XBMC Linux Port – almost there.

XBMC Linux Port – almost there. | 13th January, 2009

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I’ve been closely tracking the Linux port of the xbox media center, failing on two previous attempts to install it on my 64 bit system (Dependency hell). On noticing recently that the package is available on the AUR (arch user repository), I straight away went ahead and installed it. It was a long wait as the compiling took about half an hour.

The default Project Mayhem 3 theme is slick. The XBMC interface is divided into five menu items for accessing Programs, Pictures, Videos, Music, and Weather. The Programs entry is for accessing Xbox programs and isn’t applicable in the non-Xbox ported environments. XBMC can also play content from devices connected to your network. A built-in file manager lets you play media from your network, local disk, optical media and USB devices. Navigation on the XBMC needs a special mention : it’s easy, smooth and a breeze.
Media can be organised in the form of an easy to use a library with many different views which makes XBMC stand out among other media centers. The weather section displays a 5 day forecast for 3 different locations. Other nifty features include resume playback of a movie/music file from the previously stopped location, automatic album art fetching, automatic movie info fetching from IMDB.

Player Capabilities:

Video playback is handled by XBMC’s video player, called DVDPlayer. It flawlessly played the Video CD, DVD, MPEG2, MPEG4, WMV, QuickTime, Real, and Flash files that I had on my local disk and from over the network. 1080p HD content was handled flawlessly.
For playing audio, XBMC relies on its own audio player, called Psycho-acoustic Audio Player. The player had no trouble playing every audio file I threw at it, including files in WAV, MP3, Ogg, WMA, RealPlayer, AC3, AAC, FLAC, MIDI, and Audio CD formats.

XBMC interface is fully sinkable with many themes available. Two of them worth looking into are AEON and Media stream. XBMC also supports scripts to extend functionality. But the Linux port doesn’t fully support them (I’m told that the reason is Xbox is a case insensitive platform but Linux is not). Only a few of them like youtube video downloader, IRC client work.

Verdict:

XBMC Linux port is usable at this moment but not completely stable. It crashes once in a while when trying out new plugins or browsing optical disks. One more thing is that it lacks PVR features (I’m told that they’re coming.. Hold on). Once it becomes more stable and gains PVR support, it would make a perfect companion for your HTPC.
XBMC is the most elegant looking Media center is have seen so far. Have a look at these Screenshots of Aeon and Mediastream skins and drop in a comment if you differ with me!