[joshman211]

I've been using it since back in the modded xbox days and its best in class. When things are clicking and you actually know what you are doing the library mode is stunning. You have no idea how many comments I have had from people that come over to my house to watch a movie. Its not a WD TV or some stupid media streamer.. You need to learn how to use it. All the tools and resources are at your disposal on this site and the wiki and the helpful people on this forum.

I cant thank the devs enough for making such a great product. It sounds to me that you either need to look at something like boxee that is based on XBMC but probably a little more dumbed down (lack of better words) or rtfwiki.

[steppedup]

"Free fo fum, " said the Troll,

"XBMC may be free
and allow for Creativity."

"But alas, it's not a Mac, so it must be whack."

"Heave, ho, it's off to Tivo, I go!"


(no aspersions intended towards those of the XBMC clan who are of the Mac variety....just rhymed)

[joethefox]

maybe an help on line inside XBMC could cut off from the roots this kind of
users (definition of this kind of users: Modern users don't think, someone has to think for them)

[wensar2]

i am left using my cirago like a hard drive and accessing it directly from my tv.. in other words no streamer interface..

xbmc needs to get the nuts and bolts working with less work by the user.. xbmc needs to have the addons work period.. perhaps in time.. i do hope it does.. we need an open source free media streamer for all these new internet televisions coming out.. most people will simply not do the kind of work required by xbmc right now..

click install.. make a few choices on what you want.. click you're done..
thats what people want, need, and will choose..

[vikjon0]

xbmc needs to get the nuts and bolts working with less work by the user..

Again you are mixing up your concepts. I agree with you that somethings needs to be sorted for new/"normal" users. Too bad you are making a very poor argumentation for it.

You seem to be hanged up on the add-ons and the need to login to 3part services that are not controlled by xbmc(?!).
You must realize that the TED add-on is not the nuts and bolts of xbmc nor any indication of its maturity.

My advice to you is to create a new thread to promote better quality control for add-ons before they are allowed into the official repository. Perhaps you could suggest two repo. One for "garanteed to work" and one for new/test/user submited.

[crooksy]

Again you are mixing up your concepts. I agree with you that somethings needs to be sorted for new/"normal" users. Too bad you are making a very poor argumentation for it.

You seem to be hanged up on the add-ons and the need to login to 3part services that are not controlled by xbmc(?!).
You must realize that the TED add-on is not the nuts and bolts of xbmc nor any indication of its maturity.

My advice to you is to create a new thread to promote better quality control for add-ons before they are allowed into the official repository. Perhaps you could suggest two repo. One for "garanteed to work" and one for new/test/user submited.

That's a good suggestion, not only that you could go one step further by suggesting an installation wizard so the user simply ticks what they want to use XBMC for via a number of different options and it will then install XBMC and the relevant official plugins automatically.

This isn't a feature I would use but I can kind of see where the original poster is coming from. The sad fact is however that the average user can't even be bothered to learn how to rip, label and organize their media properly let alone set up XBMC and customize the application to meet their needs. That's why so many streaming/download services are so popular because someone has already done the hard work for them.

I do think though that once the low cost Sigma XBMC compatible boxes are released then it's only a matter of time before we'll see things coming together for that all in one "out of the box" experience to rival the likes of Boxee and ATV2.

Until then I'm very happy showing off XBMC to my envious friends

[alexpigment]

i am left using my cirago like a hard drive and accessing it directly from my tv.. in other words no streamer interface..

xbmc needs to get the nuts and bolts working with less work by the user.. xbmc needs to have the addons work period.. perhaps in time.. i do hope it does.. we need an open source free media streamer for all these new internet televisions coming out.. most people will simply not do the kind of work required by xbmc right now..

click install.. make a few choices on what you want.. click you're done..
thats what people want, need, and will choose..

This guy is clearly a troll. He's talking about his "Cirago" as if it's a household name, when in reality no one has ever heard of this thing. And most people know that the "nuts and bolts" are what XBMC does best, where others may have a more mature app environment (Boxee, etc).

[jmarshall]

In an effort to recover this thread to something remotely close to being useful...

Note that Boxee displays it's addons available when you click on "Videos" for instance - they're installed on first click. This is nice until there's 200, only 3 of which are remotely applicable to the user.

While one use may want TED talks, another certainly will not want it. It's a tricky problem, one that perhaps can be addressed with "suggested/popular" addons, but other than that I don't think we can go much further.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[alexpigment]

In an effort to recover this thread to something remotely close to being useful...

Note that Boxee displays it's addons available when you click on "Videos" for instance - they're installed on first click. This is nice until there's 200, only 3 of which are remotely applicable to the user.

While one use may want TED talks, another certainly will not want it. It's a tricky problem, one that perhaps can be addressed with "suggested/popular" addons, but other than that I don't think we can go much further.

Cheers,
Jonathan

I assume this was directed at me?

I am not championing Boxee in any way, but the fact of the matter is they focused on apps from the beginning and have a greater responsibility (and means) to support those apps because they sell a product (technically, at least). XBMC - the core of Boxee - is better in many ways at the essential duties of being a media player, but its app support is largely a labor of love from the users who all have lives going on... and therefore the apps are just not as maintained, robust, or consistent in quality.

[wensar2]

"This guy is clearly a troll." alexpigment..

it is always sad when people make personal attacks on others simply because they lack an appropriate answer or fail to understand the others point of view.. i own a Cirago streamer box.. and it works just fine.. perhaps you haven't seen or heard of one but that doesn't provide you the right to make personal attacks on me.. i just bought a new 55" television and am now doing just fine.. i watch YouTube and download my shows without any software streamer directly to my Cirago where i am able to watch them also just fine..

i posted my initial comments to draw attention to the success of Linux after it developed an interface which ended the requirements for people to code in to make it work.. install the latest Linux and it works without anyone having to become a Geek in the process.. that is what all Media Streamers will have to do.. whether they are pay to play or free open source.. that was my point.. having software that the user has to struggle with is just a step towards failure.. now you may disagree with me but that won't make you right.. nor does it provide you the right to make personal attacks..

[poofyhairguy]

I think I see the issue here:

wensar2 installed XBMC thinking its primary purpose was to play streaming media. Like most "normal" people he must not have a pile of local media and he assumed that this is how others used XBMC. Hence the comparisons to things like Play On that only deal with streaming media.

wensar2 probably doesn't know (and maybe doesn't care) that XBMC has traditionally been used for playing local content and the streaming pluggins are a VERY recent (and honestly secondary) addition. Furthermore I think that wensar2 probably doesn't know that in fact XBMC is the best local content playing program on the planet, and that XBMC is at its best playing all kinds of tricky files across your home network.

I often find "normal" people have trouble fathoming some of the amazing piles of media people in this community have. In fact, I know people that have trouble fathoming the streaming services. On demand media when you have grown up with "watch your shows when they are on with commercials" or "put in this disk and play it" still seems like some far fetched future, while for us its an everyday ho-hum sort of thing.

Two things of note here:

1. It makes me realize that I am VERY VERY glad that XBMC still has a primary focus on local content. I personally almost NEVER use streaming sites, but if some random file I download doesn't play exactly like I expect I am an unhappy dude. In that regard XBMC is king and forever will be king. Emphasis on streaming media instead of local content is why I pretty much completely switched from Plex after Plex 9 was released.

BUT

2. It is obvious that in the future if XBMC wants to grow its user-base exponentially streaming pluggins will have to go from being third party bolt-ons to being ingrained parts of XBMC. Of course then the big questions are "Doesn't that already exist and its called Boxee?" "Is it better to just let forks of XBMC like Boxee focus on the streaming stuff so us diehard local content collectors don't suffer?" "Can we co-exist?"

My thoughts on those questions:

I often feel like Plex and Boxee are the Ubuntus of this realm, providing a dumbed down experience that appeals to more people. XBMC is the Debian core that if I actually had to run a server that my life depending on would be the only operating system I would consider (period!). Boxee/Plex are almost purposefully behind when it comes to things like 24p support, full skinning support, super customizable scraper support, or multi-OS support- things that us XBMC geeks really value. Plex and Boxee (especially with their hardware deals) seem to be fully focused on giving the GoogleTV a run for its money. They want to get into as many living-rooms as possible to profit from that position.

And honestly, when you think about it, Boxee's position is perfect for the streaming market. Because when you get down to it, the best streaming content is consolidated in a few vendors- Hulu, Netflix, Amazon. And they aren't going to get in bed with an completely open platform because they think such openness threatens their business model!

Therefore at some level a completely non-profit driven open source enterprise like XBMC CAN'T be the premier streaming application because the gatekeepers simply won't trust it. A dedicated, but locked down, fork is the only way to break into that realm.

Therefore wensar2, I say to you that your pure open source (but top notch) streaming media program can never exist. The best we can hope for is mixed bags like Boxee. That is why us real geeks have given up on the streaming stuff before it even gets started. I have my own Netflix On Demand at home (WAY better than the real one) waiting on my mediaserver. XBMC is the program that makes that magic happen, and I hope its always there to keep that magic going....

[Johnnyfive]

2. It is obvious that in the future if XBMC wants to grow its user-base exponentially streaming pluggins will have to go from being third party bolt-ons to being ingrained parts of XBMC. Of course then the big questions are "Doesn't that already exist and its called Boxee?" "Is it better to just let forks of XBMC like Boxee focus on the streaming stuff so us diehard local content collectors don't suffer?" "Can we co-exist?"

My thoughts on those questions:

I often feel like Plex and Boxee are the Ubuntus of this realm, providing a dumbed down experience that appeals to more people. XBMC is the Debian core that if I actually had to run a server that my life depending on would be the only operating system I would consider (period!). Boxee/Plex are almost purposefully behind when it comes to things like 24p support, full skinning support, super customizable scraper support, or multi-OS support- things that us XBMC geeks really value. Plex and Boxee (especially with their hardware deals) seem to be fully focused on giving the GoogleTV a run for its money. They want to get into as many living-rooms as possible to profit from that position.

And honestly, when you think about it, Boxee's position is perfect for the streaming market. Because when you get down to it, the best streaming content is consolidated in a few vendors- Hulu, Netflix, Amazon. And they aren't going to get in bed with an completely open platform because they think such openness threatens their business model!

For me streaming from the Net has been important and the playing of local files a "nice to have". I prefer to go to Iplayer to catch up on my TV viewing rather than having to download the programme and store it somewhere.

I have tried to use Boxee and liked the fact that the apps were easily discoverable, but I didn't like the fact that they each had their own interface and that the flash player wasn't accelerated - at least it was on Linux. I also didn't like the "feel" of Boxee but that could be down to the skin that they use.

However, I think the main advantage of XBMC though is it's open source nature and that's what makes me shy away from Boxee and Plex.

[poofyhairguy]

For me streaming from the Net has been important and the playing of local files a "nice to have". I prefer to go to Iplayer to catch up on my TV viewing rather than having to download the programme and store it somewhere.

I think most people in general feel that way, but most people in the XBMC world (at least up until Dharma) used it for local content. I mean, XBMC back in the day turned your old Xbox into a divx jukebox- that is its roots.

I have tried to use Boxee and liked the fact that the apps were easily discoverable, but I didn't like the fact that they each had their own interface and that the flash player wasn't accelerated - at least it was on Linux. I also didn't like the "feel" of Boxee but that could be down to the skin that they use.

Boxee has a large lack of options, but their box has access to content (Netflix) that XBMC might never legitimately get. Hence my statement.

However, I think the main advantage of XBMC though is it's open source nature and that's what makes me shy away from Boxee and Plex.

For playing local content that is great, because technically there isn't much legitimate local content so having an open program means that the media powers can never try to buy off the developers to make local media playback harder.

That is a double edged sword though, as that same freedom keeps us out of the walled gardens of streaming services without hacky pluggins.

[jmarshall]

Honestly, the "hacky" plugins we have are bloody good when you think about it.

The quality is inconsistent (as you'd expect from many different authors, each of which has different skills) and sometimes things can break, however for the most part they work very well indeed - particularly the well maintained ones.

So what can we do to make them more discoverable? What can we do to ensure that those that primarily want streaming content can put that content foremost if they wish?

I see a couple of obvious things:

1. Get the addon stats into the UI so that folk can list by popularity in terms of downloads.
2. Get ratings in the UI so that folk can rate addons, and thus list by popularity in terms of rating.
3. Consider having a "popular" list by default (obviously removable) in the videos/music/pictures window.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[topfs2]

Formalize somewhat how the directory structure and pagination should be done (IMO no pagination, xbmc should handle that but since we don't its kindof hard but more directories > hacked pagination IMO).

Another thing I'd like to see is that plugins dealing with streaming content as a plugin MUST be plugins, there are a few which is not and they have small bugs which are real annoying if you don't know the difference Its hard to enforce stuff like this though since you can make awesome scripts which behave perfectly always which is all good

Biggest thing is that each and every addon should be consistent somewhat between eachother, this is the biggest problem always and which is why I like our plugin system overall instea of scripts and apps other use.

I'd like to see no plugins use addon settings tbh but I guess thats a real hard one for facebook etc. But I don't like the scripts which do configuration wen first entering, we added the addon configuration for a reason.