[recoil]

Everyone,

I know XBMC has some visualizers and screensavers available --- but not many that I have been able to see. I run the Project Mayhem 3 skin on Windows 7 and there are a total of 4 Visualizers available, and only a couple screensavers.

Given how complete of a Media Center program XBMC is, it surprises me that there aren't more options available to protect your TV while playing music. I saw this one the other day at a friends house. We were playing cards and he had a playlist running on his Playstation 3. Check out this screensaver/visualization:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gud7hiPRM0

This is something built into their playback. It shows cool scenes orbiting the Eart, but does display NOW PLAYING song information as well. Perfect for parties, get-togethers, or general listening.

Are there any plans to put something like this in XBMC? It seems to be one obvious area that can be targeted to make it a much more professional/complete media center suite. Maybe professional is the wrong word: "Polished"?

Anyone have any comments? I'd love to see something like that put in as an ADD ON.

[jhsrennie]

I think most people use XBMC for video so they're not that fussed about screensavers. As it happens I use XBMC mostly for audio, but I turn off the TV as soon as I've started an album playing so I'm not fussed about screensavers either :-)

I don't think any of the current development team regard writing flashier screensavers as top priority, but as usual I'm sure any patches would be welcome.

I think (don't quote me on this) that screensavers are coded into XBMC and can't be implemented as add-ons until we get the binary add-on system working.

JR

[PatK]

Keep in mind that a smooth video screen blanker takes CPU, it just wouldn't do to have stuttering graphics or worse audio drops. A lot of users are on the edge with their hardware... utilizing an old PC as their HDTV limits what can be done. Look carefully in the forums... I think you'll find all sorts of ways to get videos multi-tasking.

I've configured 'superslide' as a graphic show while I play XBMC music... much more entertaining and random than your link.

[christoofar]

Actually the milkdrop works rather well as a screen saver, plus there are a few other more subtle ones for those who don't like the more animated stuff

[dc2447]

RSS screensaver would be awesome