Aeon is a new interface for XBMC that was built upon a very simple brief: to create an attractive, sophisticated and above all personal environment for organising and enjoying media. Of the many HTPC frontends in development and circulation, too many like to bombard the user with overwrought textures that draw attention away from the most important thing of all: the media itself. Aeon's solution is twofold. By favouring glass and otherwise transparent panels with little in the way of "bling", it allows digital media to express itself through its artwork. By drawing much of its texture and colour from themed definable backdrops, which it supports either as single images or cross-faded galleries, it allows individual tastes to dominate the experience. I didn't just want Aeon to be a organisational tool, I wanted it to be a place to decorate and call your own. You could say it puts the "home" in "home theatre" - just don't say it in public.
First developed for the Microsoft Xbox in 2002, XBMC is presently the most dynamic, reliable and powerful media player available for console or HTPC. Supporting almost all video and audio formats, it allows complete control over home media collections via multiple view options, database-driven libraries and internet lookups. Also available for Linux, Mac and Windows-based HTPCs, it's now the superior choice for HD playback, supporting all SD and HD resolutions.
Aeon has been in active development for over a year, during which time it has closely tracked the evolution of XBMC's advanced skinning engine, suggesting features and finding new ways to exploit its unparalleled versatility. This has been casually referred to as its "Alpha" stage, meaning that its feature-set has been subject to constant change and experimentation. August 2008 marks the beginning of the "Beta" stage, when the basic features and options will be frozen, bug-tested and brought to a robust, releasable state. Keeping to a "release early, release often" philosophy, however, Aeon has been publicly available since conception.
The following text contains words and opinions that some readers may find dull, pretentious or downright fallacious. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The advent of digital media and its devastating effect on the physical forms of yesterday have created an appetite amongst consumers for "tangible" user interfaces. Ever since flat, functional buttons gave way to realistic textures and bevels, the race has been on to recreate the artifacts of media - vinyl sleeves, DVD cases, physical collections, etc - in digital space. Hence reflections beneath icons, simulated perspective and visual depth. Aeon was designed from the start with this in mind and will progress according to it as far as XBMC's technology will allow. The concept of ownership is of utmost importance to this project, not only in making tomorrow's media collections seem "real" again, but in providing a personalised environment to complement the living room around it. Few interfaces, I believe, have successfully embraced this idea of a "media space", though obvious candidates like Apple and Microsoft (with its "New Xbox 360 Experience") are closing in. It's for that reason that I give great thanks to them, but most of all to the UI designers at Codemasters for their extraordinary work on games like Grid and Colin McRae: Dirt. If you want to see the future of this exciting little corner of entertainment, look no further.
The current version of Aeon includes the following features:

  • Unmatched levels of user customisation, allowing features to be toggled and repositioned, and backgrounds defined in multiple configurations for each separate media type
  • Native support for 1080p "TrueHD" televisions, meaning no upscaling or loss of fidelity
  • A combined Home and Settings window unique amongst the current crop of XBMC skins
  • Various fullscreen and "mounted" view types designed with a disciplined approach to information display, aesthetic balance and overall consistency
  • Interface-wide display of time/date and, optionally, local weather
  • Database library views for organising large movie and TV Show collections
  • Support for contextual artwork for movies and TV shows
  • Discreet, interface-wide "Now Playing" panels
  • Unique "Roller" object for music album covers
  • Compatibility modes for improved performance on legacy platforms such as Xbox, and lower-spec portable platforms such as the Asus eeePC
  • Optional cosmetic effects including screen decorations and fullscreen vignetting
The current public version of Aeon is: ALPHA14 (29th July 2008)
All new users should check the README document first
The Aeon PSD pack for modders should be back up soon - it's being replaced

AEON interface and site design/code © Duncan Harris 2008