• Fixed a rare issue where the update system does not get triggered.
• Fixed an issue where videos continue playing on a black screen (thanks popcornmix)
• TVHeadend updated to version 3.4.
• Fix a bug where the firewall does not disable despite being disabled via Raspbmc Settings.
• USB DACs and PulseAudio support is supported in XBMC 12.2 again. Note that this is an unofficial addon maintained by the Raspbmc team, rather than being supported by XBMC directly, which is why it took some time to port to 12.2.
• Better compliance with upstream Debian (using apt-get upgrade)

It is sad for me to announce that Raspbmc’s other developer, s7mx1 is no longer active. He brought excellent things to the project and was key in development of Raspbmc from early May to February this year. Since early February he has not been actively involved with development. Aside from the moderation and testing team, this leaves me as the sole developer.

To get the update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi. Note that if you have disabled updates via Raspbmc Settings, you’ll need to enable them first, and if you’re running a nightly build, you’ll need to switch to ‘xbmc release’ in Raspbmc Settings to get back to the stable builds we ship as default.

If you enjoy Raspbmc, and this update, and would like to support continued development, you can make a donation here.

Thank you, and enjoy!

• Fixed infinite loop on addon dependencies, resolves crashing problem that arrose immediately post 12.1 launch
• Numerous UPnP fixes
• Memory leak fixed when XBMC is minimized
• Various Raspberry Pi playback fixes and software codec support
• Fixed OSX audio mixing
• Fixed some audio-related crashes in Linux builds
• AirPlay fixes
• Bluray folder resume-bookmarks now work
• Ability to scan for new content on file folders has been reimplemented
• Language updates from Transifex

We’d like to thank everyone involved with improving XBMC and delivering such a great media experience. Keep it up guys!

Please note that due to changes in the DVDPlayer and OMXPlayer code we are unable to yet deliver a Pulse Audio enabled build, because of the haste at which this build was delivered. For now, users are recommended to use nightly builds before the 5th May if they wish to use a USB DAC.

To get this update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi and it will install automatically within a few minutes. Please note if you are currently on a nightly build, you will need to manually switch to this build after the update. This can be done by going into Raspbmc Settings -> Nightly Build Configuration -> Switch builds and selecting ‘xbmc release’.

Thank you for using Raspbmc!

Here’s what this update brings:

• XBMC Frodo build updated to include new bug fixes and stability improvements
• Fixed issue where volume changes every time a new track begins (thanks Dom)
• Fixed issue with cache buffer size
• Fix a regression in Upstart in recent Raspbian root filesystem builds
• Ensure valid XML generation with non-standard characters (Windows Installer)
• Fixed an issue with xinet configuration in XBMC
• Improved handling of firewall settings in Raspbmc Settings
• Fix issue where LSB tags in init scripts were causing dependency problems when installing packages via apt-get
• Raspbmc’s installer (which runs on the device), is much improved, and will warn users when USB or NFS installation is unsuccessful, as well as warning users who are attempting a USB installation with two devices attached. We’re also looking into the possibility of allowing custom partioning right from the desktop installers at a later date.
• Faster boot time and improved performance due to quicker step up in CPU frequency
• Fix bug where Samba password default of pi:raspberry was not working

It’s almost been a year since Raspbmc for Pi hit beta, and as some of you have requested, here are some stats:

• Raspbmc has been installed over 1,000,000 times! This does however count repeat installs, and that definitely happened a lot during our earlier test stages. That’s a hair over 2,500 installs a day on average!
• Approximately 450TB of bandwidth has been used to serve new installs, updates and nightly builds.
• Given our usage statistics, we make the conservative estimate that one in five Raspberry Pi users have installed and used Raspbmc at some point.
• Of those one in five users, just over 20% are ‘daily users’ (based on unique IP addresses accessing the update servers), which implies a stable, daily user base of approximately 40,000 users. That’s astounding!

Thank you for such fantastic support!

To get the update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi. Note that if you have disabled updates via Raspbmc Settings, you’ll need to enable them first, and if you’re running a nightly build, you’ll need to switch to ‘xbmc release’ in Raspbmc Settings to get back to the stable builds we ship as default.

If you enjoy Raspbmc, and this update, and would like to support continued development, you can make a donation here.

It’s not everyday we get to announce something this awesome. A lot of you have been frustrated at the lack of hardware decoding support for DTS. If we announced that the Raspberry Pi foundation had made these codecs for sale, we’re sure you’d be delighted

Well, even better. It’s available for free, as are the other codecs: VC1 and MPEG2 that used to cost. Due to a trivial encryption attempt by the Raspberry Pi foundation, reversing the codec keys were easy. This is done by manipulation of the /proc filesystem.  All future installs of Raspbmc will automatically activate all codecs capable in firmware without any additional configuration.

Due to disputes with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, we’ve decided to no longer to sit on this crack, and simply release it for public consumption. While we wish them luck with the educational mission, we feel that the device is ours to do what we want with, and that this constitutes fair use.

If you’re already running Raspbmc, just reboot to grab the crack. You can check out the source code here.

Enjoy!

XBMC 12.1 which brings:

• Improved AirPlay visibility for Mac OS and iOS 6.x devices.
• General OMXPlayer and performance patches

Also added:

• Audio popping via analogue is finally fixed (thanks Dom!)
• I understand a lot of you wish to build your own modules. This has been made easy as kernel headers have now been included.
• Pulse Eight’s libCEC library is upgraded to bring improvements to bring improved compatibility and bug fixes
• Fix a bug where disabling the firewall may not be working.
• Reduce stuttering when playing internet streams.
• Added additional DVB firmware.
• Fix for a security vulnerability that could allow users on the same network segment to gain control of the Raspberry Pi. Thanks to Justin Kelly for finding this. This does mean that you will now need to enter a username and password for Samba shares, which, by default, is pi:raspberry.
• Fix for some issues with apt-get (thanks to Alfredo Pironti)
• Improved libRTMP library compatibility for playback of Internet streams.

What we’re aware of:

• Issues with TvHeadend

To get this update, simply reboot your Raspberry Pi. You’ll need to be on the final (8th February or later) version of Raspbmc to get this update. Updating may take up to 15 minutes, so do be patient! If you enjoy Raspbmc, and this update, and would like to support continued development, you can make a donation here.

Enjoy!

Raspbmc has now been updated and brings the following improvements:

• The firewall that we added in the release can now be enabled and disabled via Raspbmc Settings
• A bug has been fixed that could prevent xinet services from being disabled.
• The allocation of GPU memory is improved. Simply open “Raspbmc Settings” and press OK. This will not be necessary on installs after this date.

Dom, aka “popcornmix” has been working hard on XBMC and thanks to him, we have the following XBMC improvements:

• Dynamic cache buffering.
• Fixes for stuttering when seeking before zero
• Fixes for resolution changes midstream.
• Fixes for subtitles and a reduction in CPU usage when displaying ASS subtitles.
• Fixes for analog and digital audio togglin

To get this update, you just need to reboot your Raspberry Pi. If you have disabled updates, you will need to enable them in Raspbmc Settings. To restart your system, select the power icon in the lower left corner and select Reboot. Raspbmc will do the rest.

Thanks and enjoy!

• Raspbmc can now detect unstable power supplies and unsafe shutdowns.
• Language selection
• XBMC 12 Final with improved 1080p DTS software decoding (Thanks Dom)
• Better Hama remote control support (supporting this thing is a real headache)
• A more streamlined approach to the handling of USB mounting
• Logs written to RAM to decrease SD IO

For the full Raspbmc feature list head on over to http://www.raspbmc.com/about

This project has only really thrived because of the support it’s got, from so many people. In particular, I’d like to thank (in no particular order):

• s7mx1 – This fellow started working on the project in May and helped transform it greatly. He’s achieved a lot for the project, including an excellent Settings addon, the implementation of WiFi support, NFS and USB installation, as well as much much more. I can’t really thank him enough for always keeping an eye on things and pushing Raspbmc that little bit further to make it shine.
• The testing team – the team have always been eager to test new builds and tweaks and give me feedback. Without constant testing the project would never have been able to get where it was. Dilligaf in particular always managed to find time and never left a thing untested.
• Moderators – the forums have been kept in good shape thanks to moderators willing to spend their time helping others and keep the forum organised and free from spam. Thanks guys.
• Raspberry Pi foundation
  • Eben & Liz were kind enough to give me a Pi in advance of the launch, which allowed me to get a good head start on Raspbmc. They were also kind enough to give me a blog post on their website about the announcement (although I can’t say I appreciated it at the time — the surge in traffic took my site straight down!)
  • Dom – some of you may have seen him as ‘popcornmix’ in the forum. He does a rather amazing job of helping users; maintaining the firmware and kernel and making general improvements. In fact, his most recent action was to significantly improve DTS performance in software. Good work Dom!
• Team XBMC – the XBMC development team should be thanked for the excellent work with Frodo, but the following developers are particularly noteworthy:
  • Edgar ‘gimli’ Huceke for his work on OMXPlayer, which is the interface for GPU accelerated playback on Raspberry Pi.
  • Scott Davilla for work on the ARM port of XBMC.
  • Lars Opdenkamp for working on Pulse Eight’s libCEC implementation and PVR support.
• UKFast – following the rather frustrating Denial of Service attacks in June, Neil Lathwood of UKFast donated a server to the project. This server acts as a Varnish cache as well as a nightly build server (nightlies were of utmost importance when trying to chase down bugs in XBMC).
• NodeDeploy for the short time they firewalled us after Denial of Service attacks.
• The press / general media outlets. Thanks to Engadget, Lifehacker, CNET UK, New York Times and many others for mentions, no matter how small they were, they were greatly appreciated.
• Daniel Bolognesi for designing the Raspbmc logo
• Dan Burke for designing the website design
• Mirrors – thanks to everyone that is mirroring the project.
• Sponsors – thanks to Linux Career and NWS for sponsoring the project.
• Last, but not least. The users. Everyone who used Raspbmc since it first became available for testing in late May has helped in some way by providing feedback. Thank you.

How to get it

Installation does require a complete reinstall.

To grab the final release, head over to the Download page and select your platform. That’s all there is to it. Be sure to download the latest image if you’ve installed Raspbmc before. The Windows and Python installers are much improved, allowing you to configure WiFi adapters if necessary.

If you wish to make a backup, you can do so via SSH or the command line with a keyboard attached by executing the following commands

tar -czf xbmc-backup.tar.gz .xbmc

And then after transferring the xbmc-backup.tar.gz to your newly installed Pi, running this command to restore:

sudo initctl stop xbmc && tar -xzf xbmc-backup.tar.gz && sudo initctl start xbmc

Winners of the competition

The winners of the competition were contacted a few days ago. They didn’t reply, so I’ve redrawn the winners. Provided that they reply, they will be:

• Stephen Lam
• Ralph Stokhof

Don’t miss out guys!

Final does not mean no more work

Just to clarify what confused a few. Final does not mean we’re not doing any more work, it means the 1.0 version of Raspbmc is available and stable. We’ll be improving the overall user experience in the form of themes, improved localisation and backported XBMC 13 improvements shortly. XBMC 13 nightlies will be available soon.

Enjoy! It’s been a great journey!

Raspbmc will follow suit shortly with a final release. To give you an inkling as to when, here’s a little background. I originally made the announcement of the Raspbmc project on Feb 2, 2012. That was 362 days ago. 365 would be the natural number to aim for, but my birthday’s on the 3rd, and, 2012 was a leap year, so I feel I should factor in the extra day.

Stay tuned. I love how much this project has grown and the large community behind it. This is just the beginning

In anticipation of Raspbmc’s release, we’re giving away two Raspbmc media centres in the form of a competition. Here’s what’s enclosed:

• A 512MB Model B Raspberry Pi
• Class 10 SD card with Raspbmc final release preloaded*
• Power supply

To enter the competition, like our Facebook page by the 31st January and make a comment on this blog post (for obvious reasons, use the same name as your Facebook name)

1. Competition ends 31/01/2013 00:00 GMT
2. Facebook 'likes' must be made between 16/01/2013 00:00 and 31/01/2013 00:00 GMT 
Raspbmc reserves the right to withdraw this competition at any time.
3. Prize draw 03/02/2013
4. Prize is Raspbmc final or the version available at time of prize draw.
5. Winners selected at random

Have fun!

Update: The competition is now closed. Stay tuned for some winners!