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XBMC For Android

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161 pointsmmahemoff42 comments

> Currently, for most devices only software decode of audio and video is hooked up.

This is a good start, but ultimately, you need hardware decoding. Even if a modern phone or tablet could decode 720p x264 in real time (many cannot), the battery usage would make it entirely untenable.

Yes, but you could put your tablet on a charger and hook it to the TV. If you then had a remote control app on your phone, that would be perfect. Even better, someone designs a snazzy dock for this function, which may or may not have its own purpose-built remote/controller.

Voila, your tablet is now also a media center box. (And could even function as a low-power game box.)

Or get a Gen 1 or Gen 2 AppleTV, both of which are (very) easily rootable and can run XMBC smoothly and cost less than half the price of the Android tablets I've seen.

There is no 1080p support on AppleTV before v3 (which isn't jailbroken yet) - a major deal-breaker for me, for a home media player.

But what about the AK802 Android 4.0 micro-pc network player with 1.5ghz Cortex A8, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, HDMI for less than $70 ? Its the size of s thumb drive, so you could make a keychain out of it. XBMC for Android should make this playable out of the box (no root necessary).

Pretty cool.

Is there a list of devices that currently have hardware decoding supported?

I think all dual core phones and up support 720p decoding pretty well.

The article talks about the Pivos box already, it's supposed to be (check first!) this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0088IGPM8

Not affiliated, no experience with that thing, but I think that's the only device with hardware decoding support as stated by the article.

Practically any device (eg, $60 Deal Extreme set top boxes) has some hardware decoding these days (H264 decoding at least). Whether it is used by XMBC is another matter.

Ouya makes Android a major gaming platform and XBMC will make it a dedicated media center. Android it truly realizing its true potential.

"makes": Ouya doesn't exist yet.[1]

"will make": XBMC is here now, plus has a track record of delivering.

The "true potential" of Android isn't about gaming. Its true potential will be realized when it can run on the disposable pay as you go handsets used by the other 5 billion people on the planet as their primary and only computing device.

1. "The reality of the OUYA console doesn’t match the hype: why you should be skeptical", Penny Arcade, http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-reality...

First, we don't know what Android's "true potential" is yet because it hasn't realized it yet.. unless it has and its what its doing now, but we still don't know that its not more than that. Maybe its true potential is that after Windows takes over all phones Android will power the UI to your car, who knows.

Anyway, Android is moving down the chain and inasmuch as smartphone economics look like mobile phone V1 economics, they should be getting too at the <$1000pa earners within a few years. Incredible when you think about it. Mobiles went from stock brokers and movie stars only to sustenance farmers in the worst run countries on earth in only a decade. People who haven't been reached by things like electricity, piped water or paved roads. A half a generation old technology has, in some cases, better market penetration than things so old we can't even think of them as technology. Things like literacy & money.

You, me and Penny-Arcade are all subjective.

That XBMC exists as a product and Ouya doesn't is not subjective. The GP comment used the wrong verb tense for each. You or me remarking on this objective fact is not subjective either.

The PA Report does indeed contain opinion.

I'm sorry, but "major" is seriously jumping the gun. The GP32 sold ~60k units in its lifetime, and came nowhere near disrupting the handheld gaming world.

The Ouya is at 30k backers, by comparison.

For those more knowledgeable than I: would this run on Google TVs? It looks like it's an NDK app, and I was under the impression that GTV didn't support the NDK.

If it's an NDK app, then no it won't run. The Logitech Revue (aka Google TV standalone box) has an Intel Atom processor, not an ARM, unlike most every other Android device.

Since it is an open source app, couldn't you just compile it yourself? Or maybe drop a friendly suggestion to the devs to release an x86 binary.

Two more things:

1. It might run. APKs support packaging more than one machine architecture for NDK code in one apk. Currently, there is built in support, in the SDK, for both ARM variants and x86. You can get add-on support for MIPS. Possibly others, IDK.

2. If it doesn't run and you have source access, and if the native code is all in C and C++, you can compile it by adding the option to generate x86 code. It will be packaged in the resulting apk file, and should be installable on Google TV, unless it uses other APIs not available on Google TV.

Unfortunately, while the Android NDK supports native code on x86, ARM, and MIPS processors, GoogleTV doesn't support the NDK:

    Does Google TV support NDK?

    No. There is a pending feature request for NDK support on Google TV

    https://developers.google.com/tv/faq#ndk

It is my understanding that the Intel-based mobile phones are the first x86 Android devices to support the NDK.

Forgot to check that. Good catch!

All future Google TV's will be ARM-based, so it will run on it.

What about Plex? IIRC it's a fork of XBMC and has been available for both iOS and Android for the last 6 months or so. Nothing against XBMC but Plex is probably a better choice right now if you want something stable.

Plex is closed source. An XBMC announcement is more exiting just by virtue of its open and non-proprietary nature.

Unfortunately, Plex is very slow - it requires much more powerful hardware than XBMC does (the PC version, that is - haven't tried the iOS version, and I couldn't get the Android version to work)

Plex for iOS and Android is just a front end, you need the server-side of the software to convert video. XBMC can convert video on-the-fly, to do this on iOS it uses private API for hardware acceleration (and that's why you need to jailbreak your device to install it)

Syncing up with the repo, it will certainly be interesting to see how this runs on the NexusQ that I received from I/O

Got it up and running, choppy on the NexusQ but it certainly looks very promising, now to roll up the sleeves and help out

https://plus.google.com/109944805317147383619/posts/gnzpC8HE...

This is wonderful news for OUYA preorderers.

This should result in another surge of OUYA contributors.

This is the primary reason I pre-ordered (which I'm aware is something of gamble). If the OUYA folks are smart, they'll bundle Plex or XBMC.

i think this plus the fact that nexus q has been hacked to run apps might be a boon for nexus q.

[1]http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/10/nexus-q-hacked-to-launch-...

Awesome, I've been thinking about building an HTPC, but beginning to balk at the power cost compared to some sort of streaming device and low power storage unit connected over N wifi. If there's box that has spdif out I'll buy it straight away (for high quality DA audio conversion).

Check into the ZOTAC Z-Box. The power consumption is pretty decent compared to a full Micro ATX or ITX. It has optical and HDMI audio. Wireless N... I'm running OpenElec on mine and it's very responsive.

There's a built APK up on Miniand: https://www.miniand.com/forums/forums/1/topics/136

Will this work with the Nexus Q? Doesn't seem to work on my HP TouchPad.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4245370

Remember all of the cheap, hardware decode capable ARM devices we've seen lately?

This is awesome, awesome, awesome. XBMC is an impressive piece of software. uPNP AV/DLNA, AirPlay, can play from every network sharing technology I've ever heard of.

I always say that its the best software I've ever used and I've been using it since the OG xbox ~2005. It is perfect for a television and somehow they manage to constantly improve it.

Inexpensive set-top hardware coupled with xbmc is a definite win

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