XBMC Gotham v13 customisation tips for PC users

HAL 9000

HAL 9000

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I have just upgraded my XBMC installation on my PC from 'Frodo' (v12.x) to 'Gotham' (v13.x) last week.

Very impressed with the improvements and overall smoothness of the interface, and also the playback of various media as well.

Here is the link for the official XBMC download page (versions for other Operating Systems and devices are also available there):

http://xbmc.org/download/


Once I had backed up my media libraries (recommended), I installed XBMC 'Gotham' (v13.x).


Then I installed the AEON MQ5 add-in skin to replace & improve the default 'Confluence' interface skin:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:Aeon_MQ_5


After that, I installed the XBMC remote for Android on my phone:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xbmc.android.remote


NB: You will need to revert to the default Confluence' skin temporarily to check / modify your XBMC system settings to get XBMC to work properly on your Android device.

Here is a set-up guide:

http://jnm-tech.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-to-configure-use-xbmc-android-remote.html


Also, remember to activate the 'Public' option for XBMC in the Windows Firewall exceptions to allow your Android device to communicate with your PC.

Here are the steps for Windows 8.1
1. Open Control Panel, select Windows Firewall
2. Select 'Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall'
3. Click the 'Change Settings' button
4. Scroll down to the two XBMC options (Private should be already checked & Public is unchecked)
5. Check the option box for XBMC Public (leave Private checked as well)
6. Click OK to accept settings
7. Close Windows Firewall

Then set up the Android XBMC app to link to XBMC on the PC as indicated in the link above, & test the app on the Android device to see if it communicates with XBMC correctly.

Reset your add-in skin for XBMC on your PC back to AEON MQ 5 again.

Voila! - you can now control XBMC via your Android device!
 
Aeon MQ5 is a nice looking skin. Based on the old Aeon Nox skin. I still think overall that Aeon Nox looks nicer. It's smoother with a bit less clutter.
 
If you enable the "PVR IPTV Simple Client", you can use this m3u play-list for some SA radio stations, I will add more at a later stage.
Code: 
#EXTM3U

#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, Talk 702
rtmp://196.33.130.80/702 playpath=702.stream swfUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/primedia/702/flowplayer/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.0.swf?0.8876098128064324 live=1 pageUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/primedia/702/player.asp?id=45 
#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, Highveld 94.7
rtmp://196.33.130.79/highveld/highveld.stream
#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, Highveld Oldies
rtmp://46.4.25.213/947-80s/947-80s.stream
#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, MetroFM
rtmp://46.4.25.213/metro playpath=metro.stream swfUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/metro/flowplayer/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.0.swf?0.02243209103773336 live=1 pageUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/metro/player-embed.asp?id=44&rollover=true&width=640&height=62
#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, 5FM
rtmp://196.33.130.72:80/5fm playpath=5fm.stream swfUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/5fm/flowplayer/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.0.swf?0.312002018397891 live=1 pageUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/5fm/player-embed.asp?id=43&width=460&height=35
#EXTINF:-1 group-title="Radio" radio=true, SAfm
rtmp://196.33.130.69:80/safm playpath=SAFM-Powered_by_Antfarm.stream swfUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/safm/flowplayer/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.0.swf?0.9085035788660971 live=1 pageUrl=http://radio.antfarm.co.za/cdn/clients/sabc/safm/player-embed.asp?id=66&width=460&height=35
 
I suggest people have a look at Yatse Remote as an alternative to the XBMC remote, I've found it to be superior.
 
Yatse is a far better remote than the standard. And there's no need to default to Confluence either, as long as on initial setup you activated the advanced settings option - your skin should display it just fine.

Personally, I much prefer the Arctic skin. It's by far the most complete and feature-rich skin I've used (and I've used all of the Aeon variants). It's also really good looking - the best viewtype options of all available skins. The developer also has a few other WIP skins that aren't bad.

I personally run a SQL library, with MashupXBMC, XunityTalk repo, Arctic skin, jDownloader and a customised advancedsettings.xml for the library, remote mapping, macros, and a few minor tweaks here and there. Together with Sickbeard, Headphones and Couchpotato, I never miss a thing. Although I have a massive backlog to catch up on now as there's just no time in the day/night to watch anything...
 
I just could not get the 3D to work.
It just displayed the double image of the SBS movie and when set to auto it displayed 4 images.
 
Rabbid dawg said:
I just could not get the 3D to work.
It just displayed the double image of the SBS movie and when set to auto it displayed 4 images.
Click to expand...

Had the same issue, but in RASPBMC I found a setting where it now asks me when it detects a SBS how I want to display it.
 
Last edited:
DJ... said:
Yatse is a far better remote than the standard. And there's no need to default to Confluence either, as long as on initial setup you activated the advanced settings option - your skin should display it just fine.

Personally, I much prefer the Arctic skin. It's by far the most complete and feature-rich skin I've used (and I've used all of the Aeon variants). It's also really good looking - the best viewtype options of all available skins. The developer also has a few other WIP skins that aren't bad.

I personally run a SQL library, with MashupXBMC, XunityTalk repo, Arctic skin, jDownloader and a customised advancedsettings.xml for the library, remote mapping, macros, and a few minor tweaks here and there. Together with Sickbeard, Headphones and Couchpotato, I never miss a thing. Although I have a massive backlog to catch up on now as there's just no time in the day/night to watch anything...
Click to expand...
Are you running arctic on Gotham?
 
I use Arctic on Frodo - awesome skin.

I'll get Gotham later today with Arctic, but when I ran Beta 2 I couldn't get it to pick up surround files. It'd play through the amplifier, but as standard stereo. Maybe there was some setting I had to play with - but just went back to Frodo.

Hoping sound works tonight
 
Dolby said:
I use Arctic on Frodo - awesome skin.

I'll get Gotham later today with Arctic, but when I ran Beta 2 I couldn't get it to pick up surround files. It'd play through the amplifier, but as standard stereo. Maybe there was some setting I had to play with - but just went back to Frodo.

Hoping sound works tonight
Click to expand...

Make sure that advanced settings are enabled. You have to do this from the default Confluence skin unfortunately. Then check your system settings to ensure that it matches your output, and in audio playback settings as well.

Gotham makes it very simple now. What OS are you running?
 
Windows 7

So I just settings before going to Arctic skin ?
 
Dolby said:
Windows 7

So I just settings before going to Arctic skin ?
Click to expand...

No, just change to advanced settings in Confluence and they'll all be available in Arctic. Either way doesn't really matter - you just want the advanced settings.

Then make sure in your Windows setup that the audio configuration is correct. Right click the speaker icon in the taskbar, select playback devices, then configure it properly. Make sure in the advanced settings that "Allow applications to take exclusive control" and Give exclusive mode applications priority are both selected. Check under supported formats that Windows is actually detecting the correct DTS, Dolby etc formats. If not, resolve that on the OS level.

Once you're sure that all of that is correct, just set the correct output configuration in XBMC system settings, do not slect output stereo to all speakers if you want surround, and select WASAPI outputs - not the defaults. Ensure the WASAPI output is correct (i.e. to your surround sound system and not another device).

Then you're sorted. Any other issues are probably with the setup of your AVR/surround sound system and not XBMC or Windows...
 
Thanks DJ.

12.3 worked 100% - just going to the Beta 2 stopped the surround. When I went back to 12.3 it was working again - must be a setting or something within XBMC itself.

I'll let you know tonight
 
Might make sense to start the DB from scratch then - let it run overnight ?
 
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