Xbmc in popcorn hour

[chris57]

I think you must remember facts a little different from everyone else. For a start NMJ was not even part of the C200 when launched so its an extra. Something you got for NOTHING!

The C300 firmware is available for C300 owners.

Whatever happened with the 200 series is NOT the discussion here so continue or quote me and I'll just move your 200 posts to Off-Topic. We all know the score and what will happen and are sick of round and round discussions on it.

I agree that it has been poorly managed and that the 300 has taken priority but the results of that we have seen and they are good. i.e. the A300 and NMJv2. You dont know that though as you are still hating though.

[accident]

(01-16-2012 06:00 PM)Milhouse Wrote:  That's what it feels like with the ever lengthening development cycles between each release.

But they've up front said that was how it was going to be, so the vaporware doesn't apply.

Quote:I know you're going to disagree with me here, but NMJ should have been a launch item when the C-200 first became available, but here we are (well me, anyway) - what, over 2 years later? - still waiting for a viable all-in-one jukebox solution to be delivered to C-200 owners.

The c200 and a200 were just newer, faster players when they launched. Nobody knew NMJ was coming until many months later and it would not cost us a penny to get.

Quote:And now the C-300 has launched, with the new improved firmware, but which still isn't available for current users etc.

They took a poll to get public opinion, but never confirmed or denied if it was coming. Your reading into speculation as if it was syabas posting it.

My experience with syabas, they don't post something until they know they can do it. Everything else here is just users making conversation.

Chris, feel free to move this to the off topic if needed. jsut needed to jump in and clarify that syabas spreads vaporware comment before it cgot out of hand as fact.

[Milhouse]

Well excuse me for not wanting to throw more good money after bad by giving the 300 NMJv2 another throw of the lucky dice! I hope for your sake the 300 works out and the good software keeps coming, but don't be surprised if Syabas take their eye off the ball once again for the latest shiny-shiny future product before they've finished developing the current product line. Maybe that's why I've decided it's a safer bet to stick with open source software that isn't desperately trying to flog the next new hardware product at break neck pace.

Hopefully none of the above contravenes your edict... ;-)

[halfelite]

First thing first. Did you really say googletv was better then pch? Did you own a googletv that thing was utter junk I lost all faith in the googletv platform and I doubt I will be buying the new version released for ARM,

Second. XBMC has said over and over they will never get DTS-HD not now not ever, truehd will work in xbmc with ffmpeg but dts-HD which is what most disc run will not happen

Is marvell the answer I can say from first hand experience with the nixeus the marvell has a long way to go before its up to sigma/realtek speed, The sdk is to new with to many bugs, And while the open source marvell units are nice they lack HD audio decoders and post video processing.

[Milhouse]

(01-16-2012 08:28 PM)halfelite Wrote:  Did you really say googletv was better then pch? Did you own a googletv that thing was utter junk I lost all faith in the googletv platform and I doubt I will be buying the new version released for ARM,

No, I didn't say it was better - I said it was going to become competition (second time around).

(01-16-2012 08:28 PM)halfelite Wrote:  Second. XBMC has said over and over they will never get DTS-HD not now not ever, truehd will work in xbmc with ffmpeg but dts-HD which is what most disc run will not happen

I suspect you're either out of date, or you're spreading FUD - the Audio Engine (development) branch of XBMC has had TrueHD bitstreaming working for some time, and DTS-HD MA is also working.

Yes, there's a lot of work still to do, and the Audio Engine changes will not be released until XBMC Frodo (the version after Eden) but to say DTS-HD MA bitstreaming is not coming to XBMC - not now not ever - is totally, 100%, incorrect.

[halfelite]

^^ I might be out of the loop I did not think DTS-HD worked at all. I thought the dev long since abandoned the audio engine but I see he came back. Is there any drawbacks. From the quick look over is it still only ALSA compatible? Or work on windows also? Guess i was not the only one that thought it was dead first thread on google search says this
http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=979368&postcount=4



And im still not holding my breathe for googletv. I dont see them bringing it back from the dead to be a killer. specially in local based content. online content and expanded dvr capabilities maybe but not local playback. Even more so with my tests on the marvell unit and the other reviews based on the current ARM chips out.

[accident]

(01-17-2012 02:47 AM)halfelite Wrote:  And im still not holding my breathe for googletv.

It was the only thing that lost money for logitech, the end of year earnings report was not good.

[emveepee]

(01-16-2012 06:24 PM)chris57 Wrote:  I think you must remember facts a little different from everyone else. For a start NMJ was not even part of the C200 when launched so its an extra. Something you got for NOTHING!gh as you are still hating though.

Well the plans were more than hinted about by werner before it shipped http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...?tid=23810 and it certainly looked like NMJ http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...?tid=34869 when the semi official videos came out. Because it wasn't part of the launch (which was pretty poor in itself) doesn't mean it was bonus or anything like that.

NMJv2 on the other hand might be consider a bonus or a penalty depending on your point of view.

Martin

[Milhouse]

(01-17-2012 05:55 AM)accident Wrote:  This is basically the HDX bone in an open source model. Although it's the newer mali i like the mali, it's really nice.

Sorry accident - I just deleted my previous post as you were posting. I've reposted it here in the Raspberry-Pi thread as I was getting way too OT for this thread.

The Mali is very nice - very powerful, and 100% open (none of the NDA/closed-source driver cr@p you get with Broadcom and PowerVR).

[chris57]

(01-17-2012 05:31 AM)emveepee Wrote:  

(01-16-2012 06:24 PM)chris57 Wrote:  I think you must remember facts a little different from everyone else. For a start NMJ was not even part of the C200 when launched so its an extra. Something you got for NOTHING!gh as you are still hating though.

Well the plans were more than hinted about by werner before it shipped http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...?tid=23810 and it certainly looked like NMJ http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showth...?tid=34869 when the semi official videos came out. Because it wasn't part of the launch (which was pretty poor in itself) doesn't mean it was bonus or anything like that.

NMJv2 on the other hand might be consider a bonus or a penalty depending on your point of view.

Martin

We had just about got back on topic. Please keep to the topic of discussing xbmc.

[Omertron]

I think the comment about apples and pears is perfectly correct.

You are comparing XBMC which is trying to be a middleware platform that suits a large proportion of players out there and be agnostic to the platform that it's on, to PCH which is a hardware/firmware combination.

In my mind, no matter how good you have XBMC, unless some hardware manufacturer picks it up and makes it work 100% on their player then I feel it's very unlikely that it's going to work 100% on any platform. As previously stated, no manufacturer is going to do that because the XBMC licence prevents commercial use (like YAMJ).

Now, just because I feel that a hardware/firmware combination leads to a more stable player, does not mean that I think the best approach for companies is to throw money down the NMJ route and build a jukebox into the firmware, because you WILL end up in a situation where the player firmware slows down and eventually ceases development.

This is the way of the world. Companies like Syabas make money from selling new stuff. If they don't sell new stuff, they don't get money. Every penny they spend on support for older platforms decreases their bottom line profit. They are a lot more responsive and responsible than other vendors in trying to ensure that their products are a lot more stable over a longer period than some other companies.

So, will XBMC become mainstream? No.
Will it be used by enthusiasts the world over? Yes.
Is it suitable for everyone? No

You make your choice and take your pick. For my money, I can't get a silent (No mechanical noise) mediaplayer that plays the formats that I want to play with zero management time. I spend approaching 0m 0s a month updating my mediaplayer. That's what I want and XBMC will not give that to me.

[Milhouse]

(01-17-2012 11:17 AM)Omertron Wrote:  In my mind, no matter how good you have XBMC, unless some hardware manufacturer picks it up and makes it work 100% on their player then I feel it's very unlikely that it's going to work 100% on any platform. As previously stated, no manufacturer is going to do that because the XBMC licence prevents commercial use (like YAMJ).

Can you explain this further? There are companies already selling hardware with XBMC included and ready to go (turnkey solutions) and I previously provided a link to one such system.

XBMC.org do not appear to have any problems regarding the commerical use of XBMC, indeed OpenELEC partly exists to foster increased use of XBMC as a commercial turnkey solution requiring zero maintenance (in the past 2 months it's required 0m 0s of my time, and happily updates itself in under 30 seconds whenever there is a new release).

Can you point to where XBMC prevents commercial use?

[accident]

I think you misunderstood omertrons statement. He's just talking about not trying to use a general os, with a general xbmc on a pre-installed for you platform. Basically someone diving it so there's a very specific hardware platform for it and concentrate on that. the sigma port might be doing just this with sigma hardware, but sigma isn't too great at porting, android is a huge mess right now so it's tbd.

While xbmc excites you, we could probably count the users on our hands and feet it excites here.

[Milhouse]

How can I have misunderstood "because the XBMC licence prevents commercial use" - I think that statement is worthy of clarification, as it appears to be patently incorrect.

As for the "general OS with general XBMC on a pre-installed for you platform" - you've heard of Microsoft Windows Media Center? How is XBMC any different? It's slow progress but there are already companies selling turnkey XBMC solutions, and as the hardware becomes more powerful and cheaper, and as XBMC/OpenELEC improves (and they both are) I think the number of companies offering such solutions will only increase.

[accident]

Oh that part.. yeah it's misunderstood by a lot and really legally tricky what is allowed and what isn't.. but it's allowed under it's licensing for commerical use.

Perhaps quoting only the part your talking about would be helpful.. I can't tell you bolded something and omertron didn't in his quote.

---

There's nothing you can really say to me personally to sway my opinion of xbmc or any platform. My statement is and will always be the same to anyone thinking of doing a media setup in their home. Everything sucks, you need to try and find what works best for your personal household needs. Only you can say what is right for you. There's stuff I like and hate in everything available. Nothing personally fits my needs.

But the fact that your here discredits you a lot. If xbmc was perfect for you, you wouldn't have xbmc in 1 room and a pch in the other. you'd have xbmc everywhere using these turnkey systems your pointing out.

I do have a recommendation for you.. instead of challenging everythign asking for an explanation. it would have taken 1 line to say xbmc is allowed to be commerical and a link to the webpage showing it is.. All your doing is making enemies and being the next gnat who needs an intervention. The people at least in this thread will stop and say your right.