Latest in xbmc

You insert a DVD into your Windows 8 computer – you want to watch a movie. Nothing happens. You try opening Windows Media Player. It can't play the disk. What's going on with Windows 8 and DVDs? And for that matter, Blu-ray discs? You're not the first person to ask this, and you won't be the last. The answer, basically, is that Windows 8 cannot play DVDs or Blu-Ray disks out of the box.
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Control XBMC with your Android phone. Sure, you could buy a dedicated phone for your media center, but if you've got an Android smart phone or tablet there's really no need to. Complete control can be at your fingertips right now. It's only an app away. The XBMC wiki outlines a number of Android remote apps, some free some paid. I've tried out the free ones, and the results of my research are below.
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Do you love TV? Then you also love XBMC, even if you don't know it yet. The ultimate media center software offers a wide variety of ways for you to catch up with your favorite shows online, legal and otherwise. Set up a few plugins and you can watch whatever you want in a couple of clicks, from the comfort of your couch. Legally watching TV shows can be insanely complicated, depending on where you live.
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Over the years on MakeUseOf, we've provided guidance on how to move closer to the Utopian dream of a universal media centre, capable of playing anything. In that time, it has become apparent to us that there are countless ways in which you can create your own media centre, using PCs, games consoles and even smartphones and tablets. In fact, it is getting to the point where households are finding that their various appliances are split into two groups.
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If you’ve been following our recent articles about the Raspberry Pi, you’ll know that it can be set up as a media streaming client with a dedicated XBMC build and you should also be aware that by teaming the device up with any additional hardware (external hard disk drive, cables and adhesives), it can become the complete media center.
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With so many ways of using it, you shouldn't be surprised to find that the Raspberry Pi has sold over 1 million units. Although designed for one key purpose (programming) this small credit card-sized computer is capable of so much more – which is why it seems to have become a popular choice as a home media centre solution.
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I've been building a media centre recently. Actually, scratch that – I’ve been building two. One is a compact device (my Raspberry Pi) running the RaspBMC distribution of XBMC, while the other is a traditional HTPC home build - a media centre in a slimline PC case with added TV card. At this stage I haven’t quite decided which system I’m going to stick with long term, so I have a sort of competition running between the two.
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It's here. You can download a stable version of XBMC for Android right now. This isn't a lightweight version of XBMC made specifically for tablets - it's the full version of XBMC. So you can add your music and video collections and browse the Internet. The interface, designed for a TV, probably won't work well on your tiny smartphone screen – but it's just about perfect for a tablet.
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Use Chrome to completely control XBMC. Whether you want to browse and play your media or send a video you're watching on your laptop to your media center, a variety of extensions and tricks lets you control everything about your media center from Chrome. Are you hosting a YouTube party? You can use your laptop to send videos to your TV, meaning there's no crowding around a tiny screen or dealing with on-screen keyboards and mediocre search results.
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The media center is the ultimate living room experience; one PC to play everything, one PC to find and download, and one PC to bring in all the family and bind them in front of a glowing widescreen TV. And if you didn’t get that reference, you ought to watch more movies. But with a few hacks, your humble media center can do so much more.
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As you're probably aware, the new Nintendo Wii U has just been launched, which pushes the already low cost of the Nintendo Wii even further down. The result of this is a games console that can be used as the main interface for your home theatre system that can be picked up for under $50 and has access to a wide selection of TV playback services.
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I don’t like horror movies. Classic horror I can cope with; I enjoy Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological horror, for instance, but I’m not a fan of scares and gore, as a rule. My wife, on the other hand watches such films with considerable regularity, often on Netflix. Now, Netflix has this really cool feature. Ideal for, say, viewing on your games console over breakfast and continuing on your smartphone on the train.
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Microsoft has been implementing big changes lately, and none of them are sitting too well with me. If you’re as jaded as I am about the $50 Windows Home Server being killed off - replaced by the $450 Windows Server Essentials - then fear not; you can get pretty much all the same functionality from these awesome free tools, and not give Microsoft a penny in the process.
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UPnP stands for “universal plug and play” and provides a set of standards for the hassle-free sharing of media without the need for manual setup. In essence, UPnP devices are able to see and communicate with one another, and one of the best uses for this technology to stream media around the house.
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Four weeks on and I’ve been playing with my Raspberry Pi in various ways, from using it to browse the web and standard day-to-day computing tasks to playing around with the various configurations that are possible for networking (Ethernet vs USB wireless). But is there an ultimate point to this device, or will it remain a curiosity on my shelf, to be switched on whenever a useful purpose rears its head?
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