[braxs69]

(wasn't sure if something like this has already been suggested)
so what do i mean?, well now that xbmc has been ported it can now be used on you're personal machines (and you can use a mouse, windowed mode and minimize the application).

so this gives xbmc the possibility to replace applications such as windows media player, winamp, vlc, banshee the list goes on and on. but whats stopping this from happening is that all the skins I've seen so far prohibits this kind of use because they all been designed to be and function like "Media Center" that would only be used to play media on your tv and controlled with a remote. Which is very restrictive in how you use it when it comes to using xbmc as your computer's media player.

for example
things like having to go back to the main page to switch between modes(video,music,pictures,settings) while works just fine for a media center but when you use xbmc like a media player on you computer its annoying. so just having the menu always displayed would be enough of a gigantic step allow xbmc it to be used this way.

in my opinion, believe that xbmc(XBMP) could give all other players a run for their money because some of the features i haven't seen anywhere near implemented in all the current media players out there, it just needs a more suitable GUI.

is anyone else interested?

[rwparris2]

Sounds reasonable, and I look forward to seeing your mockups.
I'm confused as to why you insist on calling it XBMP though... the name XBMP was dropped long long ago.

[braxs69]

Sounds reasonable, and I look forward to seeing your mockups.
I'm confused as to why you insist on calling it XBMP though... the name XBMP was dropped long long ago.

XBox Media Player(instead of XBox Media Center), I'm not saying the application should be renamed it was just something to help people get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

[sho]

Heh, so you are actually not aware of this?

[topfs2]

I wouldn't skin XBMC for application use, that's just silly IMHO. XBMC uses a gameloop design and normal applications uses event based design, so it only rerender when needed, this is one reason XBMC takes so much more CPU while idling.

Personally I would love to see the paplayer and dvdplayer and our vfs yanked and to put a Qt or GTK eventdesigned GUI ontop, that would be killer IMHO.

Cheers,
Tobias

[braxs69]

Heh, so you are actually not aware of this?

No I haven't, but it doesn't look very active.

I wouldn't skin XBMC for application use, that's just silly IMHO. XBMC uses a gameloop design and normal applications uses event based design, so it only rerender when needed, this is one reason XBMC takes so much more CPU while idling.

Personally I would love to see the paplayer and dvdplayer and our vfs yanked and to put a Qt or GTK eventdesigned GUI ontop, that would be killer IMHO.

Cheers,
Tobias

True giving thought to this having a native GUI would be a lot better then a skin. but that would mean that XBMC would have to be separated into "front-end" "back-end" to make some like this possible.

but the effort would be worth it, having it running on your personal machine would mean that you could share your library and tv show/movie information(with out having to set it up and download it on every xbmc you have). plus transcoding would be possible i don't know about you but I've only got xbmc being actively be used on my xbox's so, x264 playback is a nightmare. making use of a pc's grunt could make it possible for low end xbmc client machines to play heavier content.

[sho]

No I haven't, but it doesn't look very active.

Oh, I beg to differ (under its new moniker).

[topfs2]

...
True giving thought to this having a native GUI would be a lot better then a skin. but that would mean that XBMC would have to be separated into "front-end" "back-end" to make some like this possible.
...

I think you are missing my point. All of those things are reasonably on it's own codewise. So this endevour could be done in a "fork" and just merge fixes done to XBMC.

So a completely new app just using some components from XBMC.

[krhjedi]

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and the only thing I can compare the two pieces of software (XBMC and the proposed app) is like iTunes and Frontrow, right braxs69?

Now granted, XBMC is leaps and bounds ahead of Frontrow, but think of the two pieces of software and how the relate to each other. We'll refer to the proposed app as XBMP for now (I remember using it back in the day on the original xbox!)

XBMP = iTunes
XBMC = FrontRow

XBMC is your Media center interface (clean, nice looking, showy, graphic heavy), this is what you want to see on your tv or when your relaxing.

XBMP would be what you use when your working inside Windows (or insert OS name here), playing games, doing homework, or just surfing the web ala iTunes.

Yes, it would be a completely new application, maybe borrowing the elements of different players (mp3, video, etc) that XBMC uses.

The relationship between the two really is the metadata. Allow XBMP to edit the internal XBMC databases for the libraries OR allow it to create nfos and edit them for each media item. My one gripe with XBMC is currently that tagging things is somewhat difficult.

After tagging my 100gb plus music library in iTunes, I have to say, they've made it incredibly easy.

Maybe collaboration with some of the authors of the media tagging programs already out there would be in order (Media Companion Info, Ember, Movie Info Plus, etc.)

I'd love to work on this, but I'm a just a web developer

I guess nows the time to start reading up.

[watzen]

I'd love to work on this, but I'm a just a web developer

why not develop a really really nice webinterface?

[braxs69]

I've been thinking about this for awhile, and the only thing I can compare the two pieces of software (XBMC and the proposed app) is like iTunes and Frontrow, right braxs69?

Now granted, XBMC is leaps and bounds ahead of Frontrow, but think of the two pieces of software and how the relate to each other. We'll refer to the proposed app as XBMP for now (I remember using it back in the day on the original xbox!)

XBMP = iTunes
XBMC = FrontRow

XBMC is your Media center interface (clean, nice looking, showy, graphic heavy), this is what you want to see on your tv or when your relaxing.

XBMP would be what you use when your working inside Windows (or insert OS name here), playing games, doing homework, or just surfing the web ala iTunes.

Yes, it would be a completely new application, maybe borrowing the elements of different players (mp3, video, etc) that XBMC uses.

The relationship between the two really is the metadata. Allow XBMP to edit the internal XBMC databases for the libraries OR allow it to create nfos and edit them for each media item. My one gripe with XBMC is currently that tagging things is somewhat difficult.

After tagging my 100gb plus music library in iTunes, I have to say, they've made it incredibly easy.

Maybe collaboration with some of the authors of the media tagging programs already out there would be in order (Media Companion Info, Ember, Movie Info Plus, etc.)

I'd love to work on this, but I'm a just a web developer

I guess nows the time to start reading up.

hehe you basically captured what im trying to say. it would be like the open source itunes killer... though i will admit the amount of work required would be too much to ask for.. thats why i recommended at least a more mouse friendly skin in the first place.

now that i think about it, perhaps banshee would get something similar to xbmc's video organization/tagging/infomation(and the awesomeness) one day and then quite frankly i'd be a happy camper. but thats more something that should to their attention not here.

[krhjedi]

You mean having the webpages run locally on the machine? I guess thats a possibility, though I'll need to read up on the best way to do it.

Thanks!

Keep the ideas coming people

[rwparris2]

u hrd of ffplay or mplayer?


try it out. it is what you wnat for sure i thinkk
.

[Gamester17]

why not develop a really really nice webinterface?

+1 that would be THE real solution for this, today XBMC's web interface is not much to look at but it has potential,...

...checkout:
http://xbmcontrol.googlecode.com/files/X...l_Ajax.zip

I have been messing around with implementing a XBMC web interface that uses AJAX. It is based loosely on work from LiquidIce on an earlier XBMC web interface that used AJAX.

The web interface currently only works on music files (not video yet). Also the drag/drop works from the Shares directory tree to the PlayList (just make sure the mouse is positioned over text when grabbing and droping....try it you'll see).

A zip file of the web interface has been uploaded to the XBMControl Google Code Project at http://code.google.com/p/xbmcontrol/

If you are brave enough to try this out.
1) Download zip file XBMControl AJAX Web Interface.
2) Unzip file in the /XBMC/web directory.
3) Start XBMC
4) Make sure web server is turned on.
5) To start web page http://[IPaddress:Port]/XBMControl_AJAX/default.asp

This is at technical demonstration stage. I want to see if this works for other computers than mine.

Thanks,
Kabooga

...and LiquidIce629's original work on this:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=18680

Read this => http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HTTPAPI