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{{Expand|date=January 2007}}
==The XboxMediaCenter Project==
{{Infobox_Software2
|name = Xbox Media Center
|logo = [[Image:Xbox Media Center logo.png|100px]]
|screenshot = [[Image:Xbmc.JPG|250px]]
|caption = XBMC Home Screen
|developer = [http://sourceforge.net/project/memberlist.php?group_id=87054 Xbox Media Center Developers]
|operating_system = [[Microsoft Xbox]]
|genre = [[media player]] / [[media center]]
|license = [[GNU General Public License|GNU GPL]]
|website = [http://www.xboxmediacenter.com www.xboxmediacenter.com]
}}


'''Xbox Media Center (XBMC)''' is an award-winning [[media player]] for the original [[Xbox|Xbox game-console]]. XBMC can play music, play videos and display images from the Xbox's [[DVD]] drive, its internal [[hard drive|hard-drive drive]], a [[Local area network|local network]], [[USB flash drive]], and the [[internet]]. It also functions as a replacement dashboard to launch Xbox games off the [[hard drive|hard-disk drive]]. Other functions of XBMC include displaying [[weather forecasts]] and [[TV guide]]s, watching [[YouTube]] videos and [[Apple Computer|apple.com]] [[movie trailers|movie trailers]], listening to [[SHOUTcast]] and [[Podcasts]] [[streaming]] [[internet]] radio/video, also XBMC functions as a gaming [[Platform_%28computing%29|platform]] by allowing users to play [[Python (programming language)|python]]-based [[minigame|mini-games]] and a free [[online gaming|online-gaming]] alternative to [[Xbox Live]]. XBMC is [[Free_software|free]] and [[open source]] software, the source code is distributed under the [[GNU General Public License]].  
XBMC (XBox Media Center) is a [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html free open source (GPL)] multimedia-player for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox Xbox™ from Microsoft]. Currently XBMC can be used to play/view most popular video/audio/picture formats such as DVD-Video, VCD/SVCD, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF, PNG, and most other popular multimedia formats (plus many more less known formats) directly from a CD/DVD in the Xbox DVD-ROM drive or from the Xbox built-in harddrive. XBMC can also play multimedia-files from a computer over a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_network local-network] and even stream media-streams directly from the internet. XBMC can parse DVD-Video movies (with and without menus) from ISO/IMG-images and even ZIP/RAR-archives. XBMC has playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. XBMC can also use python-scripts written for XBMC as plugin widgets. All these different features enable the Xbox to become a fully functional multimedia-jukebox. XBMC has a simple and user-friendly user-interface, it's easy to use, it's convenient, flexible and offers a great price/performance ratio. (This, The XboxMediaCenter Project is also known as "XBox Media Center" or simply "XBMC").


==Awards==
*'''Notes!'''
XBMC won two categories [[SourceForge]] 2006 Community Choice Awards, for [http://sourceforge.net/awards/cca/ Best Multimedia Project and Best Game Project]. Winners were announced at the [[Slashdot]] Lounge at LinuxWorld Expo, Boston, April 5, 2006.
**XBMC is a non-profit hobby project that is only developed by volunteers in their spare-time for free.
**XBMC does require a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox#Modding_the_Xbox modded Xbox] to run on or it will not function), (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modchip modchip] or [http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox-tutorials.php?p=151|#151 software exploit/hack]).
**For a complete list a functions and features see the [[XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs| supported features/formats list here]].<br>


==Features==
==2.0.1 Point Release==
[[Image:Mc360-screenshot-3.jpg|thumb|right|300px|MC360 skin for XBMC displaying IMDb information about Superman II]]
The [[2.0.1 Point Release]] of XBMC was released on the 12th of November 2006. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.<br><br>
XBMC can play media from [[CD]]/[[DVD]] media using the [[Xbox]]'s built-in [[DVD-ROM]] drive. It can also play media from the Xbox's built-in [[harddisk|harddisk-drive]], or stream them over [[Server Message Block|SMB/SAMBA/CIFS]] shares (Windows File-Sharing), [[ReplayTV]] [[digital video recorder|DVRs]], [[Universal Plug and Play|UPnP (Universal Plug and Play )]] shares, [[XBMSP]] ([[Xbox Media Stream Protocol]]) shares, or stream [[iTunes]]-shares via [[Digital Audio Access Protocol|DAAP]]. XBMC can also take advantage of the Xbox's Ethernet network port and a broadband Internet connection if available, using the [[Internet Movie Database|IMDb]] to obtain [[thumbnails]] and reviews on movies, [[CDDB]] (via [[FreeDB]]) for Audio-CD track-listings), and album-[[thumbnails]] via [[All Music Guide|AMG]], it can stream Internet-video-streams, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as [[SHOUTcast]]). XBMC also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to [[Last.fm]] and a weather-forecast (via [http://www.weather.com weather.com]). It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-[[slideshow]] functions, an MP3+CDG [[karaoke]] function and many audio-visualizations and screensavers. XBMC can upconvert all 480p/576p [[SDTV|standard-resolution]] videos and output them to [[HDTV|720p or 1080i HDTV]]-resolutions. In addition, XBMC has an integrated front-end for an [[Xbox Live]] alternative (called "[[XLink Kai]]"), an [[online gaming]] platform, enabling you to both control the Kai engine and play system-link/LAN-enabled Xbox games online, without connecting to the Xbox Live service, straight from your console.


'''XBMC Trainer Support (game cheats)'''
==2.0.0 Point Release==
[[Image:Screenshot190.JPG|thumb|right|Enabling mods on games]]
The [[2.0.0 Point Release]] of XBMC was released on the 29th of September 2006. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.<br><br>
XBMC also has the ability to use and apply Xbox [[Trainer (games)|Trainer]] Files. [[Trainer (games)|Trainers]] are small files that allow for in game value modification through altering retail functions in game values by way of using [[Terminate and Stay Resident|TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident)]] keys.  
There are many things that can be modified including ammo, life, or even how high a character can jump. Trainer support was achieved through collaboration with Team Xored. This collaboration began in December 2005 and came to fruition in January 2006 by successfully integrating the Team Xored Trainer Engine into XBMC.
XBMC can run trainers with the following file extensions: *.ETM and *.XBTF.  


==Running XBMC==
==1.1.0 Point Release==
At present, the latest 'stable' version of XBMC is 2.0.1 final point-release which was released on 12 November, 2006. Since XBMC is an open source software program, its development [[source code]] is stored on a publicly-accessible [[Subversion]] server. This code is constantly updated by developers so the Subversion repository often contains more features than the most recent stable release. Accordingly, builds from the Subversion repository are often released by third parties. It should be noted, however, that builds from development versions typically contain bugs not present in release versions.
The [[1.1.0 Point Release]] of XBMC was released on the 18th of October 2004. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.<br><br>


XBMC is not a authorized/signed [[Microsoft]] product, therefore a [[Xbox#Modding_the_Xbox|modification of the Xbox]] is required in order to run XBMC.  XBMC can be run as an [[Application_software|application]], or as a [[Xbox_Dashboard|dashboard]] that appears directly when the [[Xbox]] is turned on. It takes approximately ten seconds to fully load.
==1.0.0 Point Release==
The [[1.0.0 Point Release]] of XBMC was released on the 29th of June 2004. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.<br><br>


XBMC features a [[Python (programming language)|Python Scripts Engine]] in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X [[Dashboard (software)|Dashboard Widgets]] and [[Microsoft Gadgets]] in [[Windows Sidebar]], so users can add new functionality to XBMC (using the [[Python (programming language)|Python programming language]]) without an illegal copy of the [[XDK]] and without knowledge of the C/C++ programming language. Current [[plugins|plugin]] scripts include functions like Internet-TV and movie-trailer browsers, cinema and weather guides, TV-guides (EPG), e-mail clients, messaging, train-timetables, scripts to front-end control [[Personal video recorder|PVR]] software and hardware (like: [[MediaPortal]], [[MythTV]], [[TiVo]], [[ReplayTV]], [[Dreambox]]/[[DBox2]]), Internet-radio-station browsers (example [[SHOUTcast]], [[Xm radio]], [[Sirius Satellite Radio]]), [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]] file-sharing downloaders ([[BitTorrent]]), [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]], also [[casual games]] (sometimes also refered to as [[Minigame|mini-games]] or [[Party game|party-games]]) such as [[Tetris]], Snake, [[Space Invaders]] and [[Sudoku]], and much more.


==Language support==
XBMC also includes support for many different languages.  XBMC's structure is such that if your language is not available, or not up-to-date, then you can easily make your translation by editing an [[XML]]-file, which can be submitted to the project's database for use by others. Currently the existing supported languages are [[Brazilian Portuguese]], [[Catalan_language|Catalan]], [[Simplified Chinese]], [[Traditional Chinese]], [[Croatian_language|Croatian]], [[Czech_language|Czech]], [[Danish_language|Danish]], [[Dutch_language|Dutch]], [[English_language|English]], [[Esperanto]], [[Finnish_language|Finnish]], [[French_language|French]], [[German_language|German]], [[Greek_language|Greek]], [[Hebrew]], [[Hungarian_language|Hungarian]], [[Icelandic_language|Icelandic]], [[Italian_language|Italian]], [[Japanese_language|Japanese]], [[Korean_language|Korean]], [[Maltese_language|Maltese]], [[Norwegian_language|Norwegian]], [[Polish_language|Polish]], [[Portuguese_language|Portuguese]], [[Romanian_language|Romanian]], [[Russian_language|Russian]], [[Serbian_language|Serbian]], [[Slovene]], [[Spanish_language|Spanish]], [[Swedish_language|Swedish]] and [[Turkish_language|Turkish]].


==Skins==
==SVN tree (and daily SVN builds)==
A mainstay of Xbox homebrew applications is skin-ablitiy in the tradition case modifications. XBMC is noted as having a very robust GUI. Project Mayhem is the offical skin; it is now in its third version, commonly know as PMIII
The XBMC project developers uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subversion SVN] (a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control version control system]) provided by [http://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=87054 SourceForge.net] to keep track of the XBMC [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_code source code] and changes in those source code files. This allows our developers to be located anywhere in the world and work on the same source code tree, which means that our SVN tree gets updated (with bug-fixes, new features, etc.) by our different developers almost on a daily basis. Anyone can anonymously download the latest SVN source code tree and compile it to try out the current and very latest XBMC build, (there are also individuals and groups on the internet which specialize in releasing such pre-compiled SVN builds so that people who don't have the tools to compile XBMC themselves can download and test/use the latest XBMC). Note! [http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/wiki/index.php?title=Team_XBMC_and_Others Team-XBMC] only release source code and do not release pre-compiled builds of XBMC, nor are [http://www.xbmc.xbox-scene.com/wiki/index.php?title=Team_XBMC_and_Others Team-XBMC] affiliated with any individuals or groups that release pre-compiled builds of XBMC. In addition understand that SVN builds can be unstable and buggy so don't complain if they hang/lock or otherwise act in an unsatisfactory way, however feel free to report any bugs you find in the very latest SVN.
<center>
<gallery>
Image:Screenshot191.JPG|A user browsing a user's music collection with XBMC using the the PMIII skin
Image:Screenshot189.JPG|XBMC is able to launch games from the hard drive (shown with the PMIII)
Image:Vision-screenshot-1.jpg|Vision skin for XBMC showing the My Programs section
Image:Xbmc-xboxclassic-2.jpg|Xbox Classic skin for XBMC showing the file browser
</gallery>
</center>


==Format support==
[[category:Introduction]]
XBMC can be used to play/view all common [[multimedia]] formats 'straight out of the box'. It can decode these in software and optionally pass-through AC3/DTS audio from video to S/PDIF output to an external audio-receiver/amplifier. For a detailed up-to-date list see the "Supported Formats" list in XBMC online-manual [http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=XBMC_Features_and_Supported_Formats/Codecs here].
===Supported formats/codecs:===
* '''Physical media''': [[compact disc|CDs]], [[DVD]]s, [[Video CD]]s (including [[DVD-Video]], [[Video CD|VCD/SVCD]] and [[CDDA|Audio-CD/CDDA]])
* '''[[Container format]]s''': [[AVI]], [[MPEG]]/[[MPG]], [[WMV]], [[Advanced Systems Format|ASF]], [[FLV]], [[Matroska|MKV]], [[QuickTime|MOV]], [[MP4]], [[M4A]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[NUT Container|NUT]], [[OGG]], [[OGM]], [[RealMedia|RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB]] ([[RealAudio]]/[[RealVideo]]), [[3gp]], VIVO, PVA, [[NuppleVideo|NUV]], [[Nullsoft Streaming Video|NSV]], [[Nullsoft Streaming Audio|NSA]], [[Autodesk|FLI]], [[Autodesk|FLC]],  and [[DVR-MS]] (beta support)
*'''[[Video codec]]s''': [[MPEG-1]], [[MPEG-2]], [[MPEG-4]], [[DivX]], [[XviD]], [[3ivx]], [[DV]], [[H.263]], [[H.264/MPEG-4 AVC]], [[HuffYUV]], [[Indeo]], [[MJPEG]], [[RealVideo]], [[QuickTime]], [[Sorenson codec|Sorenson]], [[Theora]], [[WMV]], [[Cinepak]],
*'''[[Audio codec]]s''': [[AIFF]], [[WAV|WAV/WAVE]], [[MP2]], [[MP3]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AACplus]], [[AC3]], [[DTS]], [[ALAC]], [[Adaptive Multi-Rate|AMR]], [[FLAC]], [[Monkey's Audio]] (APE), [[RealAudio]], [[Shorten|SHN]], [[WavPack]], [[Musepack|MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+]], [[Speex]], [[Vorbis]] and [[Windows Media Audio|WMA]].
* '''[[Digital camera|Digital picture/image formats]]''': [[BMP]], [[JPEG|JPEG/JPG]], [[GIF]], [[PNG]], [[TIFF|TIF/TIFF]], [[MNG]], [[ICO]], [[PCX]] and [[TGA|Targa/TGA]]
*'''[[Subtitles|Subtitle formats]]''': [[AQTitle]], [[SubStation Alpha|ASS/SSA]], [[Closed captioning|CC]], [[JACOsub]], [[MicroDVD]], [[MPsub]], [[OGM]], PJS, [[RealText|RT]], [[SAMI|SMI]], [[SubRip|SRT]], [[SubViewer|SUB]], [[VobSub|VOBsub]], [[VPlayer]]
 
===Video playback:===
XBMC uses two different multimedia player cores for video-playback. The first is a ported version of the [[open source]] [[cross-platform]] player, [[MPlayer]], which is known for playing [[proprietary]] media-formats without having to pay [[royalties|license fees]]. XBMC handles all [[codecs]] and [[Container format (digital)|containers]] normally supported by [[MPlayer]] (all [[FFmpeg]] supported [[codecs]] and also several external ones with the help of [[proprietary]] [[Dynamic Link Library|DLL]]-files: [[RealMedia]]/[[RealVideo]]/[[RealAudio]], [[QuickTime]], [[WMV9]]/[[WMA9]], [[VP4]]/[[VP5]]/[[VP6]]), and the sources are synced at regular intervals.
 
The second core for video-playback is an [[in-house]] developed [[DVD player|DVD-player]] for [[DVD-Video|DVD-Video movies]], including the support of [[DVD-Video#Menu_programming_interface|DVD-menus]], (based on the open source [[Library (computing)|libraries]] code [[libdvdcss]] and [[libdvdnav]]). This core support all the [[FFmpeg]] [[codecs]], and in addition the [[MPEG-2]] [[video codec]], and the [[audio codecs]] [[DTS]] and [[AC3]] (based on the open source code libraries, [[libmpeg2]], [[libdca]]/[[libdts]], and [[liba52]]/[[libac3]] respectively). One relatively unusual feature of this DVD-player core is the capability to [[on-the-fly]] parse and play [[DVD-Video]] movies that are stored in [[ISO image|ISO and IMG]] DVD-images, [[DVD-Video]] movies that are stored as [[DVD-Video]] ([[IFO]]/[[VOB]]/[[BUP]]) files on a harddrive or network-share, and also [[ISO image|ISO and IMG]] DVD-images directly from [[RAR]] and [[ZIP (file format)|ZIP]] archives. In addition this DVD-player core can [[Upscaling DVD|upscale/upconvert]] all [[DVD-Video]] movies and output them to [[HDTV|720p or 1080i HDTV]] resolutions in better quality than most, if not all, [[high-definition television]] set's native function to [[Upscaling DVD|upscale/upconvert]] video.
 
===Audio playback:===
[[Image:Clearity-screenshot-2.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Clearity skin for XBMC displaying song information OSD]]
For audio playback, XBMC includes its own in-house developed audio-player: [[PAPlayer]] (Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player). Some of this audio-player core's most notable features are [[on-the-fly]] [[resampling]] to the Xbox's native audio frequency (48 kHz), [[gapless playback]], [[Fade (audio engineering)|crossfading]], [[Replay Gain]], [[cue sheet]] and [[Ogg]] Chapter support.
It handles a very large variety of sound files/formats: [[MP2 (format)|MP2]], [[MP3]], [[Vorbis]], [[MPC]], [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]], [[HE-AAC|AACplus (AAC+)]], [[Monkey's Audio|APE]], [[FLAC]], [[WavPack]], [[Shorten]], [[AIFF]], [[WAV]], [[DTS]], [[Dolby Digital|AC3]], [[CDDA]], [[WMA]], [[Impulse Tracker|IT]], [[ScreamTracker|S3M]], MOD (Amiga Module), XM, NSF ([[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] Sound Format), [[SPC700 sound format|SPC]] ([[SNES]]), GYM ([[Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis|Genesis]]), SID ([[Commodore 64]]), [[Adlib]], YM ([[Atari ST]]), ADPCM ([[Nintendo GameCube|GameCube]]). It also supports many different tagging standards: APEv1, [[APEv2 tag|APEv2]], [[ID3|ID3v1]], [[ID3#ID3v2|ID3v2]], ID666 and [[Vorbis comment]]s.
 
===Digital picture/image display:===
XBMC handles all common [[Digital camera|digital picture/image formats]] with the options of [[Ken burns effect|panning/zooming]] and slideshows with "[[Ken Burns Effect]]", with the use of [http://www.codeproject.com/bitmap/cximage.asp CxImage] source code [[Library (computing)|library]]. XBMC can also handle [[Comic Book Archive file|CBZ (ZIP) and CBR (RAR) comic book archive files]], this feature lets you view/read, browse and [[zoom]] the pictures these contain without uncompressing them first.
 
==Limitations==
*XBMC can not currently play any audio/video files protected/encrypted with [[Digital Rights Management|DRM (Digital Rights Management)]], such as music purchased from the [[iTunes Music Store]], [[MSN Music]] or [[Audible.com]]. Workaround: First remove any DRM protection/encryption from the song or video with a [[Third-party developer|third-party]] program before you try to play it, e.g: [[JHymn|hymn]], [[FreeMe]], [[Unfuck]], [[FairUse4WM]], [[DRM2WMV]] or [[DRMDBG]]).
*[[Universal Disk Format|UDF (Universal Disk Format)]] file-system limitation: XBMC only supports UDF version 1.02 (designed for [[DVD-Video]] media), which has a maximum file-size of 1GB (meaning if you burn a DVD-media in a newer UDF version with a video that is larger than 1GB, XBMC will not be able to play that file), same goes for UDF/ISO hybrid formats (a.k.a. UDF Bridge format). Workaround: Burn all your CD/DVD-media in [[ISO 9660]] format, which is the most common standard for recording CD/DVDs. Unfortunately [[ISO 9660]] has a 2GB file-size limitation, which cannot be bypassed.
[[Image:Mc360-screenshot-1.jpg|thumb|right|300px|MC360 skin for XBMC displaying the media blade]]
*The Xbox built-in harddrive is formatted in [[FATX]] which has a 4GB file-size limitation, and only supports file/folder-names up to 42 characters, a maximum of 255 in total file-structure character-depth and a maximum number of 4096 files/folders in a single subfolder, plus in the root of each partition the maximum number of files/folders is 256. [[FAT]] does not support all ASCII characters in file/folder names (like for example < > = ? : ; " * + , / \|¤ &). XBMC will automatically rename any files/folders you transfer to the Xbox by these limitations. (None of these are XBMC issues that can be fixed as the limitation is in the [[Xbox]] itself). Workaround: Store your files/folders on your computer or a [[Network-attached storage|Network-Attached Storage (NAS)]] device/box and share them over a [[Local area network|local-area-network]] instead.
*With its 733 MHz [[Intel Pentium III]] [[Celeron]] and 64MB [[shared memory]], the [[Xbox]] does not have enough hardware-resources (not fast enough [[CPU]] nor large enough [[Random access memory|RAM-memory]]) to play 720p/1080i resolution-native [[HDTV]] video (at 1280x720 and 1920x1080 pixels), (like [[WMVHD|WMV HD]]). XBMC can however upconvert all 480p/576p [[SDTV|standard-resolution]] movies and output them to [[HDTV|720p or 1080i HDTV]] resolutions in better quality than most (if not all) HDTV's native function to upconvert video.
* Again with its 733 MHz [[Intel Pentium III]] [[Celeron]] and 64MB [[shared memory]], the [[Xbox]] does not have enough hardware-resources (not fast enough [[CPU]] nor large enough [[Random access memory|RAM-memory]]) to play [[H264|MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)]] encoded videos with [[H.264#Profiles|Cabac and Deblocking]] if the video-resolution is higher than 352x288 pixels. Workaround: If you encode your [[H264|MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)]] videos without [[H.264#Profiles|Cabac and Deblocking]] then the [[Xbox]] hardware can handle up to 720x576 pixels video-resolution. It is best to encode your videos to [[MPEG-4|MPEG-4 ASP]] (like [[DivX]] or [[XviD]]) instead, as then that video's native-resolution can be anything up to 960x540 pixels ([[Half Resolution High Definition|HRHD]] resolution).
 
==Legality==
While XBMC source code is made publicly available by the developers under an [[Open Source]] [[license]], but they consider themselves legally unable to distribute executable versions.  Due to this, the only publicly available executable versions of XBMC are from third parties and are of dubious legal status.
 
===Copyright===
The XBMC software is licensed under the [[GNU General Public License|GNU General Public License (GPL)]] by the developers, meaning they allow anybody to redistribute XBMC under extremely liberal conditions. However, in order to compile the XBMC into executable form, it is currently necessary to use the [[Xbox Development Kit|Microsoft XDK (Xbox Development Kit)]] which is only available to licensed developers and the resulting code may only be distributed by them. Accordingly, code compiled with an unauthorized copy of the [[Xbox Development Kit]] may not be distributed legally. A third-party project called [[OpenXDK]] is concerned with producing a replacement for the Microsoft XDK. While this could potentially allow legal binaries of XBMC to be compiled, it would require significant changes to the XBMC source code.
 
XBMC provides, for audio & video [[codecs]] which are not natively supported, a DLL loader [[Fork (software)|forked]] from [[avifile]] which can load third-party DLLs to decode unsupported formats. Where the user owns a licensed copy of the DLL, this is potentially legal. However, some third-party XBMC builds incorporate third-party DLLs and the redistribution of these without a licence is copyright infringement.
 
===Patents===
For most popular video and audio codecs, XBMC includes native support through the [[libavcodec]] [[Library (computer science)|library]] from the [[FFmpeg]] project. Since this code is released under a free license, it is legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods, [[MP3#Licensing_and_patent_issues|such as the popular MP3 format, are covered by patents]] in many countries. Absent a licence, this would make it illegal to redistribute versions of XBMC including support for these patented formats. This is a problem common among many open source multimedia projects.
 
===Other===
 
XBMC also includes support for playing back DVDs encrypted using the [[Content Scramble System]]. The distribution of executable versions containing this code is likely to fall foul of the [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act]] in the USA and the [[EU Copyright Directive]] in the European Union member countries which have so far incorporated it into national law.
 
==See also==
{{portalpar|free software}}
*[[Media player]] definition of "mediaplayer"
*[[MPlayer]], the [[open source]] and [[cross-platform]] software XBMC uses as its main video player core
*[[FFmpeg]], the audio and video [[codecs|codecs suit]] source code XBMC uses for all its player cores
*[[Comparison of media players|Comparison of (audio/video) media and DVD-Video players]]
*[[List of video players (software)|List of other software video players]]
*[[List of codecs|List of multimedia (audio/video) codecs]]
**[[Open source codecs and containers]]
**[[Comparison of video codecs]]
**[[Comparison of audio codecs]]
*[[Comparison of container formats|Comparison of (audio/video) container formats]]
**[[Open source codecs and containers]]
 
==External links==
===Official sites===
* [http://www.xboxmediacenter.com XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) official website]
* [http://forum.xboxmediacenter.com XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) official community forum] (for posting help/support requests, bugs and development discussions)
* [http://xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=Xbox_Media_Center_Online_Manual XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) 'new' official  online-manual] (wiki-based user-guide, uses the same Wiki-engine as Wikipedia)
* [http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wacko/ XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) 'old' official  online-manual (wiki-based)]
* [irc://irc.freenode.net/ XBMC official IRC chat room (on Freenode)] (use an [[IRC]] client like [[mIRC]] to join the #xbmc channel)
* [irc://irc.efnet.net/xbmc XBMC official IRC chat room (on EFnet)] (use an [[IRC]] client like [[mIRC]] to join the #xbmc channel) - channel now muted, Freenode chat room (link above) remains active
 
===Modifications===
* [http://www.xbmcscripts.com/ XBMC Widget/Gadget Plug-in Scripts] (Python plugins which adds additional features and functionality to XBMC)
* [http://www.xbox-skins.net XBMC skin download site]
* [http://www.allxboxskins.com another XBMC skin download site]
 
===Articles & Reviews===
* [http://www.tvharmony.com/blog/archives/2004/09/xboxmediacenter.html Review on tvharmony.com]
* [http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/c635c6f39986c010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html?s_prop18=how2 Review and HOW-TO on Popular Science (popsci.com)]
* [http://www.surrealroad.com/digital/archives/2005/xbox-media-center/ Review by Digital Intermediates]
* [http://www.o-sd.com/hardcoregamermag/publicPDF/HGM_Aug.pdf Review in Hardcore Gamer Magazine (Volume 1, Issue 3, August 2005)]
* [http://www.powerpage.org/archives/2005/10/why_your_next_i_1.html O'Grady's PowerPage Article: Why Your Next iMac may be an Xbox]
* [http://www.gamepro.com/microsoft/xbox/games/features/102769.shtml GamePro.com: 6 ways to resurrect your Xbox]
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc/ XboxMediaCenter (XBMC) official SourceForge.net project] (CVS/source-code/patches//tools/bug-tracker/feature-requests)
* [http://freshmeat.net/projects/xbmc/ freshmeat.net: Project details for The XboxMediaCenter Project]
 
===Support===
* [http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s=64c7fed999e317cc99e26926433d74c0&showforum=62 XBMC community forums @ xbox-scene.com (unofficial but affiliated by shared moderators)]
* [http://slackerpedia.com/xbmc-mac/ HOW-TO use a Mac to install/setup XBMC]
* [http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft_xbox/article/how_to_go_from_xbox_to_xbox_media_center_in_30_minutes.html Transform an Xbox into the ultimate media center in 30-minutes] A popular step-by-step HOW-TO guide for softmodding your Xbox
 
===News===
* "[http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?p=115893 XBMC Win32 PC environment for skinners and python developers], XBMC was in [[November 2006]] partially ported to [[Win32]] to run on [[Microsoft Windows]]
**Only the [[GUI]] part for development purposes so far, however anyone can finish this port to make the software complete.
 
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[[Category:DVD]]
[[Category:Free media players]]
[[Category:Free video software]]
[[Category:Free television software]]
[[Category:Multimedia frameworks]]
[[Category:SourceForge projects]]
[[Category:Windows media players]]
[[Category:Xbox|Media Center]]
[[Category:Xbox Dashboards]]
[[Category:Xbox games]]
[[Category:Xbox peripherals]]
[[Category:Video game hardware]]
 
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Revision as of 07:33, 14 April 2007

The XboxMediaCenter Project

XBMC (XBox Media Center) is a free open source (GPL) multimedia-player for the Xbox™ from Microsoft. Currently XBMC can be used to play/view most popular video/audio/picture formats such as DVD-Video, VCD/SVCD, MPEG-1/2/4, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, JPG, GIF, PNG, and most other popular multimedia formats (plus many more less known formats) directly from a CD/DVD in the Xbox DVD-ROM drive or from the Xbox built-in harddrive. XBMC can also play multimedia-files from a computer over a local-network and even stream media-streams directly from the internet. XBMC can parse DVD-Video movies (with and without menus) from ISO/IMG-images and even ZIP/RAR-archives. XBMC has playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. XBMC can also use python-scripts written for XBMC as plugin widgets. All these different features enable the Xbox to become a fully functional multimedia-jukebox. XBMC has a simple and user-friendly user-interface, it's easy to use, it's convenient, flexible and offers a great price/performance ratio. (This, The XboxMediaCenter Project is also known as "XBox Media Center" or simply "XBMC").

2.0.1 Point Release

The 2.0.1 Point Release of XBMC was released on the 12th of November 2006. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.

2.0.0 Point Release

The 2.0.0 Point Release of XBMC was released on the 29th of September 2006. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.

1.1.0 Point Release

The 1.1.0 Point Release of XBMC was released on the 18th of October 2004. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.

1.0.0 Point Release

The 1.0.0 Point Release of XBMC was released on the 29th of June 2004. Point Release is a stable and as bug-free 'as it gets' version.


SVN tree (and daily SVN builds)

The XBMC project developers uses SVN (a version control system) provided by SourceForge.net to keep track of the XBMC source code and changes in those source code files. This allows our developers to be located anywhere in the world and work on the same source code tree, which means that our SVN tree gets updated (with bug-fixes, new features, etc.) by our different developers almost on a daily basis. Anyone can anonymously download the latest SVN source code tree and compile it to try out the current and very latest XBMC build, (there are also individuals and groups on the internet which specialize in releasing such pre-compiled SVN builds so that people who don't have the tools to compile XBMC themselves can download and test/use the latest XBMC). Note! Team-XBMC only release source code and do not release pre-compiled builds of XBMC, nor are Team-XBMC affiliated with any individuals or groups that release pre-compiled builds of XBMC. In addition understand that SVN builds can be unstable and buggy so don't complain if they hang/lock or otherwise act in an unsatisfactory way, however feel free to report any bugs you find in the very latest SVN.

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