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posted by malloc at 04:59 pm on 2006-04-15 |
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MaxConsole Interview the Xbox Media Center Team... MUST READ!
Fresh off the back from their Multimedia and Best Game awards double triumph in the Source Forge community awards, we caught the team in a rather buoyant mood for an exclusive interview. We really put it to them so to speak, with questions regarding their personal life, what's in store for the project, their plans for the Xbox 360, managing such a group and their thoughts on Microsoft's attempt at an Xbox Media Center.
MaxConsole: Introduce yourself, who are you, location, age, day job and so forth.
Pike: I'm a Project Manager. I'm a 31 and from Sweden. I've been active in this project since XBMP days (started as a tester). When I first heard about Xbox, I had a gut feeling one day XBMC would be here.
Jmarshall: I'm a Developer. I'm 29 from New Zealand and am a lecturer in Mathematics.
Elupus: I'm a Developer. I'm 24 and from Sweden. Currently i'm studying mekatronics at university.
Chadoe: I'm a Developer. I'm 33, from The Netherlands. I work for an e-learning company as senior software engineer.
Ysbox: I'm the team's Frenchie... I'm 24 and do IT consulting in Luxembourg for a living. I've been involved in the homebrew scene before by porting the Links2 web browser to the Xbox (it's called LinksBoks) and was invited to join the team last year with the goal of integrating it into XBMC (see q. #8).
Darkie: I'm one of the Developers, 24 years old, living in the Netherlands and studying Embedded Systems at university. Besides my study I work 3 days a week creating web based applications. I was asked to join the XBMP team a few years ago.
MaxConsole: How many have been involved in the project since the birth ?
Pike: From XBMP till now, I'd say close to 50 people of varying degree of activity. But as of late, I'd say 10-15 active people including testers.
MaxConsole: How come you have been able to keep going when other Xbox homebrew apps now seem to be dead and buried ?
Pike: Good Question. I can only answer for myself here, but I disagree with eg. RunTime when he says ''XBMC is complete''. I think there's always 'something' we can add or make just a little bit better!
Jmarshall: I guess my role has pretty much been in developing the GUI and skin engine to allow the skinners more flexibility and to allow more polish. There's always things to improve :)
Elupus: It's a general and simple to use mediaplayer that for the most part of time just works when you want it. Making this happen is abit of work given that new codecs/subtitles show up all the time, so there will always be people interested in helping out.
Chadoe: There are other xbox apps? I just bought an xbox to run xbmc, 2003 I think it was. I think the fact that we have a very active community has a lot to do with it. Besides, I wouldn't know what to replace the xbox/xbmc combination with.
Ysbox: I haven't been very active for now mainly due to real life getting in the way (LinksBoks is one of those dead apps); still I pop up sometimes and commit some patches or features I'm interested in seeing into XBMC (like the last.fm support in collaboration with chadoe).
Darkie: I have to agree pike and elupus here. There is always enough todo, XBMC can always be made a bit better. Knowing that you are not the only person in this team who wants to keep this project alive also helps alot.
MaxConsole: Where have some of the XBMC contributors gone onto ?
Pike: RunTime hasn't been very active in Xbox-scene (like XBMC for instance) since XBMP days, but recently resurfaced with Transcode 360. D7o dropped off the face of Earth after XBMP for all we (Team XBMC) know. Frodo left early in XBMC's days and started up MediaPortal: http://www.team-mediaportal.com our Windows counterpart I guess you could call it. It was based on XBMC in the beginning, but has been mostly rewritten according to Team Mediaportal's site.
MaxConsole: What exactly does XBMC do for an Xbox owner ?
Pike: Easier to answer what it doesn't do :p. We still focus on being the best mediaplayer we can be, but as time passed by we added other functionality like support for gametrainers. It basically boils down to this: XBMC enables you to play pretty much ALL MEDIA except the 'upcoming' HDTV formats like H264 & TS. We also don't support DRM destroyed mediafiles. Example: you can 'stream' a multirarred (scene standard) DVD-Image over SMB with menu functionality and subtitles! All I can say is, you must experience it!
Ysbox: It simply IS the best option for a media center box today, you can find Xboxes everywhere and they are 10x cheaper than dedicated hardware which won't ever have a fraction of the features XBMC offers... So why look elsewhere! Most XBMC users don't even consider anything else to play their media.
Darkie: and it is not only audio and video that can be played in XBMC. These days a lot of scripts exist that, for example, allow you to read news from news sites, browse for online audio / video streams to play them back in XBMC and lot more.
MaxConsole: How easy is it to get XBMC on an Xbox, what's required ?
Pike: Xbox must be able to run unsigned code, and there are two ways to accomplish this. Either via a modchip (recommended), or by softmodding an Xbox, an approach we don't support. Then you need to have a ftpserver running on Xbox so you can send it over.
Jmarshall: There are plenty of people (almost guaranteed to be someone in your locale) that will sort out the technical side of getting the xbox modded for you, but you do need to know some basics such as how to use FTP if you want to be able to keep up with developments.
MaxConsole: What was the team's inspiration to create and be involved with XBMC ?
Pike: I can't answer what inspired the initial project founders (frodo, runtime, d7o). I guess they wanted a basic solid mediaplayer. I think since then we made a more solid product with lots of bells & whistles and a very advanced skin-engine.
Jmarshall: I guess just using it is the inspiration for me, and the chance to participate in a great community.
Elupus: I must agree with jmarshall here, just using it gives me inspiration. Thou, i must admit it's kinda nice to tell friends that you are involved in such a great community.
Darkie: I can't say using xbmc is the inspiration for me like jmarshall and elupus, to be honest, I don't even use it that much. Most free time I have is spend in developing XBMC. But just being part of this great team in the xbox scene inspires me to keep on going.
Maxconsole: What lies ahead for the future of the project ?
Pike: There will be a very cool surprise included with 2.0.0, that's all I can say! After 2.0.0 point sourcecode has been released, one thing we will add to CVS is the controversial 'Links WWW Browser' that ysbox has been working on for quite some time now.
Jmarshall: We want to completely redo the My Videos section to support TV shows better and to grab metadata from more sources than IMDb.com.
Ysbox: I got some emails from people who asked if it was technically possible to get Links into XBMC, and many others who just wanted video playback in LinksBoks. So I decided to give it a try, mostly for the challenge and the fun of it. On the other hand, there has indeed been some debate since the very beginning whether a web browser had its place in a media center like XBMC. People with concerns will be happy to hear that it runs quite well now and has no impact on the rest of XBMC since some time (kudos to jmarshall for critical help in this area). So we think you're going to like it, but if you don't, just don't use it!
Darkie: Even more features :)
MaxConsole: What did winning the SF Communiy choice awards mean to you ?
Pike: Since it's the community that voted it feels very nice. We already knew we made a very fine 'application' but it's nice to hear our users agree with us.
Jmarshall: Yeah, the SF award was great. There are many media center based applications around, and it's nice to know that out of those nominated, we came out on top. It's cool to see FileZilla (which we use as our FTP server) also got an award, as did xbox-linux.
Elupus: It's very nice to get verified feedback that you are appreciated. Kinda dislike that we one the game section to be honest thou.
Chadoe: It put a smile on my face :)
Darkie: It means a lot to me. Having the feeling that what you make is really appriciated by so many users, it makes you want to spend your time in such a project.
MaxConsole: What do you think you can do for the Xbox 360 ?
Pike: Nothing has been decided regarding 360. When the console gets properly modded we'll re-evaluate the situation..
MaxConsole: Do you feel Microsoft drew inspiration from your project, with their Media Center attempt ?
Pike: They probably saw that it was a concept they could work with, but they failed miserably in their implementation IMHO ;)
Darkie: Probably not from us if you look at what they made :)
MaxConsole: How is the group organized to be so effective ?
Pike: I run a tight ship here... No joking aside I do not. Devs are free to add pretty much anything they like, as long as it doesn't bloat the app too much.
Jmarshall: We use IRC to communicate mostly, and as pike says us devs have free reign to add whatever we like. As far as the skin engine goes, I take a lot of input from the skinners, of which there are a number of talented artists.
Elupus: Effective, not sure i would call us that. We do have quite a few non dev's hanging around in our either our development channel or user irc channel. They tend to find any minor gliches alot quicker than us devs. It's often easier for somebody else to find bugs the small bugs than it is to do so yourself. I suppose also that we kinda have our separated areas that we work with mainly. This and that we avoid changing other people's code without atleast discussed it with them helps.
Chadoe: Lot's of talent going around, both in the team as well as in the community,developing/managing/testing/skinning/patching/scripting/translating/providing ideas... did I forget anyone? ;)
Ysbox: I just want to say that there are some genuinely talented and dedicated people in this team, and that sure helps...
Darkie: elupus and ysbox already said it. Most developers have their own area in which they work and really know what they are doing, so you don't have hourless discussions on wether you can add / change a feature or not..
MaxConsole: Is there anyway we can support the XBMC project loud and proud, say on the street, with some merchandise ?
Pike: Shameless AD: Oh, that's an easy one! Cafepress: cafepress.com/XBMC (as witnessed on youtube.com !?!?)
MaxConsole: Thankyou for co-operation in this interview, is there anything you'd like to add to your legions of fans and users out there ?
Pike: Hope you enjoyed this interview with some of Team XBMC's members. Thank you for voting for us and for your continued support. We're available on IRC, Efnet #XBMC.
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