Tutorial XBMC FrodoGuide Light.v11

XBMC Frodo Guide (Light)

HenryFord

06/08/2013

HenryFord 2013 Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

1 | P a g e X B M C F r o d o G u i d e ( L i g h t ) V e r s i o n 1 . 1 H e n r y F o r d

Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 2

Prerequisites ............................................................................................................................................ 3

XBMC ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Download and Install XBMC ................................................................................................................ 4

Windows .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Mac OS............................................................................................................................................. 4

Linux ................................................................................................................................................ 4

Keyboard Binding ................................................................................................................................ 5

Setup your Content ............................................................................................................................. 6

Media-Manager ............................................................................................................................... 6

Movies ............................................................................................................................................. 7

TV-Shows ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Music ............................................................................................................................................. 12

Advanced Library Configuration .................................................................................................... 14

Playlists and the Context Menu......................................................................................................... 16

Playlists .......................................................................................................................................... 16

The Context Menu ......................................................................................................................... 19

Additional Settings ............................................................................................................................ 22

Library Settings .............................................................................................................................. 22

Customization .................................................................................................................................... 23

Skins ............................................................................................................................................... 23

Setup additional Add-ons .............................................................................................................. 25

Networking and external access ................................................................................................... 25

Extras ................................................................................................................................................. 25

Advanced-Launcher ....................................................................................................................... 25

Configure Gamepads ..................................................................................................................... 32

Configure Remote Control............................................................................................................. 34


Introduction Dont worry - this is going to be short: This guide was created after a lot of people complained that

getting into XBMC was kind of difficult for them. Thus I decided to create this guide to help them

and because you are reading this I assume Ill help you: Welcome to the XBMC-Frodo-Guide.

Note that this Guide may not be official (because I am not a member of Team XBMC), but it is

endorsed by Team XBMC and as such featured on Github and in the Wiki.

This is the light it only features the contents of XBMC. If you want to get a guide including the setup

and usage of sabnzbd+, Couch Potato and Sickbeard, check here:

forum.xbmc.org

At this point I also want to thank the community around the XBMC and the projects which rose in the

near context. Thanks go out to:

- Team XBMC For creating the XBMC in all its glory

- Angelscry Creator of the Advanced Launcher Add-On

- theMovieDB giving access to movie information via a free API

- theTVDB giving access to TV information via a free API

They put a lot of work into this and deserve to be appreciated. Take that into account and consider

donating something, because all of the mentioned projects are completely community-driven open-

source projects and they do not take a cent for the supplied software.

I am sure they will appreciate your support and of course your feedback. Leave a word and let

them know what youre thinking about their software. You may also want to visit the thread of this

guide and/or my homepage I surely appreciate your feedback as well:

- forum.xbmc.org Thread in the XBMC-Forums for this guide

- tbueter.com My Homepage

- tbueter.com/?page_id=324 The full Guide online (including comments)

Special Note:

In order to make XBMC what it is today, the communities around www.themoviedb.org and

www.thetvdb.com are also needed. You always can add information there, so go ahead and help out.

Now lets get started, shall we?


Prerequisites In order to use everything I present to you in this guide youll need a UseNet-account. You can skip

ahead if you do not want to download anything but just want to get started with XBMC. You can also

get this guide with the XBMC-Part only:

http://tbueter.com/XBMC/Guide/Frodo_Guide_XBMCOnly.pdf

The Usenet basically resembles modern internet-forums in many ways. The key difference here is

that the Usenet does not rely on a central server but rather on a distributed network. The Usenet can

be, in large parts, accessed for free. But in order to retrieve binary content (i.e. files) from the UseNet

you need to rely on a paid provider since there is no way to access this content without them

(granted there are a few free providers out there, but usually they are not that good and are

heavily limited). There are a lot of UseNet providers out there. I will recommend one, but you may

choose any other provider you like, there is no limitation to what provider youre going to use.

I recommend using astraweb since it is cheap and reliable, unfortunately I do not have tested any

other provider, so that is the only recommendation I can put out. If you want to add a provider to the

list, just let me know. A special offer for astraweb can be found here, and in my opinion the price-

performance ratio is totally worth it. Note: This link is no promotion link for me in any way this is

simply a time limited-infinite offer provided by astraweb. I do not, in any way, profit from you

clicking that link.


XBMC Homepage: http://www.xbmc.org

Download and Install XBMC You can get the XBMC here:

http://xbmc.org/download/

Windows

Click the Windows-Logo to get the newest stable Windows-Build for your machine. Download the

Setup-File and install it. It will also install the needed libraries (DirectX, C++), so it will take a little bit

to complete.

Mac OS

Download the current Mac-Version by clicking on the OSX-Logo (or if you run a PPC on the OSX-

PPC-Link beneath the logo) and save the DMG-File to your drive. Install the DMG by clicking on it.

Drag XBMC to your application folder as usual. You can delete the DMG-File after installation.

Linux

The installation varies between the different distributions of Linux. You may want to take a look at

the XBMC-Wiki; youll find instructions for the various distributions:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Installing_XBMC_for_Linux

After the installation launch your XBMC. You will be presented with the following screen:

You will notice that you cannot do anything right now, the Videos-Section is completely empty and so

is everything else. We are going to change that in the next step. At this point XBMC will also give you

some first-run help.


Keyboard Binding In order to control XBMC properly, you should know a few keyboard-bindings to get you started. This

will help you navigating through the XBMC and using its functions. It is important to know that the

XBMC uses different mappings for different views. So if you are playing a video in full screen the

button-mapping might change. I will show you some global mappings which will be used if no other

mapping is defined by the keyboard.xml-file. You can find all the proper commands which are used

by default on this XBMC-Wiki-Page:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Default_Controls

I will list the common, global commands:

Key Action, Description

O Displays CPU usage and video diagnostic information

P Play

Space Pause

X Stop

F Fast Forward

R Rewind

Left-arrow Left

Right-arrow Right

Up-arrow Up

Down-arrow Down

Page Up Page Up

Page Down Page Down

Return Select

Backspace Parent Directory (Step back)

Q Current Queue

W Mark file as Watched

M Activate OSD Player Controls (while playing media)

S Activate Shutdown Menu

Esc Home menu

I Media Info

C Context Menu

Period Skip Next

Comma Skip Previous

Tab Toggles full screen modes (either visualization or video playback)

Print Screen Screenshot

Minus (-) Volume Down

Plus (+) Volume Up

Zero (0) Number0

One (1) Number 1

Two (2) Number 2

Three (3) Number 3

Four (4) Number 4

Five (5) Number 5

Six (6) Number 6

Seven (7) Number 7

Eight (8) Number 8

Nine (9) Number 9

End Shutdown XBMC

Z Zoom


Setup your Content Sources - this is where XBMC looks for your media-files. The Sources will determine the content of

your library, they are necessary in order for XBMC to index your Music-/Video-Files into the proper

libraries. Be aware that you always should name your video- and music-sources according to XBMCs

set (more on this beneath). This will make sure that you have the best possible experience with

XBMC. Lets get started.

Media-Manager

Before we are adding your files to XBMC, we should make sure that the files are named properly.

Ideally you have your movie-files all in one folder. It does not matter if there are subfolders and/or

single files in this directory. The best way however is to use subfolders for each movie you have. The

folder should then be named according to the following Layout: Movie Name (Release-Year). The

part Release Year is technically not necessary but it will make sure that XBMC scrapes the right

movie and you have the right movie in your library. If you currently have not sorted your movie-

directory, you can do this with the help of some additional tools which are available. Some free tools:

Multiplatform

- UniversalMC - sourceforge.net

- Media Reader - forum.xbmc.org

- Mythical Librarian - wiki.xbmc.org (for Myth TV-Recordings)

Windows

- XBNE - forum.xbmc.org

- Media Companion - http://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/

- XMM2 - plyoung.com

- Ember Media Manager - sourceforge.net

Mac OS X

- ViMediaManager - forum.xbmc.org

Linux

- N/A

These tools will generate usable NFO-Files for the XBMC. NFO-Files are little text-files in which all

information about the movie is stored in a XML-Layout. If XBMC finds a NFO-File inside a subfolder, it

will use the information from this NFO rather than downloading the information from the internet.

For some more information on NFO-Files head down, youll find a section dedicated to them. A neat

function of the XBMC provides the possibility to play two video-files as if they are merged to one file.

This is helpful for movies which contain multiple CDs. If you have the movie The Matrix for example

split into two files, you should name those files like The Matrix.CD1.FileExtension and The

Matrix.CD2.FileExtension (this will be done by the media managers mentioned above as well). When

scraping this movie to the library, XBMC will know that this is supposed to be one movie and will

index the both files only as one movie in your library. If you then play this movie via the library in

your XBMC both files will be played the CD2 after CD1 ends seamlessly. You wont even notice

the cut between those (unless the files have an overlay of course) two.


Movies

To start adding a source for movies, hit the Videos button in the Home-menu (the screen you are

welcomed with after starting XBMC). If this is the first time youre accessing a menu, you will be

presented with the following help screen:

Setup the Sources

Hit OK to continue (make sure you read what the screen tells you though). Youre now accessing

the top of the videos-tree, click on Files here and hit Add Videos in the following screen. You

then will be presented with the Add Source-Screen:


Hit the Browse-Button and locate your movie-location. Click OK to move to the Content-Screen.

It will look like this (after you selected Movies under This directory contains):

This setup depends on how your movies are setup. Most of the management-programs listed in the

first section will be using separate folders for your movies. This means that you have one root folder

(for example D:\Movies) in which you have subfolders for every single movie you have (for

example D:\Movies\Lord.Of.The.Rings.-.The.Fellowship.of.the.Ring.(2001)). In this case activate the

radio-button next to Movies are in separate folders that match the movie name.

After you hit OK you will be asked if you want to refresh all item in the path. Press Yes here in

order to catalogue your movies right now.

The Library

Once you have scanned in your movies, you can use the library-section of XBMC. Head back to the

Home-Menu and click on the new item Movies. You will be presented with a screen similar to this

(except, of course, that you will see all of your movies instead):


The Library Views

You can now customize this screen the way you like it. You can choose different layouts and different

layers of information. Where you see only the poster, the fan art and the movie name in the first

screenshot, check out this one, where you can also see the information about the Genre, Length,

Rating, Story, etc.:

You can change the layout of the view by hovering on the little arrow on the left side another menu

will open where you can choose which layout you want:


TV-Shows

Without Sickbeard

If you do not want to use Sickbeard, you should pick a media manager which is also capable of

renaming your TV-shows to proper names. Another solution is SortTV which is multi-platform and

programmed by cliffe. You can find the thread here.

Setup Sources

With TV-Shows you also have the option to use locally stored NFO-Files for XBMC. In this case XBMC

will also use the provided information in the NFO-Files to check for your TV Shows. This will make

sure that you do not have problems with the scanning. Check the option in the sickbeard-config if

you want the Files to be created. Be aware that you should apply the naming-convention TV-Show-

Name (Starting-Year) to the subfolders holding your TV-Shows. This will make sure that you do not

get the wrong information.

Now head back to the XBMC, click on Videos, then on Files and click on Add Videos. Select your

TV-Show-Directory and click OK. In the Content-Screen you should then select TV Shows. If you

want to add everything right now, simply click on Yes after you hit OK.

The Library

You can now use the TV-Show library as well. Head back to the Home-Screen and click on the new

button TV Shows. You will be presented with a screen similar to this (except youll see your shows,

of course):


If you click on one of the titles of your shows, you can select an episode you want to watch.

The Library Views

As with movies, the TV Show library has different views from which you can choose. Above you see

only the poster, title and the fan art. But you can choose to display even more information one

special addition can be applied to the TV Show library: Episodic views. For example, below youll find

screens which display more information first for the TV Shows and then for the episodes:


If the TV Show you have collected has multiple seasons, you can also choose a special view for the

single seasons. The resulting structure in XBMC is as following:

Home-Screen TV Show ( Seasons) Episodes

Music

XBMC can also maintain your music library. In this case it is best to have the Tags setup properly. You

can set the tags with the help of a few programs, on freely available open-source tool is Musicbrainz

Picard.

Setup the Sources

To start adding Music to your XBMC, you have to choose between file or library mode. In either case

you have to add a source first. Head to the home-screen of XBMC and click on Music and then Add

Source. Choose the directory where you store your music and click on OK. Now you have to choose

what you want.

The File Mode

The File Mode does not require any additional setup from this point on. Just click on the source and

choose the music you want to play. You can add whole directories to the queue by opening the

context menu (see section The Context Menu).

The Library Mode

In this mode you have a library similar to the one of TV Shows and Movies. Your content will be

scanned to the library and will be used with additional information to provide the best experience to

you. To start using the library you have to scan the items to the library. Select the source of your

music and open the context menu (usually by pressing c) and click on Scan item to library. This

will induce XBMC to scan all content in the folder against the default scraper to your library. This can

take a while if your library is big. After the process is finished bring up the right handed side-menu by


hovering over it or pressing the UP-Arrow on your keyboard (assuming default settings) here

choose the entry Library Mode:

The Library/File Views

Now you can navigate your music by using different views and categories. You can for example

choose to browser your music by Artist, Genre, Songs, etc. (assuming you are using library mode at

this point)

You can also apply different views to nearly every single page in the music library. Here for instance is

a view of the albums (those views can also be applied to the file mode but not as versatile):


Advanced Library Configuration

Movie Sets

In XBMC Eden you have the possibility to easily group movies into sets. You may now the problem

that you have a collection of movies from the same set, but they dont sort like you wanted. Another

possible application is when you simply want a Movie-Set to be displayed as one entry in the Movie-

Section. An example would be the Lord of the Rings-Trilogy. The movies included:

1. Lord of The Rings The Fellowship of the Ring

2. Lord of the Rings The Two Towers

3. Lord of the Rings The Return of the King

You can now activate movie set grouping in the settings menu (Home-Screen -> Settings -> Videos ->

Library -> Group movies in sets). This will cause XBMC to display all those movies as one title in the

library, opening it will list every movie of the set. Note that this will only work if you selected the

The MovieDB scraper for your movie source. For every other scraper you will need to use NFO-Files

in order to sort the movies into sets. For the example above, the line that should be added to the

nfo-files of the movies which belong to the set:

Lord of the Rings Collection

Re-scrape the movies and they should display as one movie set in your library. See the example

below first the view upon the collection as a single title, then this collection opened up (note that

the collection view can indeed have a own view set):


NFO-Files

NFO-Files can influence many aspects of XBMCs library. For more information visit the XBMC-Wiki:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title...ining_XML_data

Automatic cleaning of the library

If you delete a lot of movies/TV Shows after you have watched them, you will notice that the XBMC

will not clean these files if you launch the Library-Update. You can erase those movies only if you pick

the Clean Library-Function in the settings-menu. Another solution however would be to put a file

advancedsettings.xml into your XBMC-Userdata-Folder. For Windows just hit Windows-Key + R

and type %AppData%/XBMC/userdata. Create a new text-file with the following content inside this

directory:

true

Rename the file to advancedsettings.xml and restart your XBMC. Your XBMC will now clean your

video-library every time it updates it.

Warning: You should be aware that cleaning your library may result in unexpected behavior. If your media-

sources for example are located on an External Drive and you launch the cleaning while the drive is

disconnected, your whole library will be erased! If the media somehow isnt available, you are going

to lose everything stored in the library.


AdvancedSettings.xml

You can do a lot more with the advancedsettings.xml for more information check the XBMC-Wiki:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Advancedsettings.xml

Playlists and the Context Menu The Context Menu enables you to access many additional features of XBMC, so I will present a few of

them. In this section I will also introduce you to playlists, with which you can build special playlists for

every occasion.

Playlists

What are playlists? Playlists contain multiple items in a specified order, which then can be played by

XBMC in that same order. Playlist can be built from different settings, some of them statically, some

of the dynamically. You could for example have a Playlist that features every item in your TV-Show

library with the resolution 720p, but you could also have a playlist that is featured with every item of

the genre Action and is at least 1h long. You can fully customize them for your needs.

Building a Playlist

In order to build a playlist, you first have to decide what type of playlist you want to build. I will

introduce you to Video-Playlists, but Music-Playlists work essentially the same. First off, navigate to

the Home-Menu and click on Videos and then on the entry Playlists. Now click on the entry New

Smart Playlist and you will be presented with the following screen:


Example 1 - Movies that have at least 720p resolution

Setup:

Result:


Example 2 Unwatched TV-Show Episodes

Setup:

Result (of course: you can set own views here too!):


The Context Menu

The context menu gives access to a host of different functions for XBMC. Ill give you some examples,

to show you, that it is a powerful tool.

Accessing the current queue

XBMC has a playlist of currently running items, called a Queue. This playlist behaves just like every

other playlist you can add items to it, you can save it, you can edit it, etc.

To access this playlist you have to have some items in it. So go down do you TV-Show section (or

movie-section, for that matter) and mark any Show. Bring up the context menu (usually by pressing

c on your keyboard) and click on Queue item. Now bring up the context menu again and you will

find a new entry called Now Playing click this item to access the playlist of currently queued

items:

You can now interact with the playlist you can for example save it, Shuffle the items (randomize the

items) or repeat it:


TV Show/Episode/Movie Information

Via the context menu you can also access more information on any given resource. You can for

example get more information on the Writers, Directory, etc. of a specific movie. Here is an example:

Different skins can have different options available. For example there are some skins which feature

a Trailer-Option. This will automatically search for a trailer and play it. The standard skin does not

include this feature however. To access this screen, just press Episode Information/TV Show

Information/Movie Information (depending on the resource selected) in the context menu.


Favorites

In XBMC you can also setup a special list of items: Your favorites. Your favorites can be all kind of

resources just bring up the context menu when you selected an item (really: any item except for

the home-screen items) and click on Add to Favorites. The item will be added to your Favorites-List.

This list can be accessed via the home-menu.

The Shutdown Menu

There is another special menu in XBMC which is called the Shutdown Menu. The Shutdown Menu

can be used to exit XBMC, shutdown the computer (hence the name), restart the computer, etc.

Different skins have different Shutdown-Menus which also include different features. This is an

example of the default shutdown menu included in the default skin (called Confluence):

Link to TV Show

Sometimes you have movies which are based on a TV Show. XBMC has a special handling for those

movies bring up the context menu while the specific movie is select and hit Link to TV Show

then select the TV Show it is based on. The movie will then show up in the season list of that TV

Show:


Additional Settings

Library Settings

Navigate back to the Home-Window (hit Backspace to get back) and open up the Settings-Menu.

Open the Video-Tab and click on the Library-Tab. I recommend using Automated Scan on

Startup, this way you make sure that every new file you add will be there after you restart your

XBMC. I will explain later how you can start the scan by yourself. Remember the Clean Library-

Button if you delete files out of the folders you specified under your Sources it still will show up in

the library of XBMC, even after you scanned for new content. To remove dead entries hit the button

Clean Library, it will remove them.

Warning: You should be aware that cleaning your library may result in unexpected behavior. If your media-

sources for example are located on an External Drive and you launch the cleaning while the drive is

disconnected, your whole library will be erased! If the media somehow isnt available, you are going

to lose everything stored in the library.


Customization

Skins

You can apply complete new skins to your XBMC which will change the look and feel of XBMC

entirely. I am currently using the Aeon Nox skin, although you might prefer something else. To

install a new skin, open up the Appearance-Settings. You will find an option Skin click here to

open the Skin-Selector. Click on the More-Button at the bottom of the selector. Choose the skin

you want to try and it will download. After the download completes you will be asked to switch to

the skin choose what you like.


Skin Settings

A Skin can have a different set of settings which can be applied to your setup. You can access those

settings usually via Settings Skin. Here is an example for Aeon Nox:

You can usually customize the whole layout of the skin including the buttons which are displayed in

the home-screen. Play a little bit around with those settings to find out what theyre doing and see

what you like best.

Extras-Skins

There are several skins with advanced features which can be applied to your TV-Library. As an

example, your skin may support either TV-Show-Logos or TV-Show-Tunes. A logo should be self-

explanatory it is a title-image for the specified show. The Tunes will play as soon as you navigate to

one of your show (e.g. If you have a show called 30 Rock and a proper tunes-file in the folder of 30

Rock, the tune will play as soon as you hit the 30 Rock-entry in the library.

For both of those features most supported skins have built-in support and scripts in order to get the

necessary stuff. Search for an option Run logo script and/or Run tunes script which will then

download the necessary files in order to view the advanced features. You may have to apply these

features in additional settings of your skin.

Bear in mind that both features generally require some hacking on the skin-developers end. If you

have any problems with the scripts, please report them to the maker of these scripts. XBMC by

default does not have any support for those features built in.

There are a lot of possible features a screen for upcoming TV Shows built in, Trailers, etc. be

sure to check out multiple skins to find out which feature you like best and what you want to use in

your daily setup.


Setup additional Add-ons

You can expand your XBMC-Experience by installing Add-Ons/Plugins. Since XBMC Dharma we have a

repository installed from which we can choose additional Add-ons/Plugins. You can find this sub-

section on the home-screen. Hit the Add-On-Section in XBMC and choose Get Add-ons browse

and install what you like. Add-Ons can feature many different features so be sure to check out what

you might like and see if it fits your needs.

Repositories

You have the option to install extended repositories which will enhance the available Add-Ons for

your experience. To find repositories just check this site in the XBMC-Wiki:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Unofficial_Add-on_Repositories

Download the Zip-File, open up the Settings -> Add-Ons-Menu and choose the option Install

from Zip-File. From the dialog-window pick the downloaded zip-file. After the installation you can

choose Add-Ons from this repository. If you do not see any Add-Ons after you added the Repository,

navigate to the Repository (Add-Ons -> Get Add-ons); bring up the context-menu and hit

Refresh Repository in order to load available entries to the database.

Networking and external access

XBMC has advanced features available. Several external applications can make use of these features

in order to communicate with the XBMC. They also have the possibility to actually control the XBMC.

These advanced features require you to enable the http-access of the XBMC because it is not enabled

by default. This can be done under Settings -> Network. You also have the possibility to share

your libraries via UPnP. This again gives you the opportunity to use DLNA-certified devices with your

XBMC this way you can share and stream the contents of your library. Be advised though: XBMC

will share nothing which is not indexed in your library. A list of compatible software/hardware can be

found here (it may be incomplete):

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=UPnP_Sharing

In order to use the Webserver of XBMC properly I advise to use a predefined IP instead of obtaining

one via DHCP. This way youll always know where your XBMC is located. This also comes in handy

when using Sickbeard, Couch Potato and sabNZBd+. This however is not required you always can

access the XBMC, Sickbeard, Couch Potato and sabNZBd+ via localhost (if you do not change the

default settings, that is).

After enabling web access you can secure your XBMC with a username and a password. Just enter

the values in the boxes below the option. By default XBMC restricts access from the network to your

machine. Every request coming from another machine than the XBMCs machine will be rejected.

You can lift this restriction by enabling the Allow programs on other systems to control-Option in

the network-settings.

Extras

Advanced-Launcher

The Advanced Launcher is an add-on which was developed by XBMC-Community-Member Angelscry.

This Add-On enables you to launch installed programs on your computer from inside the XBMC.


Through this Add-On you practically can build a library from programs/games which are installed on

your machine. The Add-On also makes use of some advanced features for emulator-applications. You

can add specific Command-Line options in order to browse and launch your games which are running

through an emulator. This again gives you the opportunity to index your Nintendo 64 games for

instance which are present as ROM-Files on your system and launch them with the proper emulator.

The Add-On also features scraping mechanisms. These will scrape the information about your games

like XBMC does with TV Shows and Movies. In order to enable the Add-On I recommend adding the

repository to your XBMC. Once the repository is added, Advanced Launcher will update itself if you

install it. This way you stay on top of current developments.

In order to install the Repository go to your settings-menu and open up Add-Ons. You should see a

line Install from zip-file. Choose this option and in the dialog that appears navigate to the file you

downloaded from this location:

http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-advanced-

launcher/downloads/detail?name=repository.angelscry.xbmc-plugins.1.2.0.zip

Afterwards click on the Button Get More and choose the newly installed repository. Under

Program Add-Ons you should find an entry Advanced Launcher click it in order to install it. If

you do not see any entries in this repository, navigate back and open up the context menu while

highlighting the right repository (It should be Angelscry Add-On Repository) and choose the option

Force Refresh now go back inside the repository, you should see everything now. After the

installation completes head to the next section.

Hint

For the Windows-Version of XBMC you should disable the full screen for Advanced Launcher to

work properly. Head to Settings -> System in your XBMC and click on the menu Video Output.

You will see a line Use a full screen window rather than true full screen set this option active.

Configuration

You have some options available for Advanced Launcher which will help you with your setup. Click on

the Add-On again in order to bring up the Add-On-Page. You will find an option Configure inside

it. After you clicked this option you will be presented with the options-screen of the Advanced

Launcher. Configure it to your likes (I heavily borrowed from the tutorial at

http://www.gwenael.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3 ):

General

This menu contains general configuration options for Advanced Launcher.

Launchers Thumbs Default Path

Define the default folder in which your thumbs are being stored (more in the section

Thumbnail/Fanart/Rom-Folders below). If not defined Advanced Launcher will ask for the folder-path

whenever you create a new launcher.

Launchers Fanart Default Path

Define the default folder in which your fanarts are being stored (more in the section


Thumbnail/Fanart/Rom-Folders below). If not defined Advanced Launcher will ask for the folder-path

whenever you create a new launcher.

Action on Playing Media

Define an action that will be executed if you are currently playing media when you launch an

application. The available options are: stop (stop the current playback when launching an

application), put into pause (pause current playback), or let to play (just let the current playback

continue).

Recursive Scan

Activate or deactivate the capability or Advanced Launcher to recursively scan items in subfolders.

Data & Infos

This menu contains configuration options for the data scrapers.

Scraper Source

Define the scraper-source. The data-scraper will look here in order to receive information about your

stored media-files. Results may differ depending on the kind of games you scrape.

Import during scan

Select which method will be used to import the data (when you run a scan for new items): None

(nothing will be imported), Semi-automatic (you will be asked to select from a list of results) and

Automatic (will automatically select the first matching result).

Ignore BIOS Files

This option is dedicated for MAME games. When activated, Advanced Launcher will automatically

ignore any detected BIOS files during folders scan.

Clean Items Titles

Activate or deactivate the clean title option. For example, the title Alien Invaders (1983)(UA

Ltd.)[aka Alien aka Les Envahisseurs Etrangers] will be displayed as Alien Invaders. Any text after

brackets will be ignored.

Titles formatting

When activated any articles at the beginning of a title (like "The", "An" or "A") will be placed at the

end of the title.

Covers & Thumbs

This menu contains configuration options for the thumb-image-scraper.

Scraper Source


stored media-files. Results may differ depending on the kind of games you scrape.

Thumbs Region

Select the geographic region (America, Japan or Europe) for the box-art. If this is not activated the

first found thumbnail will be used.


Images Size

Select the resolution (size) of the images which will be downloaded while scraping.

Import during scan

Select which method will be used to import the data (when you run a scan for new items): None



Overwrite Existing Files

If this option is selected, existing thumbnail images will be overwritten by new scraped ones.

Screen & Fanarts This menu contains configuration options for the fanart-image-scraper.

Scraper Source


stored media-files. Results may differ depending on the kind of games you scrape

Images Size

Select the resolution (size) of the images which will be downloaded while scraping.

Import during scan

Select which method will be used to import the fanarts (when you run a scan for new items): None



Overwrite Existing Files

If this option is selected, existing fanart images will be overwritten by new scraped ones.

Debug Menu

This menu contains configuration options for debugging Advanced Launcher. It could be used by

advanced users during the built-up of their XBMC/Advanced Launcher/Scripts/Executable Application

system.

Show Batch command windows

This option show/hide the window display of started .BAT scripts by advanced launcher on windows

operating system.

Sources

The Advanced Launcher-Add-On uses your program-sources. In order to add a source to this

specific type you have to do the following: Go back to your home-screen and select the programs

item (assuming you are using the Confluence-Skin which is default) - do not open the menu-item! -

and click on the arrow next to the title Programs. A little menu should extend select Files in this

menu. In the next screen add a source via the Add Source-Button. Now technically it does not

matter what you add as a source. In order to use your whole hard-drive just add the whole hard-

drive to the sources, you wont have any side-effects (except you will have to navigate more while

creating new launchers).


Thumbnail/Fanart/Rom-Folders

I recommend using separate standard-folders. Create a folder on your hard-drive for the Advanced

Launcher-Thumbnails and Fanarts. Advanced Launcher can download those images automatically

while scraping for new games but more on that later. The Thumbnails represent the Box-Arts of the

several games (like the poster in the movie-section) and the Fanarts are exactly the same as in the

video-library. Several Skins have own views defined for Advanced Launcher, you can use them in

order to make use of the advanced features like Fanarts. It is also recommended that you keep the

ROM-Files in a folder, where you have subfolders for the different gaming systems. So you would

have a Folder ROM-Files with the subfolders N64 and PS2 for instance this way you can

handle the setup in a quicker, easier way. If you want to add Windows-Games to your Advanced

Launcher I also recommend using a subfolder inside the ROM-Folder for shortcuts. Place a shortcut

(an .lnk-file note it is an l as in low) to the exe-file of the games you want to add inside this

folder.

Adding a Launcher

When you run Advanced Launcher for the first time (click on the programs item in the home-menu in

order to bring it up) it will ask you to add a launcher. You will be presented with two different

choices: Standalone and File launcher. For explanation: The Standalone simply runs an

executable which sits on your hard-drive while the File launcher is used to start an application with

a special file passed to it. So for example you will run an emulator with a ROM-File passed to it, so

that the emulator will then begin to run the ROM you passed to it. In order to use this feature with

an application, this application has to understand command-line arguments.

The general configuration of those two launchers:

Standalone Launcher

1. Select the Standalone (normal PC executable) option

2. Browse and select the executable file of the application you want to start

3. In the next window you can pass command-line arguments. If the application you want to

run does not need any arguments or does not support them you can leave this field blank.

Otherwise just fill in the argument you have to pass.

4. This title will be used when viewing the application in Advanced Launcher.

5. Choose the game platform. This indicates the platform of your game-system for the image-

/data-scrapers. If you do not add a game but an application, this option does not matter.

If you did not configure Advanced Launcher to use default fanart- and thumbnail-folders you have to

do these steps too, otherwise youre through at this point:

6. Select the thumbnail path. This is the folder where the thumbnail image of the launcher will

be downloaded to. If there is already an image (jpeg, gif, png or bmp format) with the same

name as the executable file (can include the _thumb suffix),, this image will be automatically

used for the launcher.

7. Select the fanart path. This is the folder where the fanart image of the launcher will be

downloaded to. If there is already an image (jpeg, gif, png or bmp format) with the same

name as the executable (can include the _fanart suffix), this image will be automatically used

for the launcher.


File launcher

(Youll find more specific explanations on the items below indicated with a *)

1. Select the File launcher (e.g. game emulator) option.

2. Browse and select the executable file of the application you want to use (the emulators

exe-file for instance)*.

3. Enter the arguments you want to use with the application**. To fill these arguments you

have the possibility to use 5 variables:

%rom% : this tag will be replaced by the complete path of the file.

%romfile% : this tag will be replaced by the filename (name + extension).

%romname% : this tag will be replaced by the name of a file (name without extension).

%appath% : this tag will be replaced by the folder path of started executable file.

%rompath%: this tag will be replaced by the folder path of launched files.

4. Select the folder containing the file which will be launched with the application you choose

(the folder of your ROM-Files for instance well call this folder ROM-Folder from this point

onwards)

5. Indicate the files extensions that will be listed by the launcher. The extension must be

separated using the | character***.

6. Indicate the title of the launcher. The Launcher will be displayed using this defined title.

7. Choose a platform. The selected option will correspond to the platform system of the started

application or emulated system. This option will be used by the scrapers to identify the

games in the ROM-Folder****.

8. Select the thumbnails path. This folder contains all the thumbnails of the items inside the

ROM-Folder not of launcher itself! If there is already an image (jpeg, gif, png or bmp format)

with the same name as an item in the folder you defined (including the _thumb suffix) this

image will be automatically used with that item.

9. Select the fanarts path. This folder contains all the fanarts of the items inside the ROM-

Folder not of launcher itself If there is already an image (jpeg, gif, png or bmp format) with

the same name as an item in the folder you defined (including the _thumb suffix) this image

will be automatically used with that item.

*= If you want to add Windows-Games just choose any application, it does not matter what you

select, the launcher will always launch the shortcut which is placed in the directory.

**= The arguments are defined by your application. If you use an emulator for instance, there is the

highly possible chance that it can use command-line-arguments to pass a certain file. So normally you

could just open a command-line window in Windows and type something like Path\to\emulator.exe

s Path\to\ROM-File.rom to launch a desired ROM-file inside the emulator. Advanced Launcher

makes use of those command-line arguments. So in this case it would be the argument -s followed

by the path to the actual ROM-File which is needed by the emulator to launch directly to load a ROM.

You then should type the following into the argument-textbox: -s %romfile%

If you do not know what command-line arguments you can use with what application you should

look on the page of the emulator. It most likely will explain the command-line usage somewhere in

the manual or the wiki.


***= For Windows-Games type lnk (l as in low) in order to start the right applications.

Otherwise choose the file-extension of the ROM-Files. If you have more than one file-extension per

file-type you can add multiple extension, separated with the |-character.

****= For Windows-Games choose IBM PC Compatible

You will notice that after adding a File launcher you have no items in it, regardless of the contents

of the ROM-Folder. This is because Advanced Launcher needs to be instructed to add the items to

the launcher. Highlight the specific launcher in Advanced Launcher and open up the Context-Menu

(c on your keyboard) pick the item Add Items from the list. In the next step you will be asked

how the items in that folder should be scraped. In automatic-mode Advanced Launcher will scrape

all items in the folder automatically using the scrapers you defined in the configuration. Advanced

Launcher will use the best matching title and does the rest alone (including the import of Thumbnails

and Fanarts). If you pick the manual-mode Advanced Launcher will prompt you for an item. Specify

an item you want to add and Advanced Launcher will scrape it. You could also choose an item which

is not located in the ROM-Folder but somewhere else. This can take a while of course depending on

the contents of your ROM-Folder. After it finishes importing, the File launcher will open itself and

youll see all the scraped items.

Advanced

Look at this post for more features and a take on how to use them:

http://www.gwenael.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3

In order to make full use of the Advanced Launcher it is probable that you want an item for it on the

home-screen so you do not have to go to Programs -> Add-Ons every time. Most skins allow you to

add items to the home-screen which are present in you Favorites-File. To add Advanced Launcher

itself to your list of favorites navigate to Programs -> Add-Ons and highlight Advanced Launcher,

then bring up your context-menu and pick the item Add to favorites. You also have the possibility

to add the specific launchers to your favorites. Just open Advanced Launcher, highlight the specific

launcher and open up the context-menu. Pick here Add to favorites as well.

Now get back to your settings-menu and choose the option Skin from the list. Open up the section

for Custom Home you can now pick individual home-screen items to display.

Skins

A few skins feature an integrated library for Advanced Launcher, so that different views can be

applied to Advanced Launcher. Here is an example for Aeon Nox:


Configure Gamepads

This is an explanation of the various Keymap-Files. The Keymap-Files control in which way your

Gamepad will interact with the XBMC if it is connected. You can map any button to a lot of actions in

XBMC. This way you are able to use your XBMC in a more comfortable way.

This guide shows the steps for an Xbox-360-Controller but can be applied to every Gamepad which is

recognized and the proper driver is installed...

Important

If your controller does not work or/and you are using XBCD for your controller, you have to check the

correct button-assignments which are used by SDL. Start your XBMC and open up the settings. Go

into the system-settings and click on Debug. Enable the Debug-Logging. Now press every key on

your gamepad and remember in which order you pressed them (better yet write it down). Quit

XBMC and hit Windows-Key + R on your keyboard. In the little text-box that appears write

%APPDATA%\XBMC\ and hit Enter. Open up the file xbmc.log with a text-editor. You then should

see something like the following:

NOTICE: Enabled Joystick: XBOX 360 for Windows (Controller) NOTICE: Details: Total Axis: 5 Total Hats: 1 Total Buttons: 10 And the buttons which have been pressed are below. Now it is important that you notice the

correct Joystick-Name, because we will need it later. Also write down the button-assignment which is

used by XBMC (compare your notes in which order you pressed them and you should be able to

match them).

For the Xbox-360-Controllers (Wired and Wireless) the Button-Layout is the following:

Button id 1 = A Button id 2 = B Button id 3 = X Button id 4 = Y


Button id 5 = Left Shoulder Button Button id 6 = Right Shoulder Button Button id 7 = back Button id 8 = start Button id 9 = left stick button Button id 10 = right stick button axis limit="1" id="2" Up on left stick axis limit="+1" id="2" Down on left stick axis limit="1" id="3" Left on left stick axis limit="+1" id="3" Right on left stick axis limit="1" id="1" Left Trigger axis limit="+1" id="1" Right Trigger axis limit="1" id="4" Up on right stick axis limit="+1" id="4" Down on right stick axis limit="1" id="5" Left on right stick axis limit="+1" id="5" Right on right stick hat id="1" position="up" Up on DPAD hat id="1" position="right" Right on DPAD hat id="1" position="down" Down on DPAD hat id="1" position="left" Left on DPAD Simple steps to create your own keymap.xml:

1. Go to your XBMC-Folder and open the subfolder system\keymaps

2. Copy the Xbox-Joystick-XML-File

3. Hit Windows-Key + R and type %APPDATA%\XBMC\userdata\keymaps

4. Paste the copy of the XML-file into this folder

5. Open the XML-File with a file-editor

6. Replace everything after the tag with the name of the

controller you wrote down before.

7. Create/Change the nodes for your needs. Check the Wiki for Instructions (more below).

8. Done, you should be up and running! (Note: You must restart the XBMC in order to apply the

changes you made)

Good to know

Here is a list of actions you can use:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keymap.xml#Actions

The full list of actions is here:

http://xbmc.svn.sourceforge.net/view...pp?view=markup

Look at the part below "static const ActionMapping actions[] =" .

On the left side you find the name to use for the action, on the right side the action which is

executed. You can also run XBMC's internal commands, just put "XBMC." before function

(XBMC.Function).


A list of commands is here:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=List_of_Built_In_Functions

And a list of available windows (for the OpenWindow-Function):

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Window_IDs

Example:

http://pastebin.com/jCd9czvg

Configure Remote Control

You can also use remote controls in order to control the XBMC. Since this would blow up the guide,

Ill link to the XBMC-Wiki pages here. You can get information on how to use the different remotes

over there.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Remote_controls

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Using_a_remote_control_with_XBMC

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Remote_control_reviews

creen, just press Episode Information/TV Show Information/Movie Information (depending on

the resource selected) in the context menu.

ContentsIntroductionPrerequisitesXBMCDownload and Install XBMCWindowsMac OSLinux

Keyboard BindingSetup your ContentMedia-ManagerMultiplatformWindowsMac OS XLinux

MoviesSetup the SourcesThe LibraryThe Library Views

TV-ShowsWithout SickbeardSetup SourcesThe LibraryThe Library Views

MusicSetup the SourcesThe File ModeThe Library ModeThe Library/File Views

Advanced Library ConfigurationMovie SetsNFO-FilesAutomatic cleaning of the libraryAdvancedSettings.xml

Playlists and the Context MenuPlaylistsBuilding a PlaylistExample 1 - Movies that have at least 720p resolutionExample 2 Unwatched TV-Show Episodes

The Context MenuAccessing the current queueTV Show/Episode/Movie InformationFavoritesThe Shutdown MenuLink to TV Show

Additional SettingsLibrary Settings

CustomizationSkinsSkin SettingsExtras-Skins

Setup additional Add-onsRepositories

Networking and external access

ExtrasAdvanced-LauncherConfigurationGeneralData & InfosCovers & ThumbsDebug Menu

SourcesThumbnail/Fanart/Rom-FoldersAdding a LauncherStandalone LauncherFile launcher

AdvancedSkins

Configure GamepadsGood to knowExample:

Configure Remote Control

Tutorial XBMC FrodoGuide Light.v11

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