Raspbmc is a highly optimized and dedicated media center for Raspberry Pi. It brings XBMC to Raspberry Pi in a fast and self updating package in an easy-to-use manner. This is because Raspbmc has been built specifically for the purpose of running XBMC. Raspbmc is flexible and allows expansion via the Debian packaging system. For example, it is possible to utilize GPIO (general purpose input output) to configure a custom infrared receiver.

XBMC is an open source media center that runs on all major platforms. It began as a project for playing back media on the original Microsoft game console, and it now runs on many platforms. XBMC is not limited to just media playback, and sports a lot of functionality, such as plugins, add-ons, and media scraping. XBMC's existence on the Raspberry Pi can be greatly attributed to the work of Edgar Huceke and Scott Davilla. You can learn more about XBMC at www.xbmc.org.