XBMC 12 out now!

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bigal_nz

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#755699 4-Feb-2013 17:50

I tried XMBC but uinstalled it. I wanted something that would run minimised so I can use my PC while kids watch movies on TV.

XMBC only seemed to run maxkimised?

Cheers

-Al

blackjack17

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#755714 4-Feb-2013 18:16

bigal_nz: I tried XMBC but uinstalled it. I wanted something that would run minimised so I can use my PC while kids watch movies on TV.

XMBC only seemed to run maxkimised?

Cheers

-Al

XBMC is not a media player like VLC it is more a media centre and is designed to be run full screen.

That being said did you hit backspace to "unfull screen" (what is the word I am looking for?). Then the kids could use a phone remote while you use the computer without you having to select stuff.

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wsnz

654 posts

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#755979 5-Feb-2013 11:19

sidefx:
Crashed or hung? My first XBMC12 install took an age to update the existing database, around 20+ minutes I think. During this time it looked like it had hung (interface greyed out and endless windows progress spinner looking like a "Not Responding" window in windows) but when I checked the MySQL server there was constant activity on it. Sure enough I just left it alone for 30 minutes or so and it eventually finished updating the DB.

Definitely crashed, unfortunately. The XBMC app immediately closed and the infamous "Windows is checking for a solution to the problem" box appeared.

I'm wondering whether XBMC 12 didn't like the RASPBMC-created v 12 DB. Moot point now though as it's all working :)

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#755989 5-Feb-2013 11:36

I upgraded my XBMCBuntu box to XBMC 12... mostly because the android xbmc remote stopped working after an update.

It seems snappier overall, although I miss the backgrounds per menu selection. A few nice new options, audioengine works better and is easier to configure (before I had to enter a custom output to have it work through my HDMI) also the GUI sounds actually play through it now.

Just overall a lot more "polished" than XBMC 11 but they really should bring back the changing backgrounds :/

bigal_nz

635 posts

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+1 received by user: 32
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#756011 5-Feb-2013 12:11

blackjack17:
bigal_nz: I tried XMBC but uinstalled it. I wanted something that would run minimised so I can use my PC while kids watch movies on TV.

XMBC only seemed to run maxkimised?

Cheers

-Al

XBMC is not a media player like VLC it is more a media centre and is designed to be run full screen.

That being said did you hit backspace to "unfull screen" (what is the word I am looking for?). Then the kids could use a phone remote while you use the computer without you having to select stuff.

Its a smart TV (as opposed to a second screen on PC) so I run content over DLNA? (Via home wireless router)

I will give it another try :-)

eluSiveNZ

192 posts

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#756014 5-Feb-2013 12:18

ubergeeknz: I upgraded my XBMCBuntu box to XBMC 12... mostly because the android xbmc remote stopped working after an update.

It seems snappier overall, although I miss the backgrounds per menu selection. A few nice new options, audioengine works better and is easier to configure (before I had to enter a custom output to have it work through my HDMI) also the GUI sounds actually play through it now.

Just overall a lot more "polished" than XBMC 11 but they really should bring back the changing backgrounds :/

Give the Aeon Nox skin a go.

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sidefx

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#756017 5-Feb-2013 12:21

eluSiveNZ:
ubergeeknz: I upgraded my XBMCBuntu box to XBMC 12... mostly because the android xbmc remote stopped working after an update.

It seems snappier overall, although I miss the backgrounds per menu selection. A few nice new options, audioengine works better and is easier to configure (before I had to enter a custom output to have it work through my HDMI) also the GUI sounds actually play through it now.

Just overall a lot more "polished" than XBMC 11 but they really should bring back the changing backgrounds :/

Give the Aeon Nox skin a go.

+1. Yeah, I use Aeon Nox too and the changing backgrounds on main menu seems to work fine, if that's where you mean.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

pgs2050

282 posts

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#756035 5-Feb-2013 12:43

bigal_NZ

Its a smart TV (as opposed to a second screen on PC) so I run content over DLNA? (Via home wireless router)

I will give it another try :-)

Have you tried Plex? I've recently started using it on a bedroom SmartTV via a wireless connection to PC and have found it very easy to use. Just let the media server run in the background on the pc, and media selection and playback is done on the TV.

blair003

557 posts

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#756131 5-Feb-2013 16:01

bigal_nz:
blackjack17:
bigal_nz: I tried XMBC but uinstalled it. I wanted something that would run minimised so I can use my PC while kids watch movies on TV.

XMBC only seemed to run maxkimised?

Cheers

-Al

XBMC is not a media player like VLC it is more a media centre and is designed to be run full screen.

That being said did you hit backspace to "unfull screen" (what is the word I am looking for?). Then the kids could use a phone remote while you use the computer without you having to select stuff.

Its a smart TV (as opposed to a second screen on PC) so I run content over DLNA? (Via home wireless router)

I will give it another try :-)

I might be missing something here..

Your media is being served via the router with DLNA.

Your TV is a smartTV, so it can read the media via DLNA and playback the content directly.

But you wanted more features, so you tried XBMC on your computer. XBMC also reads the media via DLNA, then outputs the media in fullscreen mode.

You want it to output the content in fullscreen to the TV, but run in windowed mode on the computer so that you can continue to use the computer. Is that right?

The fact your TV is a smartTV is irrelevant once you are using XBMC to play the content. The solution may be get XBMC to run in full screen on a secondary display. I think you can do this in XBMC in settings --> system --> video output.

There is also a thread here that discusses it.

sidefx

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#757214 8-Feb-2013 08:59

Does anybody have a backend running on Linux and frontend XBMC PVR client running on windows for day to day use, possibly using an HDHomerun?

I've tried both MythTV and TVHeadend and am having a heck of a time getting either working. My home server runs Ubuntu\Amahi and is where all my storage is so it makes sense to run it there. Issues were:

Mythtv - after a fair bit of tinkering got mythtv setup, all channels tuned and showing in the backend and xbmc connected to it and it showing the channels. But clicking or switching to a channel just shows an xbmc progress spinner for ages then does nothing.

TVHeadend - First only 1 of the tuner would pick up any services after scanning muxes, then it seemed to loaded so much into the EPG that it now just seems to hang when I start the web interface. The interface screens load and show the UI elements but all ui elements (dropdowns, lists, etc) are empty.

Any hints or tips welcome.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

SumnerBoy

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#757216 8-Feb-2013 09:09

sidefx: Does anybody have a backend running on Linux and frontend XBMC PVR client running on windows for day to day use, possibly using an HDHomerun?

I've tried both MythTV and TVHeadend and am having a heck of a time getting either working. My home server runs Ubuntu\Amahi and is where all my storage is so it makes sense to run it there. Issues were:

Mythtv - after a fair bit of tinkering got mythtv setup, all channels tuned and showing in the backend and xbmc connected to it and it showing the channels. But clicking or switching to a channel just shows an xbmc progress spinner for ages then does nothing.

TVHeadend - First only 1 of the tuner would pick up any services after scanning muxes, then it seemed to loaded so much into the EPG that it now just seems to hang when I start the web interface. The interface screens load and show the UI elements but all ui elements (dropdowns, lists, etc) are empty.

Any hints or tips welcome.

I have TVHeadend running on my Ubuntu home server with two Raspberry Pi XBMC PVR clients running - Raspbmc. The TVHeadend addon for XBMC/Raspbmc is a bit unstable but I currently have a version that is working pretty well (I think it is Raspbmc RC2 from late Dec 12).

TVHeadend took a bit of fiddling to get it working but since then it has been rock solid. It never misses a recording and the series linking stuff works a treat.

At the moment I can happily watch live TV through my Pis, switch channels, and watch recorded TV. It hasn't always been like this, but at the moment it is running pretty smoothly.

Not sure this is much help to you, but at least it shows TVHeadend can actually work. I have a TeVii S470 DVB-S2 PCIe card in my Ubuntu server.

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pmunnynz

70 posts

Master Geek

#757323 8-Feb-2013 13:45

How are people getting an EPG into XBMC?
I'm using nextPVR as backend, and have mapped my epg collector xml file into there. So in XBMC if I go to Live TV and pullout the left sidebar there is an option there to view EPG.

But on the home screen there is also an option for TV Guide, which is empty, and I can't see how to put anything in it?

I would prefer to use the TV Guide option on the home screen to go straight into the guide, rather than having to pick Live TV, mouse or arrow left, then scroll to EPG.

I also tried an add-on called TV Guide, which I can add the xml epg file to, but find it quite long winded to get to it, and can't seem to start watching anything straight from that add-on guide.

bigal_nz: I tried XMBC but uinstalled it. I wanted something that would run minimised so I can use my PC while kids watch movies on TV.

XMBC only seemed to run maxkimised?

Cheers

-Al

I discovered by accident, when I missed the Enter key and hit the key above instead, that the \ key takes XBMC in and out of full screen.

sidefx

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#758671 9-Feb-2013 14:06

SumnerBoy:
Not sure this is much help to you, but at least it shows TVHeadend can actually work.

Thanks that did help - as a result I persevered and after removing and purging TVHeadEnd then looked at the hdhomerun config and found that the tuner that wasn't working was set to "tw-bcast" whereas the one that was working was "eu-bcast" - changed that to the correct one, reinstalled TVHeadend and after a bit more tinkering (to get EPG working and also some permissions issues with the share tvheadend was trying to record into) it's now all working well!

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

sidefx

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#758691 9-Feb-2013 14:28

pmunnynz: How are people getting an EPG into XBMC?
I'm using nextPVR as backend, and have mapped my epg collector xml file into there. So in XBMC if I go to Live TV and pullout the left sidebar there is an option there to view EPG.

But on the home screen there is also an option for TV Guide, which is empty, and I can't see how to put anything in it?

I'm using TVHeadend and tv_grab_nz-py to get EPG into backend.

I liked the idea of TV Guide going straight into EPG. This appears to work in Aeon Nox (I'm not really sure how dependent this is on skin)

1) Goto System -> Skin -> Customizers -> Main Menu item customizer
2) Disable the default TV Guide item
3) Enable one of the Custom menu items and change title to TV Guide
4) Change Type to custom and use the command:

ActivateWindowAndFocus(MyPVR, 31,0, 10,0)

5) Set backgrounds, Position, etc as desired

(Edit: also make sure you have your preferred EPG view set in System -> Live TV -> EPG -> Default EPG Window. I prefer Timeline)

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
- Richard Feynman

pmunnynz

70 posts

Master Geek

#758859 10-Feb-2013 08:23

sidefx: 1) Goto System -> Skin -> Customizers -> Main Menu item customizer
2) Disable the default TV Guide item
3) Enable one of the Custom menu items and change title to TV Guide
4) Change Type to custom and use the command:
ActivateWindowAndFocus(MyPVR, 31,0, 10,0)
5) Set backgrounds, Position, etc as desired

(Edit: also make sure you have your preferred EPG view set in System -> Live TV -> EPG -> Default EPG Window. I prefer Timeline)

Ta muchly, this has done the trick. I already had the aeon nox skin and wondered if adding a custom entry would be the way to go. Would never have known what to put for the custom command though, so thanks for that.

I prefer the timeline view as well too.

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