OpenELEC 2.0 released

We are happy to announce to our users and partners the release of the OpenELEC-2.0 Operating System with embedded XBMC V11 (codename Eden).

OpenELEC is an embedded Linux distribution that aims to allow people to use their Home Theatre PC (HTPC) in the same manner as any other device attached to your TV - like a DVD player or Sky box. Turn on your box, and OpenELEC is ready for usage in less than 10 seconds - as fast as some DVD players. A simple remote control is all you need to complete the experience. With OpenELEC you do not need to worry about updating, as the whole operating system will seamlessly self-update everything automatically when connected to the Internet (this includes XBMC). Installing OpenELEC takes less than 5 minutes and requires zero Linux experience. When installed simply add your media files, preferred addons and OpenELEC will “just work!.” Openelec supports a wide range of media shares, including cifs (Windows and most consumer NAS boxes default file sharing system), nfs and many more. This allows you to view your media (music, pictures and videos etc) on OpenELEC even though the files are somewhere else within your network.

OpenELEC was specifically created to run XBMC optimally and provide a seamless media consumption experience without all the normal installation or upgrade hurdles. Its add-on architecture allows you to customize XBMC to your preferred look-and-feel along with adding new functionality as required. OpenELEC is extremely light weight (less than 130 MB installed) and supports a diverse array of hardware platforms.

OpenELEC runs on most Intel and AMD 32-bit and 64-bit hardware. We provide a generic (catch all) version and several alternate builds that are further optimised to extract maximum performance from Intel, Nvidia ION and AMD Fusion based systems. OpenELEC supports most wireless and wired network cards along with extensive support for legacy and bleeding edge GPUs. A balance of utilizing the long term support Kernel 3.2.31 along with carefully selected up-to-date Graphics Drivers and thoroughly tested software makes running OpenElec a stable and reliable experience.

Using the XBMC interface OpenELEC provides its own configuration add-on allowing you to configure your system using your remote. Network configuration, update services and additional hardware features such LCD displays are no longer the hidden away via complicated command lines.

With the help of the community, team OpenELEC operate their own XBMC addon repository allowing additional features to be easily added using the user friendly and well documented XBMC addon system. Examples of currently available add-ons are: PVR functionality (including DVB and IP TV), an entire suite of products for newsgroup and BitTorrent downloading. Using this open add-on framework new features can be added by the community, integrated easily into OpenELEC at any time without the need for reinstallation making your OpenELEC install future proof.

We would like to thank our users, team members and partners for testing, reporting and fixing issues, creating how-to documents, developing new features, and their donations of hardware and funds to the project. We appreciate your continued support!

Since the V1 release we have been constantly developing to improve OpenELEC. This work includes specific code allowing for even more powerful GPU acceleration on AMD and Nvidia GPUs even better.

OpenELEC 2.0 is the first stable release ever, that includes direct XVBA (X-Video Bitstream Acceleration) support. The advantages introduced by this implementation are enormous. It is now possible on AMD Systems with integrated UVD (Unified Video Decoder) to playback every H.264 and VC-1 encoded content directly. This reduces CPU usage drastically. If you want to see Fusion in action, click here.

For the future we hope to make this support even better. With AMD promised to release an updated version of their XVBA SDK in time, XVBA will mature and many users throughout the world will benefit of new supported codecs - of course at first on OpenELEC - but also all over the opensource world.

We are proud to deliver the first stable release with all these advantages.

You can download your OpenELEC 2.0 build here.

Significant changes and highlights in OpenELEC-2.0:

• XBMC-11.0 (Eden)
  Includes new native high-performance image compression for JPEG and PNG image types. If you previously enabled DDS fanart in advancedsettings.xml it should be removed. You can remove .dds files from the thumbnail image cache. Eden has improved sound card detection. This may change the naming of audio devices available on your system. If audio stops working after the update please adjust audio configuration in XBMC settings to use the updated device names.
  

• PVR Support
  We are now including by default PVR support based on XBMC 11.0. These changes include PVR support within the XBMC GUI and include DVB firmware and drivers, TVHeadend, VDR, Njoy N7, MythTV, Mediaportal, HDHomerun and VU+ support in the OS.
  Going forward all OpenELEC-2.0 images are PVR ready – the PVR functions can simply be enabled (or disabled) in XBMC settings.

• Improved AMD XVBA support
  Thanks to the efforts of FernetMenta, Fritsch, Newphreak and many users who have been testing and providing feedback we have native XVBA support that replaces the old VAAPI temporary solution in OpenELEC 1.x. Performance and stability are massively improved.
  
  
• Automatic Log-File Creation
  Accessing the \\OPENELEC\Logfiles SAMBA share automatically creates an archive file that contains essential log-files for troubleshooting.
  
  
• Automatic framebuffer detection
  The previous “hack” to make splash screens work is not more needed.
  
  
• XBMC now includes native NFS, AFP ,CIFS and SSH share support
  
  
• CEC Adapter support
  
  
• More supported hardware like DVB drivers, Remotes, Soundcards
  
  
• Airplay and Airtunes support

Features OpenELEC 2.0:

General:

• System size 93-165MB (depending on the included drivers)
• Minimal hardware requirements
• Ultra fast boot
• Optimized builds for
  • Intel CPUs (Core2Duo and later)
  • AMD Fusion Systems (AMD Exxx CPU)
  • Nvidia ION Systems (Intel Atom CPU, Nvidia GPU)
  • Generic Systems with recent Graphic processors
  • Generic Systems with legacy Graphic processors
  • Apple TV1
  • Xtreamer Ultra 1/2
• XBMC v11 (Eden) with PVR support
• Simple configuration via XBMC itself (OpenELEC-settings addon)
• Plug and Play external storage

System:

• Kernel 3.2.31
• Xorg-server 1.12.4
• Mesa 8.0.4
• Connman 1.7
• Busybox 1.20.2
• Systemd 194 (only udev)
• ALSA 1.0.26

PVR support (DVB-T/C/S/S2):

• VDR (XVDR, VNSI)
• TVHeadend
• Njoy N7
• VU+
• Mediaportal
• MythTV

Remote control and CEC support:

• HID devices
• LIRC and RC-core devices:
  • MCEUSB
  • ATI/X10
  • ENE eHome Receiver
  • SoundGraph iMON Receiver
  • ITE Tech Inc. Consumer Infrared Transceiver
  • Fintek Consumer Infrared Transceiver
  • Nuvoton Consumer Infrared Transceiver
  • RedRat3 IR Transceiver
  • Streamzap PC Remote IR Receiver
  • Winbond IR remote control
• FLIRC Infrared Transceiver
• PulseEight CEC
• Keyboard/Mouse support
• WiiMote support
• PS3 remote support

Audio support:

• Analog audio
• HDMI Audio
• SPDIF/Optical Digital Audio

Video Hardware decoders:

• Broadcom CrystalHD Video decoder
• VAAPI support (Intel)
• XVBA support (AMD)
• VDPAU support (Nvidia)

Networking support:

• Airplay support
• Airtunes support
• UPNP/DLNA support
• Zeroconf (Avahi) support
• SSH support
• Samba Server (Windows files sharing)

Network boot support:

• PXE
• NBD
• iSCSI

supported local Filesystems:

• NTFS
• extFAT
• BTRFS
• HFS+
• ext2-4
• FAT/VFAT

supported network Filesystems:

• AFP
• NFS
• SAMBA
• iSCSI
• SSHFS

optical disk and diskimage support:

• Blu Ray support
• DVD support
• CDDA support

Notes for updaters from OpenELEC-1.0:

Database and Configfile changes

Because of various database and configfile changes we highly recommend (in most cases its needed) to do a full reinstall, to avoid any possible issues with newer database and configfiles formats. Alternatively you can remove/rename /storage/.xbmc and /storage/.config

Backup and restore the library

to backup and restore the library please read http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Updating_to_OpenELEC_2.0

“Generic” image is now bigger

Because we have included the AMD legacy driver in our Generic builds its needed for all users of this builds to check the partition size of the first partition. This builds are now around 165MB. You can do this via ssh (putty):

df -h /flash

“Fusion” image is now 64bit

OpenELEC 1.x was 32bit due to issues in the 64bit build. These issues are fixed so we have switched to 64bit to make best use of Fusion hardware capabilities. Existing 32bit binary addons are not compatible with a 64bit OS so we recommend a clean installation to prevent issues.

Automatic framebuffer detection

The previous “hack” to make splash screens work should be removed else you will see a message saying the video mode is not supported. Mount /flash read/write with “mount -o remount,rw /flash” and edit /flash/extlinux.conf. Remove vga=XYZ from the APPEND line, then save and reboot.

SSH is OFF by default

To improve “out of the box” security SSH is disabled by default. It can be enabled as part of the install process if required. It can be enabled post-install by adding an “ssh_enable” file to the \\OPENELEC\Configfiles SAMBA share and rebooting, or by adding “ssh” to the APPEND line in /flash/extlinux.cfg

XBMC now includes native NFS, AFP ,CIFS and SSH share support

This means that we’ve removed the netmount.conf. If you still need the old functionality please read http://openelec.tv/forum/76-network-filesystems/11391-netmountconf-is-ditched-in-new-eden-how-to-set-sambacifs-shares?limit=20&start=180#29027

Be social, join our community now!

We invite everyone to actively participate in the OpenELEC community. In a short time we have become a bustling project with many keen users of all skill levels helping out daily. OpenELEC is for everyone and following us on social media not only keeps you up to date but helps the project by letting more people know about us.

• Forum: http://openelec.tv/forum
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/openelec
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OpenELEC
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/112115795516947592126/112115795516947592126/posts
• IRC: #openelec on freenode.net (also avaible via our webchat)