I got XBMC up and running....now what?

I got XBMC up and running....now what? - Printable Version

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I got XBMC up and running....now what? - hominamad - 2011-05-03

Hi - this sounds kind of like a dumb question, but I'll go on anyway. I built my own HTPC with the main purpose of being able to watch slideshows of photos I've taken, and DVD isos of home movies and other rips of DVDs I've purchased. When researching which OS to go with, everyone was speaking so highly of XBMC and it seemed to be able to do what I want - so I went for it.

Built and nice little PC with plenty of juice, and just finally got everything working. Save for a few gripes (more on that here) it is pretty much doing everything I wanted.

BUT.. now I'm starting to think about other uses for XBMC so that I can actually realize its potential. I was wondering if some people can either point me to, or explain the "main ways" people use the system. I thought it would be straightforward to use it for Netflix, Amazon VOD, Hulu, etc etc, but from the research I've done, most of these are either not supported, or complex to set up with all sorts of workarounds. I wanted to install a Blu-Ray drive so maybe this box could replace my Blu-Ray player, but that is also not supported (I'm running XBMC Live).

I went though most of the supported plugins and nothing I saw there really caught my eye of something that I could use. So what do most people do? Where is everyone getting all their content from if those other services don't work? Do most people mainly use XBMC as a torrent downloader/watcher?

I don't mean anything critical in my question by the way - I genuniely want to know how I can take advantage of this media center that everyone speaks so highly about. I'm impressed with the interface and it works well, but I just don't know what to do with it.

Thanks!

~H

- MaxHeadroom - 2011-05-03

Have a browse through the Plugin/Scripts main menu (In this forum).

Plenty of stuff in there that works outa the box for your viewing pleasure

- amet - 2011-05-03

have a look here for some unofficial addon repos, they all work its just that they are not supported by Team-XBMC for various reasons Smile

- hominamad - 2011-05-04

I'll check out the list of "unoffical" addons as well. So, do most people use XBMC primarily for watching local content? Is it true that its not (easily) possible to use Netflix/Amazon on there?

Also, what about setting up something like Playon, SageTV, etc. Is this easy to do?

- seand - 2011-05-04

hominamad Wrote:I'll check out the list of "unoffical" addons as well. So, do most people use XBMC primarily for watching local content? Is it true that its not (easily) possible to use Netflix/Amazon on there?

Also, what about setting up something like Playon, SageTV, etc. Is this easy to do?

Yes to local (which is why there are so many skins, etc. for managing views for content) and yes and yes for the other two. Amazon plug-in is a tad experimental as of yet. There is a surprising depth to some of the "unofficial" add-on libraries.

- Waveknight - 2011-05-04

My personal favourite aspect of an XBMC system is the ability to have your entire media library (Films, TV Shows and Music) laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner with fanart/boxart/etc, instead of having a boring file list like most other players.

Also, being able to easily set up a multi-room system is a nice touch. No need to move your media from one device to another; it's always just there, when and where you want it.

- SpectreX - 2011-05-05

XBMC is mainly used for watching ripped content (Movies and TV Shows and Music Videos/Concerts), and listening to music, from their Hard Drives or NAS/server. That HD and SD content usually comes from Blu Ray/DVD disks or pirated stuff, stored in various formats, like MKV, M2TS, Blu Ray ISO or Blu Ray folder structures.

And Waveknight is spot on one of the main features of XBMC : the most powerful skinning engine wiyh skins that will make your eyes weep. Try Aeon MQ, it`s the best looking skin available atm for XBMC, and also the most customizable and has the most features, like TVTunes, integrated TV shows program guide etc. Here`s the link : http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=81601

Playing back BD disks can be had by using an external player like Total Media Teatre 5, but only on Windows. Netflix is also available on Windows (there is a plugin and instructions on how to set it up). Don`t know about Hulu or Amazon VOD

- tcman47 - 2011-05-05

I use xbmc mainly for watching my 1080p .mkv movies, the real treat is all the info that is on display along with the movie, like extra thumbs, fanart, movie info and trailer, it all adds up to a very entertaining experience. Big Grin

- gobba - 2011-05-05

I watch movies/series, listen to music and watch live-tv on my setup. The live-tv part is really awesome, it enables me to record and pause livetv, and stream tv to multiple xbmc boxes around my home.

One more cool feature with livetv is that you can use "searches" which means that you can make a search for, say "mythbusters" and when anything is broadcasted on any of my channels that match that it will record it!

Its nice to have everything on the same place. Only time i change input on my tv is when I want to play some console games.

Im also using a harmony remote so that i just press one button to get everything started (htpc, tv, receiver)

I use trakt.tv to keep a record of the movies and series ive seen. Supposedly, havnt tried this yet, if you wipe your library and loose all seen/unseen status of your media, trakt.tv will sync this from the site into the library.

- hominamad - 2011-05-09

Thanks for all the info. I discovered something new last night which is pretty cool as well. My wife is from Greece and I discovered that I can watch some Greek TV channels on XBMC (ones that provide live streaming on their sites already) by saving the URLs as .strm files. Quality is questionable, but still pretty cool.

A found that a bunch of those streams are .swf streams. Is there an app, or trick I can do to play those as well? Searched around a bit but couldn't really find much.

Thanks,

H

- IAmNotAUser - 2011-05-09

It should also be mentioned that at the next major release binary addons will hopefully be implemented and allowed, opening up the possibility for closed-source addons like Spotify and other propitiatory streaming solutions. Well unless that plan has changed in the last couple of months I took my ear off the ground anyways.

- jhsrennie - 2011-05-09

hominamad Wrote:A found that a bunch of those streams are .swf streams. Is there an app, or trick I can do to play those as well? Searched around a bit but couldn't really find much.

SWF is probably a Flash stream. If you post an example URL I'll have a look and see if XBMC can play it.

JR

- hominamad - 2011-05-09

jhsrennie Wrote:SWF is probably a Flash stream. If you post an example URL I'll have a look and see if XBMC can play it.

JR

I appreciate it! I don't know if this is the exact one she wants, but its the same idea:

http://webtv.kanald.com.tr/CanliYayin/swf/player_Secure.swf

If I can get this working then I have a good excuse to buy the Harmony One ;-)

Edited to add: Not SWF, but if I can play this one the wife will be verrry happy. I think its ASX or maybe ASF? I'm at work so I can't try now, but when I get home I will try it out.

http://95.0.159.131/TV1?auth=D1ABFB068F310B192E364D3A94B31137

Are .strm files the only way to play these? I tried adding these URLs as a WebDAV (http) video source but that didn't work. I wasn't 100% what that was for.

Thanks again!

- jhsrennie - 2011-05-10

You're out of luck with the SWF I'm afraid. It's in compressed format and XBMC doesn't support that.

Better luck with the other URL though. Create a .strm file containing:

Code:
http://95.0.159.131/TV1?auth=D1ABFB068F310B192E364D3A94B31137&MSWMExt=.asf

http://95.0.159.131:80/TV1?auth=D1ABFB068F310B192E364D3A94B31137&MSWMExt=.asf

The strm file contains two links (presumably so if one is down you can play the other). If you press Play when on the strm file it will start playing as usual. If you press OK/Return XBMC will show you a list with the two streams and you can choose which to play (though I don't think there's any difference between them).

JR

- hominamad - 2011-05-10

Thanks - got most of the streams working. Spent several hours last night trying to reverse engineer all different kinds of streams. There was another SWF file from which I was able to figure out an RMTP/FLV path for. Is it also possible to play this? I found some info on this but most was several years old. Not sure if anything has changed recently and the Wiki site seems to say it is supported. It did not work with the .strm method though.

Note: I'm running XBMC Live.