[davilla]

XBMC for Mac seems to always get the short end of the stick with respect to being OSX "compatible" and I'm not really sure why.

I'm interested in user feedback regarding what they find in Plex vs XBMC for Mac as being more OSX compatible or OSX friendly so I can start addressing these issues.

Obviously Plex's use of their private code Plex Media Server and webkit usage for plugins are one thing and I'm NOT interested in feedback regarding that particular difference.

So OSX users, here's your chance to make a difference and help push XBMC for Mac into the spotlight.

Warning, plex vs xbmc flame wars will not be tolerated in this thread. I want constructive feedback and as my mother always told me, if you can't say anything constructive, keep your mouth shut.

[amet]

XBMC for Mac seems to always get the short end of the stick with respect to being OSX "compatible" and I'm not really sure why.

I dont agree that XBMC for Mac gets the short end of the stick.

When I first started using media center I used Plex. After getting the ATV I started using Boxee and after a day I switched to XBMC.

I dont see any major OSX compatibility issues, I think you (Mac developers) are doing brilliant job with it.

in short, I have no complaints

[garyi]

Having not seen XBMC on a PC I don't really know how its better.

FWIW The main issues I have is with the remote, changing to newer builds always causes issues. From a compatibility perspective the XBMC helper has to be part of the XBMC process, right now its a seperate process, as it stands quitting one XBMC and launching another uses the helper from the previous iteration as its still running, unless one goes through a contorted 'turn it off, turn it on, quit XBMC try again etc etc. Basically its a pain in the arse, and on many occasions has resulted in such confusion on my point I have had to start from scratch.

Other than that I am struggling to think how its not compatible really.

[davilla]

Having not seen XBMC on a PC I don't really know how its better.

FWIW The main issues I have is with the remote, changing to newer builds always causes issues. From a compatibility perspective the XBMC helper has to be part of the XBMC process, right now its a seperate process, as it stands quitting one XBMC and launching another uses the helper from the previous iteration as its still running, unless one goes through a contorted 'turn it off, turn it on, quit XBMC try again etc etc. Basically its a pain in the arse, and on many occasions has resulted in such confusion on my point I have had to start from scratch.

Other than that I am struggling to think how its not compatible really.

IR Remote handling is a good point, right now it's a separate process for the sole purpose of being able to launch XBMC from the menu button.

XBMC launching another instance of XBMCHelper is a bug and please generate a trac ticket for that so it can be addressed. Include your versions please.

[wally007]

Is there anything else different other than few under the hood tweaks and features XBMC has and Plex Media Server that Plex has ?

Personally i use both. I have 3 macs. Mini in the living room is solely Plex machine, only because i have VPN applescripts for UK/US plugins which XBMC does not have.

My mac pro in my office has XBMC because i just love XBMC iPhone remote :-)

Other than that, even my girlfriend cant tell difference between the two with AEON skin , except that XBMC generates thumbnails for TV SHOWS that are missing cover arts/thumbs :-)

BUT i'd say biggest XBMC downfall is general idea behind it.
Not supporting feature that is platform specific. Why cant MAC version have EyeTV integration ? Why cant mac version support applescripts ? Why cant mac version have full blown iLife support ? Answer is pretty easy to grasp from reading this forum for few weeks.... most developers dont like the idea of having mac/windows versions doing stuff linux cant.

Nothing wrong with it, it's YOUR time and YOUR software .... but this is also just my opinion.

[davilla]

Is there anything else different other than few under the hood tweaks and features XBMC has and Plex Media Server that Plex has ?

Personally i use both. I have 3 macs. Mini in the living room is solely Plex machine, only because i have VPN applescripts for UK/US plugins which XBMC does not have.

My mac pro in my office has XBMC because i just love XBMC iPhone remote :-)

Other than that, even my girlfriend cant tell difference between the two with AEON skin , except that XBMC generates thumbnails for TV SHOWS that are missing cover arts/thumbs :-)

BUT i'd say biggest XBMC downfall is general idea behind it.
Not supporting feature that is platform specific. Why cant MAC version have EyeTV integration ? Why cant mac version support applescripts ? Why cant mac version have full blown iLife support ? Answer is pretty easy to grasp from reading this forum for few weeks.... most developers dont like the idea of having mac/windows versions doing stuff linux cant.

Nothing wrong with it, it's YOUR time and YOUR software .... but this is also just my opinion.

Very good, now we are getting somewhere. Regarding platform specific feature, there's nothing to prevent that. We aim for platform compatibility but as the Linux only Nvidia vdpau hw decode feature points out, there can be platform specific features. The key is to develop them so as to not cause problems with the other platforms. I'm hoping this thread will start to point them out with respect to XBMC for Mac and you have listed a good 1/2 dozen of them.

EyeTV integration, with the upcoming pvr additions, that should be trivial. It might be trivial now but how about making a trac ticket requesting this and include exactly what you want. I don't have an EyeTV setup but could fake it.

Applescript Support, humm. never thought about that. Bang another trac ticket please.

iLife support, same again.

Trac tickets are golden here. They don't get lost like forum posts and they get reviewed all the time. Feel free to cc me on them. Since I am a major OSX dev on teamxbmc, I can make them happen.

[seedzero]

I have xbmc on my mac mini and have used plex too. TBH I don't see why people complain about XBMC for mac, I have had nothing but positive experiences with the software. The only minor gripes I have are the lack of hardware accelerated video and iTunes library integration. If I have a populated iTunes library it would be nice to see all associated cover art without having to scan everything to the library. I have a slow broadband connection which means it would take forever to scan all my music to the library.

[spiff]

unless you explicitly enable it in settings, xbmc doesn't hit the inet at all during music scans - it's all about the tags which itunes have put (hacked without any regard to standards) into place for you.

[seedzero]

unless you explicitly enable it in settings, xbmc doesn't hit the inet at all during music scans - it's all about the tags which itunes have put (hacked without any regard to standards) into place for you.

Wasn't aware of that spiff, thanks for the info. I started to scan my music to the library once and it seemed to be taking forever so I canned it. Does XBMC extract artwork from the iTunes DB or does it have to be embedded in the mp3 file?

[migueld]

I'm glad this topic has been brought up, I think something can be done to "fine tune" xbmc to OSX without necessarily alienating it from the other platforms.

One of my all-time-gripes with XBMC is the crude dual monitor support. Plex has a much elegant approach. For example, changing Plex to another monitor can be done in several "natural" ways:

* Drag Plex to another monitor/screen. Next time you launch, it remembers the screen where you last left it. It also remembers window mode or fullscreen state.
* Use keyboard shortcut to cycle through different monitors. In Plex the shortcut is ⇧ ⌘ → (shift + command + arrow-right).
* Alternatively the menu bar also has the commands:



All of those methods contribute to making the user feel comfortable with the software, it's easier, more intuitive, more accessible.

I need to add that, currently changing screens in XBMC using "test resolution" in settings doesn't work reliably. Sometimes I get black screens for several seconds even though it should work.

My second big gripe with XBMC is that lately, not sure why, but fullscreen (4:3) support seems broken. I have a (1280x1024) LCD and both PM3HD and MediaStream gets stretched out.

More issues to come.. and thanks again Davilla for opening this thread.

EDIT: wrong info, it's 1280x1024 resolution, not 1280x1200

[migueld]

BTW, I'll open a ticket for the screen issues above if that's ok.

Edit, ticket #7431: http://www.xbmc.org/trac/ticket/7431

[seedzero]

One other minor gripe is that I run eyeTV in the background and even though XBMC retains focus, the system mouse cursor will appear atop the window when eyeTV opens to record a program. Would be good if the system cursor could be hidden permanently while XBMC is open.

edit: I should note that these are terribly minor issues I'm bringing up IMO. I think the XBMC mac devs and the XBMC devs in general do a fantastic job.

[migueld]

Among other things, a nice feature to have would be Automatic updating:



Obviously not a dealbreaker, but mac-like and elegant..

I could see this in other platforms as well...

[seedzero]

Among other things, a nice feature to have would be Automatic updating:

Obviously not a dealbreaker, but mac-like and elegant..

I could see this in other platforms as well...

Considering that XBMC stable builds are only release twice annually, I'm not sure that this would be a necessity. And updating to SVN builds is not really a good idea IMO as the number of support questions and the like would certainly go up.

[davilla]

My second big gripe with XBMC is that lately, not sure why, but fullscreen (4:3) support seems broken. I have a (1280x1200) LCD and both PM3HD and MediaStream gets stretched out.

Little confused here, 1280x1200 is not 4:3 ratio so setting fullscreen with a 4:3 ratio will force the video content to be stretched.