Discs on your shelves. Files on your computer. Websites around the web. You, the modern media consumer, don’t get your entertainment from just one place: you get it from a variety of different sources.
XBMC is the ultimate media center software, because it gives you a single interface for accessing all of your media from all of these different places. Even better: it does so using a remote-friendly interface, so with a few taps of your remote you can browse your digital collection of music and videos, explore some of the most popular media sites on the web or check out live Internet TV from around the world. Set up properly, XBMC can do just about anything you’d want your TV to be able to do online – from Hulu to your movie collection, from YouTube to live sports you’ve bought an online subscription for.
It’s every bit as good as it sounds, but unfortunately XBMC can also be a confusing piece of XBMC media center software to get started with. It’s an open source project, meaning that it’s completely free to use – you can even make changes to the source code, if you want. And an amazing number of contributors from around the world have built plugins for the project, meaning there’s seemingly no end to the tricks you can teach this software. More on that later.
But like many (not all, but many) open source projects, XBMC can seem overwhelming to the beginner. You’ll try to add your media but some of it won’t show up. You’ll try to add extensions but won’t be able to find the cool ones you’ve heard about. You’ll try to customize how things look but won’t immediately find an easy way to do so.
Why Is This Called XBMC?
What, exactly, does XBMC stand for? While officially today XBMC doesn’t stand for anything in particular, you might be surprised to learn the four letters originally stood for XBox MediaCenter.
Why the console-specific name? Because the software we call XBMC today was originally created in 2003 to be a media center on the original XBox. Anyone willing to jailbreak their gaming system back then could install this software to watch their own video files – from the internal XBox hard drive or from a network share – and even stream some video from the web.
XBMC has since been released on every major platform: Windows, Mac, Linux and even AppleTV (jailbreak required). There’s a dedicated version for the Raspberry Pi, perfect for those not wishing to spend a lot of money on an XBMC setup. And most recently, XBMC has been released for Android, meaning you can install this media center on a wide variety of smartphones and tablets (assuming they’re powerful enough and compatible, of course).
XBMC is and always has been open source software, meaning anyone can contribute code to the project or even release his or her own version of it. A company called Boxee once released software based on XBMC, and it was among the most popular media center programs out there for a couple of years. Another prominent XBMC derivative is Plex, which is less flexible but arguably easier to use than XBMC itself.
I prefer XBMC to all of these projects for one reason: flexibility. If you’re willing to spend enough time configuring XBMC you’ll find a way to do just about anything you want.
What, exactly, does XBMC stand for? While officially today XBMC doesn’t stand for anything in particular, you might be surprised to learn the four letters originally stood for XBox MediaCenter.
Why the console-specific name? Because the software we call XBMC today was originally created in 2003 to be a media center on the original XBox. Anyone willing to jailbreak their gaming system back then could install this software to watch their own video files – from the internal XBox hard drive or from a network share – and even stream some video from the web.
XBMC has since been released on every major platform: Windows, Mac, Linux and even AppleTV (jailbreak required). There’s a dedicated version for the Raspberry Pi, perfect for those not wishing to spend a lot of money on an XBMC setup. And most recently, XBMC has been released for Android, meaning you can install this media center on a wide variety of smartphones and tablets (assuming they’re powerful enough and compatible, of course).
XBMC is and always has been open source software, meaning anyone can contribute code to the project or even release his or her own version of it. A company called Boxee once released software based on XBMC, and it was among the most popular media center programs out there for a couple of years. Another prominent XBMC derivative is Plex, which is less flexible but arguably easier to use than XBMC itself.
I prefer XBMC to all of these projects for one reason: flexibility. If you’re willing to spend enough time configuring XBMC you’ll find a way to do just about anything you want.
Other Resources to Check Out
I couldn’t have written this manual (or even learned to set up XBMC myself) without the help of the official XBMC wiki. This online resource, maintained by the XBMC project itself, includes way more information about XBMC than I could ever hope to include in one manual. Check it out if you get stuck.
Another resource worth looking into is the XBMC Forum. Here you’ll find a collection of tips and tricks and a place to ask support questions. You’ll even hear from plugin and skin developers working on new uses for an XBMC media center. As with any online community be sure to search the forum before asking a question, and be sure to read the rules if you want to participate in discussions.
Finally, it’s worth checking xbmcHub.com to learn even more. This site, while focused on a few less-than-legal uses for XBMC, is a great resource for learning about third party add-ons. It also offers a forum, where you can get your questions answered. Again: search first, then ask, and be aware of the forum rules.
I couldn’t have written this manual (or even learned to set up XBMC myself) without the help of the official XBMC wiki. This online resource, maintained by the XBMC project itself, includes way more information about XBMC than I could ever hope to include in one manual. Check it out if you get stuck.
Another resource worth looking into is the XBMC Forum. Here you’ll find a collection of tips and tricks and a place to ask support questions. You’ll even hear from plugin and skin developers working on new uses for an XBMC media center. As with any online community be sure to search the forum before asking a question, and be sure to read the rules if you want to participate in discussions.
Finally, it’s worth checking xbmcHub.com to learn even more. This site, while focused on a few less-than-legal uses for XBMC, is a great resource for learning about third party add-ons. It also offers a forum, where you can get your questions answered. Again: search first, then ask, and be aware of the forum rules.
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