Software update: GeeXboX 1.2.3

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GeeXboX is a complete standalone media player that runs from a live CD with a custom Linux version. After launching, the program is able to play various video files and streams. It can also drive various analog and digital TV charts, so you don’t miss an episode of your favorite TV series. The program can be operated via OSD, which in turn assignments receive from a keyboard or remote control. The developers released GeeXboX 1.2.3 a few days ago with the following announcements since the previous entry in the Meuktracker:

GeeXboX 1.2.3: fix release

As it appeared that a nasty bug with some AC3 audio encoded files slipped through previous 1.2.2 release, here’s another minor release. No big changes here except from AC3 playback recovery.

GeeXboX 1.2.2: features enhancement release

A few interesting patches recently having been committed to 2.0 development tree, people on forum asked for backport of these on stable 1.2 release. So did we, adding a new key feature, with multi-threaded video decoding support. Non IT people can see this as a way to finally make use of their brand new multi-core CPU systems providing parallelized treatment. And the results are pretty good, with a 1.8x video decoding speed boost on Core2Duo and 3.0x speedup with Core2Quad. It is now truly possible to actually decode 1080p HDTV streams on Linux.

As exciting as it may be, please however note that this is still an experimental feature (we’re probably the one of the first Linux distro to integrate it), that may cause undesired visual artefacts (in some very rare cases). In order to make use of it, you’ll have to explicitely enable it through ISO generator.

Detailed Changelog (relative to 1.2.1 release):

  • Multi-threaded video decoding for MPEG-1/2/4 and H.264 codecs.
  • Support for newly discovered DVD MovieProtect encryption method.
  • Extended DVD CSS descrambling capabilities.
  • Removal of GOOM audio visualization (was causing too much troubles).
  • Automount daemon enhancements.
  • Upgrade or MPlayer and its set of codecs.

Version number 1.2.3
Release status Final
Operating systems Linux
Website GeeXboX
Download http://www.geexbox.org/en/downloads.html
License type GPL
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