Settings/System

Video output

Display Mode Display xbmc in a window, or fullscreen on the selected screen. Display Changes the resolution that the User Interface is displayed in. Use a fullscreen window rather than true fullscreen Windows only when active, do not use the DirectX fullscreen mode. The main benefit is for multi-screen configurations, where xbmc can be used at the same time as other applications without automatically minimizing. Uses a bit more resources and playback may be slightly less smooth. Blank other displays In a multi-screen configuration, the screens where xbmc is not displayed are blacked out. Vertical blank sync This eliminates vertical tearing Video calibration... See #Video calibration... Test patterns Test patterns for display hardware calibration

Video calibration...

This screen allows you to calibrate the User Interface by adjusting the overscan. Use this tool if the image being displayed is too large or small for your display. Note: Always adjust your hardware display settings before XBMC's settings (such as overscan, etc). Simply adjust the screen so that the arrows are in the top left and bottom right corners and that the entire frame is visible on screen.

It offers the ability to adjust

• The overscan of the video - How close to the edges of the screen that the image is displayed
• The positition where subtitles are displayed
• The position of the on screen display
• The pixel ratio - allows you calibrate the aspect ratio at which videos are played back

• 

  Upper left corner

• Uicalibration2.jpg

  Lower right corner

• Uicalibration3.jpg

  Subtitles position

• Uicalibration.jpg

  Aspect ratio

Audio output

See also: AudioEngine/HOW-TO: Configure audio

Audio output This allows you to tell XBMC about the type of connection to the audio equipment so it can set the available GUI options appropriately, in addition it tells XBMC the LPCM capabilities of the connection. Note: This unrelated with telling XBMC where the audio is actually sent, this is done via Audio output device and Passthrough output device settings. - Analog: Disables all the "capable receiver" options for passthrough and allows multi-channel LPCM to be pass to a soundcard. Note: Analog in this case does not mean a D/A conversion is done by XBMC, this setting purely enables the hand-off of the LPCM data to allow either a on-board soundcard or off-board USB soundcard to do the actual D/A conversion before sending audio to speaker outputs. - Optical/Coax: This enables the selection of the Dolby Digital and DTS capable receiver options and limits the output of LPCM to 2 channels. : Note: If you want to transcode one format to another, for example DTS is not supported on your receiver but AC3 is, then select just AC3 however as the DTS is decoded to LPCM before being encoded again to AC3 then the resulting audio will be AC3 2.0 only due to the LPCM 2.0 limit imposed by selecting Optical/Coax, if you want a full 5.1 channel transcode you'll have to select the HDMI option even if you're not using a HDMI output. - HDMI: This enables all the capable receiver options, so in addition to what's available for Optical/Coax, TrueHD, DTS-HD and Multichannel LPCM capable receiver options are now selectable, in addition there is no limit on how LPCM is passed. Speaker Configuration Select your physical speaker layout. Note: If connected to a TV then don't set higher than 2.0 as it's not likely that it'll will be supported, only set higher if it's known for sure that channel configuration is supported e.g. 5.1 Boost volume level on downmix Boosts AC3 streams that have been downmixed to 2 channels Output stereo to all speakers This upmixes 2 channel stereo sources to what specified by the Speaker Configuration so audio is output on all speakers - Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding AC3 streams. Note: AAC is transcoded to AC3 when this option is checked. (AC3 capable receiver is required.) - DTS capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS streams. - AAC capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding AAC streams. Note: AAC receivers likely do not natively decode AAC in passthrough, likely shows up as LPCM. This is not a XBMC/AE limitation - MultiChannel LPCM capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding LPCM streams. - TrueHD capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding TrueHD streams. - DTS-HD capable receiver Select this option if your receiver is capable of decoding DTS-HD streams. Audio output device This is the device you use to play LPCM or audio decoded by XBMC such as mp3's and FLAC. Note: If XBMC plays a file which has audio that the system does not support (thus the above capable receiver option is not selected e.g. DTS capable receiver is not selected) then it is either transcoded to a supported format or decoded and sent as LPCM, in both cases this will be the audio device used. Passthrough output device This device you use to play the encoded formats, these are any of the formats checked above in the "capable receiver" options. Play GUI sounds This sets how interface sounds are handled such as when navigating the menus, select from Never, Only when playback stopped, or Always.

Input devices

Note: The content of this screen largely depends on the input devices that XBMC detects

Remote control sends keyboard presses When activated, your keyboard arrows will move the selection on the virtual keyboard. When deactivated, they will move the cursor from your text. Enable mouse and Touch Screen support If deactivated, XBMC will ignore all mouse movements and clicks.

Power saving

See also: Settings/Appearance#Screensaver

Put display to sleep when idle Turns off display when idle. Useful for TVs that turn off when there is no display signal detected, but you don't want to suspend/shutdown the whole computer. Selectable from 5 minutes to 120 minutes. Shutdown function timer Sleeps the computer when idle. Selectable from 5 minutes to 120 minutes. Shutdown function Defines what "Shutdown" will do by default. Can be set to actually shutdown, suspend, minimize, or quit.

XBMC also has a "Custom shutdown timer" selectable from the power icon on the home screen, or from the shutdown menu (press S on a keyboard).

Debugging

Main page: Log file

Enable debug logging Toggles debug log on / off. Useful for troubleshooting. Screenshot folder Folder used to save screenshots taken within XBMC. (see Keyboard controls for the screenshot key for your OS)

Master lock

See also: Media sources#Locking

Note: The Master Lock options are ONLY available while using the Default User profile.

XBMC will give you three tries when you need to enter a lock/password to access something that is locked. If you max out these three tries then just quit XBMC and re-open it to get three more tries. The Master Lock code is stored in the "profiles.xml" file in the userdata folder. Should you get locked out, you can delete or edit the "profiles.xml" file.

Master lock code and settings Opens the Master Lock dialog, where you can configure your Master Lock options. Ask For Master Lock Code on Startup If enabled, the master lock code is required to unlock XBMC on startup

Master lock settings

Master Lock Allows you to set the master lock password. Can be one of three types: Numeric Password - Enter a Numeric Password using the On Screen Keyboard Gamepad Button Combo - Enter a series of buttons using the Gamepad Full-Text Password - Enter a plain-text password using the On Screen Keyboard With the Master Lock, you can restrict access to the following sections when selected: Lock Music Section Lock Video Section Lock Pictures Section Lock Programs and Scripts Section Lock File Manager Lock Settings