It’s been a mere 13 days since beta 1 came out, and already we’re ready for beta 2. This is almost entirely a “fix” beta release, meaning no new features, only a more rock solid foundation. Still, many of those fixes are worth mentioning in an abbreviated change log. For a more full rundown of the features of XBMC 13, see our Beta 1 post.

Fixes

* Subtitles for videos over http should now support the same subtitle functions supported by local media (Note: Certain subtitle issues will only be fixed when non-default skins provide updates. Other fixes are in the works.)

* Rockchip devices on Android will no longer cause XBMC to crash occasionally during playback

* PVR Programming Guide cleanups

* AudioEngine improvements to handling AC3 and DTS, as well as smarter handling in Android and intelligent EAC3 recognition

* Crash on exit should be fixed on various platforms

* JSON-RPC file listing fixes

* DXVA fixes in Windows for older Intel GPUs

* Wording and grammar fixes throughout the UI

* Local music NFO files are now recognized correctly

* Other fixes

Additional Features Not Mentioned in Beta 1 Announcement

As some users have rightly noted, while almost every major feature has been highlighted in some form or other in the various monthly blog posts, not all of them were discussed in the Beta 1 blog. The following is a list of a few of those that probably deserve a second round of attention. (Additionally. there are a few XBMC 13 features that are not quite working now, due to changes such as the iOS 7 update. We will hold off discussing those until the bugs have all been worked out.) For now, however:

* When initiating a library cleaning, XBMC will send a wake-on-lan request to any sleeping servers first, before cleaning the library, to ensure that content isn’t unnecessarily cleaned

* Numerous PVR fixes and updates with additional new features updated on a per-platform basis. For more info, check out our PVR wiki page

* Copy/paste support on Windows, OSX, and iOS to match copy/paste support elsewhere

* Movie sets are now user editable

* Episodic bookmarks – If episodes are not broken into individual parts (e.g. Adventure episode 1 and 2 are in the same video file), a bookmark can be set that will cause launching episode 2 from the UI to go directly to the bookmark in the video file

After upgrade

After you have updated from Frodo or any earlier alpha or beta it might pay of to force refresh the XBMC.org repository. This is to make sure the most recent repository list is loaded and needed updates become available. This could be the case when wanting to use the new subtitle downloading feature and you cannot find the new services to install. Doing it regardless doesn’t hurt. Here’s a quick how-to found on our wiki: Force refresh

The Shirt

For those of you on the fence about the XBMC t-shirt (also available in women’s sizes and as a hoodie, as well as multiple colors), you should know that as of this writing there are only 1 day and 12 hours left to buy. Time’s just about up!

Fun related fact: As of this writing, you, the users, have nearly generated as much as a diamond sponsorship for the Foundation purely through t-shirt sales. Serious thought is currently being given to the idea of making The Buyers of the Beta Shirt a Diamond Sponsor, listed on our sponsor page.

Such a decision has to be approved by the Foundation board of directors (and we still aren’t there yet in sales), but if sales keep going like they’ve been going (tell your friends!) and the board approves the decision, every person who bought a shirt could go to our sponsor page, point to the Buyers of the Beta Shirt listing, and say, “I too am a Diamond Sponsor of XBMC.”

Conclusion

Should want to download and install XBMC, please visit our download page.

* Official XBMC downloads

How to Contribute

If you use these builds, we encourage you to submit bugs in Trac (following this guide: How to submit a bug report), provide support in our Forums where you can, or donate to the Foundation if you like. A portion of every shirt sale also goes to the Foundation, so if you’d rather contribute by buying some XBMC gear, that’s cool too. For a current FAQ on XBMC 13, visit our Gotham FAQ.