XBMC Eden Beta Reveals Myriad Improvements, More Control Over Them

By | December 31st, 2011 comments icon (5) Comments


XBMCEdenJust in time for the New Year, the XBMC team have released the first beta version of XBMC 11, codenamed Eden. Eden follows on from XBMC 10 Dharma, which itself entered beta 16 months ago and was released this time last year. The developers have not been idle in that time, as you can see from the summarised changelog, but among the myriad UI and performance enhancements there is one feature that sticks out.

When the addon system was introduced in Dharma, every piece of the software outside of the core could be installed and updated as a separate entity. Don’t like the standard UI? Install a new skin addon. Want to play your esoteric file format? Find the addon and use it. The best part about the system is that each addon automatically updates as new versions become available, meaning your system always has the latest fixes. Unfortunately, in the real world, the latest fixes sometimes break other things, meaning that your automatically updated skin could put you in a situation where you couldn’t enjoy your esoteric files.

The XMBC team know this pain, and have introduced Addon Rollbacks. Addon Rollback gives you the ability to – you guessed it – roll back each addon to a specific version. This extra control means you can enjoy the automatic updating, without worrying that you’ll find yourself unable to watch your favourite shows.

Be sure to check out the full announcement for download links, and if you try it, let us know what you think in the comments.

 




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Filed in: Entertainment PCs, Streaming Media Devices

  • bil Jeschke

    I have been using the beta for a few weeks and been fairly happy with it.  The only problems I have are with some of the plugins not working fully with it, but hopfully that will be fixed soon now that it is in full beta mode.
    I find the XBMC interface better to use and more responsive then Boxee, and now that Boxee is giving up on PC hardware I just need to get a working Crunchyroll addon for XBMC and I will be able to dump Boxee entirely. 

  • Nirav Patel

    I have Eden installed on a Apple TV G2. Everything works and the experience is smooth.  Like Bil Jeschke indicated below, I’m also disappointed with boxee  and also the fact that they’re discontinuing the PC version.  So I went out and bought a Apple TV just to install XBMC.  I’ve been a big XBMC fan since the original version on the xbox. By far, it is the best media player I’ve ever used. I’ve tried almost all the major media player set-top boxes out there. But felt disappointed by all of them.  So I went back a XBMC solution.  Its so easy that my 5 year old child can navigate through it without needing any help.   Plus, love the customization options to tailor the UI to fit family needs. The UI is easy enough to  pass  WAF. (Wife Acceptance Factor).

    My plan is to buy couple of additional Apple TV G2 boxes and install XBMC on them to run in other rooms of the house. I want to make XBMC the standard interface for all media players in the home. A job well done by the XBMC devs!

  • Nirav Patel

    I have Eden installed on a Apple TV G2. Everything works and the experience is smooth.  Like Bil Jeschke indicated below, I’m also disappointed with boxee  and also the fact that they’re discontinuing the PC version.  So I went out and bought a Apple TV just to install XBMC.  I’ve been a big XBMC fan since the original version on the xbox. By far, it is the best media player I’ve ever used. I’ve tried almost all the major media player set-top boxes out there. But felt disappointed by all of them.  So I went back a XBMC solution.  Its so easy that my 5 year old child can navigate through it without needing any help.   Plus, love the customization options to tailor the UI to fit family needs. The UI is easy enough to  pass  WAF. (Wife Acceptance Factor).

    My plan is to buy couple of additional Apple TV G2 boxes and install XBMC on them to run in other rooms of the house. I want to make XBMC the standard interface for all media players in the home. A job well done by the XBMC devs!

  • Fabian La Maestra

    Only downside on the ATV2 is the 720p resolution limit and no hulu+. This was the only thing that kept me from going to the ATV2 from the Gen 1 xbox.

  • Fabian La Maestra

    Only downside on the ATV2 is the 720p resolution limit and no hulu+. This was the only thing that kept me from going to the ATV2 from the Gen 1 xbox.