[MrDamnation]

I don't know how much praise the XBMC team gets, but I have to give some.

Over the summer I started a project to create a HTPC. At first, I was using my old laptop. It was a single-core 2GHZ massive monster that was extremely sluggish with XBMC. It ran 480p nicely, and chugged a little with HD. It was loud, and configuring skins and add-ons (and getting a X360 controller to work on Linux) was a pain in the ass.

This past 6 months, I had my final semester of college. I put the project aside, and decided that for Christmas I should get a nettop. Low and behold, I got myself a bare bones computer with the Atom processor and nVidia ION GPU. Not to mention, XBMC updated to Dharma.

Let me just say, the experience I had this time around was spectacular! You guys are a very, very talented group of people. From the way it's coded for multi-threading and to make use of the GPU blows me away. The menu is extremely fast and snappy, and even though I run a pretty good (from what I understand) graphics card, the processor is slower (but dual-core, so there's that) and I'm using less RAM (although it's DDR2, not DDR). I tested it out running Iron Man 2 in 720p (the highest my TV has), which was stored on an external hard drive, and I was able to scrub through with no problem. No lag, no mismatched sound. And Iron Man 2 was about 4GBs!

I wasn't able to test out the Add-On functionality because my Internet has been screwy what with the blizzard, but I'm extremely impressed with what I'm seeing so far.

I'm so glad I opted for a nettop instead of a Boxee box; XBMC is simply beautiful.

If I had more free time (not making any promises, but I might in a few months) I'd love to contribute my talents (and my shiny new degree) to the project.

Hope this brightens up someone's day, and keep up the good work!

[bmcclure937]

I could not agree any more!!

[DannyDroid]

I hope the guys at XBMC don't mind me posting this but these guys work in the free time providing free software and support and I feel this link doesn't make it rounds around the forums as much as it should.
http://xbmc.org/contribute/donate/

[ossman]

I just upgraded my system to Fedora 14 and Dharma, and I have to say I'm very impressed with the improvements. You guys are truly awesome!

[kortina]

I have just donated $25 (again).

I donate $25 with each release, the software just keeps getting better.

With a full year of service from two XBMC ion setups I could not be happier.
My wife thanks you all too.

I am looking forward to Eden, and the long awaited PVR functionality.

Everyone who can afford to should donate, it is a fraction of the money that you have invested in hardware, and it would have saved you 10 - 100 hours of frustrations and work with other apps.



PS - does my name turn red now?

[MrDamnation]

I hope the guys at XBMC don't mind me posting this but these guys work in the free time providing free software and support and I feel this link doesn't make it rounds around the forums as much as it should.
http://xbmc.org/contribute/donate/

I plan on it once I get my next paycheck or my freelance client pays me.

I do have to say that last night I got a bit of a hiccup when scrubbing through Iron Man 2 in 720p while downloading a skin, but that's to be expected. I'm loving the Alaska theme, and it looks so freaking professional -- much hotter than a Boxee box and I get all the goodies that comes along with your own computer.

I also can't wait til my birthday in a few weeks when I get my Android and I get the remote app. You know, maybe I'll try to work on that, I did learn Android coding this semester.

But yes, expect a monetary contribution. I can't say when, but you will get one. As a (very) future programmer in the real-world, how can I not contribute to my own people? I would like to support by giving my skills too, but again, it's like a I need to see where I am in life kind of thing.

P.S., a cheapo Atom/ION based nettop + 2TB hard drive and Samba sharing is Godly. I just wish I didn't move out of my apartment and back home -- I would have totally had everyone over on the weekends for XBMC movie night!

[ralob]

Dharma is quite incredible. While I use SVN for the bleeding edge, I can see how much of a leap Dharma is over Camelot. I love how it is no longer necessary to scour the forums looking for various updates for addons, look to see if any are broken, and so on. A+ software.

[castortray]

I have just donated $25 (again).

I donate $25 with each release, the software just keeps getting better.

With a full year of service from two XBMC ion setups I could not be happier.
My wife thanks you all too.

I am looking forward to Eden, and the long awaited PVR functionality.

Everyone who can afford to should donate, it is a fraction of the money that you have invested in hardware, and it would have saved you 10 - 100 hours of frustrations and work with other apps.



PS - does my name turn red now?

Hi,

Here you have a fresh thread about PVR in XBMC
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=88911

[tco42]

First of all i have to say that XBMC Dharma is a really nice piece of software if you want to use it as an out-of-the-box mediacenter for movies / tv shows / music / pictures stored on your hdd. I really like the speed, the look and the overall WAF. Skins, control, remote, etc are by far the best i could find while looking at different mediacenter.
But there are still some downsides if you want more, if you want the perfect mediacenter
- No bluray support (i know no mediacenter has it)
- No PVR support
- No directshow player for best picture quality using ffdshow
- No hd-audio support (passtrough)
Over the last few months i tried to get closer to a perfekt mediacentersoftware and i allways ended up using XBMC because it offers the best style compared to other mediacenters. Finally i ended up using many programs (dvbviewer, ffdshow, mpc-hc, powerdvd, scripts for refreshrate changes, scripts to control all programs using one remote and the same buttons in all programs like the pause button pausing live tv in DVBViewer or pausing music in XBMC or pausing bluray...) managed by the xbmc skin
The only downside is the fact that you cant get perfect matching skins for all those programs... But this is also the main reason why i will keep on supporting XBMC! DSPlayer branch will sooner or later solve ffdshow/hdaudio problems, PVR branch is allready great, just needs a view months to work perfectly.
I think it will only take about a year to make XBMC (with integrated PowerDVD) the perfect solution for all-in-one HTPCs

[hdmax]

I am very happy with XBMC, I had tried it in 2009, and never really liked it much so went back to Zoom Player. However as a man that is never totally happy with my computer setup (No matter how much I add, tweak, or mod.) I continued looking into alternative frontend movie software. (MediaPortal, Boxee, and a few others.) I settled on Boxee for several months, never really happy with it, but that the Boxee Box was announced and I pre ordered it. Was I ever disappointed with the new software frontend they made mandatory. I had it for 4 weeks, than sent it back, deleted the software from my HTPC's (5 in all) mainly because they ticked me off with the alpha software they called final release for the Box.
I took another look at XBMC, and will be using this for a long, long time to come. Sure it still falls a little short in a few areas, but wow has it improved! And Open source or not, XBMC has NO competition that I have found.
I am using the Night Purity skin, and have all 5 HTPC's setup the same now that I found out I could just copy userdata over from one HTPC to each of the others on I selected the shared folders.

Thanks for the very best HTPC experience a man could ask for.

[Metsadah]

Couldnt agree more, I started using xbmc a few months after they stopped developing xbmp. I was so happy with my xbox, although I hardly played games anymore. It was fun to mess around with it though, adding my own pictures to project mayhem and editing the menu's in xml files. I thought it was awesome. I used the xbox for years, even got myself a new component cable for 720p output to my new samsung lcd tv. It was the first time I got to use Aeon. I also used xot uzg and the apple trailer script plus lyrics scripts. Everybody was blown away by the possibilities.

But then came another new lcd tv, a 37 inch (first I only had a 26 inch) and I had a much better broadband connection. So I started downloading these hd rips and I couldnt play it on my xbox, I thought about upgrading my xbox to a 1400 mhz cpu (some chinese dude was doing that back then). But in the end I settled with the popcornhour a100, the first box to play every hd file, even 1080p with subtitles.

Even though the playback was great, I hated it for its interface. I tried some other interfaces but it felt like I was using html 1 sites back in the 90's. So after much thought I found out that the apple tv 1gen could use xbmc and with the broadcom card it could even play 1080p hd files. I must admit that the last thing is bit of a disappointment to me, since it stutters too much on 1080p still for a good experience (even though I use pin87 minimal image and latest drivers/xbmc release). I have faith though that it will get better (I hear lots of people having no or almost no trouble on older releases) in the coming months once the broadcom hd card gets better drivers.

The Alaska skin rocks, looks so clean, even apple could learn from this UI. And I love the way alle the libraries are built. I need to get a larger hd or a NAS.

[lifeofbean]

Gotta agree with about everyone else. Been using Dharma since beta, and I've been very impressed with everything. The only thing I've had difficulty with has been getting library mode to play nice with some of my media, but that's more because I don't follow directions very well.

Keep up the great job guys.

[rd1979]

I've been using XBMC for as long as Metsadah has, and I haven't put in my two cents as of yet, so I may as well here.

XBMC has come so far since it started on the Xbox, and now some of the most popular apps/products are based on it (Plex, Boxee, etc). I use XBMC every day, and have for about 8 years.

[MrDamnation]

Couldnt agree more, I started using xbmc a few months after they stopped developing xbmp. I was so happy with my xbox, although I hardly played games anymore. It was fun to mess around with it though, adding my own pictures to project mayhem and editing the menu's in xml files. I thought it was awesome. I used the xbox for years, even got myself a new component cable for 720p output to my new samsung lcd tv. It was the first time I got to use Aeon. I also used xot uzg and the apple trailer script plus lyrics scripts. Everybody was blown away by the possibilities.

But then came another new lcd tv, a 37 inch (first I only had a 26 inch) and I had a much better broadband connection. So I started downloading these hd rips and I couldnt play it on my xbox, I thought about upgrading my xbox to a 1400 mhz cpu (some chinese dude was doing that back then). But in the end I settled with the popcornhour a100, the first box to play every hd file, even 1080p with subtitles.

Even though the playback was great, I hated it for its interface. I tried some other interfaces but it felt like I was using html 1 sites back in the 90's. So after much thought I found out that the apple tv 1gen could use xbmc and with the broadcom card it could even play 1080p hd files. I must admit that the last thing is bit of a disappointment to me, since it stutters too much on 1080p still for a good experience (even though I use pin87 minimal image and latest drivers/xbmc release). I have faith though that it will get better (I hear lots of people having no or almost no trouble on older releases) in the coming months once the broadcom hd card gets better drivers.

The Alaska skin rocks, looks so clean, even apple could learn from this UI. And I love the way alle the libraries are built. I need to get a larger hd or a NAS.

Agreed on all accounts. Alaska is a beautiful skin, and even before that, XBMC is so much better than the others I've researched. I was thinking of buying a Boxee box, but it looks awful, especially when I really only paid $50 more for a full-fledged Atom/ION computer.

[xbmckinect]

excellent