Win32 Port - Would a bounty help to entice Developers?
#1
Hello all,

I'm not entirely sure if this would be appropriate or not for this project, but would any of the XBMC developers be willing to consider a Win32 port if there were funds for said project?

I have seen other examples of this system at work with open sourced projects. Work gets to a point, then there is sometimes a divergence between what the developers would ideally like to do next, and what the public demand might otherwise request.

It has been said time and again that the current XBMC developers aren't interested in doing a Win32 port of this project, but what if good will wasn't the only thing on the table?

I will personally pledge $100.00 for a fully working Win32 XBMC port.

If you feel the same and would like to see a Windows XBMC, please indicate your interest with the amount of money you will commit to a Win32 port below.

I propose that if there is enough interest from both the public and the developers to proceed, the sponsors payout 50% of their pledge as a show of good faith to the developers to be held in trust. Upon completion of the project, the remaining funds would be due in full.

Please only offer funds if you are serious about this. Don't waste your own nor the developers time with a commitment that isn't 100% genuine.

-- Phob
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#2
All you are likely to get out of the current developers is a maintenance of the current linuxport building on win32.

That (just about) already happens today. It probably doesn't build at the moment, as I (or anyone else) hasn't bothered playing with it in a couple of months.

Alternatively, the current "win32" build from trunk works fine for music and video playback (dvdplayer), though it doesn't interact well with the OS, given that it's not designed to be a full port. However, there's very little that doesn't work - I'd estimate that it's probably worth about 75 of that 100 already. I'll PM you my paypal details :p

You are not likely to get any more than this out of the current developers, considering you probably won't be able to raise many dollars to entice us to do something we are not interested in using.

Your best bet is finding NEW developers that are interested in using (and thus creating) a win32 version.

Good luck,
Jonathan
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#3
Hi there jmarshall,

I knew there was a reason I hadn't tried the current Win32 build... it has left me in utter denial that there isn't a fully working port! AAAAAaaaaaahhhhh!

Fantastic work on this - the GUI is very responsive on my Laptop which is more than I can say for the MediaPortal GUI that runs on my dedicated HTPC! Amazing.

Audio doesn't really work, but the video playback seems fairly good.

Is there a way to get the external DVD to play things? That way might get audio etc. working for more hardware.

At any rate, I appreciate the work done so far. Thanks to jmarshall and all the other devs who have put work into XBMC, and specifically this quasi port to Win32.

... lets hope you're wrong and there is enough community interest and pledged dollars to convert a current dev to do this - or attract a new one!

-- Phob
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#4
Audio works fine here, though it was hacked together in a couple of hours, and there may well be better ways to do it. I think Donno had a patch that called an external app to play video - it's a pretty simple hack anyway - just place the appropriate call in CApplication:TonguelayFile(). I suspect mplayer.dll can probably be made to load in the win32 version as well - I never bothered with it originally as there was no videorenderer support - elupus added that side of things.

The linuxport version is better as far as the responsiveness goes than the win32 version, and supports fullscreen, but I suspect it won't build at present.

We encourage anyone to take our code and run with it (assuming they stick to the license ofcourse). Just because we're not particularly interested in something doesn't mean that we won't help out (with advice) anyone wanting to do something with the code. I just don't have the time nowadays (or the inclination) to be bothered with it, when we as a team consider linux as a better alternative.

Cheers,
Jonathan
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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#5
Hi again,

Yes - I already have compiled the Linux build under Ubuntu 7.04 from SVN and it was also a whole lot better than anything I've seen available for either Linux or Windows in terms of the GUI - but getting the hardware to work seems to be a real pain. I have video and audio working - sorta.

The thing I fear, and it may prove to be completely unfounded after things are optimized is that without drivers which can accelerate video as they can under windows (eg. nVidia - PureVideo), HD and specifically 1080p playback may not be possible, where it is a reality under Windows now.

This compounded by what I've read about mplayer under Linux makes me believe that 1080p won't work in Linux - XBMC or otherwise for a long time to come without a very powerful CPU.

My setup which works under Windows is build around an AMD X2 4200+, and I use a motherboard with an integrated nVidia GF7050 which supports 1080p using PureVideo. Audio via optical spdif. Under Windows I can play HD with AC3/DTS without issue, but under Linux the best I can seem to manage basic is playback of xvid in SD but not HD, and only stereo audio - AC3/DTS makes the system crawl.

Its a great little system with integrated HDMI etc.. I had originally thought I would just run MCE 2005, but it really pales in comparison to XBMC, especially the UI.

Anyway - a Win32 XBMC seems like a fasttrack to success where Linux may take a lot longer.

I understand your position, and that of the other developers. If I had the ability to code things myself (or the time), I would take a stab at this - hence my proposition... anybody else?

-- Phob
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#6
You keep repeating yourself all the time Phob...

You've gotten your answers
Always read the XBMC online-manual, FAQ and search the forum before posting.
Do not e-mail XBMC-Team members directly asking for support. Read/follow the forum rules.
For troubleshooting and bug reporting please make sure you read this first.


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