Just as some one tries to outrun Microsoft, they return to the field with most innovative ideas. After the enormous success of their gaming console PlayStation Sony Corporation was promising to that, they will remove the Windows from the market. This evoked Microsoft to land in the console market, they came up with Xbox and it shook the world market of gaming. Xbox soon ate large part of PlayStation’s market. To lead the market of seventh generation of gaming consoles they are back with an astonishing idea. Basic of their idea is cross platform, they are planning to connect Xbox 360 with many operating systems. This is termed, as XBMC (media centre) Originally only Microsoft Windows was considered compatible as there will not be any problems relating licensing. However, considering the popularity of Xbox 360 many other operating systems also joined the race. Other leading operating systems working with XBMC are Linux and Mac OS X.

Other than allowing, you to play video games shared on operating systems, it also supports many other media options like video, audio, image formats, audio visualization, weather reporting, slideshows and third party plugins. To make it more convenient to use, network capability is used with internet and LAN shares. XBMC is expandable through ads-ons through its plugin system, which is based on Python. You can include many features like YouTube, online movie trailer support, and television program guide. Podcast/SHOUTcast is also available through streaming.

The latest stable version of XBMC available for Xbox 360 is 8.10-point release version. It was codenamed as Atlantis and was released on November 13, 2008. XBMC for Xbox is an open Source software program that is why is stored in publicly accessed Subversion server. The code is constantly updated by developers, so sometimes the subversion server contains more features than the most recent recent stable release. XBMC with Xbox can be run as an application. It can also be run as a dashboard that appears directly when the Xbox is turned on. XBMC runs on Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is a 32-bit application but runs well on 64-bit windows and hardware as well.

In the cross platform version of XBMC, it got few limitations. XBMC can only read first session of a multisession burnt CD or DVD media disc. It is because XBNC does not support multisession authored CD/DVD media. Second most important limitation of XBMC is that video/audio files, which are protected with DRM, can not be accessed. Any music purchased from MSN Music, iTunes Music Store, or Audible.com cannot be accessed from XMBC. XBMC proved that it is trustworthy and received two SourceForge awards for Best Multimedia Project and Best Game Project. So do not get upset if you do not have Xbox 360 to play with your friends, just get in touch with XMBC and rock the world.

Game Server Social Bookmarking