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2010-03-20, 16:51
When companies like Apple and Google go after a market place they normally get it. With Apple they forgot how they were successful with ipod. They need to have a flexible embedded program that not only play their proprietary formats but played all open formats. With XBMC simply adding that to Apple and to the Xbox made it a real great device. Now Google is coming in with an Android based solution, sure it will be robust and they have Youtube and Google Videos for content but will it play all open formats? Probably. So what the issue? XBMC is great and I love it. It does two things very well; it’s a media player that can be control with a remote. That’s it. Sure it has plug-ins, and scripts and programs, but they are more for the hobbyist rather than mainstream.
Looking at Google TV as soon as it comes out you know the team at XBMC will be trying to port to that new device; that is what they do best. But wait would it be advantageous to also start to provide code to existing websites to link XBMC with streaming media rather than to build out a who series of different plug-ins and scripts etc.? Maybe if XBMC worked on providing a common plug in for media streaming websites maybe XBMC would be a competitor to Apple and Google.
I guess it not to be in competition with commercial players but to provide a real alternative?
Lazy Don
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I get what he's saying.
I've tried a bunch of scripts for XBMC. They're awkward, clunky, and usually end up crashing the whole program. Not very good at all.
I think MOST users of XBMC would welcome some real youtube/hulu/whatever integration.
I think the OP is saying that since the competitors are going to offer it, then why shouldn't XBMC also offer it?
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In the roadmap it looks like you are building a common api, which is great, but I was wondering if you would provide the content provider an api or some standard connectivity that the content provider could install on their system to provide standard connectivity to xbmc?
So bottom line is content providers could provide a standard connectivity to xbmc with out special scripts or plug ins, such that web contents could be XBMC friendly?
The idea is to create a standard script between content providers and xbmc.
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All the content provider needs is to supply an rss feed. We already support it.
The problem is said content providers don't want to provide their content to anyone. Instead, they want to cling hold to it for as long as possible, making their viewers jump through hoops to watch stuff.
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natethomas
Enjoying Retirement by Staying Busy
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"main survival plan"? XBMC is free opensource software. Its survival plan is to exist as long as developers feel like writing code to it in their free time. If google somehow comes out with some amazing video software that completely eradicates the need for XBMC, then hooray for google. If, in the much more likely alternative, google comes out with a half-assed player that plays content but skins poorly and doesn't support a jillion different systems, then I guess there will still be a demand for XBMC.
As for us contacting content providers, probably not going to happen. Boxee is taking the brunt on that and Boxee is getting constantly shafted and yelled at. The head of NBC in a session with the US Congress called Boxee's actions with Hulu illegal (which is an incredibly incorrect characterization).
At present, content providers don't WANT to talk to XBMC, Boxee, or anyone they don't directly control or receive money from. If, at some point in the future, they change their minds, then I'm sure the XBMC devs would be very welcoming, but I'd be pretty surprised if any dev went out of his way to be told no, when the focus is so clearly on local content at the moment.
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This is really cool... But I don't necessarily see all that much more functionality than xbmc/boxee already has
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So far it sounds like a hardware platform. I haven't seen anything saying that Google TV would be available to install on an existing HTPC. So, it's interesting, but probably isn't going to replace XBMC for me.
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The focus of Google TV is Internet content. The focus of XBMC is local (disk) content. They are complementary and not necessarily competitive.
I still keep my DVR material off of XBMC because XBMC fills a very specific niche for me. The DirecTV DVR does its job well, as does XBMC.
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Google is partnering with Sony, DishTV, Logitech ... so I expect to see the same kind of lousy performance I get with my Samsung "internet enabled" tv with Yahoo Widgets. I can get to YouTube with it, but firing up my WDTV-Live and accessing it through Playon is much faster. I expect my upcoming xbmc box to be faster still.
And as others have mentioned, it doesn't appear to integrate your local content (movies, music and pictures). So the functionality Google TV provides, integrated into a Dish Network PVR, would be nice, but it doesn't fulfill all my media needs.
It could mean the death of the local TV affiliate.