Q&A: The Xbox Media Center Team on the Future of XBMC for Linux
The two lead project managers for the Xbox Media Center project were kind enough to answer a few questions we had about the future of my personal favorite media center platform as it moves beyond the Xbox onto other platforms.
Joel: Just to make sure we're all on the same page, the XBMC for Linux project is an attempt to migrate the once Xbox-only Xbox Media Center software to a state where it can be run on non-Xbox hardware under Linux, correct?
Team XBMC: Correct, 'XBMC for Linux' is where we will focus more and more of our efforts. It is explained in much greater detail here.
Joel: How many developers are currently working on the Linux port?
Team XBMC: 1-3 active hobby developers at this time are currently working on 'XBMC for Linux'. So not as many as on the Xbox version. Unfortunately our recent public plea for Linux developers only resulted in one new developer (although he turned out to be a VERY competent developer who already contributed A LOT to the Linux port). You can view some statistics over at this site. (Though not quite up to date).
Joel: Part of the beauty of XBMC was that the hardware was a static target. Every Xbox was more-or-less identical. Has it been a challenge to maintain the same feature set when moving to more generic PC hardware?
Team XBMC: We acknowledge that fact and we will (in the future) set a couple (one or two) specific and locked down reference platforms to run the software on for the best user experience. We will also likely (in the future) distribute 'XBMC for Linux' as a Live CD type distro, only officially supporting that distribution. (Sure anyone will be able to use XBMC under any Linux distro or ei. third-parties may pre-bundle it with their own distro and/or hardware but Team-XBMC will only support our specific version).
Joel: One of the major expectations from XBMC fans has been that the Linux port will be tuned to run on the AppleTV set-top box. As far as I can tell, while this is a possibility, it hasn't been the main aim of your work. Are there any intentions to write a specific port of XBMC for the AppleTV hardware?
Team XBMC: We haven't yet decided on a target platform. The current -first-generation of the Apple TV hardware might be on the weak side for our intended audience, (as H.264 encoded videos at 720p/1080p resolutions are becoming more and more popular).
Joel: How close do you feel you are to a stable version of the XBMC for Linux port? (And by stable I mean "easy enough even a jerk like myself could install and run it."
Team XBMC: We don't have a date yet (it is really to early to know), our best guess today is 6-12 months or so from now but it could be longer. As we are a hobby project we depend on developers own personal interest and free time, making it impossible to set an E.T.A., more 'outside' developers would sure help speed things along.
Joel: Are there any plans to add PVR functionality to XBMC for Linux?
Team XBMC: We currently only focusing on porting and implementing all of the existing functionality, only once that is complete can we examine which new features can be added. Nothing is impossible, although for PVR it's probably more likely that would "piggy back" on an existing back-end solution, making XBMC act as the front-end interface for other software and/or hardware.
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Great questions here Joel. I recently moved from a XBMC setup to Vista Media Center in order to gain the needed power to run the higher res .h264 files that are discussed here. It's not a perfect solution, but it's pretty damn good for a windows product, once you have the codecs installed properly and setup right (which takes quite some time and research).
But it's nice to know that the XBMC team is expanding. It is such a sweet interface I was sad to see it go during the upgrade. Will have to keep my eyes open for this. I just hope they have a straightforward method for loading the software on a linux box as it would really help the average user to get going with it.
I am a long time fan of XBMC on the xbox and I have just recently compile the linux port. I must say I'm really impressed by how far they have come on already.
I think part of the problem of getting developers for the project is unless you had a xbox you wont have experienced just how good XBMC is, you might just think its just another media player.
So keep up the good work Team XBMC, once people start using it they will be hooked.
G