*** Official Kodi (née XBMC) Thread ***

what do you mean by timeshifting?, the pvr part of xbmc is just a frontend for various backend recorders.

i'd put the power of mythtv backend over windows media center, though linux is lacking with silverlight based streaming sites.
 
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Not sure what he means by timeshifting being sorted out but the pvr part of XBMC has been terrible for me so far. It's laggy as heck and getting the EPG's to actually work is a nightmare. I say that as someone who swears by XBMC, i'm just not impressed by the TV integration in FRODO.
 
By timeshifting I mean pausing live TV, rewinding live TV and fast forwarding through a program you had paused.

Windows Media Center does everything I need and gives me the entire Sky lineup without too much fuss. It just simply works and is wife friendly!

If someones got some videos / screenshots of an integrated solution under XBMC that is doing this then I'd be happy to give it a look.
 
i very rarely watch live so that doesn't bother me, i record then start watching the recording.

frodo features are on hold, pausing/rewind/fastforward live tv (least for mythtv) has been coded but won't be added until after that.
mythtv cutlists should also be added after frodo is released.

EDIT: i could be wrong, developer section for libcmyth seems to point to the pausing livetv is working
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=110694&pid=1213174#pid1213174

EDIT2: nope just tried it and i could only pause not seek livetv.
 
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XBMC is miles behind on the PVR side of things unfortunately. At the minute I use WMC for all PVR functions, which it does a bloody fantastic job at to be fair, then XBMC is used for films and TV shows that I have.
 
So how bad is XBMC for pvr?

I'm not going to sort all this if pvr isn't workable. 80% of xbmcs time will be spent on tv dvb if i was to use it

If it isn't workable I will have to find a solution to the tv guide issues I'm having in WMC
 
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wonder_lander said:
As soon as they sort out the TV element in XBMC I'll give it a go. For now it can't compete with Windows Media Center + Media Browser + DVBLogic in our house. I know there are some developments for XBMC but it's still not got timeshifting working!
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I use XBMC + WMC + DVB Logic. We use WMC for live tv and recordings, and XBMC for everything else: TV and movies from the server, home movies and photo galleries, music, internet radio, launching games, youtube browing, etc.
 
al4x said:
So not many use XBMC for live tv it seems. Shame
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Live TV isn't actually part of the officially released XBMC versions, it only exists in the betas. It's not surprising most people don't use it for that, since it was never intended for that, and is only now being developed.
 
wonder_lander said:
What does XBMC have over WMC in respect of those tasks?
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For a start, some of those tasks cant be done at all in WMC afaik. For instance, adding whatever internet radio/shoutcast/etc stations you want, complete with categories, favourites, etc. Or adding direct links to youtube and vimeo and a huge list of other video plugins. Or having games lists, complete with their own fanart and descriptions, and being able to launch games (or emulators!) directly from XBMC, then when finishing the game, it returns to XBMC, etc.

The Killer app for me is user profiles. You can set up a profile for yourself, another for, say, the wife, and another for the kids. Each profile can have its own specific skin and layout, which media files it has access to, and independent watched history.

Using smart playlists, you can create lists of specific programs or movies, which are kind of like favourites in media browser, but they are smarter (build lists based on genre, director, actor, year, certification, etc.) and you can set up as many as you want.

Depending on the skins you use, the fanart features are streets ahead of media browser and WMC.

Plus, xbmc has better out-of-the-box media file support than WMC. No problem playing MKV, VIDEOTS folders, ISOs, or multi-part AVIs for instance - you don't have to do anything, it just works.

For anyone wanting to use XBMC for live tv/PVR, I'd suggest steer clear. That's a beta feature that has been in development for a year or so, and will probably still not be mature for another year or so. Live TV and recordings are too critical to rely on beta software. But for anything else, XBMC owns the competition.

There is a plugin for WMC that adds a launch button to load XBMC, then when you close XBMC, it returns to WMC. You can also do it the other way: XBMC nativaely supports the loading of programs, so you could add a button to launch WMC, and when closing WMC, it'll return to XBMC. With the windows meda remote plugin for XBMC, it should work seamlessly.

I don't use either of those any more since getting a harmony remote. I press a button on the remote and it automatically closes one and loads the other, thanks to autohotkey scripts. That allows me also to set up separate, specific keybindings on the remote for each program.

For games, I'll probably soon add steam big picture mode to the remote as a third alternative. But I imagine some people will find it just as easy to use big picture mode as the main front end for thier HTPC, and add XBMC and WMC as "non-steam programs".
 
MeMeMeMe said:
For a start, some of those tasks cant be done at all in WMC afaik. For instance, adding whatever internet radio/shoutcast/etc stations you want, complete with categories, favourites, etc. Or adding direct links to youtube and vimeo and a huge list of other video plugins. Or having games lists, complete with their own fanart and descriptions, and being able to launch games (or emulators!) directly from XBMC, then when finishing the game, it returns to XBMC, etc.

The Killer app for me is user profiles. You can set up a profile for yourself, another for, say, the wife, and another for the kids. Each profile can have its own specific skin and layout, which media files it has access to, and independent watched history.

Using smart playlists, you can create lists of specific programs or movies, which are kind of like favourites in media browser, but they are smarter (build lists based on genre, director, actor, year, certification, etc.) and you can set up as many as you want.

Depending on the skins you use, the fanart features are streets ahead of media browser and WMC.

Plus, xbmc has better out-of-the-box media file support than WMC. No problem playing MKV, VIDEOTS folders, ISOs, or multi-part AVIs for instance - you don't have to do anything, it just works.

For anyone wanting to use XBMC for live tv/PVR, I'd suggest steer clear. That's a beta feature that has been in development for a year or so, and will probably still not be mature for another year or so. Live TV and recordings are too critical to rely on beta software. But for anything else, XBMC owns the competition.

There is a plugin for WMC that adds a launch button to load XBMC, then when you close XBMC, it returns to WMC. You can also do it the other way: XBMC nativaely supports the loading of programs, so you could add a button to launch WMC, and when closing WMC, it'll return to XBMC. With the windows meda remote plugin for XBMC, it should work seamlessly.

I don't use either of those any more since getting a harmony remote. I press a button on the remote and it automatically closes one and loads the other, thanks to autohotkey scripts. That allows me also to set up separate, specific keybindings on the remote for each program.

For games, I'll probably soon add steam big picture mode to the remote as a third alternative. But I imagine some people will find it just as easy to use big picture mode as the main front end for thier HTPC, and add XBMC and WMC as "non-steam programs".
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So to sum up

WMC for live tv..
xbmc for other things.
from what ive seen WMC media browser looks better than XBMC. ill upload a screen shot
WMC doesnt handle radio or music at all well.

It is very interesting that you can launch one from another. i will definitely look into that.

As of now i find WMC easier and less clunky to navigate, is this because i use a free air mouse when XBMC is designed for a D-pad?

steam big picture is excellent and i would also like to add that. It really is a nice piece of software
 
If you want a PVR then nothing beats Media Portal, looks as good (better imo but that subjective :)) as XBMC, plugins for just about any eventuality and is configurable to hell.

The only downside is out of the box its pretty basic and poor. it will take a day or two getting the hang on setting it all up how you want and you will be forever tinkering with it and trying out different plugins/skins. But once finished you have a product that is set to your needs than a catch all type of program.
 
MediaPortal is a good recommendation. I used to use it. I find the PVR to be not quite as stable as WMC, I did miss the odd recording every now and then, but it's leagues ahead of XBMC for live tv at present.

al4x said:
So to sum up

WMC for live tv..
xbmc for other things.
from what ive seen WMC media browser looks better than XBMC. ill upload a screen shot
WMC doesnt handle radio or music at all well.

It is very interesting that you can launch one from another. i will definitely look into that.

As of now I find WMC easier and less clunky to navigate, is this because i use a free air mouse when XBMC is designed for a D-pad?

steam big picture is excellent and i would also like to add that. It really is a nice piece of software
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I love steam big picture too.

I'm surprised to hear people like media browser's look better than xbmc (or Mediaportal for that matter). I'm keen to see your screenshots, maybe it's improved since I used it. I'll post some of my xbmc ones later.

Maybe it's because the default skin for XBMC, the one it ships with, is fairly boring. There are so many others, radically different, more attractive, with many extra features. IIRC, the best media browser skins were premium, so I never got to see what they looked like. All XBMC skins are free (and you have access to the source files so you can edit them, if you know what you are doing).

XBMC navigation: hmm, you might be right about the mouse. You can use a mouse to control xbmc, but in my experience, sometimes, on some skins and some screens, it's not precise - the cursor isn't always where you think it is. XBMC works best with keyboard or remote control-based navigation: keys for up/down/left/right/enter/back, etc.

I have xbmc on my media centre pc which is controlled by a remote. I also have it on my desktop which is controlled by mouse and keyboard - and on that machine I don't use the mouse for xbmc, I just use the keyboard.
 
Don't know if I should ask this in this thread but I didn't want to start a new topic...

I've scraped all my movies but have a few standups that the scraper cannot find. Is there anyway of creating custom NFO files so that the info will show on XBMC?
 
Have you tried searching manually. Bring up info (i) and select refresh. You can now select from a list of matches or type in something that's more likely to match.
 
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