The open source XBMC project has released their ‘Atlantis” media center beta. The biggest news is cross-platform support: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, and of course the original Xbox - which started it all. A few of the new features included in this beta release:

• Cross platform support for Linux, Mac OS X (Leopard & Tiger), Windows and Xbox
• New default skin “PM3.HD”, a high-definition tribute to Project Mayhem III for non-Xbox users.
• XBMC Live – a bootable CD which gives you the opportunity to try XBMC on your computer, without modifying the hard drive. In addition, XBMC Live allows installation of XBMC, complete with an operating system, onto a USB flash memory stick for a permanent, fast booting, dedicated set-top-box style installation of XBMC. XBMC Live is designed to support Microsoft’s MCE Remote and USB receiver out-of-the-box.
• XBMC for Mac release now has initial support for integrating iTunes and iPhoto media into XBMC

Note that this is a non-TV tuner front-end for the moment, so XBMC’s focus thus far is video, music, etc playback. XBMC offers some of the more impressive skins that I’ve seen - browse their nice collection here. XBMC is scheduled to be released from beta in October.

[Note from Dave: Interestingly, the new XBMC is the basis for Boxee - a competing package that overlays media exploration social/community features.]

Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.

This post’s author, The Media Patriot, is a fellow consumer who enjoys music and television but condemns DRM. His pseudonym pays homage to the original participants of the Boston Tea Party.

Remember back in the Autumn of 2006 when the hotly anticipated “Venice Project” promised all that it’d do for television, what ebay and Skype did for auctions and phone calls? Well, here we are two years later and after much disappointment, Joost has released a new version of itself called…drum roll…New Joost.

New Joost is supposedly a “browser only” plugin that let’s you watch Joost content in the browser - but’s that’s a bit of a misleading statement. New Joost downloads and installs a 6MB version of Microsoft C++ Runtime Environment onto your hard drive.

As much as I would like to share my New Joost experience with all ZNF readers, I cannot since after installing the plugin, CPU usage spiked at 99% for several minutes and crashed the browser to an unrecoverable state. To add to insult to injury, after killing off the hung browser, the plugin was still running siphoning off my bandwidth to power all the other people using Joost.

The Joost blog promises an all Flash, no local anything version coming in October, but it may be a bit too late since Hulu has pretty much filled the niche market Joost hoped to dominate all those years ago.

Have you tried the New Joost? Write a quick note in the comments with your thoughts.

TWICE reports that Digeo will be releasing a HD CableCARD set-top box to MSOs beginning later this month and offering a retail DVR direct to consumers in January. Though I have to say the author was quite kind in his coverage. No mention that this cable box (or a precursor) was expected in 2007 or that Digeo also had plans to launch two retail set-top boxes last year. Also no mention that the CEO stepped aside, half the staff was axed, and both (previous) retail DVRs were scrapped just a week after briefing the press at CES. So, please forgive me if I’m a little skeptical that we’ll actually be able to purchase a (new) DLNA-capable M-Card Moxi DVR in just four months. Of course, this isn’t at all unusual in our industry - SlingCatcher will be over a year late when it finally ships and Palm Foleo was killed at the zero hour. Lesson being, until products ship let’s take these announcements with a grain of salt. Speaking of which, where’s my Lenovo S10?

D-Link’s DivX Connected media extender just got a whole lot more interesting. With the beta release of PC server software (v1.4), you can now stream select Flash-based video sites from the Internet and through the PC to your TV by way of the DSM-330 ($230).

Flash video and audio can now be launched through DivX Connected plug-ins, opening the floodgates to a vast library of content.  Upon release of 1.4, users can expect to be hit with a wave of new plug-ins, including the likes of YouTube and Dailymotion, and developers will have the tools they need to port countless other Flash video sites to the DivX Connected platform.

I played with the new features for about an hour this morning, viewing content from YouTube, Hulu, and ABC News. Of course, the video quality isn’t going to be any better than the source and playback wasn’t always super smooth - but that could be related to the beta status or my over-taxed XP virtual machine. Unfortunately, the biggest limitation is that many of these sites don’t provide or expose keyboard controls which could be mapped to the D-Link remote. As in: I sure wish I could pause or rewind content. Having said that, I’m very surprised (in a good way) to see this capability added.

The Internet is an efficient and effective video delivery method, however it’s fairly obvious that the various players (TiVo, Apple, DivX, ZvBox, Sling, Roku, Xbox, PS3, etc) are thinking beyond the computer as they race into the living room. Questions remain and it’s too early to declare a winner: Who will offer the best experience and the best sources - and at what cost?

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

• U-verse Launches Whole-Home DVR: Connected Home 2 Go
• Yahoo and Intel Preview the Widget Channel: Connected Home 2 Go
• Movies on SageTV: Brent Evans Geek Tonic
• The Making of a Demo Room: Connected Home 2 Go

Comcast’s Fancast property has recently expanded from solely streaming (Hulu) web video, to offering Internet video downloads. Joining the likes of Amazon Unbox, CinemaNow, and Blockbuster the Fancast Media Manager allows you to rent or purchase television and movie content for Windows PC viewing. Though playback is limited to Windows, the Fancast Store (Beta) supports web purchases from other operating systems, such as Mac OS X. Combined with a variety of similar language, technology, and licensing (up to three PCs), I suspect Amazon is the silent partner powering Fancast. In fact, Amazon alluded to similar technology partnerships back in July:

The video store will [also] be accessible through the Sony Bravia Internet Video link, a $300 tower-shaped device that funnels Web video directly to Sony’s high-definition televisions. Mr. Carr said Amazon would pursue similar deals with other makers of TVs and Internet devices. “We can support both streaming and downloading,” he said.

At the end of the day, most folks prefer to watch long form content on a television. So, paying for computer-based video will remain a niche market. The only question I have is, do the ~2.5GB SD movie downloads count against my upcoming Comcast bandwidth cap?

There’s been a distinct trend lately toward multi-screen views for online video applications. The Olympics Silverlight player included four screens for watching multiple events simultaneously. Verizon and the NFL are once again offering multiple camera angles for football games to online subscribers. And now Ars Technica reports on the latest from CoolIris and its browser plugin PicLens, which lays out search results visually, allowing users to scan across images and launch different video feeds from a single browser page.

The increasingly visual Web is a channel-surfer’s dream. (Though a cynical part of me wonders if we’re once again dumbing down the info-gathering process by eliminating the need to read anything…) The bandwidth implications, however, are a bit worrisome. From a consumer perspective, the more we see bandwidth caps and Internet slow-downs during heavy usage periods, the more applications like PicLens seem unrealistic for every-day use. It’s a never-ending battle. Internet bandwidth increases, and new heavy-bandwidth applications are introduced.

On a lighter note, check out the gallery of PicLens screenshots below. The app currently supports content from Amazon, Flickr, YouTube, SmugMug, Google, Yahoo, DeviantArt and Photobucket. I’m planning to download the full application and give it a real test run soon. Drop a comment if you’ve already tried it out.