Sources.xml/Types

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There are two main types of sources, Local and Network. In addition, there are specialty sources that are only available in certain sections of XBMC, (such as in Music or Videos).

See XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs for a full list of supported Features, Formats and Codecs.

Sources with multiple paths / targets

It is possible to let a media source point to more than one target or path. You can accomplish this through the User Interface or by directly editing the sources.xml. One example from the Videos section of the default Sources.xml file. 

<source>
    <name>01 Movies</name>
    <path pathversion="1">F:\xbmc\Movies HD\</path>
    <path pathversion="1">E:\xbmc\Movies SD\Movies New\</path>
</source>

The pathversion="1" parameter means it was written with a more recent version of XBMC. It's to ensure that saved paths can be reliably updated if/when a new way to store them is implemented (e.g. old paths using Q: are now stored using special://xbmc etc).

You can have multiple paths in local, SMB and NFS sources, not for the other protocols.

Local Sources

Basic Sources

Local sources are ones that point to the local available drives like hard disks, memory cards, optical drive, etc. XBMC can play audio CDs from DVD drives as well as Video-DVD's. XBMC has a built in audio CD ripper. This ripper supports ripping to wav, mp3 and OGG vorbis formats and attempts to name your tracks using data sourced from CDDB.com.

Generic Network Sources

Network sources reference remote shares of various types. XBMC supports SMB (windows file sharing, also known as Samba or CIFS), among others. These generic network sources are supported in all XBMC sections in XBMC ("Music", "Videos", "Pictures", and "Filemanager"). You can also add multiple paths (<path></path>) in each source. See Sharing media from your PC how to configure such servers yourself.

Windows File Sharing (SMB/SAMBA/CIFS)

SMB sharing is the most common and probably the best performing sharing solution for XBMC. It supports domains and workgroups as well.

Note: For much more information about using SMB/SAMBA/CIFS in XBMC, see the Windows File Sharing (SMB/SAMBA/CIFS) article.

The full syntax for sharing is as follows: 

  <source>
    <path>smb://domain;username:password@computername_or_ipaddress/sharename/path</path>
  </source>

domain - If you use a domain controller you may enter it here

username - The username used to authenticate with the server

password - The password used to authenticate with the server

computername/ipaddress - As long as a name server is available on the network computer names *should* work. If any connectivity issues are encountered when using computer names replace it with the direct IP address of the computer.

sharename - Share name on the remote server

path - path relative to the share

If any variables are not needed omit the required punctuation.
Examples (where "USER" is the user-name, "12345" is the password, and "192.168.0.200" is the IP-address of the server):

For a direct link to a server use: 

  <source>
    <path>smb://USER:[email protected]</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to a share on a server use: 

  <source>
    <path>smb://USER:[email protected]/share/</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to a subfolder under a share on a server use: 

  <source>
    <path>smb://USER:[email protected]/share/path/</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to all servers in your workgroup/domain use (for this you must have entered your username, password and workgroup/domain in the XBMC GUI first): 

  <source>
    <path>smb://</path>
  </source>

Network Filesystem (NFS)

NFS sharing is the a full alternative to SMB sharing. It allows the the same features by reaching a better performance (due to less protocol overhead). Also there is no need to save any account information (username, password) inside the xml files, because NFS authentication is done via UID of the user running XBMC and the access rights granted for this UID on the NFS exported filesystem.

Note: For much more information about using NFS in XBMC, see the Network Filesystem (NFS) article.

The full syntax for sharing is as follows: 

  <source>
    <path>nfs://ipaddress/exported_path</path>
  </source>

ipaddress - At the moment there is no name resolution possible. Use the direct IP address of the NFS server for now.

exported_path - The absolute path on the NFS server. The exported_path can be the exported path or exported path including subfolders. At least one of the exported paths of the NFS server should be found inside the the exported_path.

For a direct link to a server for getting a list of exported paths do (exchange IP with the one from your NFS server in the example below): 

  <source>
    <path>nfs://192.168.0.200</path>
  </source>

UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)

UPnP (short for "Universal Plug and Play") media sharing is an extremely easy method of sharing your media (pictures/video/audio) on your network as it features automatic-discovery and does not require any configuration. The UPnP-client in XBMC (also called "UPnP AV Media Server Control Point") supports direct links to the server/shares and auto-discovery of servers available on the local network. UPnP require a UPnP-server (also called "UPnP AV Media Server"), UPnP AV Media Servers is where you store and share your media (pictures/videos/audio/music) from. There are UPnP Media Servers available for most operating-systems and many hardware-platforms, UPnP AV Media Servers can be either be categorized as software-based or hardware-based. Software-based Media Servers can be run on PC (personal-computer), mainly on Windows, Linux, BSD, Unix or Mac platform. And, hardware-based Media Servers may run on any NAS (Network Attached Storage) or any specific hardware for delivering media, like for example a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) device.

Note: For much more information about using UPnP in XBMC, see the UPnP Sharing article.

For auto-discovery (default in xbmc) use the following share:

  <source>
    <path>upnp://</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to a server use:

  <source>
    <path>upnp://ip_address:1901</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to a specific share on a server use: 

  <source>
    <path>upnp://ip_address:1901/share/</path>
  </source>

For a direct link to a subfolder under a share on a server use: 

  <source>
    <path>upnp://ip_address:1901/share/path/</path>
  </source>

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Client

XBMC also contains an FTP-client with which you can add sources in all sections in XBMC interface. (Remember that the default FTP-port is usually 21).

Example (if any variables are not needed, omit the required punctuation): 

  <source>
    <!--to connect as anonymous use ftp://ip:port/-->
    <path>ftp://username:password@ipaddress:port/folder/</path>
  </source>

SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) Client

Example (source.xml): 

     <video>
        <source>
         <name>Remote SFTP Videos</name>
         <path>sftp://username:[email protected]/share/videos/</path>
       </source>
     </video>


HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol ) Client

XBMC also contains an HTTP-client with which you can add sources in all sections in the XBMC interface.

Example (if any variables are not needed, omit the required punctuation): 

  <source>
    <!--to connect as anonymous use "http://ipaddress:port/" or just "http://ipaddress"-->
    <path>http://username:password@ipaddress:port/directory/|option1=value1&option2=value2</path>
  </source>

Examples of options include "auth", which is required if your HTTP server uses any type of authentication other than basic (which is, in fact, unsafe unless used over HTTPS). E.g. if your HTTP server uses digest authentication, use http://username:password@host:port/directory/|auth=digest. For maximum flexibility, use auth=any or auth=anysafe (i.e. anything other than basic).

Other options include:

  • Referrer
  • User-Agent
  • Cookie
  • Encoding

For the meanings of these, see RFC 2616.

RSS Feeds

RSS (which stands for "Really Simple Syndication") is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document is commonly called a "RSS feed", "RSS channel", or "Web feed", includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Podcasts is a is a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by such RSS feeds, and Video Podcasts are often referred to as "Vidcast" or "Vodcast".

XBMC features a built RSS Feed Reader Client for such audio and video sources, this type of media source will connect to the RSS feed you enter and lists the video or audio available to stream with thumbnails and metadata if available.

Note: Please make sure you have read the RSS Feeds in XBMC Guide. 

<source>
  <name>RSS Feed</name>
  <path>rss://</path>
</source>

WebDAV

Incomplete.png INCOMPLETE:
This page or section is incomplete. Please add information or correct uncertain data which is marked with a ?

Plugin Sources

A plugin source is a special type of source that is powered by a python script automatically run by XBMC. A plugin source is typically used to represent the online content of a website as a hierarchical file system.

XBMC supports 3 types of plugin sources: video, music, and pictures. Plugins are placed in the "plugins\<type of media>" folder within the XBMC folder.

Plugin sources can automatically be added from within XBMC via the "Add Source" command accessible from the root folder of "Videos", "Music", and "Pictures". The actual file that is invoked by XBMC is "plugins\<type of media>\<name of plugin>\default.py". This file must be present for the plugin to show up in "Add Source" the dialog.

Videos Specific Sources

Video Library

This special source allows you to access the video database without switching to library view. This is useful for remote browsing of the video library, i.e. via the web interface. 

  <source>
    <name>Library</name>
    <path>videodb://</path>
  </source>

MythTV

This type of media source will contact to a MythTV backend and allows you to watch Live TV, view the program guide, play previously recorded TV shows.
Note: Please make sure you have also read the MythTV in XBMC Guide article. 

<source>
  <name>MythTV</name>
  <path>myth://ipaddress</path>
</source>

HTS Tvheadend

This type of media source will contact to a HTS Tvheadend backend and allows you to watch Live TV, view the program guide, play previously recorded TV shows.

Note: Please make sure you have also read the HTS Tvheadend in XBMC Guide article. 

<source>
  <name>HTS Tvheadend</name>
  <path>htsp://ipaddress:9982</path>
</source>

HDHomeRun

This type of media source will connect to a HDHomeRun (Networked Digital Cable TV/HDTV Tuner) box and allows you to watch Live TV directly from XBMC.

Note: Please make sure you have also read the HDHomeRun in XBMC Guide article. 

<source>
  <name>HDHomeRun</name>
  <path>hdhomerun://</path>
</source>

TuxBox (Dreambox/DBox2)

This type of media source will connect to a TuxBox Stream Server running on a Dreambox or DBox2 set-top-box with a Enigma Based TuxBox image, and it allows you to watch Live TV and already recorded shows directly from XBMC. Dreambox and DBox2 are stand-alone PVR/DVR (Personal Video Recorder/Digital Video Recorder) boxes for the European market. As a rival to the famous TiVo, Dreambox and DBox2 PVR/DVR box records TV (and schedule recoding) to their built-in hard drive and stores it there. Via the network-port built-in to Dreambox/DBox2 boxes they can share the stored video to a local-network. XBMC has a TuxBox Stream Client to browse and stream/play such shares over the network.

Note: Please make sure you have also read the TuxBox in XBMC Guide article. 

  <source>
    <name>TuxBox (Dreambox/DBox2)</name>
    <path>tuxbox://USER:PASSWORD@TUXBOX_IP:PORT/</path>
  </source>

ReplayTV

This type of media source will connect to a ReplayTV box and allows you to watch already recorded shows directly from XBMC. ReplayTV is a stand-alone PVR/DVR (Personal Video Recorder/Digital Video Recorder) box for the American market and is sold online at replaytv.com. As a rival to the famous TiVo, the ReplayTV PVR/DVR box records TV (and schedule recoding) to its built-in hard drive and stores it there. Via the network-port built-in to the ReplayTV box it can share the stored video to a local-network. XBMC has a DVArchive-client which can auto-detect, browse and stream/play such shares. Note: Please make sure you have also read the ReplayTV in XBMC Guide article.

For auto-discovery (default in XBMC) use the following media source in the video section: 

  <source>
    <name>ReplayTV</name>
    <path>rtv://*/</path>
  </source>

Music Specific Sources

Music Library

This special source allows you to access the music database without switching to library view. This is useful for remote browsing of the music library, i.e. via the web interface. 

  <source>
    <name>Library</name>
    <path>musicdb://</path>
  </source>

Forced CDDA

XBMC employs auto-detection of the type of CD or DVD disks in the drive. If for some reason you wish to have a share that forces XBMC to read the disk as an CDDA AudioCD (Compact Disk Digital Audio) use the following share. 

  <source>  
    <name>CDDA</name>
    <path>cdda://</path>
  </source>

See also

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