Will we ever see xbmc on non jail broken ios devices
#1
I have so many ios devices and miss the ability to run xbmc on them. Of course we can jailbreak, but this have caveats too.

Will we ever see xbmc on ios (non jail broken) and if not, could we get so etching similar?

For example
1 - We have open source apps/players like VLC and others like powerplayer etc that can play all media hosted on xbmc via xbmc upnp.

2 - We have xbmc remotes like commander, constellation that control xbmc and allow us to view the library.

3 - is it possible to create an xbmc remote app (like commander/constellation) with added upnp and using open source players (if need be) like vlc to play the media.

This would allow us to view the library, and choose to play locally or via upnp on the device in use.

As both of these facilities co exists on the App Store, is it at all possible to merge them? Giving us an almost complete xbmc experience on ios?
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#2
I don't think xbmc is likely to get through the app store process.

Is yatse available on ios? On android it acts as a remote, library browser and player.

Are there no upnp browsers on ios?
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#3
NO
never ever gonna happen. stop asking (search for previous answers)
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#4
you were asking for

Quote:Will we ever see xbmc on ios (non jail broken)

and the plain answer is NO.

and use the iOS remote. does everything you need.
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#5
(2013-12-07, 21:44)Martijn Wrote: you were asking for

Quote:Will we ever see xbmc on ios (non jail broken)

and the plain answer is NO.

and use the iOS remote. does everything you need.

I asked more than that Rofl
That's like reading the headline to the news and making a judgment without reading the body/report?

I asked a question, then discussed a solution and/or possibilities to a solution.
The thread is valid, it's entirely possible that an app like yatse could exists on ios, maybe the official xbmc ios app can add upnp features. If not a 3rd party remote maybe.

With Gotham on the horizon, is it plausible to update the official app with upnp features and/or the ability to "sent to" an iPad when the xbmc remote app is active (when app is running its advertising it's self as a source etc)

Surly there are ways around this as we seem to have all these features available as separate apps, is it plausible to merge them? Would xbmc official app consider it? Can a 3rd party do this (commander etc) it would give an almost full xbmc experience on an ios device, without jail breaking.

That's gotta make a lot of users happy, right?
Xbmc official remote + upnp + player (open source such as VLC (already on App Store) = an almost complete xbmc experience on a non jail broken ios Device.

The 2 missing features above already exist on the App Store as stand alone devices, adding upnp should be a breeze as you guys already use the protocol. It's surly at least plausible.

You should be a little more thorough and less trigger happy Tongue
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#6
(2013-12-07, 21:27)PatrickBateman Wrote: I have so many ios devices and miss the ability to run xbmc on them. Of course we can jailbreak, but this have caveats too.

Will we ever see xbmc on ios (non jail broken) and if not, could we get so etching similar?

For example
1 - We have open source apps/players like VLC and others like powerplayer etc that can play all media hosted on xbmc via xbmc upnp.

2 - We have xbmc remotes like commander, constellation that control xbmc and allow us to view the library.

3 - is it possible to create an xbmc remote app (like commander/constellation) with added upnp and using open source players (if need be) like vlc to play the media.

This would allow us to view the library, and choose to play locally or via upnp on the device in use.

As both of these facilities co exists on the App Store, is it at all possible to merge them? Giving us an almost complete xbmc experience on ios?

Actually, the answer is "yes, this is possible". There is nothing stopping anyone from making an UPnP/JSON-RPC client that can access XBMC and display all of the metadata, and then submit that to the App Store. Eventually, XBMC's own UPnP server will hopefully evolve to supporting sending metadata to the existing UPnP clients that support showing extra data. It's even possible for someone to make a client that communicates back and triggers watched and resume status. It's one of the reasons why using standards like UPnP is so great.

It's doubtful that anyone from Team XBMC will want to specifically make a stand-alone iOS client. Nor would it actually be "XBMC". But what you describe is totally possible, and might have already been done for all I know.

dare I say, I LIKE the idea of expanding UPnP like this :)


EDIT: edited for clarity
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#7
YAUA

Yet Another UPNP App
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#8
(2013-12-08, 03:16)Ned Scott Wrote:
(2013-12-07, 21:27)PatrickBateman Wrote: I have so many ios devices and miss the ability to run xbmc on them. Of course we can jailbreak, but this have caveats too.

Will we ever see xbmc on ios (non jail broken) and if not, could we get so etching similar?

For example
1 - We have open source apps/players like VLC and others like powerplayer etc that can play all media hosted on xbmc via xbmc upnp.

2 - We have xbmc remotes like commander, constellation that control xbmc and allow us to view the library.

3 - is it possible to create an xbmc remote app (like commander/constellation) with added upnp and using open source players (if need be) like vlc to play the media.

This would allow us to view the library, and choose to play locally or via upnp on the device in use.

As both of these facilities co exists on the App Store, is it at all possible to merge them? Giving us an almost complete xbmc experience on ios?

Actually, the answer is "yes, this is possible". There is nothing stopping anyone from making an UPnP/JSON-RPC client that can access XBMC and display all of the metadata, and then submit that to the App Store. Eventually, XBMC's own UPnP server will hopefully evolve to supporting sending metadata to the existing UPnP clients that support showing extra data. It's even possible for someone to make a client that communicates back and triggers watched and resume status. It's one of the reasons why using standards like UPnP is so great.

It's doubtful that anyone from Team XBMC will want to specifically make a stand-alone iOS client. Nor would it actually be "XBMC". But what you describe is totally possible, and might have already been done for all I know.

dare I say, I LIKE the idea of expanding UPnP like this Smile


EDIT: edited for clarity

Thanks for the information, it's great to know that for it's entirely possible and even more abilities than I expected can/could be added and that you like the idea (I'm not alone) Big Grin

I'd love to see this added in the official xbox remote, but do you think the dev will not go down this route? Having this would allow users who can't currently jailbreak (iPad air and 5s/5c etc) to have a very close xbmc experience on their iOS device using the official remote.

It's great to know its possible though, hopefully a skilled iOS dev may consider adding features to their already existing apps?

Cheers,

(2013-12-08, 07:36)nickr Wrote: YAUA

Yet Another UPNP App

I'll check the AppStore for this now Wink
Thanks

Edit:
Not on the App Store? Did I misunderstand...

Currently I own ~15 upnp apps but none offer the feature set of meta data! decoding of all formats and control of Xbmc.

I have
power player
Arkmc
Goodplayer
Nplayer
Yaplayer
Moliplayer
Airplayer
Flex:player
Media:connect
VLC
etc etc etc...

I have spent close to £25 so far testing apps, and will happily pay more for these features. However as no jailbreak is possible for now, if an xbmc remote (like commander) had added upnp, I'd happily pay another £25 as that would allow me to have an xbmc experience on my iOS device..

If I can search my library, chose a film, check the meta data, and then play it on my device via upnp that would be incredible.
I'd happily pay for the decoders too as it seems all these apps have all had the dts and Dolby licences removed for whatever reason, but can be added via additional costs, which I suspect many will pay.

Or even if xbmc can "send to" iOS devices in Gotham when the official remote app is running or something, that would be good enough too Smile

Shame is, in our family we have 3 iPad mini retina, 2 iPad air, 1 iPad mini, 3 iPhone 5, 2 iPhone 5c, and 2 iPad 1 (plus iPod touches) but more than 3/4 of our devices don't play xbmc Sad
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#9
I imagine it would be quite a task to integrate even an existing open source iOS software video player in the XBMC remote app, so I doubt it would happen any time soon, if at all. I think it's more likely that we'll see UPnP support on XBMC's side or on the UPnP iOS app site evolve to better communicate. Just a guess on my part, though.
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#10
(2013-12-08, 12:32)Ned Scott Wrote: I imagine it would be quite a task to integrate even an existing open source iOS software video player in the XBMC remote app, so I doubt it would happen any time soon, if at all. I think it's more likely that we'll see UPnP support on XBMC's side or on the UPnP iOS app site evolve to better communicate. Just a guess on my part, though.

That would still be a great feature, as it would allow the use of these new iOS devices we have with our existing xbmc installations, I hope these features do come our way.

If I can "send to" my iOS devices from my main xbmc installation that would be great too. It's such a shame that these beautiful devices just plain don't work with xbmc via any method (no current jailbreak either) so upnp would be fantastic and would mean that, going forward, we would always have some kind of functionality with our iOS devices.

Here's hoping...

Do you know of any other apps that may work? The ones I tried are all a bit meh... No meta data, or no decoding of certain formats, or no remote capabilities. Have you encountered anything that may work better?

Also, there is an app in the App Store that puts iOS devices into "air play receiver" mode, meaning I can air play a movie from any iOS device to any other iOS device running this app (actively running it) ... obviously xbmc doesn't support Sebring via airplay, but if upnp is broadcasting on an iOS device via an app, could xbmc "send to" that device while it's running as a receiver? If so, would xbmc remote ever add that facility (in your opinion)?
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#11
You could try asking the developer of ViMu player to port to iOS, it supports the XBMC UPnP media library as seen in the screenshots on Google Play.

I have had similar ideas before about XBMC, in particular with music usage XBMC on iOS would be a great controller as it's ability to act as a UPnP controller from network shared folders with no UPnP/DLNA server required is an extremely rare feature and makes it very useful to those with crummy UPnP/DLNA servers or those who have none on their server.

And of course the XBMC UI still trumps pretty much anyone around.

Another option I was going to ask down the road was to see if Pivos have any interest, they are pretty busy at the moment prepping their next Android set top box but they have their own version of XBMC called Tofu. I was gonna ask if it's possible do a version of Tofu sufficiently hobbled enough to pass the iOS app store without getting pulled and charge a few bucks for it to make it worth their while (Pivos are a sponsor of XBMC too) plus the iOS version wouldn't compete with their Android box.
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#12
to get into iOS store you need to strip it down to the unusable so that won't happen. Nor we nor Pivos would do that.
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#13
Right now, I've found the best way to compliment my existing XBMC TV setups with thin-client non-JB tablet support is to use MediaBrowser3 alongside XBMC. You install the MB3 server, and it creates a local web site that you can use to browse and play your media on a tablet.

There's also an iOS iPad application under development.

For me and the Mrs, this has been the best way to get an XBMC-like experience on our iPads; it's impressive indeed.

I am certainly hoping Ned's wishes for the future of XBMC's upnp server are realized in the not-too-distant future, since there's definitely a strong demand for support on thin clients like unjailbroken iPads/iPhones etc.

MB3 is open source and also runs on the Roku - though for a TV, I feel that a Pi + XBMC (OpenELEC) is all you need.

Finally, I use Trakt.tv to sync watched statuses between the two ecosystems.
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#14
(2013-12-08, 15:10)kreeturez Wrote: Right now, I've found the best way to compliment my existing XBMC TV setups with thin-client non-JB tablet support is to use MediaBrowser3 alongside XBMC. You install the MB3 server, and it creates a local web site that you can use to browse and play your media on a tablet.

There's also an iOS iPad application under development.

For me and the Mrs, this has been the best way to get an XBMC-like experience on our iPads; it's impressive indeed.

I am certainly hoping Ned's wishes for the future of XBMC's upnp server are realized in the not-too-distant future, since there's definitely a strong demand for support on thin clients like unjailbroken iPads/iPhones etc.

MB3 is open source and also runs on the Roku - though for a TV, I feel that a Pi + XBMC (OpenELEC) is all you need.

Finally, I use Trakt.tv to sync watched statuses between the two ecosystems.

All very interesting routes that I never knew (or thought about) going down. Thanks for the heads up. I may take a look at what's required and investigate this. Thanks for this suggestion, I'm off to see what this requires :ad cheers for the info/updates and suggestions Smile

@Martin - these blanket statements with no fact or basis dont really helpful (no offense) I'm sure it's an entirely viable option (albeit difficult to create).

For example, there are some application such as powerdvd and cinexplayer on iOS that have full hardware/software decoding for DTS/AC3 MKV and all the usual suspects, plus UPNP and streaming capabilities from http sources (Java sites included) ... Granted they don't do exactly what we are suggesting, but the point is, if someone took cinexplayer and added the xbmc remote app (plus media info) we would very nearly have xbmc on an iOS device. I will say that I don't have talent to do this, but there is a demand for it, people will pay for an app and toward licence costs to the developer etc so while It will be difficult, it's not impossible and/or unusable like you state? All the features currently exist on the App Store, but no one has merged them into 1 app .... Yet!

I think the first xbmc remote (commander/constellation etc) to add upnp and a player and licensed codec support (in a pro version) will likely make millions of iOS users very very happy. Millions of iOS users paying for this app can and would lead to a healthy return for a company that runs off donations. Work with the developer and state that .50p for every sale of the app gets donated to the foundation. That could potentially be millions of dollars for xbmc foundation.

Yes it's not going to be easy, but all the pieces of the puzzle are there, they exist already and we know the limitations of the App Store are NOT the issue as these apps already exist in the App Store as separate entities. So it's down to how difficult it is, not the limitations of iOS.

Of course, it's easy to sit here and say its possible, while not understand the complexity of merging all these apps. But we may be lucky enough to wake a bored/unemployed student who fancies a challenge, a current dev, or a group of starters who want to begin with this as their first project.

I for one would love to see this happen, my entire family and friends are in the iOS Eco system and the xbmc Eco system. If they were able to use these 2 in harmony... It would change everything...
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#15
slapping some apps together doesn't make XBMC!
Also those are all closed source ones. You need to understand the rules of the iOS store and the implications it has on any software you write for it.
All videoplayers in there use the native apple HW player. We use our own.

So that makes this totally out of scope for the XBMC forum.
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