I wanted to post here since this is the "Apps" category for Fire TV...
By following the XBMC wiki for FIre TV, I got XBMC running in just 3 minutes.
> Wiki info page- http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Amazon_Fire_TV
My SMB share was discoverable and my library was populated just a few minutes later.
I've verified good video and audio playback on SD, 720p, 1080p videos. Scanning and skipping works well in video playback too.
The only thing I continue to stumble with is that pressing the "Home" button returns you to the Fire TV homescreen, backgrounding XBMC.
I haven't yet found a way to create a homescreen or "Recents" shortcut for XBMC, so it's a chore to open it every time by navitgating to Settings > Applications...
If anyone knows how to get the PleXBMC add-on working within XBMC, I'd love to know how. I tried it and get a script load error every time I try to launch the add-on.
Other than that, do you know have any other add-on recommendations to make XBMC even better for the Fire TV?
archa1c said:
I wanted to post here since this is the "Apps" category for Fire TV...
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Click to collapse
good, thank you! with hope, people will write about xbmc/spmc in this thread, instead of random other threads, or, even worse, that unholy "amazon fire tv" proto-thread that refuses to die.
archa1c said:
I've verified good video and audio playback on SD, 720p, 1080p videos. Scanning and skipping works well in video playback too.
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Click to collapse
I prefer gotham, it was great on ouya. but on firetv I had to switch to spmc (12.4.2 as of koying's latest recommendation).
even the "master" and "amazonfiretv" nightlies and test-builds of gotham, give me a headache - it's weird and I can't describe it too well - pulling up the info overlay by pressing 'o' on the keyboard, I see that there are zero skipped frames and zero dropped frames. but ?something? is still screwy with motion blur - no artifacts or anything. but there is this jerkiness, or something, that hurts my eyes and the lasagna in my brainpan...?
my only complaint of spmc is that it breaks most of the 360 controller (a "ok/enter" and b "cancel/back" still work, but not the sticks or dpad). I still can't figure out how - neither xbmc nor spmc come with any keymap files, not under system/keymaps and not under userdata/keymaps. I have tried 360 keymap xml files from various github sources, both spmc and xbmc, no dice.
my only complaint of **MC in general is not being able to mess with network buffer sizes in the UI (yes I am that lazy) - usually don't have a problem with 720p mp4/mkv, and this is on wireless, even. but sometimes my landlord uses netflix over wireless and that kills everything else.
archa1c said:
The only thing I continue to stumble with is that pressing the "Home" button returns you to the Fire TV homescreen, backgrounding XBMC. I haven't yet found a way to create a homescreen or "Recents" shortcut for XBMC, so it's a chore to open it every time by navitgating to Settings > Applications...
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Click to collapse
alt-tab isn't bad if you're already into using a keyboard...
I haven't tried it yet but people using alternate launchers have reported using Llama they can make it jump to their preferred launcher after pressing the home button. it might work equally well setting it to jump to xbmc rather than a launcher? hm I may have to try that...
I actually quite like the native Fire TV UI and would be happy with a hacky way to add a shortcut for side-loaded apps to the native menus.
I'm sure it's possible, so I'll be patient and wait for it to happen ?
I don't have any control issues because I'm using the fore TV remote, but I will be plugging in my Windows MCE remote USB IR receiver to see if I can get my Logitech harmony remote working on the fire tv.
The only other thing I would like is a mapping of the back button to "stop" when playing video in XBMC. the default xbmc behavior for the "back" action is to keep playing the current file in the background while displaying the last screen.its a very odd behavior IMO, and with no "stop" button on the fire TV remote, the only workaround is to pause the video when you want to go "back".
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
archa1c said:
I actually quite like the native Fire TV UI and would be happy with a hacky way to add a shortcut for side-loaded apps to the native menus.
I'm sure it's possible, so I'll be patient and wait for it to happen ?
I don't have any control issues because I'm using the fore TV remote, but I will be plugging in my Windows MCE remote USB IR receiver to see if I can get my Logitech harmony remote working on the fire tv.
The only other thing I would like is a mapping of the back button to "stop" when playing video in XBMC. the default xbmc behavior for the "back" action is to keep playing the current file in the background while displaying the last screen.its a very odd behavior IMO, and with no "stop" button on the fire TV remote, the only workaround is to pause the video when you want to go "back".
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These are the steps that the user over on the XBMC forums posted to help us out with llama:
Event 1:
When phone starts up - set Llama variable 'startup' to 'true'
Event 2:
When the current app is XBMC on Ouya - set Llama variable 'starup' to 'false'
Event 3:
(Use the AND option) {when the current app is KFTV Launcher and when 'startup' has a value of 'false'} - run XBMC on Ouya.
However, you don't have to set KFTV Launcher as the trigger. I just picked a random app I didn't want to use as a jump pad. I installed the smithsonian app and put it in place of the launcher. Now when I open the smithsonian app, it flips back to XBMC. Not efficient, but works better than digging through the settings.
You can re-map buttons in XBMC with an add-on called keymap editor available in the programs menu>program add-ons>get more>key_map editor.
You can also just hit "Select" on the FTV remote and that will bring up the OSD. Then you can just d-pad to the stop button when you want to exit a movie.
v13 gotham beta4 release just came out (ok 2 days ago, I wasn't paying attention I guess). all my complaints about weird undescribable video motion are gone!
and that is even with turning off mediacodec and only having libstagefright turned on! yay!!!
http://xbmc.org/xbmc-13-0-gotham-beta-4/
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/arm/
the beta4 announcement also said force update your repositories if you're having problems such as they're no longer staying up to date, or they're suddenly empty, etc.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on_manager#Force_refresh
they recommended this if you are coming from xbmc v12 (not spmc, it has its own separate file tree) or even if you are coming from earlier betas of v13.
tarvoke said:
v13 gotham beta4 release just came out (ok 2 days ago, I wasn't paying attention I guess). all my complaints about weird undescribable video motion are gone!
and that is even with turning off mediacodec and only having libstagefright turned on! yay!!!
http://xbmc.org/xbmc-13-0-gotham-beta-4/
http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/android/arm/
the beta4 announcement also said force update your repositories if you're having problems such as they're no longer staying up to date, or they're suddenly empty, etc.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on_manager#Force_refresh
they recommended this if you are coming from xbmc v12 (not spmc, it has its own separate file tree) or even if you are coming from earlier betas of v13.
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Click to collapse
I also read that you can install SPMC and XBMC side-by-side due to the unique installation paths and libraries. I may try out the latest Gotham release, but I've been very happy with the performance of SPMC so far.
I really just need the ability to add a shortcut to the main menu, in either "Recent" or "Apps" etc for it to be convenient to access.
archa1c said:
I also read that you can install SPMC and XBMC side-by-side due to the unique installation paths and libraries. I may try out the latest Gotham release, but I've been very happy with the performance of SPMC so far.
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you got it, they won't step on each other because all the resources and binaries are separated into com.semperax.spmc and org.xmbc.xbmc. which is also a nice way to keep testing v12 vs v13 simultaneously...
although now that the motion-blur-weirdness-but-thats-not-exactly-it, is gone from gotham beta4, I am done with spmc (I could still never figure out why it broke so many buttons of the 360 controller, and I spent hours with keymap xmls and junk, ugh. whereas gotham always worked 100% fine. they both must have built-in keymaps you don't even see in their filetrees, or something)
archa1c said:
I really just need the ability to add a shortcut to the main menu, in either "Recent" or "Apps" etc for it to be convenient to access.
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yeah it doesn't bother me enough to reinstall nova launcher and mess with Llama.
but, recent, man that would be perfect. until now I was not a big fan of recent-type-behavior (sure, sometimes in the start menu in linux or windows, ok...) - but now with firetv it is awesome.
like, my watchlist menu is turning into some huge unholy mess. but the recent menu is serene and shows me exactly what I was doing: "why yes, sir, latest indications show that you were halfway through season 4 of sg1, and you were also using Plex around the same time".
of course they also jam those stupid semi-ads in the recent menu, so for that, screw 'em.
Something you can try is using the app "llama" to start XBMC whenever a certain program is lauched. For me, I have XBMC start whenever I open the app "Tubi TV". I just chose an app on the store that had an icon I could remember and set it up.
Works very well for me.
Nick0742 said:
Something you can try is using the app "llama" to start XBMC whenever a certain program is lauched. For me, I have XBMC start whenever I open the app "Tubi TV". I just chose an app on the store that had an icon I could remember and set it up.
Works very well for me.
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Click to collapse
Would you be open to sharing exactly how you set this up?
What I can't figure out is how to use the library plugins to index both movies and shows. I have my entire collection in a single folder. Right now I can only enable either one or the other in XBMC. Is there a way to do both at the same time?
Try just adding the same path a second time, except denote it as a different media type the second type.
Not sure if XBMC will reject that or not since you've already added it once as a different content type (TV, movies etc)
Sent from my unknown using Tapatalk 2
solo said:
What I can't figure out is how to use the library plugins to index both movies and shows. I have my entire collection in a single folder. Right now I can only enable either one or the other in XBMC. Is there a way to do both at the same time?
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Click to collapse
I just verified that you can add the same path twice.
The first time, select a "TV Shows" scraper to have it scan TV show content for your library.
The second time, select the 'Movies" scraper to scrape and add Movie content from that directory to your library.
You will likely have some issues with some shows importing to your movie library, and some movies importing to your tv shows due to common names between both (example- Transformers movies will probably get scanner by the TV scraper and add the Transformers tv show series to your TV library).
Aside from these unavoidable duplicate scraping issues, all of your content should load.
I recommend braking our your library into separate directories for "TV Shows" and "Movies".
An easy way to do this is to install Sickbeard to automatically scan and move your TV Shows to a new directory, leaving just movies in your current media directory.
archa1c said:
I just verified that you can add the same path twice.
The first time, select a "TV Shows" scraper to have it scan TV show content for your library.
The second time, select the 'Movies" scraper to scrape and add Movie content from that directory to your library.
You will likely have some issues with some shows importing to your movie library, and some movies importing to your tv shows due to common names between both (example- Transformers movies will probably get scanner by the TV scraper and add the Transformers tv show series to your TV library).
Aside from these unavoidable duplicate scraping issues, all of your content should load.
I recommend braking our your library into separate directories for "TV Shows" and "Movies".
An easy way to do this is to install Sickbeard to automatically scan and move your TV Shows to a new directory, leaving just movies in your current media directory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually tried that same tactic before and it didn't work (Frodo). I am going to install Gotham today anyway, will try again.
My setup is that I download via utorrent and when completed, the files are moved to a single folder storage drive mounted on my RT-N66U. XBMC then reads the files from there... I'll look into sickbeard, thanks!
Has anybody tried LiveTV with tvheadend? It does work for me, but I am only able to use the channel that is already tuned. As soon as I try to switch to a different channel then XBMC crashes. It works fine on my Android phone, therefore it must be something with it running on the FireTV.
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk
Maybe a dumb question but how do i install .zip plugins downloaded from my computer?
NVM reading is my friend...
vogli said:
Has anybody tried LiveTV with tvheadend? It does work for me, but I am only able to use the channel that is already tuned. As soon as I try to switch to a different channel then XBMC crashes. It works fine on my Android phone, therefore it must be something with it running on the FireTV.
Gesendet von meinem Nexus 5 mit Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Am testing with TVH.
Opening a channel is ok, HD or SD (h264 1080i without deinterlace).
Zapping is an issue, no crash but video gets very choppy like 4fps sounds is ok. Stop and Play fixes the issue.
Is the XBMC Ouya still the best xbmc for fire tv atm ?
c0mm0n said:
Is the XBMC Ouya still the best xbmc for fire tv atm ?
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Click to collapse
No, the full 13.1 release for Android ARM from the main is best.
Thx !
Any special tip/setup on hw decoding ?
So I just purchased 2 of the FTV's and set them up for our kids. I installed XBMC and used Llama to run the program through classic TV as most have been doing. We setup the FTV's to run FreeTime which is easy for kids to navigate and provides the parental controls we are looking for. Problem is Llama won't run XBMC through classic TV when in FreeTime. Any suggestions?
furiousyellow09 said:
So I just purchased 2 of the FTV's and set them up for our kids. I installed XBMC and used Llama to run the program through classic TV as most have been doing. We setup the FTV's to run FreeTime which is easy for kids to navigate and provides the parental controls we are looking for. Problem is Llama won't run XBMC through classic TV when in FreeTime. Any suggestions?
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Click to collapse
Okay, let's get this correct.
You are autoloading XBMC correct? And thru XBMC you are running programs, like Amazon's Freetime? And then when in Freetime, LLama won't run XBMC?
Here is my guess. Since XBMC is already running and you are using it to run another program (Freetime), it can't load it self back up, nor can it switch to doing anything else, as it's already running Freetime, or it just doesn't have any more memory to give up.
I don't auto load XBMC up, nor do I run programs thru XBMC. My suggestion to fix this is: Don't use the XBMC launcher, get FireDtv launcher. Set your llama (not sure what this app is good for on the AFTV, seems great for a phone though). Move your XBMC icon so it's in the top left corner for easy access, and the Freetime icon will be right by it. I'm guess you won't have any trouble getting into XBMC from Freetime if you don't autoload XBMC up first.
If that isn't an option for ya, maybe someone who is more experienced in using XBMC autoloading and running other programs will have some ideas.
I actually got to see his setup. What he did was sideload Llama and set a trigger that when ClassicTV is active to load XBMC. It works fine in parent mode but when in Freetime mode it fails to work at all. This is repeatable.
He is going to try FireDtv but he isn't using XBMC to launch Freetime.
i am rooted and have the latest software up and running. i have kodi installed and all set up.
i would like to get rid of as much amazon crapware as possible. i don't want to offend any amazon lovers, its just the only reason i bought this device is to run xmbc (kodi) better than i was on my apple tv. so far i like it a lot better.
i would love to have it boot into a screen with two icons, netflix and xmbc. is this what you would call a Launcher? is the best one for what I'm after here? do you recommend anything else? maybe with some screen shots?
Thanks guys, Cody
Yes, you can do that. You can either do it with the launcher you linked (pretty much makes xbmc the central hub of the fire tv) or this, which I prefer:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2782307
With that launcher you can just show xbmc and netflix and quickly boot into either. Or with the xbmc launcher you can create a shortcut to netflix from within xbmc.
I got a fire tv stick . I am not happy with the user interface, I was lead to believe it would be different after a conversation with Amazon Customer Service.
I want to stick to open with a selection of user profiles. I want one that is for my kids and one for adults. I want the kids one to have restrictions on what they can access., i.e. parental controls. I would like these to extend into the apps like netflix.
Can I do this?
I found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2736774
that allows me to sideload apps to my fire tv stick. apps like XBMC.
But can I set the stick up to 1) boot to xbmc, 2) require a password on one account 3) establish parental controls on that account that extend to the various apps?
finally, do I need to root the stick to get it to boot to XBMC?
bc320 said:
I got a fire tv stick . I am not happy with the user interface, I was lead to believe it would be different after a conversation with Amazon Customer Service.
I want to stick to open with a selection of user profiles. I want one that is for my kids and one for adults. I want the kids one to have restrictions on what they can access., i.e. parental controls. I would like these to extend into the apps like netflix.
Can I do this?
I found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2736774
that allows me to sideload apps to my fire tv stick. apps like XBMC.
But can I set the stick up to 1) boot to xbmc, 2) require a password on one account 3) establish parental controls on that account that extend to the various apps?
finally, do I need to root the stick to get it to boot to XBMC?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can get it to boot to XBMC via Llama. Just have llama auto go to xbmc when the home app is open. I would recommend against this and just use llama to run ikonotv or classictv to just do basically the same. However, to each his own, and you can do as you please.
I personally keep the home launcher so that i can run the other stuff too, such as games or netflix. And the youtube app is better than xbmc's youtube app.
A better alternative (in my opinion) would be to use an alternate home launcher instead.
None of this requires root, but root (not on stick yet) can make it simpler, and speedier as it wouldn't load the default home app. I believe some of the launchers can intercept the home button and go there instead of amazon's home if you wish. XBMC is not built for firetv but rather android in general. It could have a lot of these powerful features if they programmed them in. Lot's of work by people who probably don't see the advantage to work gain ratio being worth it.
Hey gents!
Been scouring every nook and cranny for an option. I've got a Fire TV 2 5.2.1.0r2 rooted in the bedroom. I've got an nvidia shield in the living room, and I'm obsessed with the leanback launcher in comparison to the drab dark and gloomy fire tv home. I'm looking to replace it with HA Launcher and access prime content via the same prime launcher app I use on the shield. Don't much care for the music.
Has anyone found a way to utilize the home button to open a different app? It seems it would be reasonably easy to utilize a root app to reassign the home button on the remote to do this, but I am not sure. I do have the prerooted 5.2.1.0 installed so it does have adb already - and firestopper's single home click does not register. I am aware the double click certainly does not work at this time (or likely ever as development has stopped). With that said, has anyone found an alternative way to remap the fire tv home button?
Any suggestion is appreciated, savvy enough to figure it out from whatever app or tutorial may be provided.
I believe rbox's firetv mods "alternate launcher" will still allow you to make firestopper the default launcher on the most recent firmware, and then you can remap the home button through the firestopper settings. It works great for me as I can totally circumvent the amazon launcher this way, although I'm still on 5.0.5.