Quick start guide
Congratulations new users in your choice of media center software: XBMC. The XBMC interface is designed with the 'Home Theater' in mind. This means it is best viewed on a large-screen TV while you sit on your couch 10-feet away from that TV, rather than on a small monitor while you sit at your desk. Because everything is designed with the home theater experience in mind, the best way to interact with XBMC is with a remote control, rather than a computer mouse. If it helps, think of XBMC as the ultimate DVD-Player/Set-top-box (and NO ONE uses a mouse with a DVD-Player/Set-top-box).
XBMC Main Features
- XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats
- Use your media as-is: XBMC can play CDs and DVDs directly from the disk or image file
- Powerful library that can automatically scan media to retrieve covers, descriptions and fanart from the internet.
- Playlist and slideshow functions
- Weather forecast feature, a "news ticker" of your favorite RSS Feeds
- Flexible, simple to use Add-ons system that can extend the functions of XBMC
- Network playback built in - stream any playable media from anywhere in the house or internet.
Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.
About this Guide
This guide is designed to get you up and running with XBMC in the shortest time possible, and was written with the most typical use cases in mind. For more in depth information please refer to the XBMC Online Manual.
This guide was updated for the XBMC Dharma release. If you are running another version the information in this guide may not be applicable.
First Steps
Installing XBMC
XBMC is cross-platform software. It is currently being developed for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, Linux, Apple TV 1 (silver), Apple TV 2 (black), as well as a XBMC Live distribution for that Set top box feeling.
Prior to installing XBMC on a full operating system it is recommended that you ensure all the installed hardware (sound, video, etc) is fully functional using the base operating system. Detailed installation instructions for your platform of choice can be found here.
Preparing your files to be added to the Library
To get the best experience using the Library functions it is recommended that you have separate directories for your different types of Media. For Example: Photos, Music, Movies, TV Shows, and Home Videos
Preparing your Music to be added to the Library
In order to be able to include information on your music collection in the Library, XBMC needs your music to be tagged. When your collection is scanned, XBMC stores all the tagging information (artist, album, year, genre, etc) in the database which allows you to efficiently search and manage your music collection.
If you have never taken the time to tag your music properly, the time is now! Today most media applications and players (iTunes / iPod for example) organize your music by this ID tag information.
Note: Your audio files MUST have a valid ID tag for them to work properly in the XBMC Music Library.
Check out the XBMC Online Manual for more information on Preparing your Music
Preparing your Videos to be added to the Library
XBMC can search the Internet and automatically find information about your Movies and TV shows using one of many different Scrapers. To be most effective your Movie and TV show files should be named according to standard naming conventions.
Based on the naming scheme of your movie files, lookups may or may not be effective. The filename is referenced by a search within the online records and the closest match is selected. If the filename is not exactly or very close to the movie title the automatic scan may not always offer accurate matches.
More information on the Video Library can be found in the XBMC Online Manual and more information about getting good matches with the scrapers can be found here or here
Using a Remote Control
Often the most convenient and user friendly way of controlling XBMC is using a remote control. This further enhances the appliance feel of the XBMC and fits next to (or replaces) the other remotes that are likely to be in your entertainment room. MCE Remote controls are usually the cheapest and easiest to use with XBMC, but many other remote controls have been successfully used with XBMC.
If you have one of the many cheap MCE remote controllers then just connect it to your PC and there's a fair chance it will just work. If you have the official Microsoft MCE remote controller or a full compatible then you may need a small amount of extra effort to get it working, or if you have one of the hundreds of custom or All in One Remote controls you may need to research the proper settings in the XBMC Online Manual There are a number of Remote Control Reviews to aid you in selecting a functional remote control and if you run into difficulty you can read more at these links
Adding Music and Videos to the Library
To play Music, a TV show Episode, or a Movie, XBMC must know where your files are located. Letting XBMC know where to find your videos and music is very simple. First, open XBMC, then just click up or down in the home menu until either "Videos" or "Music" is highlighted. The descriptions in this guide will use "Videos" (and, specifically "Movies") as the example, but it works in much the same way for Music or any other media content type.
Adding Media Sources
Short Youtube clip of a media source being added
Media Sources are the links that tell XBMC where your content is stored and what type of content is contained within each one. You can have multiple sources for each media type.
Click "Videos" in the home screen menu.
Now click "Add Source".
The "Add Video Source" screen will be displayed.
Click the "Browse" button. The following screen will be displayed.
Now browse to where you keep your videos stored. If you keep them shared on a network drive, read the Configuring PC Shares article for more information about setting up a share on your computer first.
Once you have found the folder you keep your videos in, click the "OK" button.
NOTE! When you begin using the library, you will find that it is a really good idea to keep your different types of content stored in separate directories, so keep that in mind.
Now name this Video Source however you like. If it is a movie folder, you will probably want to name it "Movies", and if it is a TV Show folder then you will probably want name it TV Shows. With that said, you could also name the movies folder "Baluga whale." The title will only be for your personal memory and does not affect how XBMC interacts with the folder. The name for the Video Source is totally up to you. For this example, since we are dealing with movies, we just named it "Movies".
Next, XBMC will prompt you to Set the type of content in this Source.
Setting Content
This section is why keeping your TV Shows and Movies, or other type of content separate is important. When you click set content, you can set your video content as Music Videos, Movies, or TV Shows. Scroll through the options until you get to the correct one. Because in our example we're adding Movies, we will scroll to "Movies" and go through the Movie Settings.
Setting Movie Content Options
If you keep each of your movies in its own folder with the movie name in it, like this:
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny\Big Buck Bunny.avi
Then you want to tick the "Use folder names for lookups" option.
If you keep all your movies in one big folder, like this:
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny.avi
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny II: Rise of the Lepus.avi
Then leave all options unticked.
If your movies are ripped DVD-Video files using a "VIDEO_TS" folder structure, like this:
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.IFO
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny\VIDEO_TS\VIDEO_TS.VOB
Then you want to tick the "Scan Recursively" option.
"Selected Folder Contains a Single Movie" Option
This option is intended exclusively for adding one movie at a time. For example, if you are adding the folder:
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny.avi
And Big Buck Bunny is the ONLY movie in the folder, then this option can be ticked. If, on the other hand, you are adding a folder that contains several movies, all in their own individual folders, for example
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny\Big Buck Bunny.avi
C:\Movies\Big Buck Bunny II\Big Buck Bunny II: Rise of the Lepus.avi
Then do not tick the box.
Run Automated Scan
Finally, since this is your first time adding adding media files to XBMC, we may as well take care of everything right now, so let us go ahead and create that pretty looking Library.
To do so, tick the "Run 'Automated Scan" option.
Now, click "OK" and then "OK" again. XBMC will now begin to scan your folders. Depending on how many movies you have in the folder you selected, this scan could take a long time since it will be connecting to the internet and collecting metadata and artwork for all of the selected items. When it is finished, your library will have been created, but you will not be redirected to it automatically, see the "Turning on the Library" section below to go to your library.
Turning on the Library
Assuming you are using the default skin, Confluence, from the videos screen, to turn on the Library, just click left once to pull up the Side Menu. Then scroll down and click "Library Mode".
And that is it, you are now done. You now have a beautiful Library full of all your great movies, complete with titles, fanart, and tons of metadata information.
Now that you have followed the guide above you should be able to figure out how to put your TV Shows and Music into the Library. To do so, simply follow this guide again (but, of course, select choices appropriate to your goal. For example, select "Music" if you want to add music).
Adding Picture Sources
Adding sources for your Pictures is exactly the same as adding other media sources. From the Home Page navigate to Pictures, select Add Source and browse to the location of your picture files. However, Pictures are not added to a Library, so you will not need to Set a Content type or scan them into your library
Weather Forecasts (Setting Your Location)
XBMC can provide up to the minute weather forecast information from around the world using data from [www.weather.com Weather.com]. To set your location (up to three locations) for weather updates go to the home page, navigate to System and select Weather on the Settings page. There you will have the option to select one of three locations. Once selected use the on screen keyboard to type the location you desire, and select the one that matches your location.
Setting up News Feeds (RSS)
XBMC can show on the Home Page headlines of various news feeds from your favorite news sites on the internet. To set up new feeds; from the Home page select Programs, then select the RSS editor. Type the URL of the RSS feed you wish to subscribe to. For example: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/world/us_and_canada/rss.xml . You will then be prompted to select the update interval, or how often you wish XBMC to check for news. Afterwards you should see headlines from your new feed scroll across the home page.
Important note about the Context Menu
As you read this wiki and experiment on your own, you will quickly learn about the value of the Context Menu.
To use it, while highlighting an item, press the "C" key on the keyboard. If you are using a mouse, you can right click while hovering over an item. With remote controls, the option to bring up the Context Menu differs based on the remote control that you use.
The important point is that the "Context Menu" is really the key to controlling XBMC. With it you can queue an item, play it, set content, update the library, scan for new media, and so on.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading this Quick Start Guide. Below in the "Also see" section you will find additional suggested reading that may be useful for getting started with adding your media files to XBMC. We have done our best to answer every question in this wiki, the XBMC Online Manual and the Frequently Asked Questions, however if you still can not find your answer after extensively searching, feel free to ask, see XBMC:Community Portal.