no it will not run xbmc it will run a similar version but not a full one. It has some movie apps but not mashup etc. The resolution is really good while playing movies etc. as for what we will use it for. I have seen a box running sky mexico and it worked very well. channels went up to 1000 of then maybe half were real not just number spacing. out of the 500 maybe a 5 or so didn't work and the system worked relatively well. in the week that I messed with it was down for maybe 10 hrs. No ppv movies but it works really well.