Coming in the next beta: Full-screen “lite”
Among some of the cool things coming in the next beta is an (optional) different method for entering full-screen. Many of you have requested compatibility with Growl, Exposé, Spaces, Cmd+Tab, and Cmd+Ctrl+Esc. I’ve resisted doing this because, among other reasons, supposedly there is an OpenGL performance hit in windowed mode (makes sense, right, because in “real” full-screen mode the driver is free to do whatever it likes to optimize for OpenGL output). However, OpenGL is not our bottleneck, and well, the people have voted. It will be optional, of course, for those of us who prefer to watch their movies without an OS update or new mail notification blocking out gratuitous nudity.
Among the people who may appreciate this change is Erik O., who has had trouble for quite a while with vsync not working in full-screen mode (while it works fine in windowed mode).
The next beta should be wrapped in the next week. Lots of tasty bug-fixes and improvements…
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Elan,
Thanks for leaving the option. Me personally want the best performance for my Media Center Mini, without interruption.
You rock! This is exactly what I’ve been after. Thank you very much!!
While this is great, I wonder how much more CPU usage will rise when idle. I hear it’s an inherent problem with XBMC on all platforms except XBOX, but the idle CPU usage makes my MacBook sound like a Harrier jet taking off vertically!
When can we see a new skin for XBMC? The current one is not very good looking, the Aeon one is not finished and so far I haven’t found good alternatives. It would be nice to see OSXBMC getting a new identity on OSX.
@Arnout - I believe xTV is the best skin for OSXMBC. It’s an AppleTV-like skin with a high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).
Why isn’t Aeon “finished”? Obviously it’s still being developed, but that’s like saying OSXBMC isn’t “finished”- it works very well, is hands down the best looking skin, and my wife approves just fine
@ Roopesh - Can you point me at a guide for getting and installing xTV? Thanks!
Awesome!
I have to question your versioning things as ‘beta’ though. I mean sure, maybe you’ve got some .6 milestones, but maybe you guys should just drop the beta tags and stick with extra decimal points.
Yes, I too am hoping that idling in the menu will stop causing my mac mini’s fan to go crazy at some point
@Arnout: Agreed, it’s one of the things on our list to replace the default skin with something more Mac-like.
@grey: The reason we do this is because we want to have a 0.5 final release which is pretty solid, and then do 0.5.x bug-fix releases while we work on 0.6 in parallel. The beta label is there for a reason.
Is perhaps better support for Harmony remotes coming in the next release ? Its really coming along, and works amazing on my mini, would be really nice to get the remotes sorted out. Or should i keep plugging away with remotebuddy ? Thanks for all the hard work on this guys, its a top notch app.
@pixel: I know of people using Universal remotes quite happily. It looks like you just signed up on the forum, I’d suggest you post with your question, as there are lots of friendly helpful people on there. Not sure what you mean specifically by “better support”
I guess by ‘better support’ .. I meant native support for the harmony … by ‘it just works’ , rather than having to having to do crazy setups in remote buddy. I found a post in the forums about setting it up without remote buddy, but the 3 button combos dont seem to be working.
I’ll keep plugging away and try to get it sorted. Chances are, i missed something. And will post in the forum if i’m not having any luck.
Thanks again !!
I always wondered why the original Xbox remote wasn’t an option in the remote poll. I loved using the original remote with XBMC on the xbox. SUrely there is a way to get raw access to the IR reader to get signal for just about anything, or find a third party RF reader. That instead of a universal remote to “learn” commands, we have XBMC “learn” the commands from the remote. That way anything could be used.
@pixel: I personally was always hoping that we’d be able to just create a profile that Harmony users could just download. Is that a possibility? I don’t own one so I don’t know what’s possible, but that seems like the ideal solution.
@Bodaniel Jeanes: The Apple IR receiver is tailored for Apple Remote codes, best I know, so it can’t accept arbitrary input. Also, we want to have a small “reasonable” set of well-supported control devices, otherwise we’ll spend all our time on supporting PlayStation 5 remotes, etc.
That’s why we settled on Apple Remote/Universal Remotes/XBox360 controller.
I’m really not sure what the best solution is with remotes. Without checking it seems like 45% of the people are using Apple remotes (directly) and another 45% using Harmony (in some method most likely Apple 3 button).
I understand the need to limit the amount of different remote supports and I also understand making as universal as possible since Apple IR is limiting.
Personally I always thought the Apple remote was too limiting for my taste and the Apple button combos for Harmony use was too much of a work around.
For “ME” what I had always thought would be best would be to use and IR>USB adapter and have OSXBMC use a stock manufactuer code. IR Pioneer DVD player. The reason being is that it’s a set standardized code, doesn’t need to be fiddled with by the user, and can be assigned in CHEAP universal remote or downloaded into more advanced learning remotes. But then I was shot down on this one early on for a couple reasons.
I don’t know whats best except that it needs to be IR based since 90% are doing it one way or another and Apple remote just seems to be an easier fit for either of the two 45% groups.
ahh…the remote topic….again..
I voiced my 5 cents before and I can’t help it will do it again…
The apple remote seems like quick hack..works well for on the road, but isn’t really useful for any serious setup. The workaround using multiple codes and a Harmony is a great hack, but I can figure out how people can live with that delay…When i press a button on my Harmony it takes a second to those 3 ir codes analyzed…sorry again..nice hack but not really useful for my setup. Not sure if any of you guys have a PlayStation 3 and the blue tooth remote (not going into a debate about PS3) but just as a example this remote using blue tooth of course is FAST. finally and I said that as well before….I really like my little Xbox1 Irda to USB adapter. Works great…is fast as a remote should be and it would be even better if the USB HUID would work native and not via assigned keys…
besides all that…thanks again for all the great work..Happy 4th July!
the poll asked what people were using - not what people were *happy* with using. mini’s/macbooks come with an apple remote so people use them.
i’d personally prefer to use my existing xbox1 dvd remotes as part of my replace-the-xboxes plan, or at worst buy an xbox360 dvd remote as they are cheap, made for the purpose and match in colour
i don’t want to use a 360 controller and have never liked universal remotes.
I would be happy with native Wiimote and/or PS3 Blu-ray remote.