Media Sources

Introduction

Media Sources are virtual links to the content you wish XBMC to use. When you enter any of the Programs, Videos, Music, Pictures or the Filemanager, you will see an entry for "Add Sources". When you first start with XBMC you should at least add one source, like a drive or directory on your PC, Mac or Xbox, to get you started.

If you select "Add sources" a dialog appears, where you may manually input a path, or browse to a source that contains media that you would like XBMC to use and display. As an example, if you enter the Music section, you could tell XBMC where it should look for your music. This can be as simple as selecting a folder on your computer or you can also choose to browse your home network for media. These two options would be the most widely used places for sources.

Remember that XBMC will add everything that lies inside the folder you select. So if you choose to add your C-disk, XBMC will have access to your entire C-disk for content by default. You can select as many sources you like if you have content in different places. When you have finished browsing and found the folder you would like, you should input a name for your source. This name will be displayed when you browse your sources. To finish, simply confirm by selecting "OK". You will now see a new entry in the list with the name you gave it.

Remember you can always add, edit or delete sources anytime you want to, via the Context Menu (which you can access e.g. by pressing the letter c on a keyboard). When you delete a source you only delete the link to that source within XBMC - your files will remain intact.

Adding Media Sources

You can Add Media Sources in two ways:

• Through the User Interface (preferable for most users);
• By editing the xml-files with an ordinary plain text editor (advanced users, and most users will never use this way).

Types of Media Sources

There are many Types of Media Sources, which will be explained in the Advanced Topics/Types of Media Sources.