Here’s a progress update about the next version of XBMC (Eden).

The devs are hard at work to improve the AudioEngine branch. Testing has been started on the Apple TV platform: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=103834
The new AudioEngine will allow to decode XBMC formates like DTS-HD, TrueHD, DTS-MasterAudio, E-AC3, etc. It should also provide seamless audio. Cpu is still very high at the moment. This is a work in progress.

Dirty region based rendering has been moved into mainline. Dirty region based rendering only renders the changes on the screen instead the full 60 frames a second. Small systems like ARM should benefit from this! Dirty region based rendering can be enabled to modify the advanced settings.

NFS support has been added to XBMC. Windows users will have to wait, while OSX and linux users should benefit from this.

The devs are using the new Boost C++ Libraries. This will allow them to code quicker and also improves performance. More info will follow later!

SlingBox has added Boxee Box support for it’s online video portals. The SlingBox app allows you to watch video’s from SlingBox by using a Boxee Box. More info and a review by Engadget see below:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/slingplayer-for-boxee-box-hands-on-video/

Dit is een simpele handleiding om je nvidia drivers te updaten voor een xbmc-live installatie icm een ion systeem.

1. Surf met je computer/laptop/smartphone naar de website van nvidia.com. Ga naar de driver/support tab en vul het volgende in bij de opties.

Let hierbij op de 32 bit optie. Anders krijg je later een foutmelding. Klik op search en daarna op download. In het volgende scherm klik je rechts op de “Agree & Download” button en kopieer je de downloadlink. Die ziet er uit in de vorm van: http://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/270.41.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.19.run

2. Start je htpc en xbmc-live op. Open dan je terminal met de toetscombinatie ctrl-alt-f2, of ctrl-alt-f1. Hier wordt je begroet met een inlogopdracht. Als je in het verleden je root paswoord al hebt aangepast dan log je in met “root” en je rootpaswoord, zo niet dan log je eerst in met “xbmc” “xbmc.” Soms heb je bij de installatie van xbmc een ander wachtwoord aangemaakt. Gebruik dan die. Met het commando “sudo passwd root” kun je indien nodig je root paswoord aanpassen.

3. Wanneer je als root bent ingelogd zul je de xbmc sessie moeten afsluiten. Geef het commando “sudo stop xbmc-live” in. Daarna het commando “sudo wget http://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/270.41.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-270.41.19.run”
Xbm Je htpc gaat dan de .run package downloaden en zet die in de directory /home/xbmc

4. De terminal zal een download laten zien. Wacht tot die klaar is.

Sigma revealed a next generation set-top box. This box features a SMP8670 chip which should be capable to play 1080p content. During CES Sigma also announced that the next generation devices will feature XBMC. More info will follow!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/21/sigma-designs-ultra-thin-tv-box-design-promises-hd-in-a-tiny/

Boxee released another update. The following issues have been fixed:

• Thumbnails that were stored on users storage were sometimes deleted.
• File path was not shown before playing local media file in some language settings.
• Pushing “Back” button on the “Identify Screen” (if there is an .nfo file), skips ahead instead of canceling.
• Volume control was slow to respond in some occasions.
• French preferred audio language ignored when playing .mkv files.
• Invalid .nfo files cause Boxee to use the details from the last valid .nfo file.
• Boxee does not play Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS sound through some receivers connected through HDMI.
• Several small localization bugs.
• Audio drops on mkv files with FLAC audio.
• Ejecting devices shows the device multiple times in the eject dialog.
• While in browser, focus on a widget causes the keyboard to be disabled in an HTML page.
• Favorite apps not appearing some times.
• No audio passthrough when using the TV to pass audio via optical cable.
• Various fixes with playback of Adobe Flash videos with graphics overlay.
• Some wireless networks were marked as secure during configuration while they were in fact open.

More info: http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=37520

Today more background information has been posted about the dirty regions rendering adjustments. This will be active in the next version of XBMC. To read the complete story follow this link:

http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/06/19/working-with-dirty-regions/

Below you’ll find the new mascot of XBMC. His name is zappy. More info below!

http://xbmc.org/natethomas/2011/06/17/and-without-further-ado/

Seems something big has been pushed to the XBMC mainline. The work that topfs2 did for his Google Summer of Code 2010 has been pushed last week. His work contains the dirty region based rendering, which is nothing more that optimizing the way rendering within xbmc works. His works significant saves CPU and GPU usages. Especially ARM based environments should benefit from this. If you want to know more start reading topfs2 his blog or visit the pull below:

http://xbmc.org/author/topfs2/

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/194

BartsIdee created a welcome addon for Boxee. It’s called the Music App. Since Boxee’s official Music App is somehow limited this might be a welcome addon. More info: http://www.bartsidee.nl/en/2011/06/release-music-app/

Boxee posted an update about the next version for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu. For the relatively small team it’s hard to maintain a optimized version for the BoxeeBox while building new version for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu at the same time. The gap between the BoxeeBox version and computer version grew bigger, but this is about to change! This fall Boxee will release new versions for Windows, Mac and Ubuntu. They will also make the open source version easier to use. More info will be released later this year.

See blogpost: http://blog.boxee.tv/2011/06/13/boxee-for-pc-mac-ubuntu-getting-fall-update/

I requested the creator of the ION2 optimized branch to create a patch for the generic XBMC branch. Hopefully these patches will be integrated into XBMC so all users can benefit from this. More info is here:

https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/163

Plex released a backend for Synology systems. The package only works on Intel or Atom based Synology systems. The package allows you to stream content directly from your synology system to any plex device. If you’re willing to try you can download the package from below:

http://www.plexapp.com/elan/PlexMediaServer-0.9.2.8-3616163-synology.tar.bz2

XBMC4XBOX released a new version of XBMC. This version only works on first generation Xbox systems. More info:

http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/xbmc4xbox-3-0-1-stable-released