Good aye all, Well it’s been a while since I’ve needed to write my piece here but it is my job and well, here we go. First off, 1100 members now and we just keep on growing, fast. This is testimony to just how popular this platform is with many long term users and many first timers and the never ending new ideas members are coming up with to keep this site fresh and exciting.
The latest Beta Builds of XBMC are running extremely well and hopefully will proceed to ‘Stable Build Status’ shortly and then I’m expecting a spike in new members as is always the case when a ‘Stable Build’ is released. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved, Exobuzz, Arnova, Xbs, Bomb Bloke and anyone I may have missed on this project.
The skins are going strong with a newcomer, SLik joining the ranks thanks to Jezz_X and Xbs and it appears extremely lite and fast running on the Xbox. I would also like to thank all those involved on the skins development giving us users such a large variety to choose from.
Dan’s been busy as always producing many fresh programs for us to run on our machines and make our life so much easier the way we load, upgrade, FTP or clean files on our beloved boxes.
I started a post to possibly change the default splashscreens for the Xbox platform and I must say I’m very impressed. Some of these new splashscreens are amazing. I actually think every one is better than what we have a present. Thanks a lot guys for making this post so interesting.
Anyway, that’s about it and I’ll take this opportunity to wish all our 1100 members a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
This week the forums surpassed 1000 members. That’s 1000 members in 6 months or an average of 167 new members a month. This my friends is awesome. To all those that thought Xbox was dead this proves otherwise. Not only is it not dead but thriving. With great people and a great community Xbox is showing that a huge black box can bring people of all walks of life, all parts of the world, and all levels of expertise together to do some truly wonderful things. I want to personally thank Arnova, exobuzz, Dan Dar3, xman, xbs, paybak, Restless, bulkzooi, bigkidoz, Heimdall, and the other 990 members who go out of their way to keeping things fresh and fun and an awesome place to go to when you need help or just want to be around like minded people. You guys ROCK!. And here’s to the next 1000 members. SALUTE!
It was some weeks ago that the current code-base of XBMC4XBOX was marked beta, and we have now hit beta2, meaning we are getting much closer to being happy with the stability of the current code for a final 3.0 release soon.
Over the past months, since the split from XBMC for the other OSes, development has been continuing on the XBOX version. Considering the limited number of developers we have, things have gone well, and of course, we can merge some portions of code from xbmc.org which helps too. Some of the improvements since the last stable release include:
Updates to dvdplayer’s ffmpeg libraries, including some tweaks for additional speed. Performance with h.264 for example is much improved from previous releases thanks to plenty of optimisations upstream.
Many improvements and bug fixes to the video/music libraries and scrapers.
Python updated to 2.4.6 as well as improved compatibility for addons intended for mainline xbmc.
We now ship with a customised version of the Confluence skin optimised for the XBOX.
Bug fixes and updates to many core components such as Samba and libCurl
First off, let me say welcome to all the new members that have helped swell the numbers of our forum since my last post. Up over 100 in a very short time. We must be doing something right. As always, there has been much development over the last couple of weeks, most notably, the IMdb scraper is up and running with the help of “BlueD” and others. A job very well done.
Also the site has assigned moderators of which I am one along with “Heimdall, Paybac and Idotsfan”. We now have green names but deep down, the same friendly people I hope.
“Help and trouble shooting” is still our most popular title with lots of help being offered to members by members. It never fails to amaze me how your problem can be solved by somebody on the other side of the planet in real time, truly amazing.
“Modding” is always a good place to grab a few good ideas when you have your Media Center humming along just nicely software wise and seeing as we are blessed with super cheap prices for good second hand units, it’s time to get out the hacksaw and spray cans for the adventurous members after something totally unique to sit by the T.V. “BigkidOz” has done an outstanding “Anatomy of a slimbox” – a DIY giude). Just the project for those machines with a non working DVDrive.
As always, “Craig” has been busy making the forum even more user friendly with the photo uploader, the Emu Downloader, ( thanks “Paybac” on that one), and also a competition to create a new popup box to download XBMC4Xbox. This is a competition where you can create a new download window for the “Nightly Builds” using the program “Craig” has built specifically for this purpose and I believe to be quite “noob” orientated so no skinning ability required. Nothing to lose so have a go.
Anyway, all’s running sweet on the forum and I’ll speak to you guys later,
Well there’s a lot happening as we pass the 700 members count on the forum. Firstly, Nuka has been busy supplying patches that improve script/plugin compatibility with mainline xbmc.org add-ons. In addition a DVD playback issue that was causing issues for a few revisions has now been sorted on the current builds which is good news for all involved.
Please do try out the latest builds, but note that xbmc4xbox is still considered as being in a development state and so there may be minor issues with some functionality. Please feed any issues back to us through the forum or by adding a bug to the bugtracker. For those that want to test a new version, without risk, my advice is to not overwrite your current build, but install separately. You can then launch the new build from the built in File Manager on your current version. This allows you to test a release thoroughly before deciding whether to replace your previous version with it permanently.
The Skins are coming ahead with some new stuff starting to creep in and who doesn’t like new stuff?. All the skins are very active at present. I found this quite interesting the other day. Could lead to custom startups for that added professionalism.
Some funny unrelated stories can always be read in the “Off Topic” section of the forum. Here you can write basically about anything, providing your not upsetting someone. A good place for a laugh, rant or to pass on some information. I’m glad to see how many first time users of the Xbox are appearing on the forum seeking advise. This is extremely good to see. All are welcome here.
The skins are sure looking good these days with lots of improvements across all the skins and I thank all involved either by feedback or the skinners themselves. The skin is the “Face” of XBMC. This is what people see. The PMIII skin is receiving a makeover by way of PM 3.5 involving a contest. Check with the boys for details on this one. It would be good to see “Old Faithful” a bit brighter.
On the development side of XBMC improvements are constant with Arnova and Exobuzz working to continually improve the system and doing a fine job at it. Boys I’d just like to say these builds are running sweet. Sure, every now and then a build might have an issue but that’s not for long before it’s gone. A quick look at the Trunk shows what’s going on. Great work boys.
Scripts and Pluggins are being altered to keep them operational and everybody loves these working. Good to see clever little tricks to keep these things running supplied be different members. We really need a place to store these “Pluggin and Script Workarounds”. Nice job all involved.
Craig, the guy that makes this all available for us all to enjoy, is after feedback on a project involving the “Build Downloads”. Please, if you have any suggestions have a say and help him with this one. It has a lot of potential.
Buy Hardware has become a popular place to pickup good advise and prices on assorted produces from T.V.s to Xbox controllers. So if you spot a good bargain or are just after a bit of feedback, this is the place.
Another 60 + members have joined since my last post to who I would like to say, “Good aye” and I look forward to hearing from you. The more the merrier I say. Anyway, this is what’s going on at the moment and I’ll speak to you in the forums.
Confluence XBOX is now on all new builds and can I say what a nice skin Xbs and all those involved with this project have achieved. It’s available as a choice within the Appearance Settings on all new XBMC4 Xbox builds which can be had via the Xbox Latest Nightly Build tab at the top of every forum page or of coarse using Dan’s XBMC SVN Installer to upgrade your build from within the Xbox after downloading via SVN Repo Installer.
Other topics of interest going on within the forum of late have included some really “Outside the square” lines of thought regarding XBMC which in my opinion is what enhances development. If we all did what we know works, we would never improve. Imagine if we never experimented. XBMP can show where we have come from with people thinking differently. Xbox development reminds me of the NASA spaceship that was only designed to go out past Mars on a two year journey and with the tech heads, it was able to continue out past Pluto and beyond for over seven years on what was described as “Ancient Hardware”.
Modding has had me pretty occupied of late. After working on more stock Xboxes than I can remember, I’m finding it quite enjoyable trying different things in the way of case mods and hardware changes of which I’m far more confident doing than software mods. Let’s just say, I’m much better with my hands than I am with my fingers.
Help And Troubleshooting is as popular as always with many people helping others with Xbox and XBMC related problems. Good to see this help amongst the members with everybody pitching in. This help can be invaluable when your stuck or not sure how to do something.
500 members the forum now has and I’m seeing no slowing down. It’s good to see new members coming on board and it’s always nice to see members welcome first time posters. I see a forum much the same as a business where first impressions have a lasting impact. Anyway, congratulations XBMC4Xbox with 500 and counting.
Well, first things first, we are up to over 400 members and rising rapidly and there are over 700 people taking advantage of the RSS feeds. I can actually remember discussing the need to alter the RSS feed from the previous source to one that was more Xbox related news. I think there were less than 50 members at that stage and that just seems so long ago.
On the development side, Arnova and Exobuzz just never stop. The future really looks promising while these guys are so active. I’d like to thank all the members giving feedback to the Devs on the latest builds and also Arnova and Exobuzz for being so active on the forum. This two way street approach is really advancing the build development. It’s great to hear so many suggestions on how to make this program possibly better.
The skins guys have done a great job giving us variety on the appearance of XBMC and making them available for us all to share. XBS is extremely active listening to requests for future or current skin mods and I thank him for that as well as his wealth of Xbox knowledge in general he brings to the forum.
Pluggins and scripts are the domain of Dan. This tricky and ever changing field requires regular changes to keep it all running. One look at the version changes of the scripts confirms just how active Dan is constantly improving and repairing to keep these things operational so we can sit on the couch and get the Xbox to do some amazing things. On top of this, he’s first on the “Lolly” count, that yellow thumb on each post that you push to show acknowledgment for good advise. Please, if you have any scripts or pluggins you have developed or use, share them with us. If there useful to you, I bet there useful to another member.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the work of Bomb Bloke, 2nd on the lolly count. Well where do I start?. This guy is Mr Xbox. When you get an answer from B.B., you can be sure it has been well researched and extremely accurate. I have learnt some amazing things from B.B. from how to do TSOP mods to what a Russian Bot is. I believe he was responsible for the changes to the top of the forum pages and doesn’t that look sweet. If anything goes wrong on the site, it’s not wrong for long, actually once he knows about it, it’s fixed. Thanks for keeping everything rolling B.B.
Well this is the State Of Health Of XBMC4Xbox as I see.
We have reached 300 members in 108 days. I work from the day, March 20 2010 when the 3 “Elites” in there supreme wisdom decided to make XBMC4Xbox open to all. That’s about 3 new members per day. We must be doing something right. It could be the friendly atmosphere which may be different to the other XBMC related forums available on the net. We also have the most knowledgeable Xbox and XBMC people as members that are regular posters which can only be a good thing.
We must never forget there are always people starting from scratch on the “Modded Xbox” that really appreciate the help a veteran of XBMC on the Xbox platform can offer. Likewise, opinions vary on the best approach to address a particular problem and this I believe is healthy for a forum as nobody knows it all and we’re all capable of learning a new trick. I for one have been the beneficiary of many such tricks.
Anyway, I thank all the 300 members to date for making XBMC4Xbox such a friendly , helpful and useful forum that is a pleasure to be a member of.
The boys have been busy turning out some fine work on the builds front so we are able to keep our Xboxes running with the finest XBMC builds I’ve seen for some time. With the feedback members are giving Exobuzz through his post - “New Build With New Features” - he is turning out build and player mods guaranteed to keep the Box alive and well for a long time to come. To my understanding Exobuzz liaises with Arnova daily and their joint effort turns out the latest build. I’d just like to pass on a very big thank you for keeping XBMC alive and improving for the Xbox community.
2370 users
