Admin 347 Posted August 8, 2014 Share Posted August 8, 2014 Did you hear of XBMB3C ? It's a fantastic add-on for XBMC to connect to your Media Browser server and browse your libraries. That way you can take advantage of the great things XBMC has to offer like PVR-support, large amount of plugins and a large support of devices/platforms without giving up the fantastic features of Media Browser. If you just install the XBMB3C add-on, you have to open up the add-on to browse your Media Browser libraries. Not that user friendly as you might want to just replace the default XBMC libraries with MediaBrowser. Well, that's possible by the use of customized skins for the XBMB3C library! Just install the add-on, pick your favourite skin and you're ready to go! As a day-one Media Browser Classic user I was looking for an alternative for Windows Mediacenter because it is no longer developed and actively supported. In the years I've tried XBMC several times, but i didn't like the way XBMC handled my media libraries; Tvshows and movies weren't displayed (and recognized) that fancy as i was used to with Media Browser Classic, untill i heard of the XBMB3C add-on! I gave the add-on a try and was very happy to see that it was working just the way i like it. One problem however... While browsing the (overwhelming amount of) great skins that are available for XBMC, I couldn't find a skin that fits my needs. Most skins feel a bit "techie" or fill up the screen with too much info. My HTTPC (and all the other HTTPC's I maintain) is in the living room and it has to have three things: 1. The "WOW" factor, like when people look at your tv and say, that's a good looking interface. 2. Simplicity, a person must be able to grab the remote and just know where to go to without beiing scared away. 3. Stability, it just has to work. With XBMC you get that stability as it is actively developed and currently has very good PVR support. I must say it's even more stable than my Windows MCE. The problem I had to solve was getting that userinterface less complicated and so more user friendly, so I decided to take a deep dive and create a skin on my own.... Upon my search to learn how to create skins for XBMC I stumbled on an unfinished project for a skin in the XBMC forums. Allthough it wasn't finished I really liked the graphics of the skin; Nice looking graphics but clean and simple navigation. It was a port of the default skin for the MediaPortal product (which I never really liked, but that's personal). In the last two months I've spent really many hours on that skin. Getting it stable, finish it, add extra views for media and most important... Get that Media Browser integration working I was looking for. I'm proud to present you the Titan Media Browser skin: Clean, simple, stable, Media Browser integrated and with good looking use of artwork allover: Like what you see and want to give it a try ? Here's how! First of all you're going to need to install XBMC. You can pick whatever platform you like. Me myself have it running on both Windows and Linux machines. If you don't care about the underlying platform and you're going to use the system primary as an HTTPC then I would recommend XBMCBuntu, which is a special build of Ubuntu with XBMC preinstalled. Just insert CD, press some keys a few times and you're all setup. I won't deep dive into the details of XBMC as that's a whole different story but will do that in another blog or forum post. Once you have XBMC set-up it's time to install the add-on to get the Media Browser support working. Add-ons for XBMC are available in the so called "repositories" which is a library to categorize and maintain add-ons. While the XBMB3C add-on is by default available in the XBMC repository after you have installed XBMC I would recommend you not to install that version. Instead, install the XBMB3C repository on your XBMC, which not only contains the latest version of the XBMB3C add-on, it also contains the special skins that are modified (or created) for use with the XBMB3C (Media Browser) add-on. Step 1: Install the repository 1. You have to download the repository as a zip file to install, you can get the file here. 2. Download the file, save it somewhere on your computer and open up XBMC. 3. Go to settings --> add-ons --> Install from zip file 4. Pick the zip file from the repository you've downloaded. 5. Now you have access to the XBMB3C repository while browsing for new add-ons! Step 2: Install the add-on and skin(s) 1. Now that your XBMC is aware of the XBMB3C reposity it's time to install the add-on. 2. Go to settings --> add-ons --> Get add-ons 3. Choose "XBMB3C Addons" --> Video Add-ons 4. Press XBMB3C and install it. 5. Once installed you need to click on XBMB3C again and choose "configure" 6. Enter your serverdetails. Important is servername, username and password to get you running. 7. Default port number for Media Browser is 8096. 8. Other options are optional, modify them if you want. 9. After XBMB3C is set-up and running you have to restart XBMC 10. Once restarted you can open up the settings again, add-ons 11 Again, pick XBMB3C add-ons and this time choose category skins. 12. You'll notice the Titan skin in there and install it. 13. Confirm the skin switch and you're all setup. Once installed, the skin will auto detect that you have XBMB3C enabled and will replace default XBMC libraries with Media Browser. Just go to the home screen and navigate through the options and you will see that you have connected to Media Browser including fanart, resume/watched counts etc. etc. The default view for the skin is the "list view" but there are other views available; While browsing media, open up the "side menu" by pressing left (or up) button and choose your favourite view for that library. The choices you make are saved you you won't have to do that again everytime you open up that view. You can have different views for Movies, TVshows, episodes, seasons and boxsets. I've build in a lot of settings to tweak the skin to your needs, like changing the tiles, backgrounds etc. etc. Open up the settings and go to skin settings and adjust whatever setting you like. You can also decide not to use Media Browser for any of the libraries. Myself I don't like how MediaBrowser handles my music collection and I use the XBMC library for that to give you an example. I you have any questions, problems setting things up or discovered a hitch in the skin, don't hecitate to contact me. I'll be glad to assist. Also if you have any feature request! Take a look at the forum post to get support for the skin: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/9255-mediaportals-titan-skin-port-for-xbmc-gotham-with-xbmb3c-support/ View the full article 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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