[thepanoguy]

Recently I purchased a WDTV Live box manufactured by Western Digital. The WDTV Live box is harder to set up than XBMC. For those people complaining about XBMC, purchase a WDTV Live box and try doing the same job as XBMC. There are three forums dedicated to the WDTV family. I suggest people read through the posts. The WDTV family uses open source software which is far from perfect and by some reports buggy.

[Death-Axe]

My sister got one of these, and it was good to go in under 5 mins. You have to be a complete idiot if you think this is difficult to work.

[thepanoguy]

Anyone can set up the WDTV Live using a USB drive. Try setting up the WDTV Live under Windows 7 networking.

Try telling a MIPS software developer that he is an idiot. There are pages of complaints at three WDTV forum sites about networking problems associated with the WDTV Live. Even the WDLXTV developers have experienced networking problems and written registry workarounds.

Try streaming bluray files over a Windows 7 network. Some work, some stutter, others require a hard reset.

XBMC is not perfect either; there are plenty of XBMC worshipers and plenty of XBMC critics on various forums who state XBMC is useless buggy software.

[TugboatBill]

My sister got one of these, and it was good to go in under 5 mins. You have to be a complete idiot if you think this is difficult to work.

Congrats. You've just been added to my idiot oops, make that ignore list.

[mbbransc]

I've been trying to decide between 7MC and XBMC for my system (and WAF factor will be about 75% of my decision). I've been trying to fall in love with 7MC for the PVR feature, but just can't. I think it's more cumbersome than XBMC to set up. It always seems like I have to go get something else before it will work right. It's much slower than XBMC. And when things go wrong, it's much easier to find the answer for XBMC than for 7MC.

It looks like I'll be using 7MC for PVR and XBMC for my media for now. Hate having to bounce between GUIs and that's going to go over bad with the wife, but I don't see a way around it right now.

[Death-Axe]

Wow guys, is this hand bags at dawn or what? I did set her up with a usb dvd drive... as for windows 7 networking, it's easy to configure once you figure it out. similar issues came about streaming from a win7 share to an xbox. I am no expert, but I figured it out. If a pro like a software dev cannot figure it out, then I feel sorry for whom he works for.

As for streaming blu rays, was this device even built for that? from the packaging, it seems more geared toward playing HD files in mkv containers, which it does perfectly.

And I'm no idiot, but feel free to add me to your ignore list there.... just shows how ignorant you are BUT you cannot see my post so you can't be any more insulted than you are already ;-)

[thepanoguy]

For those who are interested in the WDTV Live:

http://community.wdc.com/
http://forum.wdlxtv.com/index.php
http://www.wdtvforum.com/main/
http://www.wdtvlive.net/?
http://wdtvhd.com/

Windows 7 will stream VOB files through a network without problems.

You will need to install WDXLTV to stream m2ts files over a network.

Windows 7 will stream full resolution bluray m2ts files using NFS share to a WDTV Live which can be viewed at full high definition HDMI.

The standard Windows 7 setup will not stream full resolution bluray m2ts files to a WDTV Live box without experiencing stuttering video.

View this topic:
http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=25571

You can also install tversity
http://tversity.com/

All the guides WDXLTV are at the wiki:
http://wiki.wdlxtv.com/Main_Page

If bluray m2ts Windows 7 file streaming problems occur there are a number of solutions posted on the forums.

[Andretti]

So, with respect to everyone on both sides of this thread, I feel that it is no longer on any particular topic, and really, might ought to be closed. Here is why:

I have been in this forum for quite a while now and I can honestly say that a thread such as this (with distinctively negative, counter-productive overtones) is a real rarity around here, and I think it is a credit to the community. I see both sides of the debate--

On the one hand, criticisms are welcome and certainly should be accepted openly in any development community.

However, the OP and many other posts in this thread make many GENERALIZATIONS. (i.e. the very title contains "BAD Experience" and the post criticizes without offering positive suggestions, which to me, is non-productive. Or, the other way around, "if you can't figure it out you are either lazy or stupid!").

I can honestly say that it has never been my experience in this community that criticism is not welcome--however, there is constructive criticism that says "hey, great job--but I noticed a couple things to improve" and then there is this "The experience is bad and I hate it in a general sort of way, so figure something out because I don't like it the way it is" method that I think a lot of people who put in so much time and effort find disagreeable.

All of that is to say, I'm not saying "Close the thread because criticism is not allowed." Rather, because this thread feels full of conflict and reflects negatively on the community.

Separately, and in addition to that, this thread is no longer on a particular topic, unless the topic is considered to be "Whose fault is it that some people have a hard time with the learning curve of XBMC" or "XBMC needs improvement." The first one is merely finger-pointing, and the second one is much to broad to be helpful, since this whole forum exists for the sake of XBMC's improvement. If someone has a specific problem or suggestion, it should be posted in a separate thread and titled in the appropriate way, and placed in an appropriate forum.

I think that everyone has tried very hard to be diplomatic here, but this thread is cursed! Cursed I tell you!

Just banish it, and if anyone has a problem with it, they should feel welcome to start any number of threads focusing on specific problems.

My two cents. No offense to anyone intended. Love to everyone!

I felt a need to repost this comment.

branlr I think you're right, it's now cursed! If you invest the time to read this entire thread start to finish like I just did you too would agree. Good news for this noob is I now understand more about xbmc thanks to the first three quarters of this thread.

[thepanoguy]

The point I am making is that whether commercial or freeware, movie streaming boxes and movie playback software on computers are not as easy as using a stand alone DVD/Bluray player using a remote.

The reason people use computers to play movies is for the convenience of archiving their movies instead of playing around with individual disks.

Unfortunately, at the moment, software that works without fault on one computer will not work on another. I have two identical computers, one with XPSP3, the other with Windows 7. XPSP3 is easy to set up; Windows 7 gives me problems.

[ericminou]

I looked around, but didnt not see anything obvious. Is there a thread somewhere discussing the general direction of the XBMC post the 10.x version?

Sorry if it is an obvious question.

[natethomas]

I looked around, but didnt not see anything obvious. Is there a thread somewhere discussing the general direction of the XBMC post the 10.x version?

Sorry if it is an obvious question.

Not especially. You kind of have to keep an ear to the ground to find that kind of thing out. As you'll see here, following Dharma, the general plan is to create the ability to using binary addons. After that, the goal is to make PVR a feature. In between, code is getting cleaned up and stabilized. Somewhere in there is the expectation of dramatically improving sound handling. Those are the only definite goals. Here is a much less certain list of things that you should definitely not take as biblical truth.

[tetzuoshima]

I really cant understand people like this XBMC is a great product and the wiki is great why blame one selves laziness and incompetence on others..

[sho]

I'd say this should give as much , if not more insight (but monitoring xbmc.org should do, if we stick to our promises )
http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/02/21/whats-going-on/

[patm95]

I agree that when I first setup xbmc I was getting quite frustrated and asking myself if it was worth it. Now that I have it setup though, I love it!!! I think like most programs, it is just getting a feel of how it works and how to get it setup. Once you get familiar with it, it is great!

[Randall Lind]

I downloaded Boxee beta and it has some major issues playing local content. I seen this built on XBMC logo. I was like OK what's that and did some research and downloaded XBMC.

As a first time user I found it was hard to use. I was looking at it from a Boxee UI stand point. This is all I known.

It took some more research to figure out how to make files names in a way XBMC likes. Finding Ember revisted and therenamer helped fix most of my issues.

I played around with skins didn't care for any of them per say. I did however find Night to be the best as far as learning XBMC. With the help of the tools listed above I quickly became a XBMC fan.

I hardly ever look at the Boxee software now. Yes there is a learning curve but if you stick with it you will enjoy it. If all you want to do is run apps then maybe Boxee beta is for you. However if having movies and TV Shows on a local server or extra computer you have is your thing then XBMC is the best.