XBMC replacement?

[dwell]

As much as I love XBMC, the Xbox is starting to hit its head on the ceiling especially when it comes to HD content. I don't think there's anything quite like XBMC out there. It's such a polished app, but I'll ask anyway.

MediaPortal does not look as good and MythTV is more of a PVR. Is there anything out there even close that is able to do HD/x264?

 

[Kaido]

AppleTV?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Chris
As much as I love XBMC, the Xbox is starting to hit its head on the ceiling especially when it comes to HD content. I don't think there's anything quite like XBMC out there. It's such a polished app, but I'll ask anyway.

MediaPortal does not look as good and MythTV is more of a PVR. Is there anything out there even close that is able to do HD/x264?

Mediaportal is pretty damn close...the interface is almost identical, but not quite as easy to use. I've been using it with x264 for a while.

 

[Slick5150]

I'm currently in the same boat as you. Love XBMC, but it just chokes on any HD content.

I'm keeping an eye on the Apple TV, as it seems like its going to be the new choice for modders. It doesn't have a DVD drive, but I'd imagine at some point someone will get it working so you could hook up an external one via the USB port.

 

[kalster]

where are you guys getting the HD content. can you buy x264 videos from itunes or something?

 

[BKLounger]

i'm not 100% informed on this but i know when i used to use mac os x 10.4 i was able to just plug in an external dvd-rom and it was automatically detected. Is this not the case with the apple tv. I thought it was very similar.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Originally posted by: kalster
where are you guys getting the HD content. can you buy x264 videos from itunes or something?

A lot of anime DVD rips are being put out in x264. I use my laptop, but other than that I use XBMC for Xvid and such.

 

[LordSnailz]

funny, I was just thinking the same thing last night. too bad the 360 hasn't been hacked for homebrew apps yet

 

[dwell]

Originally posted by: kalster
where are you guys getting the HD content. can you buy x264 videos from itunes or something?

You can use the internet find find that sort of thing.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
i'm not 100% informed on this but i know when i used to use mac os x 10.4 i was able to just plug in an external dvd-rom and it was automatically detected. Is this not the case with the apple tv. I thought it was very similar.

Not natively, no. I believe someone hacked it to run regular Mac os, but out of the box it uses either a modified version of it or something else entirely (I'm not really sure).

 

[Homerboy]

AppleTV right now is the best chance (unless the 360 gets hacked to play unsigned content)
AppleTV is going down the same enthusiasts path that XBMC did. They have already done some amazing things with it and its only a matter of time.

I have been waiting for the successor of XBMC for sometime now, strictly for the HD issue. I still have my 3 XBMCs throughout my house doing a flawless job (hell after years of using it I'm STILL finding new features), but the onslaught of HD content is just making me sad every time I'm stuck watching SD content. Right now my "fix" is to make sure I ...umm... get HR content of TV shows and movies (not HD, but HR)

 

[Kaido]

You might also want to check out GeeXbox, kind of a stripped-down PC version of XBMC:

http://geexbox.org/en/index.html

 

[Quasmo]

HTPC FTW, I love my HTPC and it handles HD content superbly. It's like XBMC on crack. I runn Windows MCE 2005, and I have no complaints. 0. I have QAM support, get 11 HD channels, and can run any content I want on it.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
HTPC FTW, I love my HTPC and it handles HD content superbly. It's like XBMC on crack. I runn Windows MCE 2005, and I have no complaints. 0. I have QAM support, get 11 HD channels, and can run any content I want on it.

only problem I had was it was louder and bigger, xbmc does almost all i want (minus hd ofcourse) in a smaller quiter package

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
HTPC FTW, I love my HTPC and it handles HD content superbly. It's like XBMC on crack. I runn Windows MCE 2005, and I have no complaints. 0. I have QAM support, get 11 HD channels, and can run any content I want on it.

and exactly how do you (easily) click on a DVD image and play it with HTPC? You're selling watching/recording LIVE content. I couldn't tell you the last time I was concerned with either of those things.