View Full Version : XBMC for Linux success stories :)
Successfully running xbmc-linux with no errors on:
Motherboard: Intel E210882
cpu: P4 3200mhz
ram: 1024mb
gpu: ASUS GF8600GS
running Ubuntu 7.04, newest nvidia driver from Envy,
took a while to get xorg to stop messing about but is now running at 1920x1080@60hz. Todays XBMC-Linux build plays 100% perfectly without any segfaults or graphical errors/bugs.
HR.HDTV = 6% cpu load
720p x264 = 32% cpu load
1080p x264 = 50% cpu load
//max
gateway69
2007-09-24, 22:29
what clips did you use for 720p and 1080p? Im trying to find some to test and it would be nice to have a good bench mark clips for each system.
I would suggest bittorrent... you can find plenty of HD clips out there in suitable formats for benchmarking...
The clips I have are full-length movies, but I'll try to create a few small clips this week and upload the torrents.
gateway69
2007-09-26, 23:14
the issue is getting really good clips that are encoded with the right encoder to really test the cpu load ... I know their is h264 and the open source x264 with x264 not having yet all the hooks that h264 has.
but any sort of clips where we could all test them and send in our results with data from our machines we are testing would be cool, this would allow for an area to bench mark different machines and what works or could be found as the minimum spec for a lmc
Reginald
2007-10-02, 22:05
Running XBMC-Linuix:
Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe
CPU: Intel Core2Duo 1.83
Ram: 2048
GPU: BFG Tech BFGR7950512GTOCE
Running Ubuntu 7.04, default restricted drivers.
My Xorg worked after the nVidia drivers were installed.
I need to more testing with Audio, I switched from using ALSA but a friend gave me a tip about my ALSA error.
HR.HDTV = 6% CPU load
720p x264 = No testing
1080p x264 = No testing
1080p H.264 = 20% CPU load
Most memory I saw used was about 256m
-Reg
I just have this short simple question, before installing linux :P
Does the rar-support work yet?
Does the rar-support work yet?
Yes it does! I am streaming rar packed HDTV over samba shares :)
hello again, sorry for this stupid question, but all my linux-experience have been debian-console :P
I got the mediacenter working just fine...
problem is playing a 720p file uses 100% cpu and it has a fps of ~5
I have a 3 ghz cpu, 2gb ram, and a radeon 9600 video-card...
So I guess my issue is that I lack ati-drivers?
any easy howto for this? I installed ubuntu 7.04
thnx again! :)
Reginald
2007-10-05, 19:50
I am not sure if this works but it was listed on UbuntuGuide.org as the source of knowledge.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Feisty_Installation_Guide
I think there is a post about using Envy as well, I have never used it but I know it works to make installing drivers simple.
-Reg
I am not sure if this works but it was listed on UbuntuGuide.org as the source of knowledge.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Feisty_Installation_Guide
I think there is a post about using Envy as well, I have never used it but I know it works to make installing drivers simple.
-Reg
I tried to install the ATI-drivers but still no luck..
depending on how I change things around in /etx/X11/xorg.conf I either get:
A. ~2fps when I start XBMC, everything goes really slow
B. Nice speed in XBMC, but the app crashes when I click a movie file :P
since I saw both guys in the thread were using nvidia-cards, I just threw out my 9600 and replaced with a nvidiacard instead... gonna do a full reinstall now...
soo close, but so far away :(
Reginald
2007-10-08, 17:41
NVidia has been friendly with Linux for a while now, ATI is starting to become more so now that AMD purchased them. I have heard they are going to be releasing drivers soon. (they may have already)
Well I hope it works out better for you!
Reg
P.S. I played the new Fantastic 4 movie, this was encoded in HandBreak with options that make a P4 crash, (granted since XBMC for Linux is still beta, so did XBMC) but it used about 45% of my proc and only 140m of RAM and a steady 24fps. It was crystal clear. I can't wait for the h.264 support to mature a bit more. :grin:
I tried to install the ATI-drivers but still no luck..
depending on how I change things around in /etx/X11/xorg.conf I either get:
A. ~2fps when I start XBMC, everything goes really slow
B. Nice speed in XBMC, but the app crashes when I click a movie file :P
since I saw both guys in the thread were using nvidia-cards, I just threw out my 9600 and replaced with a nvidiacard instead... gonna do a full reinstall now...
soo close, but so far away :(
Make sure you use direct rendering.
I had this problem and it was using inderect.
I reinstalled the ATI driver twice with Envy and it worked for me.
Redhound
2007-10-09, 20:32
Another success story from me.
XboxMediaCenter linuxport svn rev 10482
Running perfectly on a Shuttle SG33G5M (http://eu.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/searchcall-12/searchcategory-238/noblendout-1/tabid-72/170_read-14213/) (review (http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/Shuttle_DVO_SG33G5M_Deluxe_Closeup%21/5252-1.html)) with the bundled remote control and the onboard Intel GMA 3100 graphics chip. Linux version used is the beta of Ubuntu 7.10.
Big thanks to the entire development team!! Looking forward to all the improvements to come. I really did not expect anything usuable this fast after the announcement of the project.
Have you tested any HD content with this shuttle box? I'd like to know how the Intel GPU handles 1080p (if at all).
Cheers,
runstop
Another success story from me.
XboxMediaCenter linuxport svn rev 10482
Running perfectly on a Shuttle SG33G5M (http://eu.shuttle.com/en/desktopdefault.aspx/searchcall-12/searchcategory-238/noblendout-1/tabid-72/170_read-14213/) (review (http://sg.vr-zone.com/articles/Shuttle_DVO_SG33G5M_Deluxe_Closeup%21/5252-1.html)) with the bundled remote control and the onboard Intel GMA 3100 graphics chip. Linux version used is the beta of Ubuntu 7.10.
Big thanks to the entire development team!! Looking forward to all the improvements to come. I really did not expect anything usuable this fast after the announcement of the project.
Redhound
2007-10-10, 08:46
Hi runstop,
Yes I have tested with both 720p and 1080p x264 files and they played smooth without any problems. The Intel graphics chip is pretty good and also supports compiz and stuff.
ultrabrutal
2007-10-10, 09:03
Does it support 1080p24? Can't find any info on this
Anyone managed to get DD sound or DTS sound?
Has anyone tried running LXBMC on an ATI videocard/AMD chipset? I'm looking at a barebones kit that uses the AMD 690 chipset but I wanted to check in before pulling the trigger. Check this out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16856171002
That kit from Hiper has everything you need for a media center including a remote, HDMI and a whole host of connections.
ATI is the worst supported card in linux from what I hear
Just because of that :)
Clean compile on Ubuntu 7.0 with radeon 9600. About 60fps
ATI is the worst supported card in linux from what I hear
Yea depending on the card the extent of run around to get everything working is pretty involved. I remember trying to get full support for my 9600pro way back when took a few nights of hair pulling and tower kicking to get working. I've moved to NVidia since so I am unsure of ATi's current state in the *nix world.
ATI support for linux has come on quite a bit recently.
there are some guides on the ubuntu forums for getting just about any ATI card working pretty much perfectly. they aren't quite point and click, but if you can manage 5 or 6 copy/paste actions you'll be laughing (and not hysterically whilst pulling your hair out like you would have been previously). :)
johnnygal
2007-11-20, 21:47
I too am looking at building a HTPC as a replacement for my xbox.
Can I ask those people that already have XBMC for Linux running at 720p a question? How do you get the correct resolution set on your graphics cards and how are you connecting to the LCD/Plasma/Projector?
Most graphics cards seem to have DVI (a few have HDMI), are you using DVI to HDMI adapters? Do you connect from DVI on the graphics card to VGA on the TV?
Any pointers appreciated.
Thanks.
johnnygal I've done all vga and hdmi to dvi adapter and straight hdmi. Really it just depends on what your tv/projector supports
As for how you set the correct rez its an option in settings like the xbox version
I have XBMC running nicely on my HTPC at 720p. I just set it up yesterday. It connects to my HDTV(JVC rear projection) via a DVI-to-HDMI cable. The video card is an Nvidia 7300GS.
I started by installing Mythbuntu 7.10, which detected the TV and configured xorg to work at 720p. Then I installed the necessary dev packages and compiled XBMC and it worked perfectly. The only thing I had to setup was my streamzap in XMBC's lirc xml file. Mythbuntu takes care of setting up the main linux lirc conf file.
Also, all the sound, stereo and AC3 passthrough, worked without any configuration.
Over all, I am extreamely happy. I had been waiting for the day I can play HD files with XBMC.
-Bryan
johnnygal
2007-11-20, 22:33
Thanks for the quick replies guys.
Just been looking at my LCD specs and it only supports SVGA/XVGA over the VGA input and not 1:1 pixel mapping.
So I am certainly looking to use the HDMI port.
Good to hear Bryan that you have your setup up and working using a DVI-HDMI cable. I may buy a cable and try initially on my current PC before splashing out on all the HTPC components.
Jezz_X, will it matter which graphics card you have whether you can select 1280x720 or will Linux/XBMC override this anyway? I assume all modern cards will do this?
Bryan, I have been considering the nvidia 8600gts (toying with the idea of having enough ummpph to play games also!). Can I ask what system specs you have to run 720p smotthly i.e. motherboard, cpu, ram.
Thanks again.
Here are my machine's specs:
- Antec Fusion Case
- Motherboard: ASUS A8N-VM CSM
- CPU: AMD X2 4400+ w/ Zalman CNPS8000 Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler
- RAM: 1GB
- Hard Drive: 400GB Seagate SATA
- SATA DVD ROM Drive.
I built the machine about a year ago had been using it as a MythTV Frontend, but the Myth Video interface is crap when you are used to XBMC.
johnnygal
2007-11-20, 23:01
Thanks Bryan.
Yep, the frontend of XBMC is great. I record using a nebula DVB-T card in my Server box and stream the recordings using XBMC.
I currently have the fusion box on my list too (V2 with 430E PSU) and was thinking about a AMD X2 BE-variant (45W) with a Thermalright SI-128 cpu cooler. I really want to keep noise level to an inaudible level (the 8600gts I am thinking of is passively cooled)
How do you find the noise levels on the Fusion box (is it a V2 with the 430E PSU) and cpu cooler?
Thanks,
John
Basically my LCD TV just works as a monitor. I plug it into my linux box it detects the resolutions it can display and then I set the desktop res to what I want (currently 1280x768) I did have it at 1360x768 but there is a floating point issue in the code currently that makes labels scroll in file lists when the don't have too at that resolution. Then I go and set XBMC res settings to (Desktop) and it fills the whole screen at that rez.
So what I'm getting at is it really depends on what your TV can handle as input from various connections and I guess what the graphics card can output on them as well
johnnygal
2007-11-20, 23:07
Thanks Jezz_X,
I think I'll load Linux onto a PC and have a bit of a play around then. I suppose I need to be sure about my TV before I go ahead with the HTPC route.
John
How do you find the noise levels on the Fusion box (is it a V2 with the 430E PSU) and cpu cooler?
Yeah, I have the V2 model, with a Zalman CPU fan. The box is extremely quiet. I have the case fans and cpu fan at their lowest setting and it's no louder than my DirecTV PVR. If you speed up the fans, it gets quite loud, but I have never needed to do so.
johnnygal
2007-11-21, 00:18
Thanks Bryan, that's good to hear.
It works almost fine on my Ubuntu briefcase with a modification to have it work for the touchscreen. Check janpaulposma.nl/briefcase for pictures (images of XBMC are down on the page).
Still, it says that the CPU load is 100% and video stutters sometimes. I got an Nvidia Geforce4 TI graphics card. Anyone knows how to solve his?
First off trendy
second And this is purely a guess but I don't think gf4 cards support gl 2.0 under linux and you never said what type of video or what type of processor you have
Amd Athlon XP 2400, 1 GB Ram, Geforce 4 TI graphics card, Mobo Asrock, 1,5 TB on 4 harddisks.
Resolution is 800x600 because of the touchscreen (no HD for me!). Maybe it has something to do with the fact the screen is flipped because that was the only way to mount the touchscreen. I also downloaded the newest SVN now and it says: Total CPU 100%, XBMC CPU: around 78%. It seems to work better when I increase the nice value (priority of the process). I guess too it works with software rendering.
xfaethorx
2007-12-23, 16:34
running XBMC on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
EPIA EN 12000 Fanless VIA motherboard with a 1.2GHz Nehmiah Processor.
512 MB of RAM,
40GB ST340014A disk drive
PNY NVIDIA 6200 PCI VGA/TV-OUT/DVI
Wireless Keyboard and mouse.
Its a nigh on silent setup! Theres two small case fans that you can barely hear which is what I wanted.
SVN Rev 11073
works like a charm! Streaming media over my network from the media server in the loft. I'm using TV-OUT to my 32" INCH TV (tube not LCD). Resolution is that of the desktop 1024x768. Haven't tested anythign high def but I doubt it will work due to the specification of the hardware. Skin is set with a slight zoom to aid reading of fonts.
DVD playback was a bit dodgy at first but I switch to using the medibuntu reposirtory and everything seems to be fine now, I've managed to play quite a few DVDs through it now and only had one issue with choppy playback that went away when I restart the DVD and selected the scene I required. Don't know if that was software/hardware or disc but it wasn't a big deal.
I've changed the setup to allow for automatic log in and starting of my XBMC run scripted that launches XBMC in full screen mode. When you shut it down my script picks up the terminated XBMC app and then calls sudo shutdown , I had to modify /etc/sudoers to allow for my user to do this but it cuts out the need for the user to supply their password. So when I shutdown the box shuts down. I installed sshd server onto it so I can update what I need to remotely and because it boots and shutsdown without needing user intervention its missus friendly and shes got no complaints.
heres the contents of my run script its dead simple (like me :) ).
#!/bin/bash
PROC=/home/<your username here>/XBMC/XboxMediaCenter
$PROC
#give it time to start.
sleep 2s
t='/bin/pidof $PROC'
wait $t
sudo shutdown -hP now
heres an example snippet of the sudoers file with the modifications you have to make to get it to allow you to sudo shutdown without password.
just add the lines you need as you see them here make sure the last line is after %admin or it wont work!!!!
# Cmnd alias specification
Cmnd_Alias SHUTDOWN_CMDS = /sbin/shutdown, /sbin/halt, /sbin/reboot
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
#user specification line
<your username here> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: SHUTDOWN_CMDS
If your worried that it wont let you back into the O/S when you quit you can always press \ to drop out to the O/S to tinker with anything :). I just need it to shutdown when its told to and not go back to the O/S as that bit scares normal people ;).
Overall so far my experience has been great even more so now I have a script pack installed to stream internet media! I've now retiered my faithful MG-35 media streamer as I have an all in one player now!
running XBMC on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)
EPIA EN 12000 Fanless VIA motherboard with a 1.2GHz Nehmiah Processor.
512 MB of RAM,
40GB ST340014A disk drive
PNY NVIDIA 6200 PCI VGA/TV-OUT/DVI
Wireless Keyboard and mouse.
Its a nigh on silent setup! Theres two small case fans that you can barely hear which is what I wanted.
Nice to see a such limited motherboard running XBMC. I was thinking of building a mini-itx pc to as a HTPC but were at first thinking of a jetway wich uses the intel GMA950 and the Core2Duo wich would give more punch but also more pricey.
The thing I'm wondering on you setup is if it were impossible to get to run with the onboard graphics card because another possible solution for me would be to use the newer epia ex1500g wich is quite fast, not fanless but silent.
Over and out.
xfaethorx
2007-12-24, 10:46
The onboard graphics is one of the VIA Chrome AGP chipset peices of doody and I couldn't get the chrome stuff to work properly with ubuntu successfully. I got a 640x480 max res from the card no matter what output source was used. Also Althought it claimed it was doing opengl 2.0 I didn't get chance to really test it due to the fact it fell over quite a bit, X was slightly unstable and because I couldn't get the screen res I wanted I tossed using it to one side before I even installed XBMC. Its unfortunate because you can get a HDMI attachment for these boards and it would be nice to use the onboard stuff but it just wasn't 100% hence why i dropped to using the nvidia card which is also fan less so cuts down on noise.
I will admit when I started this i didn't think it would work on this hardware but it does and it does it well. It is more of a streaming box however as I have a server in the loft where all the data is. I've not run a localized video through it yet..but I'll test that in time. I'd say that this would really be a minimum spec however I have a spare ITX which i fancy trying it on which is a much smaller spec and closer to the XBOX so it might work.
All in all building this rigs cost me around £150 as the Mini-Itx was an ebay bargin , for £90 - full PC dvd,ram,board,case which was an amazing grab. It cost me £50 for the PCI card which was a bit steep but within budget and is really the only PCI card worth using on a mini-itx if you want to do something like this!! All the other bits and bats I had kicking around in my spares box bar for a new bluetooth adapter for the Wii remote which cost me around £8 just so i can use it :).
I'm now on rev 11077 and as I said I've even got it working with my Wii Remote now to do the mouse i'm just having trouble with the additional butons (think its a sensor bar thing).
Nice to see a such limited motherboard running XBMC. I was thinking of building a mini-itx pc to as a HTPC but were at first thinking of a jetway wich uses the intel GMA950 and the Core2Duo wich would give more punch but also more pricey.
The thing I'm wondering on you setup is if it were impossible to get to run with the onboard graphics card because another possible solution for me would be to use the newer epia ex1500g wich is quite fast, not fanless but silent.
Over and out.
gunja2k3
2008-01-06, 23:26
To the Linux Dev team, and others interested in success stories. Thanks for this Linux port. Had switched to Windows MCE for HD content, after being a user of XBMC on the XBox for years! And I read the other week that XBMC was being ported to Linux in Alpha mode (yeah yeah, come on this is way better than Alpha ;)) Taken me two weeks to sort things out, and find the time, but now it's done!
Well I now have XBMC working on an AOpen MiniPC 965-DR, 2GB DDR2 RAM, T7700 (2.4GHz) Intel Duo Core CPU, on Ubuntu Linux i386 (32bit) 7.10 (Gutsy), connected to a 40inch Samsung 1080p HDTV.
I did have a few problems with getting overscan corrected (simple in the end, with changing the zoom setting on the TV to Just Scan!). Also I had originally installed the amd64 version of Ubuntu which caused problems.
But now... Wow, it streams x264 very high bitrate 1080p content over the network without issue. Audio works fine through SPDIF to my AMP, and music works just as XBMC used to. I've had a smile on my face for the last few hours, I just wanted to say how happy I am you guys have done this, thanks a lot.
Pictures crash after I select one over an SMB share (samba on another linux box), and I haven't got the remote work yet (not put too much effort in yet, anyone know which driver to use with the MiniPC 965DR?), but I love it. Keep up the good work!
Also as an aside, adding Changelog.txt to the SVN repository will stop a number of issues being raised, build.sh failed, until I'd read through the script, and found the bit that caused that to fail, and I just touched a changelog.txt!
Anyways, thank you very much. Nice to have success stories! (Oh an thanks for the iPhone style music album browser... nice!)
This is a 1.5 Open GL card (apparently), but it's soooo smooth, quick and responsive, way better than the other XBox, so dunno why others don't try the 965, it's a VERY quite, very small, and cheap box to use (£400).
gunja2k3
2008-01-06, 23:27
Ooohhh, sorry, this was meant to be in the end user forum! Can someone move it! Sorry!
Glad you like it. d4rk spent a lot of time making sure you get top notch performance on Intel cards and he did a great job.
Regarding remote -- install lirc and do irw but I guess it will not work since the driver of lirc does not recognize the aopen device. send me a note and I'll e-mail you an updated .ko file for this machine (I have the same machine at home)
Gamester17
2008-01-07, 09:55
Also as an aside, adding Changelog.txt to the SVN repository will stop a number of issues being raised, build.sh failed, until I'd read through the script, and found the bit that caused that to fail, and I just touched a changelog.txt!Let the guys in this other topic thread know => http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27876
:;):
i thought the aopen device was not opengl 2.0 ?
so 1.5 cards actually do work fine?
that just confused the hell out of me.
Gamester17
2008-01-07, 11:38
;163229']so 1.5 cards actually do work fine?.Special 'hacks' has been implemented in XBMC Linux port for Intel GMA X3000/X3100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#GMA_X3000) (and that only supports OpenGL 1.5 with ARB GLSL extensions).
That Intel G965/965GM/960GL chipset is a special case, so do not expect that an old NVIDIA or AMD graphic adapter that do not support OpenGL 2.0 will work. Please read this:
http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/Linux_port_project#Why_is_OpenGL_2.0_needed_for_XB MC.3F
OpenGL 2.0 is the official minimum, and it will remain so.
:nerd:
;163229']i thought the aopen device was not opengl 2.0 ?
so 1.5 cards actually do work fine?
that just confused the hell out of me.
I was also confused but now I'm not:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=161916&postcount=9
I have never got it to work on my regular Ubuntu, it compiles ok but seg faults ... been struggling with it on and off for a while.
But this morning i partitioned my hd and did a fresh install with Xubuntu 7.10 on the second partition. (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Xubuntu)
Installed restricted graphics drivers (Ati)
Followed the xbmc wiki and it worked right away!!! :grin::rofl::grin:
Ok, so i get a green picture when playing movies but what the hell!! i'm just so happy it runs!!!:grin:
Running Xubuntu is great since it Xfce uses less resources than Gnome and i will produce some figures once i get it working on my regular ubuntu installation.
Thanks XBMC developers!!!:cool:
Working on:
Gigabyte Intel G33 based motherboard (onboard video)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
2GB RAM
Elonex Artisan Case with built-in IR
Windows MCE Remote (Philips type)
The case is very quiet and looks like a regular hifi component. Albeit with a very bright blue light around the volume control!
The remote is working well too.
Some mkv files are only playing for a min or so before stopping and CPU seems maxxed all the time.
I haven't got the onboard Optical Audio out working yet but that is something I need to look at the Ubuntu level.
Case also has built in bluetooth so hopefully I can use a compatible wireless keyboard/mouse.
freaksworth
2008-01-12, 16:32
Debian/SID
AMD AthlonXP 2500
ATI Radeon 8500, 128MB; (AIGLX)
768 MB RAM
nothing special
.... running.
Working on:
Gigabyte Intel G33 based motherboard (onboard video)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
2GB RAM
Elonex Artisan Case with built-in IR
Windows MCE Remote (Philips type)
The case is very quiet and looks like a regular hifi component. Albeit with a very bright blue light around the volume control!
The remote is working well too.
Some mkv files are only playing for a min or so before stopping and CPU seems maxxed all the time.
I haven't got the onboard Optical Audio out working yet but that is something I need to look at the Ubuntu level.
Case also has built in bluetooth so hopefully I can use a compatible wireless keyboard/mouse.
I believe you MAY have issues with that chipset for video. That is an Intel X3100 video chipset (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#Table_of_GMA_graphics_cores_and_chipsets ). It looks like that chipset doesn't support OpenGL 2 but rather 1.5.I had looked at several boards that had that and skipped them because of it, hopefully I'm wrong though and it will work. Maybe others will chime in.
The CPU issue appears normal in the GUI, I see this too. The FPS is sky-high and the CPU is working to keep up. I have seen posted somewhere here that turning on VSYNCH will help this but honestly I've not done it myself so I don't know. I'd be most concerned about the video stuttering or stopping rather than the CPU usage in the GUI. What content are you trying to play and does the "buffering" message ever come up? Maybe trying upping buffers to see if that helps?
That WinMCE remote ought to work well, others have gotten the MCE kbrd working too although that's IRDA. I need to work on that myself:p
Razor_109
2008-01-16, 22:59
I finally got XBMC-Linux running too, have been using XBMC for years now on 2 xboxes.
Have been waiting for something new so i can use XBMC for HD-Content.. i dont have any HTPC build yet, working on that..
For testing purpose i got it running on my old machine..
- Pentium 4 - 2,26ghz
- Nvidia GeForce Ti 4200
Took a while before i got HW-support in ubuntu for my old gfx-card.. but i managed to fix it.. supports OpenGL 1.4 i guess..
GUI runs nice and smooth at 60FPS with a CPU-Load of +/- 30%
SD-Movies run without problems, but ofcourse HD-movies (720p and 1080p) dont run..
a 720p movie runs at 100% CPU with 12 - 14FPS..
But i'm happy to get it working so i can look arround and see how XBMC looks and feels under linux ;)
bergmanman
2008-01-30, 14:26
Hi.
Im Using the latest SVN-build on Ubuntu 7.10.
My Hardware:
AMD Turion Mk-36 2.0GHz
1024MiB DDR2-RAM
AMD/ATI xpress 1100
When I'm launching the XMBC-build I get constantly 100% CPU-usage (Regardless if I'm playing a Xvid-movie or just idling in the dashboard).
Anyone know a solution for my problem?
- bergmanman
yes. we are all psychics. ofc we wont tell you
Hi.
Im Using the latest SVN-build on Ubuntu 7.10.
My Hardware:
AMD Turion Mk-36 2.0GHz
1024MiB DDR2-RAM
AMD/ATI xpress 1100
When I'm launching the XBMC-build I get constantly 100% CPU-usage (Regardless if I'm playing a Xvid-movie or just idling in the dashboard).
Anyone know a solution for my problem?
- bergmanman
Try a search.. been asked and answered before. Looks like an opengl issue.
Mobo: Abit AN-M2HD (gf 7050)
CPU: Athon X2 5000+ (65w)
RAM: 2g DDR2 800
Kubuntu 7.10 + latest nvidia drives via Envy.
Hauppauge 350 (just for the ir receiver)
Running at 720p since my projector's native is 720p. Recently converted over from MythTV and am very happy. Everything runs pretty much flawlessly and I don't need the PVR functionality.
720p x264 = ~30% cpu
1080p x264 = ~40% cpu
Nice work guys.
Cheers,
xgrep
djdafreund
2008-02-03, 08:04
Got it working on mine. Getting used to linux, but managed to get it all working now after a few days of messing with linux for the real 1st time ever. I'm loving Ubuntu too, with most of the visuals all turned on. Frickin amazing too. XBMC is running nice too. Smooth, fast, i love it. Still have to mess with the Sources linked to my 300 gig partition i made when i setup Ubuntu, so i can see it in XBMC, as right now i can only access the main partition and HOME and Video folder default on Ubunu. I guess i can just use my xbox shared directories for now, but my hidef version video's are on my 2nd partition i made, and since i don't know enough to figure out how to access my RAID 0 drives ntfs partitions YET, i'm using my 200 gig partition also on my USB hard drive.
djdafreund
2008-02-03, 09:04
Figured out i had to map the drive to SMB, that was easy, but now XBMC says "Error 2: Shared not Available." when i try to add the folder shared Source. I can see the folder's i shared (Videos and Music), i just get that error message when i try to go inside them.
I'm confused - are these folders on another computer that is sharing them via SMB or not? Are they local? If they are onth enetwork then there's no need to map them external to XBMC, XBMC has it's own SMB code that works great. Use XBMC to map the shares if they are on another machine. I stream everything this way, nothing is "local" nor does it need to be.
High CPU usage in GUI and FPS off the chart? One of the video settings can lock the refresh rate as I recall which drops FPS out of the stratosphere and brings down CPU usage as XBMC is no longer rendering as many FPS as it possibly can ;) Pretty sure that fixed things for me.
I have been running XBMC on Kubuntu Feisty 7.10 without any problems. Compiling it was painless.
Now I have it running well on Kubuntu 8.04 Hardy Alpha 4 without any problems. Compiling did not go as well. I'm not sure what went wrong. I think not all dependencies were completely met. Even though all dependencies mentioned in the compilation wiki where installed. A newer version of one of the libraries may have resulted in conflict. Somehow, after a few retries, compilation was successfull. XBMC is running fine now.
Asus P5K motherboard
Intel C2D 6750 @ 3.6Ghz
2GB DDR2 RAM @ 1066 Mhz
NVIDIA 8800 GTS 320MB
Works great on both me PC's
Desktop
C2D 1.8ghz
nvidia Geforce 8800 gts
Ubuntu std
HTPC
Celeron 2.6ghz
nvidia Geforce 5
Ubuntu stripped and using OpenBox. Trying to get rid of both OpenBox and the GDM but having problem with autologin without gdm.
l.capriotti
2008-02-04, 10:21
Trying to get rid of both OpenBox and the GDM but having problem with autologin without gdm.
mingetty is your friend for this, install it and configure tty1 to autologin as your user; as a reference, this is what I have used in /etc/event.d/tty1 in my LiveXBMC:
exec /sbin/mingetty --noclear --autologin xbmc tty1
Cheers
Luigi
been a long time user of xbmc on my xbox, and finally decided its time to move to HD so I thru together a cheap HTPC and loaded up ubuntu.
Specs:
Opteron 144 @ 2.4ghz
1.25gb Ram
Nvidia 6100 based MB
AV710 Soundcard
the interface seems to work fine, had some issues with slowness at first but got the latest nvidia drivers and that cleared up that issue. but the lingering issue I seem to have is that audio/video seem to be running in slowmo like 80% or something. can't figure it out. anyone have any experience with this issue?
can't figure out why I can't edit the above post but forgot to add an issue, might be more related to the linux system itself than a XBMC issue but I seem to be having issues streaming files that were no problem when the box was running windows (constant buffers on 720p stuff)
I started playing with this this morning and got most it working ok. Have a few issues:
making it run fullscreen. the -fs switch doesn't work, and it reverts back to windowed after a video finishes.
Getting emulators to run.
Occasional crashes here and there.
First run had silly CPU usage in the menu. though it appears to have evened out now.
Probably a few other things that I haven't noticed yet.
I put most of these down to still being in development, though.
I got the remote working fine, and the whole thing is pulling images, videos and music from a NAS on my network.
When playing a video, I get around 20-30% CPU. In the menu it is a little higher. FPS for videos is correct (24-30fps). Menu is 100+.
I'm running on an Athlon64 3000+ and an ATI 9800 pro.
Congrats to the developers. I shall continue to search for solutions to the issues above, if there are any.
making it run fullscreen. the -fs switch doesn't work, and it reverts back to windowed after a video finishes.
You can try go into System -> Appearence -> Screen and set the resolution to your screens fullscreen. that works for me, The auto resolution is still a bit jiffy.
When playing a video, I get around 20-30% CPU. In the menu it is a little higher. FPS for videos is correct (24-30fps). Menu is 100+. 100% in menu is normal if you don't have vsync on because then it will render it as fast as it possibly can, wich leads to high CPU usage
You can try go into System -> Appearence -> Screen and set the resolution to your screens fullscreen. that works for me, The auto resolution is still a bit jiffy.
Oh right. I thought it was me being an idiot. I'll try that then.
100% in menu is normal if you don't have vsync on because then it will render it as fast as it possibly can, wich leads to high CPU usage
The CPU usage did even out to 30-40% is after my first run. But I think I may have turned on vsync during my first use.
All in all, though, it is very good and usable in its current state.
just to let you know, setting up the resolution sorted the fullscreen problem.
keithskaggs
2008-02-11, 18:16
Took an old Athlon XP 200 system with onboard graphics/sound/lan. Loaded Ubuntu 7.10, followed the instructions for XBMC compile. To my surprise, it worked first try. It plays XVIDs fine but seems to run at about 80% speed on X264 content. I chalk it up to CPU/GPU being too slow. But for right now, it's seems to be at least as capable as my soft-moded XBox.
Now I'm working an a P4 3.0 Ghz platform on a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H with onboard HDMI and HD Sound. Currently it's running Vista Ultimate MCE but I've installed a second drive just to test XBMC Linux. So far, I've got all the drivers working in Ubuntu but after a compile with no errors, when I launch XboxMediaCenter all I get is a black screen.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Keith
djdafreund
2008-02-11, 18:34
This is something weird, i got XBMC working just fine on my USB hard drive Ubuntu install, but yesterday i installed Ubuntu on my 4 gig i bought USB stick (so i can travel with it, and XBMC) and for some reason i did the same steps in the process, but on my USB stick install (which to my computer is just seen as a hard drive.) when i try to run, it says something like "XBMC_HOME not defined" and in the XBMC window is all black and have to 'Kill Process' just to quite XBMC.
I tried different things like "# XBMC_HOME=/HOME/XBMC/" and "# XBMC_HOME=/HOME/XBMC/BUILD/" (as i realized Build.sh is much easier to update/make and all in one command, verses doing updating commands, then make. But i do have it working perfectly on my usb hard drive external, i'm just having this problem on my usb key stick. I think a few weeks ago i had the same issue on my usb hard drive at first though as well, but don't remember what i did to fix that. Anyone please? Thanks guys.
Razor_109
2008-02-11, 18:53
Took an old Athlon XP 200 system with onboard graphics/sound/lan. Loaded Ubuntu 7.10, followed the instructions for XBMC compile. To my surprise, it worked first try. It plays XVIDs fine but seems to run at about 80% speed on X264 content. I chalk it up to CPU/GPU being too slow. But for right now, it's seems to be at least as capable as my soft-moded XBox.
Now I'm working an a P4 3.0 Ghz platform on a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H with onboard HDMI and HD Sound. Currently it's running Vista Ultimate MCE but I've installed a second drive just to test XBMC Linux. So far, I've got all the drivers working in Ubuntu but after a compile with no errors, when I launch XboxMediaCenter all I get is a black screen.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Keith
look at the log, and post it here... there are some topics about a blackscreen.. mostly i think it's the GFX-Card not properly installed.. so no HW-Acceleration
Motherboard: some nforce board I got for near free
CPU: AMD64-3500
RAM: 2048
GPU: Geforce 7600GS
OS: Gentoo
Nvidia Driver: 169.09
Had to change the Makefile to add -logg -lvorbis becuase of the way Gentoo splits the libraries up. Not had any luck with Wii Remote, due to a problem with a subroutine (still fiddling with it).
DVD = 0.33% cpu load
720 mkv = 25% cpu
1080 not possible due to old TV LCD :)
Had to change the Makefile to add -logg -lvorbis becuase of the way Gentoo splits the libraries up. Not had any luck with Wii Remote, due to a problem with a subroutine (still fiddling with it).
If your running gentoo you are probably running the latest cwiid version? then you need to uncomment (put "//" infront of) line 40 in XBMC/guilib/common/WiiRemote.h and it should, hopefully, compile on the newer cwiid. newer is 0.6.0.0 and old is 0.5.0.3
This goes for fiesty users to who need to compile from source.
This should be taken care of in configure but it isn't added there yet.
Good luck
Got it working on my kids htpc, a P4 1,8 Ghz, Geforce FX 5200, TV-out to a 32" thick-TV, MCE Remote...
SD material is good but HD is nogo, but that's to be expected, and the kids don't need HD yet :)
Xubuntu 7.10 with autologin and XBMC autostart...
Works one helluva lot better and quicker than WindowsMCE + mymovies.
Thank's Team XBMC and the users here on the forum!!
I have it all up and running on a ASUS P5E-VM HDMI using the onboard video card and HDMI connector. The box has 2gb of RAM and an C2D E6600.
My TV supports 720p, and I have been watching Apple HD trailers 1080p without a drama!
I have documented every step I have taken, software I have installed and little scripts that make it work. All the documentation is here - http://ezhtpc.blogspot.com/
Just to comment, the XBMC Linux port is so great, and I am so impressed with it. Sure it takes a little bit of messing around to get going, but I couldn't be happier. There's just a few files that make it crash for whatever reason but its a small price to pay for such an awesome Media Centre option.
A big thanks to the developers of this software and also the users of this forum that have provided me with lots of reading material, tips and tricks. Hopefully someone can get something out of my blog also to make their use/installation of XBMC easy!
Nick8888
2008-02-29, 05:09
great work Spite. Excellent blog which will hopefully ease the process for some other early adopters. Hope to see it updated as you discover new tricks.
true spite its a little hard to set up as a total HTPC but really we havn't got as far as making it easy for people :) we are still trying to work out the kinks. Makign a total simple install is for later
WinterFool
2008-03-07, 02:05
I have documented every step I have taken, software I have installed and little scripts that make it work. All the documentation is here - http://ezhtpc.blogspot.com/
I installed Gutsy on my PC and followed your steps Spite - I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was and how much functionality the Linux build has.
When my 1.6 xbox eventually dies I won't be scared about upgrading to a full blown HTPC - fantastic job on the ongoing port guys!
Hardware:
Asus Pundit barebones, Sempron 3000, 1GBram, onboard geforce 6150, dvi out to lcd HDTV, spdif optical out.
Xubuntu, set to autologin and autostart XBMC, used Envy for the nvidia driver and came up automatically at 1920x1080, XBMC running at same resolution.
MS mce remote of course just worked, smb share to NAS with about 500 movies.
This is after about a 6 month break from using xbmc/linux. Was having high cpu usage before. About 20-30% cpu usage with just UI. Now it's only using about 4%. Very please so far.
bmfrosty
2008-04-27, 01:24
Hardware:
Asus Pundit barebones, Sempron 3000, 1GBram, onboard geforce 6150, dvi out to lcd HDTV, spdif optical out.
Xubuntu, set to autologin and autostart XBMC, used Envy for the nvidia driver and came up automatically at 1920x1080, XBMC running at same resolution.
MS mce remote of course just worked, smb share to NAS with about 500 movies.
This is after about a 6 month break from using xbmc/linux. Was having high cpu usage before. About 20-30% cpu usage with just UI. Now it's only using about 4%. Very please so far.
Have you had to do anything special to get things working smoothly with the 6150? I've just installed, and it's very slow, maxing at about 19fps in xbmc.
Have you had to do anything special to get things working smoothly with the 6150? I've just installed, and it's very slow, maxing at about 19fps in xbmc.
I've downloaded the drivers from nvidia and installed them manually, works perfect for me.
Specs:
Intel E8200
2GB ram
MSI P6NGM-FIH (nvidia 6150 1080p over HDMI)
500 GB harddrive (Gonna build a NAS when 1TB HD's drop in price)
Omaura TF8 case
old ATi remote wonder
Took some time to get everything to work like i wanted but now it's just perfect. It plays 1080p just fine. The highbitrate birdclip plays with a few framedrops but it's only noticeable when you check the status.
Next update: decent sound or a NAS or satellite TV + mythTV. Tough choice :)
Little picture:
http://users.edpnet.be/desertstorm/htpc003.jpg
Did you install them manually or use ENVY? Manual has always seemed pretty daunting but ENVY has been pretty bulletproof for me with my NVIDIA card.
bmfrosty
2008-04-27, 14:22
Well. Here I am with a success story. Got everything installed very early on, but had framerate problems. About 14 hours in I found the option I needed:
Option "UseEvents" "True"
This dropped xorg's cpu usage from about 80% to about 5%. Also, here's the options that I eventually used for anyone trying to get an integrated nvidia solution set up:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 6150 LE"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "RandRRotation" "1"
Option "Coolbits" "1"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
Option "UseEvents" "True"
EndSection
Can you please let us know how that works out long term? I'd never heard of that option before (no surprise) so I did some Googling for it and below is one of the hits I found that raises some concern:
# This option must be either undeclared or
# false, in order to avoid periodic short-term
# freezes on beryl and other OpenGL intensive
# programs
Option "UseEvents" "false"
I think XBMC qualifies as "intensive"? :( I hope it works out and that's a huge drop in CPU usage but ti sounds like it might be an issue. I've got Beryl running on my box so I may not try it - no there's no reason why I enabled it but it looked "cool" and I was curious :p
MrDohnuts
2008-05-01, 20:14
Success!
I'm new to Linux but with the use of the search button on this forum and the Ubuntu forums I managed to get it all up and running over a weekend.
Hardware:
ABit AN-AM2 HD
AMD Athlon 64 x2 4600+
2 GB DDR2 RAM
250GB Seagate SATA
Winfast DTV100T DTV tuner
GF 8600GT (Onboard NV graphics were awful for some reason)
40 Samsung LCD
Bose 5.1 sound system
Software:
Ubuntu 8.06
XBMC from SVN
MythTV with Winfast DTV100T
All running at 1080P and for the most part it's great.
The MythTV backend has virtually no impact of the system and does a great job.
The only outstanding issues I have are:
GUI is smooth as silk but reports 80% CPU time when idle
My amp doesn't support DTS - have not figured out how to down sample this when playing DTS only HD titles (atm it's silent)
Some frame loss on bird scene and other really HD content (I'm guessing this will improve as development continues)
bmfrosty
2008-05-01, 20:24
GUI is smooth as silk but reports 80% CPU time when idle
Add:
Option "UseEvents" "True"
To your xorg.conf file under device and see if that helps the CPU utilization.
MrDohnuts
2008-05-01, 21:20
Add:
Option "UseEvents" "True"
To your xorg.conf file under device and see if that helps the CPU utilization.
Hi bmfrosty
I saw that message earlier in thread and tried the settings that you suggested, but it didn't make any improvement.
If I SSH into the box and run 'top' I get an output like this that show XBMC is consuming 100% of one of the cores:
top - 20:13:35 up 4 min, 2 users, load average: 1.20, 0.86, 0.38
Tasks: 133 total, 4 running, 129 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 12.7%us, 38.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 48.7%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2074692k total, 576832k used, 1497860k free, 13984k buffers
Swap: 5879748k total, 0k used, 5879748k free, 312068k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
6531 xbmc 20 0 173m 57m 23m R 100 2.8 2:54.70 XboxMediaCenter
10 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 1 0.0 0:00.16 events/1
6580 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 1 0.0 0:00.24 cx88[0] dvb
5830 mythtv 20 0 207m 25m 10m S 0 1.3 0:01.37 mythbackend
1 root 20 0 2844 1688 544 S 0 0.1 0:01.22 init
2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
If I then start playing an SD Xvid film, with lanz up scaling enabled the CPU utilization drops significantly:
top - 20:17:40 up 8 min, 2 users, load average: 0.85, 0.89, 0.50
Mem: 2074692k total, 603348k used, 1471344k free, 14332k buffers
Swap: 5879748k total, 0k used, 5879748k free, 314880k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
6531 xbmc 20 0 271m 82m 27m S 55 4.1 6:50.14 XboxMediaCenter
5954 root 20 0 308m 38m 16m S 0 1.9 0:04.84 Xorg
5830 mythtv 20 0 206m 25m 10m S 1 1.3 0:02.05 mythbackend
It's a mystery to me!
This actually seems to affect nearly all in the Geforce 8xxx serie (me aswell, 8800gts)
And it seems to be driver related, or something that we don't know unfortunately :(
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32159
Success!
Hardware:
ABit AN-AM2 HD
GF 8600GT (Onboard NV graphics were awful for some reason)
I've been successfully running XBMC for about a month now (building regularly from the svn). Pretty much identical setup to yours. However I'm using the onboard graphics and seem to have no problems (just ran envy to install drivers)...interested to know what issues you had?
Thumbs up from me to the XBMC :nod:
MrDohnuts
2008-05-02, 09:43
I've been successfully running XBMC for about a month now (building regularly from the svn). Pretty much identical setup to yours. However I'm using the onboard graphics and seem to have no problems (just ran envy to install drivers)...interested to know what issues you had?
Thumbs up from me to the XBMC :nod:
I initially installed (as recommended) on Ubuntu 7.10, used envy to install the NV driver and compiled XBMC from SVN. The desktop compiz was smooth as silk but when I ran XBMC I was getting about 17fps no matter what I did. I then temporarily installed an NV 8600GT and everything played nice ..hmmm
Being new to Linux I then proceeded to destroy my install by screwing about with things I should not have been touching :)
So, I removed the 8600GT, and figured I'd try my luck with Ubuntu 8.06 for the re-install. Again I used ENVY to setup the onboard NV-7050PV and again the performance in XBMC was awful.
I put the 8600GT back in and everything was fast again ...success!
MrDohnuts
2008-05-02, 09:45
This actually seems to affect nearly all in the Geforce 8xxx serie (me aswell, 8800gts)
And it seems to be driver related, or something that we don't know unfortunately :(
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32159
Thanks Topfs2, I'll go play with my vsync settings and report in that thread.
I initially installed (as recommended) on Ubuntu 7.10, used envy to install the NV driver and compiled XBMC from SVN. The desktop compiz was smooth as silk but when I ran XBMC I was getting about 17fps no matter what I did. I then temporarily installed an NV 8600GT and everything played nice ..hmmm
Being new to Linux I then proceeded to destroy my install by screwing about with things I should not have been touching :)
So, I removed the 8600GT, and figured I'd try my luck with Ubuntu 8.06 for the re-install. Again I used ENVY to setup the onboard NV-7050PV and again the performance in XBMC was awful.
I put the 8600GT back in and everything was fast again ...success!
Ah ok. My difference is that I don't run any desktop and compiz...just an Xsession. Good to know if I've ever recommending my setup to mates.
cornbell
2008-05-02, 16:25
My system
video: AMD 780g (ATI radeon 3200 HD) through hdmi
cpu: AMD 64 dual core 5000+ BE (stock cpu speed)
ram: 2gigs
plays video 720p and 1080p h264 over network wirelessly. xbmc may need a bigger cache though. I have it maxed on mine for all fields.
Installed 7.1
and used apt-get for xbmc.
Using orginal Xbox remote with Orginal Reciver Soilderd to a USB plug.
Running with 2Gb mem.
80 Gb Disk.
GA-73PVM-s2H Motherboard.
Dual Core 1.8 Ghz E2160
Geforce 7100 Nforce 630i,
Hooked up to a Sharp 32' LCD Running 720p all worked fine very litle tuning to do.
However Audio through HDMI I did not get to work , did not spend much time at it since LCD does only send out Stereo anyway, and this setup is in my Bedroom :p
Needed to install newest Alsa for sound.
Also added Powerd for speed stepping to lower power consumtion.
I have had my xbox modded since Orgina, V 1.1 and I have to say it was hard to move from the orginal box, still have them and using, however HD was screaming for it to be watched ;)
Again XBMC Developers you ROCK !:grin:
shadiumax3
2008-05-07, 17:54
Decided I needed to get some experience with Linux - XBMC was a catalyst for that!
ASUS A7N-266 Mobo
AMD AthlonXP 2400
512MB RAM
nVidia 6800 GT (AGP)
80GB HDD
16x DVD
MS MCE Remote
Ubuntu 7.10 with updates
Envy for nVidia Drivers
XBMC build from about two weeks ago
Lirc
Everything I used my Xbox for works brilliantly, with additional benefits:
I can now play 720p content, I can use the keyboard to speed up setting up shares and renaming titles in the library etc, and I can actually export my library now when it has finished scanning (I have ripped all my dvd's to a file server, and I have a large collection) which the Xbox could never manage - I think it was something to do with memory limitations on the Xbox but it would always crash when trying to export the library.
So far I have had some success with skins - Aeon seems to work but I need to configure it properly, the same with vinci although that seems very flakey on my system, and Fusion refuses to do anything. Sticking with PM3 for a while so I can fully test it.
MCE remote worked flawlessly immediately after installation of Lirc.
The machine itself sounds like a light aircraft due to a combination of noisy PSU, loud CPU fan and rediculous GPU fan, but the machine was built with spare parts I had lying around. Now I know how brilliant XBMC Linux already is I will be putting together a new (Quiet) PC to replace my very elderly Xbox
Many thanks to everyone involved in creating this awesome software.
Now I just need to figure out a way of launching it that suits me... using the terminal every time is not convenient...
DopplerDeffect
2008-05-07, 20:04
Got XBMC working with little effort. I'm using the latest Hardy Repositories, just upgraded to Hardy a week ago. I initially had an ATi 9700 All-In-Wonder but, due to ATi's lack of linux driver support and a low amount of on board memory, I switched to the NVidia 8700 GT with much better success. One major problem with the 9700 is that all Video just had alpha and green channels. This was resolved by switching to the Nvidia and downloading the latest drivers from the repository.
I'm running an AMD 64-bit 3Ghz single core with 1GB RAM and a motherboard integrated 5.1 AC97 Sound Card. I'm running VGA to the TV at 1080p (Didn't want to mess with component) and optic to the surround sound. I needed no xorg.conf editing, Hardy autodetected the Samsung TV and adjusted the resolution accordingly. 720p x264 Videos run great. I only have one 1080p x264 video and it does not run so great but I'm not sure if that's due a bad encoding because it also runs poorly on my other machine which should be more than capable.
calvinandh0bbes
2008-05-07, 21:02
funny story (to me).
I bought a Popcorn Hour (Network Media Tank) to play HD content on my 1080p plasma since my XBMC on xbox couldn't handle any HD content. I had looked into the linux version of XBMC, but figured since it is still in early alpha, I'd use the PH as a stop-gap until i could build a cheap HTPC with a stable linux-XBMC sometime down the road. My PH plays videio pretty well, but it is rather buggy. Upon installing XBMC on my main linux desktop box and playing a little, I think I can say that the early alpha of XBMC-linux may be further along than the production firmware for the PH. Can't wait to see how this turns out!
Intel Core2 Duo 1.8 Ghz (haven't overclocked yet)
Abit IP35
2 Gig 800MHz ram,
Gefore 7600 GT
rodalpho
2008-05-07, 21:13
I looked into the popcorn hour myself before I decided to jump into XBMC for linux. As someone who's used both, how do you compare the two?
calvinandh0bbes
2008-05-07, 21:48
I looked into the popcorn hour myself before I decided to jump into XBMC for linux. As someone who's used both, how do you compare the two?
PH pros:
price, $200
small unit, size of a big router
uses very little power
dead silent, no fan (though it runs HOT HOT HOT)
boots up fairly quickly versus PC, slower than Xbox XBMC
typing on the provided remote is easier than Xbox remote, harder than keyboard
plays 90% of what you throw at it, and if it plays, it generally looks as good as it is supposed to (true 1080p clips look awesome)
Cons:
limited by internal guts (no upgrading video card, CPU, etc)
user interface is HORRIBLY SLOW and ugly as sin (though i mainly care what content looks like)
firmware is VERY buggy
Power off/standby done by remote, but after a total power down, power up is done by unplugging/plugging in the whole unit (wtf?)
Music/slide show interfaces are horrible
can't (yet) name network shares. shares appear as URL paths (ugly, confusing for non-techs who may live with you)
expect new features/capabilities to plateau quickly as it's hardware limited
things like pause/resume/rewind/ff are cumbersome (or non-existent)
XBMC linux
Pros:
Developers make the best product out there. Period. End of story.
Evolves quickly
Not hardware limited, can upgrade pieces when needed
GUI is very responsive, nice looking, smooth as silk
Video/Music/Photos seem to work well
endless possibilities as for new features/capabilities given a full supporting computer is involved, not a single, highly specialized circuit board
Cons:
Need a whole computer, somewhat powerful for good HD content (which means $$$)
computer will have a bigger footprint, and noisier (though can be made pretty dang quiet)
No official hardware specs available (though decent direction is given)
not as quite as buggy, but more involved in initial setup
overall, i'd say if you want a very small footprint and something that plays most anything currently, a PH is a decent solution, especially for the $$$, though you need to be fairly tech-savvy
if you play lots of music and slideshows, demand a good GUI, and don't mind needing an additional computer, XBMC linux is the way to go, though you may need to be equally or more tech savvy.
down the road, if a cheap hardware setup can be acheived (sub $300-$400) to handle most everything, i have no doubt XMBC linux will be a no brainer. i bought the PH figuring I'd need it for a year or two, then relegate it to a non-promary room after replacing it with a XBMC. (though i don't like the idea of having a few hundred $ computer attached to each TV. a $50 used, modded xbox was doable).
rodalpho
2008-05-07, 22:33
Oh, no pause or fast forward, that'd be a problem. Thanks.
bmfrosty
2008-05-07, 22:40
Speaking of Popcorn hour and such, it would be really pleasant if Sigma Designs (and other similar companies) would make their chips available on PCI(Express) cards and open the interface to linux (ffmpeg like interface?). A minimally powerful mini-itx solution with a good H.264 decode accelerator would be a beautiful thing.
calvinandh0bbes
2008-05-07, 23:16
Oh, no pause or fast forward, that'd be a problem. Thanks.PH has pause and fast forward, but pause is buggy (how can something so simple be buggy?), and no rewind for some formats. FF is limited to 8x even for simple SD XVid content. no resume is a killer for me right now.
Appletalk
2008-05-08, 00:33
CPU: Core2Quad 2.4GHz Q6600
Mobo: EVGA e-7150/630i
Ram: 2GB 800MHz Corsair
GPU: Gforce 7150 onboard over HDMI (Really awesome video card for onboard)
Audio: Onboard 7.1 RealTek HD SPDIF passthrough working 100%
Case: LIAN-LI PC-C35B mATX
OS: Ubuntu 8.04 (was previously running 7.10)
XBMC: SVN updated daily
It took some work to get this computer working with 7.10, updating audio drivers etc, but I am happy to report everything works out of the box with 8.04 except for HDMI audio passthrough but thats not a big deal, I just changed my Pioneer receiver to use optical for audio instead of HDMI. Only quirk was disabling some of the ubuntu "visual effects" so full screen works properly.
Full 1080p video working, with digital 5.1 audio passthrough never drop frames. Awesome job XBMC dev team, keep up the good work.
Cheers
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M
CPU-Cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Alpine 7 GT 80 mm PWM Fan with Ultra Low Noise Impeller
Mobo: ASUS P5B-VM SE Intel Core 2 Duo (Desktop) Socket 775 1066 MHz PC2-6400 (DDR2-800) mATX Motherboard with optional ASUS Motherboard Accessory S/PDIF Out + Coaxial(In and Out) Optical Module #33587
Ram: OCZ Gold GX XTC 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2G8001GK
GPU: MSI NX7300LE-TD256EH GeForce 7300LE 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card (to get OpenGL 2.0 support, the onboard Intel GPU only supports OpenGL 1.5)
TV-Card: pcHDTV Inc. HD-5500 HDTV PCI CARD
Audio: Onboard Realtek ALC883 6-channel High Definition Audio CODEC with SPDIF passthrough working 100%
HD: SEAGATE ST3250310AS 250GB SATA 7200 RPM 8MB Hard Drive
Case: ANTEC Fusion Black Home Theater PC Enclosure
CD/DVD: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black SATA Model LH-20A1S OEM BK
Input: Logitech Dinovo Edge Bluetooth Keyboard with TouchDisc navigation
Screen: Vizio L37HDTV10A 37 inch LCD Native resolution 720p (1366x768)
OS: Ubuntu Hardy 8.10
XBMC: SVN updated whenever I feel like it...
Using VGA-cable for video, optical for sound.
Using the bluetooth keyboard as remote untill I get the IR installed/configured.
Positives:
XBMC runs like a charm, even with H.264/x.264 HD content (main reason for moving the Xbox HW with XBMC to secondary viewing room)
Quiet (even more quiet than my Xbox with modified fan with temperature control)
Ubuntu Hardy installed with no issues at all except for what is mentioned below.
Issues so far:
Screen resolution on my Vizio was off and wrong (800x600 max). (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=781972)
Could not initially run full-screen. (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32982)
Keyboard took time to initialize, around 10 seconds. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4806028&postcount=7)
Does not "output stereo to all speakers" for music only, like Xbox XBMC did. (http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33036)
Have not gotten case-IR and LCD to work yet. (http://codeka.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22)
Left to do:
Get case-LCD to work.
Get my Xbox and Logitech Harmony 520 remotes to work with case-IR.
Enable power up/down of machine with remote.
Fix "output stereo to all speakers" for music only if possible.
Install mythTV to be able to record OTA ATSC-broadcasts with the pcHDTV-card.
Thanks XBMC-Team! Have used your mediacenter for many years! The easiest most powerful mediacenter that works for the missus and kids also! :D
How do you do edit? Cannot see an edit button!
forgot to mention, suspend to RAM works out of the box with Hardy also...
How do you do edit?
You have to be god or mod.
drewjacks0n
2008-05-13, 01:31
* Shuttle SG33G5 http://us.shuttle.com/barebone/Models/sg33g5_pro.html
* Intel Core2Duo 6300 @1.86GHz
* 2 gb of ram
* Terabyte Maxtor Drive
* Nvidia 8400GS (DVI->HDMI)
* USB MCE 2005 remote/receiver
This is a very nice setup. I am able to play dvd content and up to 720p HD. No frames are dropped when viewing 720p. After messing with the nvidia-settings the picture looks great. I am unable to view 1080p successfully. The movie will play ok for a while but eventually get "behind" itself. Looks like I am going to need to upgrade to a faster proc if I want to view 1080p .mkv files.
Installation Notes
- Upgrade to the LATEST Nvidia drivers
> Don't use the ones that come with Ubuntu 7.10. I downloaded the latest stable drivers from Nvidia.com and had MUCH better luck outputting 1920x1080.
> Stay away from the DigitalVibrance setting in nvidia-settings (see : http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33126)
> Disable compiz and the gnome-screensaver. failing to do this will result in your nvidia-settings being "lost". This was a total pain in the ass to figure out.
> Create a startup script to apply your nvidia-settings at start of X11. (nvidia-settings --load-config-only)
- Stay away from Intel GMA 950 graphics
> the first barebones i bought used this for onboard video. It had no pcix slot and i could not get it to work with my HDTV. I had to give up and return it for a NVIDIA card.
- XBMC uses 100% cpu when in fullscreen. Some reports say that this was a nvidia driver issue. I have updated to the latest nvidia drivers and it still happens.
- Your TV's EDID (information about resolutions) is often times incorrect. If you are having trouble setting your display to a resolution you KNOW it supports, add this to xorg.conf (under screen section it will ignore what the TV says about its resolutions.) In my case my tv gave a vert sync range that was smaller than what the tv also said it could display when doing 1920x1080p.
Option "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck, NoVertRefreshCheck, NoHorizSyncCheck, NoEdidMaxPClkCheck"
- Need more power than 1.86c2d to display 1080p. There is some glimmer of hope that coreavc will one day work in xbmc. I am not holding my breath, I plan to watch 720p until the prices on the faster 65nm c2d chips drop even more.
- It was helpful to learn how to use nvidia-settings from the command line when adjusting color settings. I was able to login via my laptop while on my couch watching a video. It was invaluable to be able and switch the settings with interrupting video play.
bmfrosty
2008-05-13, 01:47
@drewjackson
Try:
Option "UseEvents" "True"
See if it helps on the CPU utilization.
Lemme' guess - Vizio display? The EDID on all of those is hosed I swear! :(
drewjacks0n
2008-05-13, 03:58
@bmfrosty - The Option "UseEvents" "True" had no effect on the cpu load while XBMC is in fullscreen/idle mode. Thanks for the tip though, I'm still hopeful that I can resolve this. FYI, this is top when XBMC is fullscreen (no video playing)
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
6188 chrisk 25 0 135m 45m 22m R 100 2.2 1:19.27 XboxMediaCenter
@BLKMGK - Nah, not Vizio, all though those tv's showed up a ton while googling the solution. I have a JVC HD-56FN97.
xfaethorx
2008-06-05, 15:11
Heres a giggle for anyone.
I got XBMC working on my asus eee (2GB of RAM 4GB disk 4GB expansion card). Its actually running quite really well. I've got it sat on my desk at work currently.
I was going to knock a you tube video out to show it running if anyones interested. It's actually great to have it running on such a small factor PC and working well without a nvidia/ati card.
Its based on ubuntu hardy heron , build was slow obviously but with ccache on that shouldn't be too much of a problem in the future. I've played WMV , DIVX , AVI & MP3 through it with great success.
I only did it for a laugh but it worked straight away well impressed I've now got XBMC on the road with me at all times now!
:D
Stupid question: What's ccache? I saw something blow by as an error that seemed to contain that string. Compiled fine but I'd like to clear that if it's a benefit. TIA!
Oh and congrats running this on a EEE!!
althekiller
2008-06-06, 01:40
ccache just speeds up compiles by caching output for the next time. It is by no means a requirement and shouldn't be an error at all, just a simple "checking for ccache ... no."
That is indeed what I got although catching exactly what it was saying was tough (didn't review the compile log after). If it's coming up as an error is it simply something I need to apt-get? Sounds useful!
althekiller
2008-06-07, 06:56
It is NOT an error ccache isn't required. It is merely a convenience. Go ahead and install via your preferred means.
* Quad 2.4 GHz Xeon
* EVGA 630i motherboard with GF 7150 integrated
* 4 GB PC6400
* Kingston 1GB Memory Stick
First I tried with Ubuntu 8.04 and install XBMC manually. I never managed to get it at full screen and codecs were not very nice. But once I tried the LiveXBMC on a memory stick it worked perfectly!
Laptop with P3 866mhz. 512mb ram, intel 82830m graphics chipset.
Ubuntu 8.04 100% vanilla, XBMC installed and running through gnome.
Playing a Divx standard definition movie:
640x480 = 75% cpu
PAL = 60% cpu
800x600 = 85% cpu
1024x 768 = 95% cpu
XBMC is using approx 34mb ram.
In comparison totem seemed to use about 3 or 4 % less cpu
Stability is good, have problems recognising mouse clicks, but not played with ANY settings yet.
I currently run XBMC on my Xbox, thinking about putting linux on my xbox (is this a daft idea ?) to run xbmc, or build a cheap box (I only need standard definition TV).
althekiller
2008-06-08, 01:39
is this a daft idea ?.
Quite. Why add the overhead of an OS when it already runs natively?
Quite. Why add the overhead of an OS when it already runs natively?
Would there be any added overhead ?
Xbox has a very stripped down embedded version of Win 2k; if running Linux you would not run the Embedded OS (you need to flash the rom to bypass/replace) ).
Question is how well would a basic (as in just enough to run XBMC) config of Linux run?
Might be worth/fun as an experiment, biggest issue for me personally is not known how mature/stable/supported Xbox-Linux is (AFAIK is the only Xbox Linux distro), so I doubt I would run XBox-Linux permanently.
Cheers, Nick
XBMC for Linux is greater than I could think it would.
I was a long time user on the Xbox, but this year it showed its limits (HD content, high bitrates encoding), despite my repeted efforts by the past to get only content that it could read.
I tried at the start of the year the linux build. The message was clear "don't expect too much... yet". Inded, it was kinda unstable and sometimes even unable to play content.
I still came weekly or so to try the new builds. The progress made were simply amazing. In a matter of months, everything is like it was before on the Xbox, but with a power a of custom PC of your choice, and that can more things than "just" a media center.
So, many thanks to all the XBMC Team that dedicate so much time for this great software but also to everyone on the forum/wiki that posted relevant info that helped me to make my own build of XBMC working :laugh:
JeffElkins
2008-06-09, 15:19
I came to Linux XBMC via OSXBMC (just prior to the fork). I use Apple hardware (Intel Mac minis) as my living room HTPC and home office workstation. My preference was to run Linux on each, but for the HTPC I couldn't find anything better than Front Row, so I stuck with OS X in the living room. After trying OSXBMC I decided to try Linux XBMC in my office and was immediately sold. Shortly thereafter, I reformatted my living room mini which now runs Ubuntu server and XBMC. All is well :)
[snip] After trying OSXBMC I decided to try Linux XBMC in my office and was immediately sold.[snip]
So, in what ways are the Linux and OSXBMC different? Why do you prefer the Linux version?
JeffElkins
2008-06-09, 16:40
So, in what ways are the Linux and OSXBMC different? Why do you prefer the Linux version?
The remote is the main differentiator for me. The Apple remote is perfectly suitable for Front Row...but XBMC is so feature-rich that I found that the six-button remote didn't cut it. I had to keep a wireless keyboard handy as well. With Linux, I merely plugged in a msusb remote and had no more need for a keyboard.
Gamester17
2008-06-09, 19:24
Quite. Why add the overhead of an OS when it already runs natively?Would there be any added overhead ?Yes, Linux on the Xbox is a lot of overhead, ...plus the fact there I do not think there are OpenGL drivers for Linux on the old Xbox and if so the discussion is moot anyway (as XBMC currently requires at least OpenGL 1.5 hardware accelerated GPU and drivers that support that). If you insist on trying then just try install Linux on your Xbox then try to play the same videos in MPlayer there as you play with XBMC nativly on the Xbox, check the frame-rate.
Lament Configuration
2008-06-16, 20:21
Thnx to all who have worked on this project both on xbox and on linux
U make my viewing experience a pleasure.
I got it working thnx to guides of rrambo and cornbell on this forum and a guide on http://ezhtpc.blogspot.com/
XBMC from svn
Ubuntu 7.10 server
Xorg and latest ATI drivers (manual install)
On a
GA-MA78GM-S2H mobo
Athlon 64 X2 4850E cpu
plus Remote / Receiver MCE 2005
HDMI: OK
Optical out: OK
720p: OK
1080p: no go (20fps max)
Al works fine except for some screen tearing and no 1080p that will require a cpu upgrade or better ATI drivers.
THNX for my viewing pleasure :grin:
I got the same board and CPU 780g chipset and 4850e. 1080p works perfectly fine here. no issues at all. though i haven't hooked the box up to a tv yet, but i doubt that this should make any difference.
I can use the onboard ati or my pcie 8500gt, both play 1080p stutter free.
boba
treefour
2008-06-25, 04:35
Thanks to all the dev for this great app.
running XBMC Live USB
on
Asus Essentio CS5110 Linky (http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=10836)
E8300 intel
2 GB Ram
8600M GT Video
720 no problem
Seems to play all 1080 (at least the ones I have)
HDMI no problem
Digital audio no problem
Remote still working on it
Life is good :nod:
Cheers
treefour
Didn't see this config listed here, so:
Hardware: AppleTV 40Gig
Distribution: Ubuntu Hardy 8.04
CPU: 1.0GHz Intel Pentium M-based "Crofton" CPU
RAM: 256 MB DDR2-667
HD: 40 Gig
Video: NVidia GeForce Go 7300 / G72
Audio: Realtek ALC885 7.1+2 Channel High Definition Audio Codec
Pros: Silent. Tiny. Geared for HTPC out of the box, hack to install linux isn't too hard to accomplish these days. Currently refurb 40Gig unit straight from apple is $200.
Cons: Optical out seems to only be stereo for now (looks like a driver issue). No optical drive by default, six button remote. Theme doesn't lend itself well to included remote. Noone knows yet how to get the led on the front to stop blinking orange.
I've been trying to build the perfect silent HTPC for years now and I finally found a combination that works. The install wasn't easy, but it wasn't crazy hard either. Scott D Avila has done a FANTASTIC job with atv-bootloader to the point that you can basically run off a USB drive until you've got the config to where you want it before overwriting the internal drive (assuming you wanna go that far). Anyone familiar with linux can accomplish the task, and even some of those without. The back of this thing is HDMI + Component (+ Composite too, though it isn't readily visible), audio is stereo RCA + optical s/pdif, network is ethernet (or wireless internally). The thing has IR in the front too. All hardware is supported by linux.
http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader
As far as XBMC goes, it's fantastic. It runs without really any glitches. I convert my DVD's to MKV's with ogmrip (h.264 @ 1440 kbs, AAC for the audio) and they play phenomenally well on the box. According to most people who've tested video with mplayer on the thing, it should handle up to 1080i without issue. I keep my video and music on a linux server at the center of the house and they play over the network (through a samba share). I also play straight DVD iso's through this and they play well too.
The only annoying thing is the 6 button remote. The IR receiver is finnicky so you can't just add another remote. I discovered a bunch of codes by painstakingly sending them out an MCE transmitter/receiver into a Harmony Remote and worked out 48 buttons I used to emulate the buttons on an MCE remote. The biggest thing I find creates a problem for me with the included apple remote is the lack of a Stop button. I think the only place this is really a problem in the interface is when watching video or listening to music. I'm planning on modifying the included default theme (Project Mayhem III) to include a "Stop" button in the OSD transport buttons to solve this.
Man, I love this thing.
Yea, A happy XBMC for Linux on an AppleTV customer. Glad to see it working well for you.
Nice trick with the Harmony remote, others have also done this to be able to use the internal IR controller with an different IR remote that has more buttons. I punted and when direct with the MS USB mce remote/receiver.
Scott
dr4stic, are you sure about the composite connection? I would use that to replace my broken Xboxes. I would even settle for iTunes until there is an easy install for XBMC on it, if that ever even happens at all.
You can do HDMI, Component, Composite and S-Video (with adapter) on the AppleTV. The atv-bootloader wiki has the details.
Any chance of seeing a bootable USB image for the aTV? Perhaps if there's still an issue with Apple's files one that just needs the user to insert a few things? I would LOVE to get my aTV running off of a USB w/this on a second TV!
ok, I give in. I'll make one based off the LiveUSB. It will take a few days to sync in and get it posted to an ftp server. Call it an experimental proof of concept. It will not touch the existing internal disk and run totally off the USB flash drive. It will have the bits for wireless but will require a wired network connection initially. Wireless config involves several branch points that depend greatly on how ones wireless is setup.
It will support either the Apple IR remote or the MS USB mce remote and have xorg.confs for HDMI, component, composite and s-video (needs an adapter).
You will need to obtain boot.efi but that's easy under Linux/OSX. See this link http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/wiki/BootEFIExtraction
This will be a "dd" to a USB flash drive, then manually add boot.efi, remote conf and xorg.conf to a specific location. As always, USB flash drives can be quirky, some work, some don't. This will be sized to fit a 1GB or greater flash drive.
Gamester17
2008-06-29, 22:14
ok, I give in. I'll make one based off the LiveUSB. It will take a few days to sync in and get it posted to an ftp server.as long as the files in it does not violate any copyrights then you can host it on the official SourceForge project page (login to SourceForge then go to this page)
https://sourceforge.net/project/admin/editpackages.php?group_id=87054
instructions on how to upload files can be found here:
http://alexandria.wiki.sourceforge.net/File+Release+System+-+Offering+Files+for+Download
THANK YOU DAVILLA!!!!!
I know I've been a PITA about this but I do think it will let lots more folks try it out including several of my friends! I know a bunch more at work who might also like it. With all of the goofiness going on with the various ATV hacks these days this will be welcomed I think. What you propose is exactly perfect for my use and hopefully many others. Pulling out the Apple files needed should not be too hard either. Wired and HDMI - perfect and having the MCE remote work is icing on the cake. Guess I better terminate the ends on my CAT5 going to the second TV huh? :D
as long as the files in it does not violate any copyrights then you can host it on the official SourceForge project page (login to SourceForge then go to this page)
https://sourceforge.net/project/admin/editpackages.php?group_id=87054
instructions on how to upload files can be found here:
http://alexandria.wiki.sourceforge.net/File+Release+System+-+Offering+Files+for+Download
Duh, totally forgot about hosting it here. That's will certainly ease the strain on my home servers. My upstream pipe is only 512Mb.
Yes, it will be free of any copyright issues, specifically the boot.efi file need to boot (this be be a separate download extraction step) and the windows driver needed for wifi (this can be done using a ssh session). The wifi windows driver is really why I'm waffling on wifi support out of the box.
Do many people use WiFi with the aTV? a serious question as I've never done anything but wired for my media devices...
I only have 802.11g at home via a pair of the original airport express. One can never beat a wired line, there's never any issues about interference or distance away from the wireless base. Unless of course you make bad crimps;)
That said, some users don't have a wired connection near their AppleTV location. 802.11n should work fine. My tests over 802.11g are fine too but that's with an airport express about three feet away. Wireless results are greatly dependant on distance from wireless base and local interference (microwave, cordless phones, etc).
Well, supporting it would be nice if possible I guess but the users will have to figure out how to get the blob driver onboard themselves. Bummer that is but it beats having someone bitch about distributing their stuff <sigh>
ChristianW
2008-07-01, 14:56
Didn't see this config listed here, so:
The only annoying thing is the 6 button remote. The IR receiver is finnicky so you can't just add another remote. I discovered a bunch of codes by painstakingly sending them out an MCE transmitter/receiver into a Harmony Remote and worked out 48 buttons I used to emulate the buttons on an MCE remote. The biggest thing I find creates a problem for me with the included apple remote is the lack of a Stop button. I think the only place this is really a problem in the interface is when watching video or listening to music. I'm planning on modifying the included default theme (Project Mayhem III) to include a "Stop" button in the OSD transport buttons to solve this.
Man, I love this thing.
Wouldn't it be possible to make a long press on play/pause mean stop?
-C-
Hardware:
Case: mCubed HFX Classic
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo (E8400)
Board: ASUS P5K-E Wifi-AP
RAM: 4gb PC2-6400 Kingston
GFX: ASUS Nvidia GeForce EN8600GT Silent HTDP
TV: Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T-500
Ubuntu 8.04 (Originally Mythbuntu)
Optical Audio out hooked to Receiver. DTS/AC3 throughput works correctly.
Bought a DVI-HDMI cable, which is hooked to the TV. Didn't test HDMI sound.
After some initial problems with sound output, removing the PulseAudio driver resolved this as well. The only thing I'm still fiddling with is using my XBOX remote control with the built-in IR receiver of the case. The included MCE thingie worked out of the box but I'm too much used to the XBOX version :)
Oh, and I couldn't get the iMON VFD (some type of LCD) of the case to work. Not a XBMC problem though. ;)
I'm really fond of the case, the only sound you hear is the disk spinning, and that's really not much. Everything is cooled passively.
Nothing to say about performance, everything is smooth as silk, even the bird scene was fluid. The MythTV plugin is working nicely so far as well, though I didn't spend too much time testing it yet.
I'm looking forward to each SVN commit, you guys rock!
Cheers,
-f3k.
althekiller
2008-07-02, 19:38
freezy, can you post some temperatures, say, an hour into a 1080p movie. I'm considering that case but concerned about heat.
freezy, can you post some temperatures, say, an hour into a 1080p movie. I'm considering that case but concerned about heat.
will do. but need to fix something else first.
Haohmaru
2008-07-02, 21:05
Wow that case is awesome ! I've just read the review on silentpc. I think I may have to spare a bit more money cuz I need one of that too :laugh:
icekiller
2008-07-02, 22:02
350euro for that casE? damn... am i glad that my butt ugly case is hidden.
sorry about the delay, but i was just reinstalling the box and having hw problems with another box.
http://neh.ch/cpu_2008-07-10.png
i started the movie around 23:40. note that it's summer and like a 30° out here. if you know how to probe gpu temp (by script), lemme know and i'll add that too.
cheers,
-freezy.