XBMC 12.0 "Frodo" beta has new AE audio subsystem

The XBMC 12 front end
Source: XBMC The XBMC development team has released the first beta of version 12 of its open source media centre software. Code-named "Frodo" after the username of one of the project's now-retired founders, XBMC 12.0 will be a major update to the media player application and will include a completely rewritten audio sub-system, live TV and PVR support, and various other enhancements.

The new AudioEngine (AE) audio subsystem, which was first merged into XBMC in at the end of May, brings support for high-definition audio, including the DTS-HD "Master Audio" and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel surround sound formats. AE also supports high quality 24-bit and floating-point audio at up to 384,000Hz. Among the most anticipated new XBMC features is the ability to watch and record live TV and PVR/DVR capabilities.

Other changes include 64-bit support for Mac OS X systems, improvements to AirPlay functionality on all platforms, updates to UPnP sharing and Advanced Library Filtering. The beta also introduces initial support for the Android platform as well as a version for the Raspberry Pi mini-computer.

More details about the release, including a full list of new features and known issues, can be found in the announcement blog post. Aimed at testers, XBMC 12.0 Beta 1 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, iOS and Apple TV, and as a standalone XBMCbuntu LiveCD image.

Hosted on GitHub, source code for XBMC is licensed under the GPLv2. The latest stable release is XBMC 11 "Eden" from late March.

See also:

• Amarok and XBMC celebrate tenth anniversaries, a report from The H.
• Open media centre XBMC 11 "Eden" released, a report from The H.

(crve)