OSMC feels like a drastic improvement over RaspBMC! I’m using it on a B+ as that’s what I was using RBMC on and although I have Pi 2 I didn’t just want to ditch my old hardware but also to free up my Pi 2 for other projects. I had some difficulty getting a copy as RC2 and RC3 never wanted to download for me so I selected RC1 and it downloaded no problem!
After booting it up for the first time I did an update to get it caught up to RC3 and it works pretty good. Although it’s slightly different it’s a fresh change from RaspBMC. I was hesitant to upgrade at first but after a while RBMC just didn’t work as good as it once did. Also I had initially set up RBMC on a B model with a 4gb card and just carried over the last iteration I was using (13.2 I think whichever came before 14.1) to a 8gb card but I couldn’t expand the card space and I didn’t want to start fresh because I liked my set up. After a while the memory just couldn’t handle it and I still had 4gb of unused space. At one point I tried 14.1 but was upset to find I could no longer use PiGlow info addon because of something to do with RPi GPIO. Will I still be able to use PiGlow info addon on OSMC? If not I guess it’s no big deal. I’ll endure.
One small problem I had at first was 1080p files wouldn’t play on OSMC but I think it was because I overclocked to High setting. The screen would stay black or would show a green screen with audio. I had to pull the plug a few times because I couldn’t stop playback or it’d freeze and I couldn’t SSH into it. I know that is a big no no but I couldn’t figure out what else to do. After the second or third time I did that it created a kernel panic and command line was running over the splash screen. So I reformatted and reinstalled fresh without any overclock and 1080p worked no problem. It’s a trial and error process though. I remember when Frodo was updated to Gotham and I had problems with getting things working right again. At first I said no to Gotham but over time was able to navigate my way through the problems I had. That’s how I felt about OSMC once it was announced but after seeing all the hard work Sam has put into it and seeing how it ran I eventually changed my mind. I look forward to what’s in store for the future of OSMC!
Anyway keep up the excellent work Sam! I will be donating as soon as I have the cash to spare.
After messing around with OSMC more there are things I like and don’t like. Mostly just for visual aesthetic.
The overlays get in the way sometimes and I don’t know how to make them disappear without backing out of what I’m doing entirely. I had a difficult time seeing what I was doing when adding the a new entry for external harddrive in the config.txt.
I don’t really like the title/description box above videos as it takes up too much room and diverts from playing videos. I think it should be attached to the progress bar with a drop down tab for the description. Also I don’t like the fact that it stays on screen while paused. If it were more like how I mentioned earlier I don’t think it’d bother me so much.
I like the layout but the plain blue background feels kinda well…empty. I’d like to have a “crystal” style background like the splash screen. I haven’t really messed around with the customization much yet though so if there’s an option for custom backgrounds it’s a simple fix.
I’ll post more later as I remember some more of the issues I have. I’m pretty tired right now. I don’t mean to nitpick I know OSMC is still in it’s infancy and my personal preferences may differ from others but these are just suggestions whether people listen or care is none of my concern. I’m just shouting from a soapbox.
FYI, you are still able to switch to any other Kodi supported skin, including Confluence, which is the default skin of Raspbmc and most other Kodi installations. We bundle our own custom Skin and make it the default skin but nothing stops you using other skins.
The OSMC skin and it’s minimalist approach is not everyone’s cup of tea (I don’t use it myself) and it is still being tweaked and worked on as well.
So if you are more comfortable using Confluence or whatever other skin you may have been using on Raspbmc then by all means continue to use it - you can still access OSMC settings via Addons or Programs depending on the skin, and still make use of all the other OSMC features such as the app store, much improved update system and so on.
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll be sure to keep that in mind but for now I’m gonna give the OSMC skin a chance as I know the team is hard at work tweaking and fine tuning things to appease everyone. I know you can’t please everyone’s tastes but I feel in time OSMC will provide enough to suit everyone’s needs. I have faith in you guys!
I have it enabled and it is pretty nice to have something to look at while browsing through movies, apps,etc. Custom backgrounds would be nice though or at least a few different flavors of the skin just to have more options to choose from even if it were just one “highly customizable” version. As I said I don’t want to just abandon the hard work the OSMC team put into making the skin in favor of another. I’ll just wait to see what’s in store.