[keith]

Honest question...

I've been watching these forums for a long time. I own a ATV2 and knew exactly what I was getting when I purchased it. A lightweight media player capable of being hacked to run a scaled down version of XBMC. In preparation of purchasing this unit, I took my existing library and converted my movies via handbrake. I have not had a single issue playing any movie converted with handbrake.

I didn't expect my ATV2 to play 1080P wirelessly, nor support higher end audio options. 2 channel supports my needs well enough. Anything more, I'll use my HTPC or Boxee Box.

My question here is... With all the time people spend testing nightlies, why not just convert your files into a format that is easily readable by the ATV2 and call it done. Just seems like the XBMC on ATV2 project is in a a perpetual development cycle with no end in sight.

I welcome your comments and rants.

This isn't a lightweight copy of XBMC or scaled down version. This is the same codebase as win/lin/osx. Thats what the 'merge to master' was all about. Bringing this code current with everything else, so we're on a single codebase for all.
While it's great you re-encoded all of your media to a format that works, some people like myself refuse to do that. Not only do I have entirely too much media, more importantly I'm a quality snob and don't like how handbrake outputs most files.
Most importantly, my fav part of XBMC is the fact that it plays everything you throw at it and so we need to make sure this new platform does that by testing all different types. If XBMC's goal was 'one type of file with these certain settings really well' then your converted library would be fine. This is pretty much what Apple does. Luckily, using the private API VideoToolbox, media beyond Apple approved can be allowed to use the hardware decoder.

This is what brought XBMC from an idea (or proof of concept) to something actually viable.

So, when Edan comes out, (as long as everyone pitches in and does their share) iOS should be at a stable state where nobody who picks it up and uses it needs to even know this forum exists, just like when they used it on their xbox.

So now, I can ditch my Mac Mini (which hasn't even been powered up in months) and use the cash to buy Apple TV's for all my fam!

Plus, realize that this is the 1st embedded platform XBMC is supporting and hopefully not the last. What I really hope is the ability to turn XBMC devices into 'Appliances' just like your blu-ray player or gaming console. iOS, because of the AppleTV2, is the 1st device to see this fully realized.

The goal is, you don't need that HTPC or Boxee Box. Technically all the hardware we should need is in the ATV2. It's just getting everything working. Lucky for us, just like the Boxee Box, we have a standard set of hardware that we are testing against (the ATV2) so it's much easier than running down esoteric Linux audio bugs.

While I agree XBMC is a software project with no end in sight, I tend to view that as a good thing, nobody likes abandonware!

If all you want is a simple media player, you don't even need XBMC. Firecore has one that will integrate natively with frontrow. But it might have the same bugs we do.

If you don't want to help in testing, don't. It's as simple as that. But many users, myself included, love living on the bleeding edge. If you haven't modded something to make it better (firmware, a car, bike, software, anything) you might not be a tinkerer and that's ok. The beauty of open source, since it's done in the open, and I'm going to do builds anyways, I might as well try to find others like me and maybe even be useful to the devs. I only buy things that I can put 3rd party firmware and/or 'gain root'.

I help with XBMC because it's fun and I enjoy it and I know thats what the XBMC team strives for and I hope everyone else here who's using my builds and giving helpful feedback does too. Eventually, once it does go stable, we can all feel proud knowing we lended a hand to make a world a tiny bit better, even if its only a cyber world in XBMC land. Well, besides the people who are currently shedding blood sweat and tears making this work. Those guys didn't just lend us a hand, they're giving us their entire mindshare/work/sleep for free!

Sorry for the long winded post, and great question and I hope I put it in a little clearer perspective on your questions.