14 DAY TRIAL // Open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media XBMC has been updated and is now at version 13.1.
XBMC 13.0 "Gotham" was probably the best release made by its developers and incorporated numerous features and some very cool options. The devs started working on an update for XBMC almost right away after the launch and, a Release Candidate later, the 13.1 version arrived.
The features that were introduced in the 13.0 update have remained in place. Users will still have access to Android Hardware Decoding (for 4.0 and up), Raspberry Pi and Android speed improvements, Stereoscopic 3D Rendering, better Touchscreen Support, better UPnP capabilities, numerous Audio Engine Improvements, and Settings Improvements. This is mostly a maintenance release.
"After releasing two betas and a release candidate, it’s time for a final 13.1 release. The incorporated fixes are the ones already mentioned in the release candidate announcement, nonetheless we will list them again below. Do note that this release contains only fixes, and no new features. This 13.1 release can be safely installed on top of any previous XBMC releases."
According to the changelog, the cropping of interlaced content using VDPAU has been fixed, the problems that appeared when the TV was querying the XBMC’s UPnP server have been repaired, the resume point of certain PVR items is now working just fine when resuming playback, a crash that occurred when the user was exiting the application while airplay was playing has been fixed, and FLAC tracks with large embedded images are now playing correctly.
Also, an XMBC crash that happened when librtmp wasn’t available has been fixed, FFMpeg is now building on Linux when the user has a newer version of librtmp, the m4a and mp4 playback has been fixed, a small memory leak in the PlayMedia built-in function has been fixed, and a unique client broadcast UID is now used in the PVR API.
Users have been advised to be careful when updating to a new version of XBMC. It's possible that some of the add-ons that previously worked with older versions of the software no longer function. If you are using such an add-on, be sure contact the author of that app.
Check out the official announcement for a complete list of new features, updates, and changes. You can download XBMC 13.1 right now from Softpedia. The developers provide a number of helpful methods of installing the application, including PPAs for Ubuntu users.