Play any media file on your PC

Far from just being a way to do work or write letters and emails, today’s PCs are one of the main ways that we keep ourselves entertained. They can store music and video clips from the internet, as well as photos and videos from digital cameras, mobile phones and camcorders.

Sadly, though, it is often far harder than it should be to use these files. Some videos will only play back in some programs, photos do not appear at the right size and music can be hard to organise. Windows Vista Home Premium includes a great program called Media Center that can organise most of your files, but Windows XP and other versions of Vista don’t.

Fortunately, there is an alternative program designed to help you find the files you want to access, that will look good on the TV screen, and can play just about anything you ask it too. It is called XBMC, and we are going to show you how to install and use it.

Microsoft’s Media Center
Windows Media Center, which is available as a special version of Windows XP or inside Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, makes picking and using music, photo and video files easy. It can even be worked with a remote control, so it’s ideal for playing video clips on a TV screen.

But not everyone has a PC with Windows Media Center installed, and there are some files it is not that good at playing: some videos just won’t open. Fortunately, you can use XBMC to play back just about any video or music file, as well as help to organise all the different media files on a computer so they can be found easily.

There are even add-ins that allow access to things like the BBC’s iPlayer or Channel 4’s on-demand service, as well as weather and other information.

There is one thing that it doesn’t do, however. If you want to record television programmes, you will need either a computer with Microsoft’s Media Center or another tool from another company: suitable software is often included when you buy a TV tuner.

Getting a copy of XBMC is straightforward. Go to the XBMC website, then click the Download link. On the next page, there is a Download button below ‘XBMC for Windows’ so click that to view the list of files available. There may be more than one version, but usually the most recent Windows file is the one that you need. Click the link and then choose where you would like to save the file that will be downloaded to your PC.

XBMC will then be downloaded from Sourceforge.net. The same website is used by many other programs, but if you have never downloaded from it before you may be asked to pick a download location. If so, click on one of the options in the same country as you.

It should only take a few minutes to download on a broadband connection. When the download has finished, double-click on the downloaded file to start the installation. There is a setup wizard, but all the standard options will be suitable for most users, so there is no need to change anything. Click ‘Next’ until the installation finishes.

XBMC will place two options in the Start menu. The second is labelled ‘windowed’ and makes it behave more like a normal program, running in a window. Generally, though, we suggest using the first option: this takes over the whole screen, hiding all your other applications, so you can focus on your videos, pictures and music.

Getting started
After running XBMC for the first time it is worth taking a few moments to explore how it works. If your PC has a remote control, you should find that it can control XBMC. If not, use the keyboard and mouse. Pressing the Esc key will go back one screen. You can choose options by clicking them with the mouse, or use the arrow keys on the keyboard and select one using Enter.

The first few options available – XBMC ­ Video, Music, Pictures and Weather ­ – are fairly self-explanatory, but you might be surprised to see that there’s nothing in any of the folders. That’s because XBMC needs to be told where to look for your media files. Here's how to do this, using videos as an example:

1. In the videos area, if the ‘Add source’ button is not visible, click Library to exit Library mode. Click ‘Add source’ and then Browse. Choose C: for the hard disk, find the location where your video files are stored; on XP, it is probably under Documents and Settings, then your name, then My Documents.
2. Click the folder, and the screen will show any sub-folders it contains. Click OK at the bottom of the screen. On the next screen, click the box with the folder’s name to change the way it is displayed in XBMC’s list of video sources. An on-screen keyboard will appear. Type a new name, then click Done. Click the Set Content button.
3. Use the arrows at the top right to tell XBMC what sort of video files are in the folder, such as films, music videos or TV programmes. Click to select ‘Run automated scan’ and then click the OK button. Click OK again to confirm all the settings for this folder and XBMC will scan the content, and show a progress bar as it updates movie and TV episode information from the internet.

Before that, though, click the Weather item on the main menu. At the top left is a pair of up and down arrows labelled ‘Select location’ that cycles through three different places, showing the detailed forecast to the right. Click Settings, and on the next screen you can change any of the three locations, typing in the nearest town and selecting the results from a list ­ – as well as providing the right weather, it is a good way to see how XBMC lets you choose options and enter information.