have an old original Xbox sitting around at home, but I never felt like hauling the large box down to college to install something that might be mediocre.
Thanks.
@Kymeira: I used XBMC on the classic Xbox until about two months ago when I built an HTPC which now runs the windows port of XBMC. I was really really happy with it. I still get a lot of use out of it for standard def viewing (no sense running a full PC with a dual core just for 480)
@takemetoyourtoaster: oh and then also organizing the shows into season folders, and i thought it was implied, but doing all of this, automatically
takemetoyourtoaster
@Kymeira: Worth it?? Its free and the best one out there. Runs all my files, Streams online content, Tells weather, Lets you download torrents to the system ( I have my appletv hacked as well as xmbc added to an xbox dev kit and i dont regret it.. its been well over a year id say.
@Penguins-R-Us: so what does a jerk look like?
I know! It looks like that guy who can't say anything nice on the comment forums unless someones calls him a douche first.
If someone makes a typo, point it out nicely, as you'd prefer someone to do to you. =]
DMSaruman
hi i have a question about my media, how do I do things like, rename torrented vids to something that actually makes sense (like family guy 7x1 not familyguyxviddivix7x) even better, the name of that episode (eg life of brian), where does one get all of the info for the movie that you have, does it do it automagically?
takemetoyourtoaster
I'll be honest, I was staying away from XBMC because I didn't like the default layout (I'm pretty picky about aesthetics), however with these I may have to give it a try.
@takemetoyourtoaster: XBMC will go through your media library and match it to online databases to download the proper titles and artwork. It does not rename the actual files, but displays the correct show/movie/episode name when browsing from within the program. If I remember right, I think you have to manually tell it to look up the information by default, but there's an option for it to automatically scan your directories and download new info every time you launch the program.
SpriteMV
I am floored. A buddy of mine wrecked my 10-disc Led Zeppelin box set about 8 years ago and promised to make it up to me when he got himself established. He paid me back today by presenting me with a modded Xbox with XBMC and a 320GB HDD. Just after getting it connected and playing a few videos I jumped on LH to find this. Now I will be up all night filling up the HDD and playing with skins. win.
Neil Druhan
Be careful when installing these full blown versions of aeon, mediastream or focus on a classic xbox. The textures.xpr file eats up too much memory (only 64mb available!) that when you start up a movie xmbc freezes because there's not enough memory left. Enable "debugging" mode to verify. Using a customized or "lite" version will prevent xbmc from crashing.
Aeon Lite Mod: [xbmc.pigsoap.com]
how do you download torrents to your xbox
elbringit
Where is the Asian girl/sword/sakura blossom wallpaper from? I looked on the Aeon website, and can't find it there.
Paul Little
Many of these themes are controller-centric. I control my HTPC with a wireless mouse (it's all I have right now) and Aeon and MediaStream do not play well with it. They're great themes, but just be aware that they can be made with a controller in mind.
FoolsRun
@[www.nekrosoft.net]
It's under Backdrops > Pictures
Tyson0016
@Here's the article on their Wiki. There's a lot of good info on there. There is a slight learning curve with XBMC, but it's well worth it.
bunky
There's an even easier way to get skins onto you xbox xbmc. There's a project called the XBMC Skin Manager. It's a program that sits on your computer and downloads the latest version of the skins and then uploads them to your xbox. Have a look here:
[xbmc.org]
I bet there's also a plugin on the latest SVN builds. The new builds have this built in method for downloading plugins through the xbmc menus. This is new and isn't included in the last stable release (if I remember correctly).
icecreamman
@Kymeira: Completely worth it, if you do the soft mod with the exploited game save you can play just about any media file, run emulators (nes/genesis etc...) play burnt xbox games, download things directly to it, and all kinds of other things. I even have a program that allows you to put mp3s on the xbox and convince it that they are ripped cds so you can use them as game soundtracks. That and I use TVersity to stream all the media from my computer to my xbox. Its not hard at all to do the soft mod. like an hour and no hardware modification unless you want a bigger hard drive, which then its a simple swap. There are also more skins then they show here, one being an apple tv skin... its totally worth imho.
Richard Coskey
You forgot to mention that the first alpha for the new version, codenamed Babylon, is out!
[xbmc.org]
rwparris2
+1 for anything XBMC. It has allowed my xbox to stay connected to my tv for 4 years now. Don't get me wrong the ps3 is good and can play HD video and all my music. But XBMC can do so much more.
@Penguins-R-Us: You do this crap a lot huh?
@rothgar:
Funny that you mentioned HD. I was just on xbmc forums and noticed this thread:
[xbmc.org]
Looks like there is hope for the old xbox. :)
icecreamman
This has actually been a big week for the XBMC in our house. I installed a new hard drive (fun project, hit me up if you ever want to do it), then I made my own usb adapter for it with nothing but a leatherman and gorilla tape, as I have neither dremel nor soldering iron.
I know, I know, here's my geek card.
I think Xebian's next. Does anyone here have experience with it? Is it cool/worth it? Will it work with a tv tuner as a dvr?
PobreGizmo
Having had XBMC on my xbox connected up in my dorm room for the past two years so that I can stream TV shows and movies to my TV has been amazing. It's crazy to me to think I've had my xbox for nearly eight years now and it is still so useful.
@Penguins-R-Us: Also, a 4:30 ratio would not be "uber-widescreen", you're thinking of 30:4, generally the first number represents the width.
MarlonApplesauce
Just a word of caution above and beyond what's in the article - All of the "heavy" skins (Aeon, MediaStream, Focus) can cause more than just stuttering on a classic Xbox; they can make movies unplayable. Save yourself a lot of headache and go straight for the 'Lite' mods with downsized textures and 720p backgrounds/fanart. They're all beautiful skins, but after playing around for weeks trying to get them to work reliably on my Xbox I gave up and went back to the PM3.HD skin - It ain't flashy, but it gets the job done 100% of the time, and the newer versions with CoverFlow look pretty good.
pHluid
"Jason Fitzpatrick is the Weekend Editor at Lifehacker and a devotee of the pure awesome that is XBMC. He can frequently be found in his workshop modifying Xboxes to give to friends and spread the gospel of open source."
I would love to receive such enlightenment!
hsiaopz
@Kymeira: It is absolutely worth it. There's not a commercial media portal on the planet that comes close. On the xbox it works great, but you're limited to standard def. For HD, a media PC with Linux running XBMC is the preferred route, windows is a close second.
Windows MediaCenter with an extender is a waste of money, it barely functions (including xbox360). AppleTV totally blows. It's for people who want something that works out of the box but has no extensability whatsoever. Those are only options for people who've never tried anything else and thus have no idea what they're missing.
XBMC is free, has very in-depth skins that completely customize the interface, can play xbox games directly from the hard drive, can run emulators for older systems (15000 NES SNES Genisis Atari roms all work). It can access streaming web content (I use it to watch Rev3 all the time). It'll play all your movies and TV shows from computers attached via your network. It'll play all of your music. It can play MP3+G karaoke songs with the XboxLive headset if you're into that. It can view you photo library, or even read digital comic book formats. If you enable the http server, you can use your web browser to control it, so your iPod touch and cellphone instantly become remote controls for it. You can make your own skins and write scripts for it. It will identify your movies automatically, downloading the movie poster to use as an icon, or high res fan-art as the background image. It'll automatically fetch plot and actor info from online databases like imdb.com so you can hit "info" and see exactly what a movie is before watching it. All datasources can be combined. For example: if you have 6 computers on your network, and each has movies, you can create one virtual folder that will have movies from all 6 computer shown in one place. You can password protect select content if you want to have "family movies" for the kids and "Rater R+" for the grown-ups. It has much more to offer than what I'm listing here.
Definitely do it. My xbox took me about an hour to setup the first time (mostly spent trying to splice a USB port into my controller without destroying it). So get a cheap sacrificial controller for the initial install and you'll be done in about 30 min. Be prepared to spend days tinkering with it though... You don't really need to, but you'll want to.
@takemetoyourtoaster:
For TV shows, XBMC Knows the "SXXEXX" prefix for Season and Episode number and will ignore them when displaying the name. If it was posted by a pirate group who puts their name in the file it knows to ignore anything in brackets. So a torrent name: "S01E03 Show Title [HaxorGroup13 DVDRIP]" would be read as "Show Title". It then uses a scraper. It'll send the show name and episode/season info to an online Database like theTVDB.com or imbd.com and pull info from that site to make sure it's named appropriately, find the artwork and details about the actors etc. Same thing for Movies, Music etc.
The first rule to making this work: Download good torrents. Some people are idiots and post garbage. The don't include a properly formatted .nfo file, they put their group name outside of the brackets, use the wrong naming conventions etc. Find a good source for your videos or you'll be manually renaming them.
Also make sure XBMC has access to the internet or the scraper won't work.
There are also 3rd party programs that will either rename your files for you from your PC, or they will create .nfo files for each video that contain all the data. If a .nfo file exists, xmbc uses that data and ignores the file name all together, you just see what the file is called in the nfo.
I use XBMC Media Companion from [billyad2000.co.uk]
It works great, give it a try.
I use the following
Video File:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Season#/S01E01 - Title_of_Episode.h264
Thumbnail File:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Season#/S01E01 - Title_of_Episode.tbn
Nfo File:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Season#/S01E01 - Title_of_Episode.nfo
Fan Art:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Season#/Fanart.jpg
Season # icon:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Season#/Folder.jpg
Series icon:
//TV_shows/NameOfShow/Folder.jpg
@bubi73: Good advice. I actually prefer the PM3.HD skin, but I do play with Æon occasionally. You will have to scale it back a bit to make it responsive on the old xbox hardware (or solder on another 64MB of RAM, but I hear people getting mixed results with that approach).
@Richard Coskey: what program will let u use mp3s as game soundtracks? i'm interested!
onlysublime
A tip if you're going to install Aeon and add those background images - convert them to 720 or 480, it'll make everything run a whole lot smoother.
does xbmc have hardware video acceleration yet for any platform? it seems like a waste to have the power of the ATI/NVIDIA cards be sitting idle.
onlysublime
I can't seem to figure out how to get XBMC to recognize a TV directory from my HD. Help, anyone? The process seems a little opaque.
@longbourne: Need a bit more info. Is it not scraping it properly? Is it divx or wtv formats? Is it not showing it at all? etc.
pHluid
@Kymeira:
I'll be the contrary voice here. I found XBMC useful and somewhat impressive in capabilities but far from user friendly.
If you plan on using it to stream anything, make sure you are comfortable with network protocols. I probably spent as much time setting it up as I did watching content with it. Also, text entry is a pain. Once I got my PS3 and Media link I rarely used my XBMC again. In fact I'm trying to sell it. (interested?)
Sure XBMC does so much more as others have said, and it is free. It just hasn't had the earth shattering tv watching change that I expected. Nexflix, MactheRipper, EyeTV and my PS3 have done far more to improve my viewing habits than XBMC ever did.
If you already have an Xbox, if can't hurt to try though. :)
Re: scrolling not running smoothly, it does mention on Aeon's website that "If you want them to cycle smoothly in Aeon and XBMC, however, it's vital they're converted from JPG to an uncompressed BMP format once downloaded. An ideal app for this is Irfanview, with its intuitive batch command. Just convert to BMP, copy them to your HTPC and tell Aeon where to find them."
mados123
@[www.joejoesoft.com]) to rename lots of files in a folder but here on lifehacker there a few other renaming tools so feel free to choose yourself).
as most of the tv series rips have the same kind of name (e.g. familyguy1x07-xviddivix-bla) i only need a few keystrokes to rename lots of them into formats like Familyguy.S01E07 and drop it into the according tv show directory. i don't even use seasons folders as xmbc shows the files divided into seasons anyway - a few clicks less for me. i also kill the episode title from the filename as it only generates long file names with no real practical use for me.
so i use the following:
Video file:
X:\TvShows\NameOfShow\NameOfShow.S01E01.avi
Thumbnail, fan art, info etc. are stored in the profile folder (somewhere in Documents and Settings on Windows) automatically by xmbc. I dropped Media Companion for the awesome thetvdb.com-scraper.
bobby.tables
I'm curious as to where I can find xbmc for 360. I googled and apparently they can't host it over at that regular site..Is this something I should be torrenting?
Ryan Willis
@[www.monkeyjob.com]) to automatically rename and move downloaded files. It's old and its ugly but it watches folders (like your torrent download folder) for completed files, renames them to something your XBMC can understand, and moves them to the correct folder. If you are running Mac OS/Linux you could do this easily with some scripting and crontab but I've never got the hang of scripting in Windows and the scheduled tasks things is a nightmare.
cheyrou23
@Kymeira: Is XBMC worth it?
nope get a...
oh wait there is no competition!
I have 2 monitors setup, a 19 inch 12x10 monitor and a 1080p monitor as my secondary, is there anyway for xmbc to display on my secondary monitor?
dhlt25
Check out the Xtv skin which has been modelled on Apple TV. Very clean interface and lots of little extras built in. My favourite is a lock option that keep my kids from accidentally switching all all of my settings.
gfrobe
@[talk.xboxsolution.com]
I had a chance to interview both the Plex and XBMC teams, but of particular interest was the interview with DJH, the creator of the Aeon Stark skin, just before the skin went beta. If you're into the whole XBMC/Plex thing, they're well worth a read:
[bravelittlememe.com]
Giuliano Maciocci
@[www.epnamer.com] --- if you've got a general idea of the season and episode you can get it however you like it.
Awesome Post Lifehacker.
@rwparris2: I was just about to say that.
@Curt l H: Yes and you can do that and also convert them from JPG to uncompress BMP just like it says on the AEON site.
"If you want them to cycle smoothly in Aeon and XBMC, however, it's vital they're converted from JPG to an uncompressed BMP format once downloaded. An ideal app for this is Irfanview, with its intuitive batch command. Just convert to BMP, copy them to your HTPC and tell Aeon where to find them."
Irfanview does this just like a charm.
@dhlt25: I have tried to do the same thing, but i don't think that is supported yet. The XMBC might have some info on that.
It doesn't really matter that much to me if i don't get it working on my two monitors. I'm really happy with it running on just one.
@[t3ch.yi.se]
kirby822
XBMC is after Vlc my preferred media player. the skins are really awesome. You could also use a simple XMBC Skin Manager to download Skins from different sources. Very easy-to-use by less experienced. give it a try via [[www.kabatology.com]]
@Kymeira: It is absolutely worth it. I've had my xbox modded for about 5 years now, and I still have not outgrown XBMC. It is one the best pieces of open source software out there. The biggest downside to the Xbox version is that you can't play HD formats, but the interface looks amazing in 720p.
lowtolerance
@Kymeira: I'll be the contrary voice here. I found XBMC useful and somewhat impressive in capabilities but far from user friendly. If you plan on using it to stream anything, make sure you are comfortable with network protocols. I probably spent as much time setting it up as I did watching content with it. Also, text entry is a pain. Once I got my PS3 and Media link I rarely used my XBMC again. In fact I'm trying to sell it. (interested?) Sure XBMC does so much more as others have said, and it is free. It just hasn't had the earth shattering tv watching change that I expected. Nexflix, MactheRipper, EyeTV and my PS3 have done far more to improve my viewing habits than XBMC ever did. If you already have an Xbox, if can't hurt to try though. :)
HalenCachudo
It's Project Mayhem III (not Project Gotham anything), and the default on non-xbox platforms is PM3.HD which looks quite a bit snazzier than that ancient screenshot you have there. Also, windows users should not be installing to within the Program Files directory - they should be installing to the userdata location just like all the other platforms (eg on XP it's C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Support\XBMC\skins)
http://xbmc.org
VitaLonestar
@longbourne: I recommend checking out documentation on XBMC.org, and if that doesn't help, the people in the forums there have never failed me.
lowtolerance
@Kabatology: That basically checks for new versions, downloads them, and ftp's them to your xbox skin directory. I tried it but its a little buggy.
@FoolsRun: eh, the fact that they work well with a remote is something of a happy accident, because Aeon and Media Stream are designed with a remote in mind. Probably most of the others, sans XBMC360 and Classic, too.
Blake Graham
I think we just killed the Aeon site... whoops.
@Penguins-R-Us: Wow it wasn't too long ago when you made a smart ass comment and then apologized for it afterwords, then saying that you would try to think before you post, i believe it was, and here you go again...
@Kymeira: Let me ask you this, Is free Worth: Streaming online content from hundreds of sourses, Built in codecs for "almost" every media type available, a huge community support, new plugins enhancing your use being created like every other day? oh and its free as long as you have an xbox 1
@Ryan Willis: There is no such thing yet.
@onlysublime: pretty sure the latest 9.04 Alpha release uses hardware acceleration. Give it a shot and let us know.
@fredygamer: Ah, didn't try converting them to BMP, thanks for pointing this out!
@fredygamer: Yep; that's exact what it does. it could be buggy -- but as you'll always have new versions at hand and can also add more skin source.
@Tyson0016: Do you know where the Watchmen pic is? I looked all over that place and don't see it.
Many of these skins are beautiful, but I keep going back to PM3 HD. Often the other skins look BETTER, but none of them are as intuitive and easy to use as PM3. Media Stream is gorgeous, but it doesn't run on the Xbox, but there's a slightly dumbed down version that does, and it's still just not as easy and fast to use as PM3.
@vlatro: The Xbox can do HD. Mine's doing it right now. You just gotta get the component cables.
As for whether or not it's worth it, the answer is yes. My TV pretty much doesn't even get turned on without the Xbox going. It's easily 75% of what comes through my TV.
@undefined: It cannot do HD, at least in terms of the newer, HD codecs like mkv files. The processor in the original XBox is nowhere near powerful enough to decode them on the fly.
It'll display HD content that is designed for the original XBox, like certain games, but the newer codecs beat the hell out of it.
Standard definition content and DVDs in any file format (iso, bin, img, etc) work fantastic however. So it depends on your needs.
Aside from the achilles heel in the hardware, it's great.
aphex242
@Kymeira: Yes.
For some reason some of my videos have disappear from when I enable these skins? It also happens when I put my videos into library mode with the original skin.
defuse
@bubi73: Yeah, I'm still not having good results with Aeon lite. I think it's just too much for the little guy to handle.
They probably should have pointed out in the article that almost none of these will work correctly with an Xbox.
Mediastream comes the closest. I spent a lot of time working with another guy on the forums modding it to work almost perfectly. We were pretty close, but for some reason he pulled the link and now tells people just to download an older one based off of Mediastream 0.95.
@Die The Villian: Yeah seriously, and I even applauded him for it.
And now look at him. Being a jerk just seem to some natural. I was willing to chalk that one comment up to human behaviour, then he keeps doing this, like it just comes to him as the normal thing to do. It's like breathing for him it seems like.
Fain
this DID NOT WORK on Win7 build 7068 , even after a right click and "run as admin" it kept crashing - either my dell p.c. is to wimpy to handle it or there is a compatibility issue.
Also the Aeon site is taking me to an "Account Suspended" page :(
brain_fingered
@elbringit: You need xbmc set up first. Then you can just stream them from your local computer once they're downloaded. This works much better if they're both on wired connections.
Aeon site is down. Anyone have a mirror?
Tyson0016
I think that Lifehacker should do an article about "Media Info Plus" and "Media Companion", which are two desktop media management software for XBMC (and other media center software). See:
[xbmc.org]
[xbmc.org]
These help the end-user download FanArt backdrops eye candy and movie metadata information making management of them much easier if you have a large collection.
"Media Info Plus" is cross-platform and open source, and not only supports movies but TV Shows and music as well which makes it very attractive for most, and not only that but its developer(s) are also planing on making it available for other media center software than XBMC, such as MediaPortal, Plex, Boxee, and SageTV.
@Paul Beardfacé: He's talking about ripping mp3s (to soundtrack folder) to play in those list of games as opposed to ripping a retail or burned cd method (I hope!).
hakujin1
@onlysublime: +1 on that. I rarely play xbox games on it anymore, but this would be a nice one to have...
hakujin1
@Tony Bullard: Some higher than SD resolution lower profile mpeg4 stuff (i.e. xvid, divx) yeah, but that's about it. It can't play h264/x264 HD which is the de facto standard these days. Doesn't bother me as I used my xbox as a media extender in the bedroom and play HD on the HTPC on the main tele, but I can see how it might be a turn off to some, and a reason to run xbmc on PC or Mac... boxee is xbmc framework on mac though, and much better for that os x, IMO.
hakujin1
A little OT, but anyone here that runs xbmc on appleTV (via *nix presumably) able to play 720p x264 mkvs on your appleTV? That would definitely be worth it to purchase an AppleTV to me, but last I read, GPU decoding wasn't available and it's not strong enough... is that so?
hakujin1
@2-7offsuit is ioos:
I agree, and find the majority of these skins a waste of time for the xbox. Updates to 9.04 require skin updates. Aeon doesn't run well on it and has all sorts of quirks (e.g. having to create two thumbnail .pngs etc.) that make it not worth it at the present time.
hakujin1
@onlysublime: XBMC for Linux 9.04 Alpha 1 does this if you have a NVIDIA 8-series graphics or later, just enable VDPAU under the settings.
NVIDIA is the only manufacturer which has an open API for this under Linux. On Mac OS X no manufacturer has an open API, and on Windows there is the DxVA/DirectShow API for both NVIDIA and ATI but XBMC does not have a DxVA/DirectShow API render yet nor is one planned within a soon foreseeable future.
XBMC for Linux on NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS is great!
@Tyson0016: Yea same problem here except the error looks more like Aeon stopped paying the server fees rather than just pure numbers crashing it.
curse103
@aphex242: I tend to download Bluray-ripped mkv movies (high res, 8GB+ in filesize), but I have an older standard-def TV.
I've been planning on building a Linux mediaserver, but I thought maybe I could skip spending the extra money. If the Xbox isn't powerful enough to decode mkv though...
@defuse: samesies
freddyg
@[www.mediafire.com]
Still have to wait for the site to come back though to get the HD backdrops and such.
Tyson0016
@Kymeira: Worth it? I would have sex with my XBMC if it was physically possible. (I have thought about trying regardless)...
The only problem is the lack of TRUE hi-def. Although up converted content still looks good, in my opinion.
@[www.nekrosoft.net]
Tyson0016
@Gamester17: so basically, the only hardware video acceleration is for nvidia+linux? i'm an ati+windows fan. :( i think i'll stick to the xbox for SD and the Western Digital for HD...
onlysublime
@hakujin1: i got that vibe from the first message too. u don't need a program to rip a cd to hard drive for game music. but it would be nice to take mp3's and use them as is. Richard Coskey, where r u??? Now that Xbox games are dirt cheap on ebay (cheaper than old Atari games!), I've been bitten by the old box again. Nice to have great gaming for under $10 a game (often under $5). And they look great still on the HDTV at 480P (some games are even 720P or 1080i). They certainly look as good or better than lame Wii games. I'm trying to snatch up my library before these games become rare and expensive like old Atari stuff.
onlysublime
@onlysublime: Xbox Music Mixer allows you to transfer mp3s from your pc to the Xbox.
Too bad that there has been no change to the eX theme by Blackbolt for close to 2 months because it will be awesome.
Verdi R-D
@DirtyDogg: thanks! i'll check it out.
onlysublime
@DirtyDogg: i just went and googled that music mixer. is that what Richard Coskey was talking about? can that program let u use mp3's inside games? for copying mp3's from pc to xbox, i think it'd actually easier to just ftp the stuff...
onlysublime
@Kymeira: You'll still run into trouble. You have to realize that the XBox has to process those gigantic compressed files (not to mention it's filesystem has a hard 4gb limit). Even if you sliced them up into 2gb chunks it'd still stutter uncontrollably, regardless of your output option.
Trust me, I've tried it, lamented about it, posted about it, and finally built a HTPC to handle it.
aphex242
already downloaded them... will try them in the evening!
a tip for comic-fans i found on the internetz (dont know where):
teh comic rack script --> [xbmc.org]
THE AEON WEBSITE IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING HEAVY TRAFFIC
THIS PAGE IS TEMPORARILY OFFLINE - presenting the critically acclaimed lifehacker effect xD
Nicatron SynRules