XBMC4Xbox

v2.4 is out

Dan Dar3 wrote:v2.4 is out

Yep, one nice touch of the Android system, is that it always informs you of updates.

Cannot see how to get the premium version, nor how much it costs.?

Problem I have is I wish to put it on my Creative Ziio tablet which has no Play access. The update comes from my Galaxy Ace

If I buy it, would you be able to email me the apk please.?

@Gasman
See the Preferences / Settings icon (top-right) in the Main screen.

Yes it appears your Creative ZiiO doesn't have Google Play - sending you an unlocked .apk would be one way to do it, let me think about it, thanks.
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArti ... ?sid=92090

Yeh, it is not a bad tablet. I bought mainly on the strength of my other Creative mp3 players, but not having Play access is just criminal. On top of that they do not seem to be updating the o/s. Still on 2.3.3 and no plans to update it.

So getting apks is a right pain the backside most of the time.

There is an extension called apk downloader, but Google keep blocking it with updates. One minute it works then it doesn't.

New features for playing music work great. Adding files to the playlist and maintaining current directory while swapping between the playlist and file view make it just about perfect for my needs. At $5 for the premium version... it's a no brainer.

v2.5 is out...

Well as i have a lot of spare time on my hands as the partner is 130 miles away at her mums for a week its time to play with this Remote.....

http://s101.photobucket.com/user/sealey ... 5.mp4.html

Wow.....easy to set up and use....looks very nice...good clean interface and no clutter...its almost like having my xbox in my hand....this is on my Partners KindleHD...with there own flavor of Android operating system....no `Google play` so i had to down load the App from here....All works well apart from the Movies....which crashes the xbox.......mabe due to the Kindle OS.....not a problem really as i use my xbox for games n music....

Hello mate, it's a great app.
Allows me to hide my Xbox away in a cupboard all quiet, no infrared worries...
One question though: Can you change the appearance of the list in the 'library' view?

Right now I go there and it lists every single album, alphabetically, with a huge folder icon so you can only get 4 albums per screen.
I have over 1000 albums, most of which don't have artwork so it's just the same blue folder icon repeated many times.
I'm scrolling for hours to get through them.
It'd be great if it were just a text list like in the 'Files' view.
Even better if I could order the list as per the real XBMC (album, artist, date added etc.)

Cheers

@sealeysonic
Thanks so much for that, that is exactly why I like writing software (work or otherwise)!

I know the DVD remote is not perfect - you have to carefully watch where you'pressing and constantly look at both the phone/tablet and the screen - I had in mind a new "touch-pad" remote screen before it got implemented in either Yatsee or mainline XBMC remote, and I still want to do it, and I guess you guys using it is what keeps me going at it...

The new version allows you to upload the xbmc.old.log to xbmclogs.old so you can open up your own thread here and get some help with freezing movies - they are probably freezing due to being in HD MP4 AVC encoded videos (running out of memory), but maybe look around for threads on how to convert them to lower resolution / bitrate so they are playable with XBMC4Xbox. I intend to write a quick tutorial on how to convert those with Handbrake, maybe even this weekend (hopefully).

Again, thanks for the video demo!

@Chewy
Thanks for your feedback, as well. I actually want to change the Music library view, maybe to something similar to Movies library view, where you will have separate rows with albums per artist in a horizontally scrollable gallery? maybe that will make it easier to navigate. And I also want to introduce search, where the text maybe match either the artist or the album name...

Ideally I'd like to have a top button where you can choose between a list, gridview or a gallery view, that way you can choose whichever view you find easier to use. But that means I need to implement all 3 different views... we'll see. Again, thanks for the feedback, always useful!

Dan,

Great work on this.

Is it possible to implement some sort of index for the files (like first letter of folder for files?).

I have over 22000 tracks and I have mine organised by

Artist/Album/Track # - Track Title

Trying to get to Neil Young involves a lot of swiping.

The same applies in Skifta, but they have a little page marker, where if you are lucky enough to catch it, you can drag down the screen.

Or am I missing something here?

TIA

Sealey,

I too have the same problem for my Creative Ziio. Are you saying you downloaded the app from here?

Could you please tell me where?, the only downloads I have found are for XBMC4XBOX itself.

TIA

sealeysonic wrote:Well as i have a lot of spare time on my hands as the partner is 130 miles away at her mums for a week its time to play with this Remote.....

http://s101.photobucket.com/user/sealey ... 5.mp4.html

Wow.....easy to set up and use....looks very nice...good clean interface and no clutter...its almost like having my xbox in my hand....this is on my Partners KindleHD...with there own flavor of Android operating system....no `Google play` so i had to down load the App from here....All works well apart from the Movies....which crashes the xbox.......mabe due to the Kindle OS.....not a problem really as i use my xbox for games n music....

@Gasman
See the 1-4 pages at the top / bottom right of this thread - the first page has a direct link to the .apk, you can install from there.

How about having a search button / bar in Music > Files and as you type it will try to take you to the first folder / file starting with what you typed. Maybe that'll help more with that many entries?

Dan Dar3 wrote:@Gasman
See the 1-4 pages at the top / bottom right of this thread - the first page has a direct link to the .apk, you can install from there.

How about having a search button / bar in Music > Files and as you type it will try to take you to the first folder / file starting with what you typed. Maybe that'll help more with that many entries?

Ah, OK, my apologies.

I *think* you might need both, or incorporate both options in someway (possibly option button for File or folder?).
The reason I say this is if I was going for Neil Young, then at Ne, I would get 'Need Your Love So Bad' by Fleetwood Mac. Can't think of any titles I have that would start 'Nei', but you get the picture.?

I suppose you could present all objects beginning with 'Ne' and then remove those that do not match 'Nei' and drill down like that?. It would be quite quick if you are actually on the device that stores the music, not sure about over the network.? What do you think?

Ok small problem now. If I try from the app I get 'Ouch IAB helper is not set up Can't perform operation: launchPurchaseFlow.
This is from my Ziio which as I mentioned does not have access to Play store. If I purchase via my Galaxy, how do I get the paid for version on to my ziio. PM me if this is something confidential.

TIA

@Gasman
For Music / Movie > Files the HTTP API query doesn't allow for filtering, so I was thinking to do that locally - get the entire list as it is now, and then when you type in the search box it will just scroll to the first entry starting with that (or contains, will see). The more specific you get, the closer will take you to the entry you want. Let me implement it, see how you like it and then we can refine it.

I'll need to find a way to do validation without Google Play, I'll chat you on email or PMs here - at the moment the only non-premium feature is the Music > Playlist (or more specifically actions on the playlist).

Dan Dar3 wrote:@Gasman
For Music / Movie > Files the HTTP API query doesn't allow for filtering, so I was thinking to do that locally - get the entire list as it is now, and then when you type in the search box it will just scroll to the first entry starting with that (or contains, will see). The more specific you get, the closer will take you to the entry you want. Let me implement it, see how you like it and then we can refine it.

I'll need to find a way to do validation without Google Play, I'll chat you on email or PMs here - at the moment the only non-premium feature is the Music > Playlist (or more specifically actions on the playlist).

Don't bust a gut trying to validate outside Google. I dare say only us Ziio owners cannot access the Play store for some reason, licence fees I suppose?.

I'll pay you direct by Paypal if you like.

Gasman wrote:Dan,

Great work on this.

Is it possible to implement some sort of index for the files (like first letter of folder for files?).

I have over 22000 tracks and I have mine organised by

Artist/Album/Track # - Track Title

Trying to get to Neil Young involves a lot of swiping.

The same applies in Skifta, but they have a little page marker, where if you are lucky enough to catch it, you can drag down the screen.

Or am I missing something here?

TIA

The way I got around this is to organize my library by /LETTER OF ALPHABET/Artist/Album/Track

I've found this the only way to go with a really large library and I've been using this method for years - before finding this remote. I've not been sorry I've made the change when things got unweildy... but admittedly it would take a bit of work to make changes to a big established library.

Dan - one thing I have noticed is that when you queue a folder to add to a Playlist, it queues all the files in the folder (even though some don't show in the Files view). These include: folder.jpg, desktop.ini, etc. XBMC uses some sort of logic to hide non-music files when browsing under Music (and non-video files when browsing under Video).

This can make the Playlist a bit of a mess when adding a few albums in folders that contain supplemental information like covers, notes, etc. and all the files appear in the Playlist tab.

Also if there is a playlist.cue file located in the folder that is queued, it will queue 2 copies of the songs in the folder (obviously it reads the playlist.cue file and queues them a second time with that file). This is a bit annoying as it requires going into folders first to make sure there isn't a playlist.cue file located in them first. Is it possible to implement the logic that when adding (long touch queue) a FOLDER only song files are added (all other file types are ignored), but when adding a FILE, playlist.cue files can be added?

A very minor item I've noticed that when using on my 10" tab, the home screen doesn't scale in any way, so are just 8 little squares in the top center of the screen. Fully functional... just a little funny looking. Also the ability to change font size in FILE view would be a neat (but not necessary) addition.

Thanks again and keep up the great work!

@Dan & Gasman: http://www.androidpit.com/en/android-market
Thats where i get most paid apps i want. Good for device with no Play Store, good for people without a credit card.

If a device doesn't have the Google Play Store installed... Its because it doesn't meet Google criteria to get it.
They don't have to pay anything (AFAIK), just meet the criteria.. What camera is where, how much memory, screen resolution.. ect ect. Everything counts.
http://support.google.com/googleplay/bi ... er=1397129
http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArti ... ?sid=92090
Meanwhile.. You might be able to root your device and install the Play Store by your own with a bit of work.

I love Google.. But their Play Store bother me a bit.. I dont have any credit card and Google are forcing people to have credit cards (or at least spend $5+on prepaid card fees)..
Me don't like that.

@travandalex
Thanks for saying all that, I'll keep it all in mind.

I should be able to code for different screens sizes with different font size and different heights and widths for components, I just didn't think there were too many users with 10" tablets or larger dpi.

For queuing files to playlist I use a HTTP API function (AddToPlayList) - I see the mainline XBMC allows to specify the type of file, maybe the same is available on XBMC4Xbox, I'll check it out. This might avoid certain non-music files (thumbs etc), but it might still consider the .cue files... I'll need to test it.

@Gasman / Xphazer
Yes, I was going suggest this link as well - don't need to make purchases through this version, but it's required by the in-app license checking process. You can make the purchase on another device and the "premium" purchase should allow to be visible on all other devices.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02/22 ... e-3-10-14/

Dan Dar3 wrote:
@Gasman / Xphazer
You can make the purchase on another device and the "premium" purchase should allow to be visible on all other devices.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02/22 ... e-3-10-14/

I was going to ask if this was possible, but if the app on the Ziio cannot access the store, then it will not know if should be premium.?

I've tried downloading and installing the latest Play Store apk (actually had 3.1.3 on there from a while back), but it terminates immediately.