Replace Boxee with XBMC

[clinton.hall]

Hi All,

I decided to look into this and I can confirm that I currently have XBMC running on my AS-604T

My intention is to try and build this as an apkg that everyone can enjoy, but I still have a bit of debugging to do first.

Here is where I am at.
1. Prior installation of boxee is required in order to install the graphics driver.
2. A usb keyboard is required in order to first setup remote control (but I am hoping to set some default settings that will mean remote control is available with the installed apkg)
3. (this is the big one) I can play .avi's fine, but 720p .mkv's currently cause a crash... I am trying to debug...

anyway... this certainly is possible and hopefully I can post a working apkg soon. I don't promise that every feature will work in the first version, but hopefully this will allow further testing and development

[clinton.hall]

ok... I can play .mkv files but I need to have VDPAU and VAAPI hardware accelerators disabled. This results in the video playback being slightly jerky.

The last step to overcome here is figuring out what hardware graphics accelerator is available, and then configure the player to utilize this.

[Dr Ace]

I must say that I'm incredibly impressed by the enthusiasm and skill of some here in the forums - great work Clinton!

[clinton.hall]

ok... this is very much still a work in progress.

What I have concentrated on is ensuring that everything is installed into the one place and can be cleanly uninstalled. The actual running still needs some work.

Then to restart you need to disable and re-enable in the App central (when you enable it will look to be hung again... just refresh your browser)

Now. In order to control XBMC you need to either plug in a usb keyboard, or use a remote app (I tested with xbmc constellation). By default I have turned on remote access... just set up on your NAS's ip, port 8080, username=xbmc, password=admin

In order to run you must first (after a system restart etc) enable Boxee (you can then disable Boxee or just leave it running... XBMC will run over the top) and then enable XBMC

also, you will need to ensure that settings, video, playback, Allow hardware acceleration (VDPAU) is disabled as this can cause a crash when playing mkv files.

Now, add some files and test it out.

The apkg file is about 128MB so you will need to be patient with the download.

Finally. This is very early days (and may not eventuate to a fully working system). I am happy to hear of possible improvements and better methods of doing some things, but please don't criticize the "obvious" mistakes that I have made

The apkg can be downloaded here https://www.dropbox.com/s/l81lpnp1elgkx ... x86-64.apk

[bruceleeon]

ok... this is very much still a work in progress.

What I have concentrated on is ensuring that everything is installed into the one place and can be cleanly uninstalled. The actual running still needs some work.

Then to restart you need to disable and re-enable in the App central (when you enable it will look to be hung again... just refresh your browser)

Now. In order to control XBMC you need to either plug in a usb keyboard, or use a remote app (I tested with xbmc constellation). By default I have turned on remote access... just set up on your NAS's ip, port 8080, username=xbmc, password=admin

In order to run you must first (after a system restart etc) enable Boxee (you can then disable Boxee or just leave it running... XBMC will run over the top) and then enable XBMC

also, you will need to ensure that settings, video, playback, Allow hardware acceleration (VDPAU) is disabled as this can cause a crash when playing mkv files.

Now, add some files and test it out.

The apkg file is about 128MB so you will need to be patient with the download.

Finally. This is very early days (and may not eventuate to a fully working system). I am happy to hear of possible improvements and better methods of doing some things, but please don't criticize the "obvious" mistakes that I have made

The apkg can be downloaded here https://www.dropbox.com/s/l81lpnp1elgkx ... x86-64.apk

+1 clinton.hall = MVP!

[MDPlatts]

Boxee is about to become even more dead - they've been bought by samsung unless they leave it as open-source - time to get XBMC ported...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/04 ... _streamer/

and

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/31857 ... buys-boxee

[clinton.hall]

It's not really a case of "porting".

XBMC is easily compiled to run on Asustor, since Asustor is simple a Linux system. The problem is ensuring all the necessary libraries and linked into the system path and then starting the xorg interface to display on your TV.... I managed to do this, just not as neatly as I wanted.

I may look at trying to improve this somewhat, but I also know that Asustor are looking at implementing this themselves once ADM2.0 has been rolled out.

At this time, there is a working Boxee system, so regardless of what Samsung does, this won't change... It simply won't be updated or improved...

Feel free to try my XBMC apk; just know that this is still very early days...

[sys]

I have both Boxee and XBMC but I still prefer Boxee over XBMC because using iPhone to navigate on TV, Boxee is simply much easier. On top of that, all of the video or movie (1080p) I have can be played on Boxee without any issue. XBMC is really too complicated to navigate and add sources...

But of course, it will be nice to have both players, if possible, to choose from.

Clinton, thumbs up!!!

[TheDave1022]

Cant seem to install xbmc with the apk. Gives me an error ref -209

[clinton.hall]

what firmware version are you using?