XBMC

XBMC, originally Xbox Media Center, is an open-source media player and entertainment hub. It began as a software package for the original Microsoft Xbox and subsequently expanded to run on Windows, Linux, macOS, and a variety of embedded devices, including Raspberry Pi and set-top boxes. In 2014 the project was renamed Kodi to reflect its cross-platform reach beyond the Xbox and to avoid platform-specific connotations.

The software provides a media library interface for organizing and playing video, audio, and images. It supports metadata scraping to populate cover art, ratings, and descriptions, and can pull content from local drives, network shares, and online streams. Built on a modular architecture, it relies on codecs and libraries such as FFmpeg to decode a wide range of formats and supports remote control via mobile apps, web interfaces, or dedicated hardware remotes.

A key feature of XBMC/Kodi is its extensibility. Users can customize the interface with skins and expand functionality with add-ons written in Python, enabling access to streaming services, weather, utilities, and more. The platform also supports media sharing protocols (SMB, NFS) and networked media centers, making it a common choice for home theater PCs and multimedia centers.

License and development are managed by the XBMC Foundation, now known as the Kodi Foundation. As Kodi, the project remains active with regular updates and a broad community of developers and users, continuing the legacy of XBMC as a versatile open-source media solution.