2012-10-16, 12:46
I've been using XBMC for several years now. I've come to love all of its qualities while learning to work with its little flaws and oddities.
For me, the most major milestone that it reached over the years is the ability to use a central MySQL database. That's exactly when XBMC became the central piece of my home's digital entertainment.
At first, I think at version 9 or 10, it was required to add entries to advancedsettings.xml in order to set this up. 2 or 3 versions later, this is still the case.
The other problem is that visuals are not stored in the database. I completely understand the reason why, but it requires then another "hack" in advancedsettings.xml to have them available to all clients.
All of this to ask a simple question, why oh why hasn't it evolved? XMBC keeps growing, adding support for more and more clients every year. Please tell me, in 2012, who only has a single media player in their home?
I just fail to understand why this wouldn't be a central piece of the whole XBMC experience. Any XBMC "client" should be able to be turned into a server and all other clients be able to connect to it, all from the main interface, not from hackety-hack xml edits. Also, for all the not-so-tech-savvy end users out there, the MySQL (or any other db engine really) should be, to some extent, built-in XBMC (ie. not requiring a separate setup and configuration). I also can't see why the default database couldn't be shared on the network for other clients to connect to (even autodiscovery?).
I want to make this clear, this is NOT a XBMC bashing post. I LOVE this software, and I'm infinitely grateful for all the time and effort the devs are putting into it. I really just want to understand what goes into deciding which features are pushed over others. I mean, I don't want to get into a "feature a > feature b" debate but PVR functionnality...? In 2012?
Again, this is not a feature request, I'm sure you are well aware of the need for this. I really want to understand the thinking process that goes into deciding features and more precisely why this doesn't even seem planned!
Thanks!
For me, the most major milestone that it reached over the years is the ability to use a central MySQL database. That's exactly when XBMC became the central piece of my home's digital entertainment.
At first, I think at version 9 or 10, it was required to add entries to advancedsettings.xml in order to set this up. 2 or 3 versions later, this is still the case.
The other problem is that visuals are not stored in the database. I completely understand the reason why, but it requires then another "hack" in advancedsettings.xml to have them available to all clients.
All of this to ask a simple question, why oh why hasn't it evolved? XMBC keeps growing, adding support for more and more clients every year. Please tell me, in 2012, who only has a single media player in their home?
I just fail to understand why this wouldn't be a central piece of the whole XBMC experience. Any XBMC "client" should be able to be turned into a server and all other clients be able to connect to it, all from the main interface, not from hackety-hack xml edits. Also, for all the not-so-tech-savvy end users out there, the MySQL (or any other db engine really) should be, to some extent, built-in XBMC (ie. not requiring a separate setup and configuration). I also can't see why the default database couldn't be shared on the network for other clients to connect to (even autodiscovery?).
I want to make this clear, this is NOT a XBMC bashing post. I LOVE this software, and I'm infinitely grateful for all the time and effort the devs are putting into it. I really just want to understand what goes into deciding which features are pushed over others. I mean, I don't want to get into a "feature a > feature b" debate but PVR functionnality...? In 2012?
Again, this is not a feature request, I'm sure you are well aware of the need for this. I really want to understand the thinking process that goes into deciding features and more precisely why this doesn't even seem planned!
Thanks!