XBMC v13.0 “Gotham” Beta Now Available

It has been more than a year in the making, but the first public beta for XBMC v13.0, codenamed “Gotham”, is now available. The new version of XBMC brings a host of updates and changes. The development team is promising major updates to the Audio Engine that was introduced in v12.0, as well as a revamped settings page with more granular options for advanced users. The new version should also offer better performance for Android and Raspberry Pi users, as well as better support for 3D movies. The usual beta software caveats do apply and many of add-on developers are still working to add support, but if you have been itching to play with something new, this might a be good time to hop in and see where XBMC is headed this year.

Yet More Features

• Update to FFMPEG v1.2 which we use for audio/video playback
• Stereo audio can now be upmixed to 5.1 and sent through optical/SPDIF devices
• Various visual changes throughout the skin which should improve usability and logic.
• Improve the handling of subtitle downloading and selection
• Extend and improve the User-interface Engine which developers use to create a variety of skins to be used.

XBMC Blog