XBMC is a fantastic and free cross-platform media center application we’re nuts for. If you’ve wanted to start using it or just wanted to customize the XBMC installation you’re already running, this guide will walk you through everything, from installation to total customization. More »
Media center – XBMC – XBMC Media Center – Microsoft Windows – Operating Systems
Streaming video, digital DVD backups, DVR recording—it's all possible from your TV-connected media center, and you don't need a system administrator to pull it off. These 10 apps make filling and controlling your media center PC even easier.
Photo by William Hook.
Your favorite band, assuming it’s not Motörhead, probably spend a good bit of time thinking about their album art. Pay credit to their creative indulgences, and give your media center something to show when their tracks are playing, by embedding album art in your MP3 collection. Rick Broida ran through the basics in his 2007 guide to whipping your MP3 library into shape, and I revisited the best sources and tools for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems in a 2008 album art guide. Whatever tool you use, having album art consistent across your library might feel a bit obsessive, and it is—but there's a certain reassuring payoff when your TV displays the same art as your iPod.
Some commercials are worth their short time commitment, but sometimes you just want to watch exactly 24 minutes of condensed television. Windows Media Center plug-in Lifextender does the job inside your hooked-up PC, while DVRMSToolbox runs through Media-Center-recorded files independently, and can then export them to more generally usable formats than Windows’ somewhat locked-down system. (Original posts: Lifextender, DVRMSToolbox)
Boxee is basically the XBMC media center app with a different look and a more social flair. It also supports a lot of independent content creators and independent developers, whether through the official App Box, through adding repositories of new apps, or through stand-alone RSS feeds. We’ve covered some great sources for Boxee apps and content in a quick Boxee guide. Looking for even more app repositories? Check out Boxee’s list of known repositories and see what strikes your fancy.
Media player apps try their best to figure out exactly what TV shows and movies you’ve got loaded into storage, but they often have a hard time keeping up with the naming schemes used by a variety of applications and fallible humans. Grab an app like MediaRenamer (for movies and television) or TVrename (for shows alone) and whip your files into a shape that XBMC, Boxee, Windows, Plex, or any other media center can easily figure out. For a quick read on what media center apps like to see—XBMC in particular—read Jason's guide halfway through his XMBC add-on guide.
It’s not an officially supported streaming site, like Netflix or CBS, but Hulu’s own Hulu Desktop can be worked into Windows Media Center with a clever little back-and-forth plug-in. Install Hulu Desktop Integration, and you’ll get an icon for Hulu among your video options. Click it, and Windows Media Center closes down, opens up Hulu Desktop; when you’re done watching Hulu, the app shuts that down and re-opens Media Center. Clever, helpful stuff.
Rather than find out halfway through the final disc of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that your Netflix disc is scratched beyond repair, you could rip the suspect DVD to a digital file and play it from there, with just a minor skip. Adam’s built a tool called DVD Rip to make it a dead-simple process in Windows, but it’s fairly easy to pull off with HandBrake or VLC Media Player on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems.
With a TV tuner installed, Windows Media Center or Home Server makes for a pretty hardcore DVR device, without the monthly fees. Make it easier to catch good TV when you think of it at work with Web Guide, a free scheduling program that shows you what’s on in the future, streams what’s on now, and otherwise delivers your media center’s TV experience to wherever you happen to be at the moment. (Original post)
Sure, you could go the easy route and buy an infrared-based, media-center-friendly physical remote for your TV-attached setup, but if you'd like a bit more functionality—and, more importantly, actual typing input—there's probably a free or cheap remote for your Wi-Fi powered phone or iPod. Gmote turns an Android phone into a multi-system remote, assuming you don’t mind a quick software installation. iPod/iPhone owners have their pick of many XBMC-compatible remotes in the App Store, the free Boxee remote, and MediaMote (iTunes direct link) ably handles your Windows Media Center remote.
Your standard off-the-shelf router treats all net traffic the same, can’t tell you exactly how much you’ve downloaded this month, and is fairly difficult to turn into anything other than an agent of your cable modem. Install DD-WRT or Tomato on your little antenna box, however, and it can be a wireless bridge for your entertainment center, as well as ensure that Hulu and Netflix get all the bandwidth they need with quality of service rules. (Installation guides: DD-WRT, Tomato)
The best media centers can play just about any video or audio format out there, but even the coolest phones and media devices have a fairly limited format range, and only so much space. Among the five best media converters we rounded up, Super and Format Factory can match most devices and file types, while MediaCoder and HandBrake get the job done on any platform. Need help getting the file onto your phone or device? The doubleTwist media manager is the easiest drag & drop solution we've seen.
Windows/Mac/Linux/Xbox: What could make the already awesome Xbox Media Center even better? An infusion of eye candy, of course. Read on to see some awesome XBMC skins and learn how to install them.
What is this media center magic we speak of? Originally an open-source package designed to run on modified Microsoft Xboxes and turn them into full-fledged media centers, XBMC gained such a popular following that it has been ported to Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you’re new to XBMC, you’re in luck. Lifehacker has much love for XBMC, and we’ve written guides to help you install it on a classic Xbox, install it on your Mac, run it from a thumb drive, and covered the first completely cross-platform release XBMC Atlantis.
Once you’ve grabbed a copy of XBMC and installed it, the customization can begin. The default skin on just about every distribution of XBMC is Project Mayhem III and its HD variant, the original skin is show at right. It’s a beautiful skin and if no one could customize it away, very few people would complain. You’re not here to keep things stock though, so admire Project Mayhem for being so awesome it was made the default skin and prepare to customize!
Installing skins is about as straightforward as customizing software can be. Depending on which operating system you’re using XBMC on, you’ll need to extract the contents of the archive you’ve downloaded into one of the following directories:
- Windows:
C:Program FilesXBMCskin- Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/skin- Linux:
~/.xbmc/skin/
You’ll most likely never come across a skin that doesn’t have the directory structure already carefully mapped out, all of the skins below can simply be extracted into the skin folder and all the necessary components will be neatly placed in skinSomeFancySkin automatically.
Once you’ve extracted the skins, switching from the default is as easy as navigating in the XBMC menu to System -> Appearance, and selecting your new skin.
Different installation packages and releases for different operating systems have different skins included. Some of the following skins may be bundled with the installation you downloaded, MediaStream comes with XBMC Atlantis for example. Check your /skins/ directory before downloading, you may luck out and already have the skin. Note: Each of the following skins was downloaded and tested on both a classic Xbox and HTPC running Windows XP with a 1080p display, with stunning results. The screenshots below—except some for the Focus skin—are from the respective websites of each design team, their media collections were far more varied and interesting than this humble tester's.
Aeon was built from the ground up to look stunning in HD. Although you can display Aeon on a SD display, the skin was designed to be native to 1080p. XBMC will scale everything down accordingly, but be forewarned that if you're using the original Xbox as your XBMC platform, using the rich 1080P background images you see in the screenshots above will cause stuttering—the same is true of any of the skins here that use HD background images. The eye candy factor on Aeon isn't from the over abundance of items and menus on the screen but on how seamlessly and almost transparently they interact with each other. The skin functions more as a frame to show off your media collection than anything else. The default background for each main menus is an abstract Mac-esque swish of color. The awesome images seen in the screenshots above were pulled from the hundreds of HD background images available on the Aeon website.
MediaStream has menus with a weightier appearance than Aeon, but the skin still maintains a minimalist approach. Menu text is solid and bold, the menus slide out in a blade-style system that is snappy, and navigation is easy. Since version 0.90 there has been support for SD 4:3 viewing ratio, so if you haven’t made the leap to a HD TV yet you can use MediaStream without any scaling. Like Aeon you can set customs backgrounds and use fan art. If you’re having trouble keeping up on which of your shows you’ve watched, take advantage of the unwatched media menu to get a fresh list of all the things you haven’t watched yet.
Focus is by far the most minimal skin in our roundup. It isn’t overly flashy but the transitions between menus are smooth and pleasant. The menus themselves are well laid out with frequently accessed items like unwatched television shows placed near the top. None of the skins we tested felt unwieldy or intrusive by any measure, but Focus was especially quick to melt into the background and make you forget there was even anything there between you and your pile of media.
MC360 is the most complete clone of the XboX 360 dashboard available for XBMC. The animations are spot on and you can even use your real Xbox Live Gamercard info for your profile. The game save manager is very polished, something that isn't a high priority for some of the other skins in the roundup. MC360 has native support for all SD and HD resolutions up to 1080i—the highest resolution the classic Xbox can display with the component video pack. The skin has three themes: the default 360 skin, the high transparency Glass skin, and Carbon a smokier version of the default. If you're using an Xbox with a supported modchip, MC360 can change the color of the LED on the chip.
If the purists among you are shocked and scandalized by all of these non-traditional skins, especially that nonsense about putting the Xbox 360 skin on a classic Xbox, don't worry. The same team behind the beautifully executed 360 skin has a classic Xbox skin that is just as accurate and stunning in its own right. The interface of the original Xbox wasn't a marvel of flashy transparency but it was a very well implemented—and green!—design. The Classix Xbox skin pays hommage to that design and remains very faithful to the original interface. Love the design but not sold on the bright green? There are themes included to turn the skin fiery red and deep blue.
The screenshots here can’t even begin to do justice to the stunning work these design teams have done. Most of the skins are fairly small, 50-100MB in size, it’s more than worth it to download them all and see which one looks the best on your setup. Between the hard work of the XBMC design team and the teams behind these skins, the experience is so seamless and enjoyable you’ll be amazed you didn’t pay hundreds of dollars for the pleasure.
Love a skin that isn’t featured here? Have a cool hack for XBMC you’re dying to share? Sound off in the comments below and help your fellow readers get more out of their media centers.
Jason Fitzpatrick is the Weekend Editor at Lifehacker and a devotee of the pure awesome that is XBMC. He can frequently be found in his workshop modifying Xboxes to give to friends and spread the gospel of open source.
