XBMC for Android is something that we have seen before. On top of that, we had previously been told that the OUYA game console was going to offer support. The key bit here, up until now we haven’t been able to get a look at how XBMC will run on the console. Yes, we said up until now because a video of just that has recently been discovered. Trying to avoid offering a spoiler right from the beginning, but, it is looking pretty nice.
The video was spotted on reddit and comes by way of a developer named Nathan Betzen. Nathan is part of the XBMC team and notes that his console came by way of OUYA, hence him having the clear developer unit. Perhaps more important though, he has said that this video shows the OUYA running XBMC and “performing fantastic hardware decoding.” We sort of have to agree that it does look good. Not perfect, but good nonetheless.
Of course, with the console not even in the hands of users just yet, there is still plenty of time for improvements. Anyway, the video is almost 8 minutes in length and those who have seen the OUYA before will likely want to skip ahead a bit. The beginning part of the video offers a rundown on the OUYA itself with the XBMC portion coming in at about the two-minute mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB-H4j9hfLE
Those who may now be looking to purchase an OUYA, now that you have seen XBMC running, remember that pre-orders are still available by way of the OUYA website. Otherwise, a full retail launch is expected in June. All said and done, this sort of makes the OUYA console a bit more appealing for those who either aren’t gamers or those who are looking for a low priced media device for the big screen.
[via Liliputing]
Cool. Do we know if the Ouya will speak to a home server? Ideally through wifi.
Via XBMC Facebook “the files in the video were being shared from a Win7 shared folder over SMB.”
Can you comment on the ability of the OUYA to decode multi-channel AAC audio tracks within 1080p video files and stream as PCM to a home theatre reciever? This is the big drawback of XBMC on Raspberry Pi as it does not have enough horsepower to perform software decoding of audio tracks.