[RamboUnchained]

I had to make an account just to express my gratitude.

A few months ago, my fiancee decided to snip the cables and just get a WD TV live for watching Netflix and blu-ray rips here n there. We figured "Hell, why pay $75 a month for a service we barely use?" So about 2mo go by and I build a new gaming/ rendering PC. I thought about selling my old PC, but was looking for a new project and BAM. XBMC was in the top 10 of a lot of my HTPC related searches. It took me about a week to get everything set up to where things would run how I wanted them without over-complicating things for the misses at the same time, but boy was it worth it.

I never have to worry about what I want to watch, where to go to watch it, etc. And when I get tired of listening to/ viewing media, XBMC is a geek's haven. I tinker with it every day just because I can. I have it set up with XBMC-DS Frodo 12.3, SVP 3.1.6 for ultra smooth playback, and a buttload of repositories. Took a bit of configuring and script writing, but it was so worth the effort. The amount of work that has gone into a completely FREE program is mind-boggling. Especially, when there are so many half-assed attempts at delivering the same experience you guys have brought into hundreds of thousands...maybe millions of homes throughout the world for a high premium. Kudos to everyone that has had a hand in developing XBMC and the add-ons/ plugins that go along with it.

If I had it, I'd put a few dead presidents into this program, but we're saving for our wedding. The time will definitely come, though. The first PC was a test run. I will be building another PC a bit down the road and will be donating when I do as a thank you for breathing life back into my family's media experience.

[natethomas]

What the heck is "XBMC-DS Frodo 12.3, SVP 3.1.6"?

[Martijn]

What the heck is "XBMC-DS Frodo 12.3, SVP 3.1.6"?

Xbmc with ds-player which is no official build

[steelman1991]

SVP - Smooth Video Project - Frame Interpolation

http://www.svp-team.com/

[RamboUnchained]

Yeah the DS version isnt an official version, but I've used SVP for a while and wanted to continue to use it with XBMC. The DS version was the only way that was possible.

[Piers]

I've never heard of SVP, but after watching the video below I'm really impressed with the lighting effect SVP can produce. If you're wandering what I mean - look at the black bars on the video, or at least where they should be. Some might hate it.



And for anyone looking for further information regarding XBMC, DS and SVP then see this thread on the SVP forum: http://www.svp-team.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=580

If only it would work with the internal XBMC video player

[Martijn]

yep i hate it
i have my boblight for that

[Ned Scott]

Speaking of which, if any of the DSPlayer users would like to update the wiki page on it, I'm sure new DSPlayer users would be grateful for it: DSPlayer (wiki)

[CHBMB]

Like the idea of super smooth video, but not sure how I feel about the lighting effect on the black bars.... It's strange and it almost made me feel I was missing something, like it drew my attention to the fact the picture had been cropped. Not quite sure how to explain it.

[Prof Yaffle]

I've got a great idea... why not - rather than just spreading colours out onto the black bars - why not actually spread *the image* onto the bars? That way you'd get a whole field-of-view experience, with absolutely no wasted screen real estate. We could call it - oh, I don't know - how about 16-to-9, something like that?

[Piers]

I've got a great idea... why not - rather than just spreading colours out onto the black bars - why not actually spread *the image* onto the bars? That way you'd get a whole field-of-view experience, with absolutely no wasted screen real estate. We could call it - oh, I don't know - how about 16-to-9, something like that?

If content is not filmed using 1.77:1 then you're going to get loss of image. I've made this to show a comparison:

[pr0xZen]

Not much to do about the movie indistrys preference of wider format - but I'm glad to see IMAX footage picking up a bit.
If you're made of dough - why not : http://www.anandtech.com/tag/219

[RamboUnchained]

I hate the lighting. I just use the interpolation scripts that are built into SVP. I had to download the Haali media splitter and FFDshow to make the DSPlayer compatible with SVP, but it's sexy so I cant complain lol. SVP kept me from investing money into a new TV. The only thing it cant do is smooth livestreams...yet. I will do a tutorial on the DSwiki as soon as I'm 100% comfortable with the way everything is setup. Im still tinkering.

[Piers]

Not much to do about the movie indistrys preference of wider format - but I'm glad to see IMAX footage picking up a bit.
If you're made of dough - why not : http://www.anandtech.com/tag/219

I've been looking at 21:9 displays for a while now, I nearly purchased one of the first Philips models but decided against it. I would estimate that 60-70% of my content is either filmed in 4:3 or 16:9 and trying to watch that on a 21:9 display just looks plain odd - I've tried a few out in a local store as well.

There are a good idea if you have money to waste, only watch films or possibly for use as a monitor. That being said I use 3x24" monitors for home and work and find that an easy way to get stuff done.

[zacly]

Yeah the DS version isnt an official version, but I've used SVP for a while and wanted to continue to use it with XBMC. The DS version was the only way that was possible.

i saw that you had problems with svp picking up dsplayer... howd you fix that?