Best platform for XBMC Media Center today? [Archive]

calcibo

2009-02-21, 05:10

I was wondering was the best platform to get the most out of the XBMC. At this moment I have a XBOX, but am experiencing video playback memory issues with the mediastream skin, even after changing the cache size and disabling 1080i.

So, if I want to get the best out of the xbmc which is the best platform?

Apple Tv:
[PROS]
• HDMI output.
• It will look GREAT @ my living room.
• Wi-Fi.
• 160 GB HD for 350 CAD.

[CONS]
• 720p

HTPC (Home Theatre PC)
Here comes a lot of questions, motherboard, graphics card, sound card, processor but the most important of all is the OS, Linux, Windows or Mac.

[PROS]
• Upgradable.
• You get as much as you spend.

[CONS]
• More than 350 CAD fur sure.
• A desktop besides my PS3, Wii, Xbox and satellite box won’t look so nice.

So... at the end WHATS THE BEST PLATFORM?

TomJensen

2009-02-22, 01:28

The best platf

ultrabrutal

2009-02-22, 01:50

wait for ion

Arkon11

2009-02-22, 02:18

true, wait for ion.

But.... if it's looks you're worried about check out the cases from these guys

http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=lc19&area=

I know the guy who made the "boxee box" chose a case from here and it's beautiful....expensive...but beautiful.

kizer

2009-02-22, 02:26

Nice Case. I like the flip down in front. Thats the look I want when I go PC.

dtviewer

2009-02-22, 02:47

Nice Case. I like the flip down in front. Thats the look I want when I go PC.

Agreed.
I am seriously thinking of putting my xbox running xbmc into a media style pc case. As is its ugly and kind of loud. There are some sweet looking xbox's modded into media cases over on the xbox-scene forums.

As for the op's question, right now the original xbox is my platform of choice. All the others have too many cons at the time.

The xbox just works. And works well.

jarod71

2009-02-22, 03:36

Have you tried the mediastream lite build?

johnny2

2009-02-22, 03:49

Linux because XBMC for Linux has hardware acceleration for Nvidia graphics cards.

Geeba

2009-02-23, 13:29

wait for ion

Didnt think this was viable? ???

Maxim

2009-02-23, 14:19

Linux because XBMC for Linux has hardware acceleration for Nvidia graphics cards.

It's not in the main code base yet. Keep your pants on. It'll get there eventually, in the mean time, don't go round telling people stuff in a way that would mislead them.

As for the best platform, a PC, hands down. The hardware is superior, and manageability of the software. 5 Years ago it would have been the Xbox, however, time has changed things and the support for other platforms has grown and now I feel that a PC of some kind is the better choice.

johnny2

2009-02-23, 18:52

It's not in the main code base yet. Keep your pants on. It'll get there eventually, in the mean time, don't go round telling people stuff in a way that would mislead them.

Blow me idiot. Hardware acceleration for XBMC for Linux is here now and working. Anyone who is interested can go to the Linux forum and find out how to install it. Winbloze will never get hardware acceleration in XBMC so you prisoners of Bill can suck it.

natethomas

2009-02-23, 19:40

Wow. That got negative quickly!

Also, it's not entirely accurate. Hardware acceleration works for specific pieces of nvidia hardware. If you happen to have those pieces, you'll be doing well for yourself. If you don't, hardware acceleration doesn't work at all. This is the reason people suggest waiting for ion. Theoretically, Ion will standardize video drivers, audio drivers, and, for all intents and purposes, most other drivers.

At that point, Linux will suddenly become the obvious and easy choice. Until then, it'll be tricky to deal with.

slicemaster

2009-02-23, 20:04

Blow me idiot. Hardware acceleration for XBMC for Linux is here now and working. Anyone who is interested can go to the Linux forum and find out how to install it. Winbloze will never get hardware acceleration in XBMC so you prisoners of Bill can suck it.

That type of interaction is completely inappropriate. The people here in these forums are here to help others by providing facts about XBMC from the official stable and SVN builds on basic hardware, as others have mentioned hardware acceleration is only supported on specific nVidia hardware running modified builds. If that type of solution does it for you then let it be so but don’t respond to a factual comment with anger and malice, act like an adult, not a under educated peace of trailer trash.

Slice

P.S. as to ION I tend to agree, it is an extremely promising platform for XBMC in a set top box form factor on the cheap, but until it is released, publicly available, and XBMC supports nVidia hardware acceleration natively without modified code then it is a bit of a dream.

tcman47

2009-02-23, 21:55

I have always been a windows guy, xbmc runs great for me on xp 32 bit and an intel e8400. 720p, 1080p, .mkv, whatever, haven't seen any problems yet.

The codecs in xbmc really shine in comparison to playing discs in my upconvert player. Plus i can adjust audio offset and zoom, whats not to like.

As a side note just watched freddy vs. jason, man that movie looks great. The coloring and lighting was top notch.

TC :grin:

dtviewer

2009-02-24, 03:20

2-7offsuit

2009-02-24, 03:57

I vote against the Apple TV. I recently bought and returned one. It's just not enough of an upgrade to make it worthwile if you already have an Xbox. Some things were actually slower it than the Xbox.

On a side note, try changing the font in Mediastream to AltDefault, you'll actually get about 2mb of free memory back.

tcman47

2009-02-24, 04:44

Couple questions.

Dos the pc xbmc work as smoothly as the xbox version? (assuming you have used the xbox version....)

How is the remote control part of it?

Thanks

Can't help you, never have had an xbox and I use a wireless keyboard & mouse for my controller.

TC

Geeba

2009-02-24, 10:24

topfs2

2009-02-24, 10:46

Blow me idiot. Hardware acceleration for XBMC for Linux is here now and working. Anyone who is interested can go to the Linux forum and find out how to install it. Winbloze will never get hardware acceleration in XBMC so you prisoners of Bill can suck it.

Chill mate!

Ofcourse hardware acceleration could come to windows aswell, just someone stepping up and code ie a directshow player. This is the ONLY reason you have it in linux, someone stepped up and coded it, it could have easily been for windows instead of linux. So please be kind and gratefull its being worked on instead of gloat.

XBMC strives to work the same on all plattforms, feel the same on all plattform. Making the choice of plattform individual choices, like driversupport or just personal preferences.

The most developers are working on linux port as linux is OSS and we see a great benefit of working on a open source OS, ie XBMC Live. But the more windows developers there get the better it will become, may even surpass the linux version.

Cheers,
Tobias

Geeba

2009-02-24, 11:20

Couple questions.

Dos the pc xbmc work as smoothly as the xbox version? (assuming you have used the xbox version....)

How is the remote control part of it?

Thanks

Yep.... its as smooth if you have enough grunt.. start getting into low end single core P4's and the Xbox wipes it..... the M$ media centre remote works. I still run Xbox as my main lounge box... I dont have enough HD content to justify building a HTPC at the moment and the Xbox works flawlessly. All my test beds are windows machines.....

R0yk3

2009-02-26, 13:08

i have an old P4 1800 with XBMC installed. it works but i need helping programs like ultramon. I watch TV on my good old TV (no tft or plasma).
Now i have the quenstion. Do i buy a wireless keyboard and mouse? or should i just buy a premodded xbox1 with DVD pack for just a few euro's more.
I am really thinking about the last options, also just to reduce energy consumption.

i dont play HD couse it would not be a big difference on my TV.

So for normal DVD playing, dvd rips, mp3 content from a harddrive. what could you advice. Just thinking about the money.

natethomas

2009-02-26, 16:47

I don't know about anyone else, but if standard dev video is all you are looking for, it's hard to beat the classic xbox. Once things are installed, everything just works. You don't have to worry about ultramon or keyboards, or anything.

Honestly, that's why I'm personally so excited about the ION concept. It'd be like a cheaper, faster version of the Mac Mini, but with an MCE remote. And, given enough time, I imagine a ready-made XBMC Live drive would allow a person to buy the tiny box, plug it in, pop the thumbdrive in a USB port, and have an instant-on XBMC experience.

I mean, how awesome would that be? It'd essentially be a modded xbox with HD capability, but without the xbox1 games.

s.s.s

2009-02-27, 23:47

Has anyone setup an intel mini-itc system and get xbmc running. This is the mobo: BOXDG45FC

What is so much better with the ION platform?

thx

natethomas

2009-02-28, 00:50

You are an idiot.

"You are the ones who are the ball-lickers."

Sorry, couldn't resist. Quick, name that movie.

As to the Ion question, I thought I'd explained this, but the video chipset provided by Nvidia allows for GPU decoding in Linux. This means you can have a super cheap motherboard, a super cheap CPU, and a tiny form factor, and STILL all of your 1080p content should run without issue.

tslayer

2009-02-28, 00:52

I thought Clerks II at first, but I think it is Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

topfs2

2009-02-28, 00:54

Has anyone setup an intel mini-itc system and get xbmc running. This is the mobo: BOXDG45FC

What is so much better with the ION platform?

thx

Yes, there are a number of users having this platform. I have it actually.

The only real issue I have with it is that it does not support 65nm as advertised, 45nm works beutifull though.
I have the high pitched noise people complain about, but mine goes away if I have a USB drive in it, so I just always leave one in.
The high pitch noise is not present in linux though.

The drivers are still very imature in linux and only borderline works, lots of issues regarding sound and HDMI audio specifically is nightmarish to setup in linux. Windows everything works perfect.

All in all Im happy with it but Im a bit dissapointed on the capacitors (high pitch sound) and that the chipset fails to work with 65nm.

Also most nvidia chipset produce less heat with gfx than the intel. And nvidia gpus are faster usually, thats the benefit on ION (which by the way is not available for purchase yet and wont be for some time)

TGHI

2009-02-28, 09:29

For me, I am running XBMC on Windows XP Pro (that I built very barebones using nLite). I bought an off lease HP DX5150 SFF desktop which has fairly modest specs (Athlon64 3200+, 512MB RAM, 40GB HDD) then I threw in a cheap Nvidia 8300GS and a Soundblaster 24-bit Live. The whole setup cost me less than $200 CDN, and it pumps out 720p & DD 5.1 without breaking much of a sweat - so truth be told, you don't need a powerhouse of a PC (though I wish the case were less ugly :D ).

I'm experienced with Linux, but I honestly didn't want to have to mess with it in the living room :P

mrdos

2009-05-17, 20:36

Yes, there are a number of users having this platform. I have it actually.

The only real issue I have with it is that it does not support 65nm as advertised, 45nm works beutifull though.
I have the high pitched noise people complain about, but mine goes away if I have a USB drive in it, so I just always leave one in.
The high pitch noise is not present in linux though.

The drivers are still very imature in linux and only borderline works, lots of issues regarding sound and HDMI audio specifically is nightmarish to setup in linux. Windows everything works perfect.

All in all Im happy with it but Im a bit dissapointed on the capacitors (high pitch sound) and that the chipset fails to work with 65nm.

Also most nvidia chipset produce less heat with gfx than the intel. And nvidia gpus are faster usually, thats the benefit on ION (which by the way is not available for purchase yet and wont be for some time)

I see that ith ION ZOTAC IONITX-B-E is available now at newegg.
I'd love to try one but I am broke. :sad:

phunqe

2009-05-18, 09:50

I almost can't contain myself http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx-a-u-atom-n330-1-6ghz-dual-core-mini-itx-intel-motherboard.html

Must have now :p

EDIT: I am trying to figure out if you can allocate 512MB GFX memory on the Zotac boards, doesn't seem to say anywhere.