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XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:46 pm
by BuZz
After more than a year’s work since v3.3, we are very pleased to announce XBMC4Xbox version v3.5. A large number of new features and improvements have been made since v3.3, including the integration of Python 2.7, improved video playback, updates to the skinning engine, scraper fixes, and plenty of bugfixes.

Key improvements:

Python 2.7 & API improvements

Python support in XBMC4Xbox has been overhauled, with the out of date Python 2.4 replaced with Python 2.7. This update, along with the addition of some missing API functions brings much better compatibility with Kodi (Formerly XBMC) plugins. The Addons4Xbox installer has also been updated, allowing many plugins written for Kodi to work right out of the box. The Python 2.7 update also brings performance improvements, and comes with fully working libraries for sqlite3, and SSL amongst others.

DVDPlayer updates

DVDPlayer (The main video player in XBMC4Xbox) has received numerous changes, including having the FFMpeg core libraries updated to v1.2.8 which brings a variety of new codecs, bug-fixes, and optimisations from the previous 0.10.x version. The libraries used for DVD navigation have also been updated which should bring better compatibility with problematic DVD menus.

Scraper fixes and clean-ups

We had a lot of broken and unmaintained scrapers with the previously version of XBMC4Xbox. With the 3.5 release only a few are included, but they are all maintained and working. We have scrapers for themoviedb.org, thetvdb.org as well as theaudiodb.org for music. Please do support and contribute to these open database projects, as the content and results are only as good as the information people have contributed.

PAPlayer updates

PAPlayer (the core audio player in XBMC4Xbox) has received some updates since the last version of XBMC4Xbox. DVDPlayer's FFMpeg libraries are now used for decoding of some audio formats which means some of the old out of date libraries we used previously are no longer needed. This simplifies maintenance, and brings with it better performance and compatibility. The FFMpeg libraries are now used for OGG, FLAC, AAC, AC3,and DTS.

Skinning improvements

A variety of improvements have been backported from Kodi for the skin engine. This allows skins and features for Kodi to be more easily implemented. Thanks to the skin developers who requested changes/features and helped with testing. We currently ship with the same selection of skins as with v3.3 - Confluence Lite, Confluence, Project Mayhem III, and the PM3HD skin, but more can be found on the skin development section of our forum (such as the excellent Xbox Extended skin from Dom).

New branding

Thanks to SwedishGojira we now have our own project branding - our new XBMC4Xbox logo is used on our project site as well as for the XBMC4Xbox boot-up splash. Since the renaming of XBMC to Kodi, there has been some discussion regarding our name. I can confirm we are keeping the name XBMC4Xbox for our project. Changing it now would just introduce more confusion.

Transifex integration

Thanks to Kodi and their useful tools for handling translations, we are now using the on-line service Transifex to manage translations for the project. This means anyone who wants to help improve translations can now go and sign up over at https://www.transifex.com/organization/xbmc4xbox and start translating the software to their favourite language via the easy to use web interface. The updated translations can then be merged back into the XBMC4Xbox code base by us.

Bug-fixes

There have been many bug fixes around the software with around 44 issues on the bugtracker resolved/fixed as well as more reported via the forum. Thanks to all those that have reported bugs, provided fixes & patches, and helped with testing.
Thanks

As well as the key features above, many other changes have been made with a lot of backported features and fixes from Kodi. Thanks to Team Kodi for creating our favourite media center software :) Thanks also to all those who help and contribute to our project and forum.

If you enjoy using XBMC4Xbox and want to show your support for the ongoing development please consider making a donation to the project. Please also do join in the discussions over at our Forum.

Obtaining XBMC4Xbox

See the development page for links to the source code and the SVN repository. For binary builds, read the information on the download page. For those that want to build from source, 3.5 is tagged here: https://svn.exotica.org.uk:8443/xbmc4xbox/tags/3.5/.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 7:48 pm
by fxmech
We love you BuZz!

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:26 pm
by BuZz
I submitted the story to slashdot. It probably won't make the front page, but please feel free to up-vote it :)

http://slashdot.org/submission/3912737/ ... ginal-xbox

Please also feel free to share the news on your favourite tech news site etc :)

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:45 pm
by Geeba
Thanks BuZz! Thanks to all involved.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:01 pm
by Sychose
Thank you very much for your hard work mate!

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:03 pm
by sahib12
:D

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:29 am
by othello
Thank youuuu :D

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:59 pm
by cashonly
Thank you for your hard work!

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:49 am
by bornagainpenguin
I just posted a bit at Soylent News:

Code: Select all

http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=4309&note=&title=XBMC+continues+to+live+on+in+the+original+Xbox
Hope I wasn't too cheeky with the lmgtfy.com bit at the download link. ;P If I was I assume the editors will take it out.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 12:20 pm
by spicemuseum
bornagainpenguin wrote:I just posted a bit at Soylent News:
http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=vie ... ginal+Xbox
Hope I wasn't too cheeky with the lmgtfy.com bit at the download link. ;P If I was I assume the editors will take it out.
Nice one.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 9:53 am
by 5l1p
Still haven't updated my hardware 'cause XBMC4XBOX still does the job! Thank you Buzz and all involved!

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:42 am
by bornagainpenguin
The Soylent News site posted the submission I sent them above and it is still available on the main page for commenting here.

Most of the posters don't seem to understand why we still wish to run the system in spite of the low-power hardware when it is so easy to just toss together an X86 box or an Android settop, maybe we can help them understand?

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:50 am
by asbo
bornagainpenguin wrote: Most of the posters don't seem to understand why we still wish to run the system in spite of the low-power hardware
Because we can :)

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:08 am
by sixties keith
thanks very much buzz and team. ive tested a few days now and all seems good with this build. 1 thing i think let it down is the font options - no matter what one i pick i still get the programs field 'scrolling' as it slightly doesnt fit.

are there other fonts than can be added manually?

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 3:33 pm
by arnesr
Thanks Buzz. Good to see you keeping the old Xbox alive.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2014 7:56 pm
by onthatB0MBSHELL
This is very much appreciated, Thank You.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 5:17 pm
by Jerry98vert
Thanks Buzz you are the best.

So I have been setting up several xbox's and my problem will be all the custom art work and such becasue, am i correct on this, you have to ftp and rename the XBMC you are using to like oldXBMC and them ftp the new XBMC and repath all games and fix all art work. Is this correct?

Please someone give link for the download.

thanks again Buzz and everyone.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:50 am
by asbo

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2014 4:48 pm
by Jerry98vert
Thank you for trying to help me optain the new 3.5 R2 and I have seen the post about 3.5 in 2012 but I still don't see the most current XBMC and when I do click on the 3.5 on page 1 the link doesn't work. So I am in the same boat I just can't seem to find the download link for the most current exciting XBMC.

Someone put me out of my stupid misery call me dumb or whatever I just can't find it.

thanks.

Re: XBMC4Xbox 3.5 is released

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 12:54 pm
by asbo
3.5 is the newest version, why are you after RC2?
In the link I posted click either the Dropbox or Googledrive link, then pick XBMC4XBOX-3.5.zip, or one of the older builds if you really want.