eamiryar
2008-12-15, 18:10
I just wanted to share my experience with XBMC Live. First off, thank you to all the developers and "helpers" on the forums that have made this product what it is. IMO it surpasses any retail media center by far and is easily the most utilized device in my entertainment cabinet.
I wanted to put a thread together for new comers who wanted a plug and play list of hardware which will support up to 1080P output of the most common file formats including H.264 "out of the box."
Thanks goes to Matt Devo for answering my initial question in this thread
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39839&page=2
and getting me started. Thanks goes to many others who answered my question along the way.
HARDWARE
Intel Core 2 Duo e7300 Wolfdale 2.66ghz Retail Box $120
DDR2 800 2 x 1GB DIMM $24
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA Geforce 7100 HDMI Micro ATX Motherboard $70
Linkworld Black Body Steel 62080-01 Micro ATX HTPC Case $39
Windows Media Center Remote with IR Receiver $30
8GB USB Thumb Drive $15
DVD-RW Drive $20 (optional)
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse $20 (optional)
SETUP
The case is decent, not great, but fine if you don't plan on tinkering with it once put together. I overclocked the CPU to 3.1 GHz by upping the clock to 310. Kept the stock cooler and core voltage the same, haven't had any issues.
NOTES
A few notes and thoughts on this setup. This box supports all "real" 1080P video I've thrown at it without dropped frames. The test video thats floating around here of the birds in flight drops about 10-20 frames in the beginning and one visibile stutter in the beginning but no others throughout.
The XBMC team recommends a geforce series 8 card or better. Please note that the card on this mobo is a series 7. According to the manual though it does support OpenGL 2.0. I believe the mobo also has a x16 slot for future video card upgrades (need to confirm that) though I doubt that will be necessary.
I have the following options configured:
In BIOS all serial and parallel ports disabled. The video memory was upped from 128MB to 256MB. The BIOS is set to boot from CD first, then USB.
I use the optical audio, not audio over HDMI. From what I've read XBMC doesn't support audio over HDMI yet but I can't confirm either way as I don't use it.
ISSUES WITH RESOLUTION
Video Tearing durring playback - On XBMC I had to enable vsynch, without enabling it I was getting a lot of video tearing. I have all SD content upscaled with the filtering.
No audio with non dolby digital/dts tracks - in the audio hardware menu there are two devices listed. One is default audio and the other is digital audio I believe. *****The digital will say "iec958" the other will say "default." Change "default" to say "iec958"***** Edit: Ignore the device name change, to fix this problem simply unmute a few devices in the alsa mixer. Check out the first two posts on page 2 of this thread for a how-to. Renaming the "default" device will give you other problems.
Remote powers on xbox 360 as well - In the xbox setup, under remote control, change it so the 360 only responds to commends from the xbox 360 remote
ISSUES WITHOUT RESOLUTION (meaning I haven't taken the time to resolve/research them, not that there is no solution)
The following is a list of issues without resolution, but I should note that I don't believe any of these are related to the hardware.
MediaStream skin reboots in photos - I had to change my skin to PM3 HD. Haven't troubleshot this much yet
Some videos with a mono track play at 2x speed with no sound - There are a few threads on this and the suggested fixes haven't worked for me yet. Luckily I don't have much with a mono track.
Skipping forward too many times in two short period a time locks up my receiver - This appears to be due to the fact that the Dolby Digital stream actually stops and reinitializes when you fast forward. Doing so too quickly seems to "freak out" my receiver. I believe this is my receiver though, and not xbmc. ***** - Fixed - Changed the default audio device back to "default" and unmuted devices in the alsamixer. Problem solved.
Resume from standby via remote - Haven't figured this out yet, though numerous threads on the issue. I opted to go with the iNdo Inside product which attaches to the power pins of the mobo as I want to fully shut down the PC. Alternatively, a cheaper solution would be to set the mobo to "power on on A/C resume" and purchase one of these IR power plugs:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13147
The plug can learn any IR command so you can teach it whatever button you want for power on. You may need a remote relay though as the plugs usually aren't within line of site. I would have gone this route had I thought of it prior to purchasing the indo. I would note however you still want to use the built in XBMC "power off" function for a clean shut down.
XBMC doesn't remember screen calibration settings - Again, haven't researched, but upon reboot my screen calibration seems to reset. *edit* See Matt Devo's comment below
DVD Drive won't eject once media is mounted - A few threads on this, haven't researched *edit* See Matt Devo's fix below
MISC
Generally speaking I get about 50% utilization per core on the highest bitrate 1080p video with no stuttering.
I don't get "navigation sounds" via the optical port. *edit* fixed by unmuting sources is alsamixer
I don't seem to have the option to edit my IP address information. It seems to be forced to DHCP. Since I have my own DHCP server I forced it to assign by MAC address to force it to the same IP everytime. *edit* fixed, can edit in linux CLI, just not via GUI
My media is on a windows server, attached via SMB, on a gigabit backbone (mobo has a built in gig-e nic)
Hope this helps someone out there. I encourage others out there with successful PnP setups to post their hardware list.
*edit* some additional notes:
Kenwood 6.1 receiver getting audio via optical
Panasonic 50" 1080p plasma getting video via HDMI
Harmony 880 universal remote controlling the system
XBMC Live Atlantis 8.1 running at 1920x1080p and outputting all sound via digital optical
I wanted to put a thread together for new comers who wanted a plug and play list of hardware which will support up to 1080P output of the most common file formats including H.264 "out of the box."
Thanks goes to Matt Devo for answering my initial question in this thread
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39839&page=2
and getting me started. Thanks goes to many others who answered my question along the way.
HARDWARE
Intel Core 2 Duo e7300 Wolfdale 2.66ghz Retail Box $120
DDR2 800 2 x 1GB DIMM $24
Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA Geforce 7100 HDMI Micro ATX Motherboard $70
Linkworld Black Body Steel 62080-01 Micro ATX HTPC Case $39
Windows Media Center Remote with IR Receiver $30
8GB USB Thumb Drive $15
DVD-RW Drive $20 (optional)
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse $20 (optional)
SETUP
The case is decent, not great, but fine if you don't plan on tinkering with it once put together. I overclocked the CPU to 3.1 GHz by upping the clock to 310. Kept the stock cooler and core voltage the same, haven't had any issues.
NOTES
A few notes and thoughts on this setup. This box supports all "real" 1080P video I've thrown at it without dropped frames. The test video thats floating around here of the birds in flight drops about 10-20 frames in the beginning and one visibile stutter in the beginning but no others throughout.
The XBMC team recommends a geforce series 8 card or better. Please note that the card on this mobo is a series 7. According to the manual though it does support OpenGL 2.0. I believe the mobo also has a x16 slot for future video card upgrades (need to confirm that) though I doubt that will be necessary.
I have the following options configured:
In BIOS all serial and parallel ports disabled. The video memory was upped from 128MB to 256MB. The BIOS is set to boot from CD first, then USB.
I use the optical audio, not audio over HDMI. From what I've read XBMC doesn't support audio over HDMI yet but I can't confirm either way as I don't use it.
ISSUES WITH RESOLUTION
Video Tearing durring playback - On XBMC I had to enable vsynch, without enabling it I was getting a lot of video tearing. I have all SD content upscaled with the filtering.
No audio with non dolby digital/dts tracks - in the audio hardware menu there are two devices listed. One is default audio and the other is digital audio I believe. *****The digital will say "iec958" the other will say "default." Change "default" to say "iec958"***** Edit: Ignore the device name change, to fix this problem simply unmute a few devices in the alsa mixer. Check out the first two posts on page 2 of this thread for a how-to. Renaming the "default" device will give you other problems.
Remote powers on xbox 360 as well - In the xbox setup, under remote control, change it so the 360 only responds to commends from the xbox 360 remote
ISSUES WITHOUT RESOLUTION (meaning I haven't taken the time to resolve/research them, not that there is no solution)
The following is a list of issues without resolution, but I should note that I don't believe any of these are related to the hardware.
MediaStream skin reboots in photos - I had to change my skin to PM3 HD. Haven't troubleshot this much yet
Some videos with a mono track play at 2x speed with no sound - There are a few threads on this and the suggested fixes haven't worked for me yet. Luckily I don't have much with a mono track.
Skipping forward too many times in two short period a time locks up my receiver - This appears to be due to the fact that the Dolby Digital stream actually stops and reinitializes when you fast forward. Doing so too quickly seems to "freak out" my receiver. I believe this is my receiver though, and not xbmc. ***** - Fixed - Changed the default audio device back to "default" and unmuted devices in the alsamixer. Problem solved.
Resume from standby via remote - Haven't figured this out yet, though numerous threads on the issue. I opted to go with the iNdo Inside product which attaches to the power pins of the mobo as I want to fully shut down the PC. Alternatively, a cheaper solution would be to set the mobo to "power on on A/C resume" and purchase one of these IR power plugs:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13147
The plug can learn any IR command so you can teach it whatever button you want for power on. You may need a remote relay though as the plugs usually aren't within line of site. I would have gone this route had I thought of it prior to purchasing the indo. I would note however you still want to use the built in XBMC "power off" function for a clean shut down.
XBMC doesn't remember screen calibration settings - Again, haven't researched, but upon reboot my screen calibration seems to reset. *edit* See Matt Devo's comment below
DVD Drive won't eject once media is mounted - A few threads on this, haven't researched *edit* See Matt Devo's fix below
MISC
Generally speaking I get about 50% utilization per core on the highest bitrate 1080p video with no stuttering.
I don't get "navigation sounds" via the optical port. *edit* fixed by unmuting sources is alsamixer
I don't seem to have the option to edit my IP address information. It seems to be forced to DHCP. Since I have my own DHCP server I forced it to assign by MAC address to force it to the same IP everytime. *edit* fixed, can edit in linux CLI, just not via GUI
My media is on a windows server, attached via SMB, on a gigabit backbone (mobo has a built in gig-e nic)
Hope this helps someone out there. I encourage others out there with successful PnP setups to post their hardware list.
*edit* some additional notes:
Kenwood 6.1 receiver getting audio via optical
Panasonic 50" 1080p plasma getting video via HDMI
Harmony 880 universal remote controlling the system
XBMC Live Atlantis 8.1 running at 1920x1080p and outputting all sound via digital optical