XBMC Media Center (formerly Xbox Media Center) is a free and open source cross-platform media player and home entertainment system software with a 10-foot user interface designed for the living-room TV. Its graphical user interface (GUI) allows the user to easily manage video, photos, podcasts, and music from a computer, optical disc, local network, and the internet using a remote control.
XBMC, developed originally for XBox, is an open source media center for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X and XBox. It allows you to manage and play movies, music and pictures. The program is particularly suited for use on a Media PC. Using the Best MKV player for Mac can allow you to watch the videos you want. The 5 Best MKV Players for Mac OS X to Download in 2016 Here are a total of 5 MKV players for you to choose from.
It is a popular alternative to Microsoft's Windows Media Center and Apple's Front Row for HTPC (Home Theater PC) use. Similar to competing software like MediaPortal and MythTV, it has a skinnable as well as user-configurable interface and plugin support. The latest stable release of XBMC also have an integrated digital distribution platform 'app store' / 'app market' called 'Addons Manager' that has a growing list of community driven addon plugins for online content like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, Grooveshark, Pandora Radio, as well and themes (skins) and more available from a common official repository, while still enabling third-party developers to also host their own unofficial repositories for addon plugins that any user can choose to add themselves if they like.
XBMC Features
- XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, and Windows.
- While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your Home Theater PC
- Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.
- Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around.
- Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.
Updates : XBMC Media Center Updates
By Mike Wuerthele
Thursday, December 01, 2016, 08:16 am PT (11:16 am ET)
A highly-regarded media browser and playback tool, Plex Media Player, has exited subscriber-only status, and is now free for Mac users.Thursday, December 01, 2016, 08:16 am PT (11:16 am ET)
With the update, the Plex Media Player also has been given a 'desktop mode' allowing for selection of media to be played back in a desktop environment, rather than something oriented for a television.
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/8/125880948/260687183.png)
The now free Plex Media Player for Mac requires OS X 10.9 Mavericks or later, and runs only in 64-bit mode. Full utilization of the player utilizing network playback from a server or network attached storage devices requires a subscription to the Plex Pass, which ranges from $5 per month to $150 for a lifetime subscription.
The iOS and tvOS Plex apps are still free, but require a one-time activation fee of $5 to stream more than one minute of video from a Plex Media Server.
Both Plex and Kodi started out as branches of the XBMC player project dating back nearly to the turn of the century. Plex says that the Kodi plug-in will be released publicly beyond just subscribers to the Plex Pass.
Plex has also recently announced the beta for streaming video from the Amazon Drive cloud service.