The developers behind the XBMC project have announced the official release of version 9.11, codenamed Camelot, a major update that includes an improved user interface theme and a number of new features.

XBMC is a cross-platform media center application that is distributed under an open source license. Originally designed to run on Microsoft's Xbox gaming console in 2003, the program has evolved to run on conventional desktop computers and has attracted a considerable audience of users and developers. Although it lacks DVR capabilities, it supports a broad assortment of media playback and library management features.

I use XBMC as the primary media playback software on my Ubuntu-based HTPC. I updated to version 9.11 from the XBMC PPA and conducted extensive hands-on testing of the new release. I have found it to be a nice incremental improvement over its predecessor. It looks great, performs well, and generally boosts the quality of the user experience. I still favor it over alternatives like Boxee, but Boxee still has the lead in some areas—particularly Web video integration.

One of the most visible changes in XBMC 9.11 is the new default theme, called Confluence. It incorporates elements from a number of popular existing skins but still manages to deliver a unique and distinctive look and feel. It's a lot more polished than PM3.HD, the previous default theme.

When I reviewed XBMC 9.04 in May, I remarked that the cross-style playback control felt somewhat cumbersome. It has been replaced in the new theme with a more conventional horizontal array of controls that slides down from the top. In general, this new design seems less cumbersome and distracting. The playback timeline slides in from the bottom of the screen, where it is shown in a small bubble. It's not as wide as it is in PM3.HD, but it's brightly colored and still relatively easy to see. The menu system and navigational elements all look nicer but have roughly the same behavior.

XBMC home screen

A video with timeline and playback controls

The file navigation interface

The improved XBMC control panel

XBMC 9.11 has improved support for various multimedia codecs thanks to an updated version of the FFmpeg audio and video decoding library. It has gained support for RTMP video streams, making it possible to handle certain kinds of streaming Flash video. Networked multimedia features got a boost from the introduction of DLNA compliance and some minor improvements to UPnP support. The "scrapers" that are used to automatically obtain movie and television show metadata have been improved significantly in the new version.

On the Windows platform, XBMC will now use DirectX instead of OpenGL for rendering video content and the user interface. The DirectX rendering backend has been available for a while and was used for the Xbox version, but is only just now becoming the default for the Windows release. This is a win for performance.

Now that the release is out, the developers are going to start aggressively integrating new features and preparing for the next version.

"It's been quite a while in the making (and maybe a bit late), but Camelot has arrived for Windows, OSX, Linux, and XBMC Live, and just in time for the holidays," the developers wrote in a statement. "It's now open season for us to start looking forward and begin merging in all those new features that have been brewing. Enjoy our latest offering as we get back to work!"

For a more complete list of new features and improvements, check out the official release notes. You can download version 9.11 from the XBMC website.