BLKMGK Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 I've been using XBMX on an old XBOX1 for well over a year now - I love it! However with just a 733mhz P3 it's simply not suited for anything approaching HD quality video. There's no hardware acceleration for video available and attempting to play HD MKV files causes mine to puke it's bits. :'( Recently I began looking for alternatives - I've looked high and low. Frustrated at not finding anything quite as easy to USE as XBMC I found out that they are porting XBMC to Linux! Out of curiosity I tried compiling it on an old laptop I had with an Ubuntu install in it. It ran but at only about 2FPS since I had nothing near the hardware required. I next tried it on a machine I'd used for Windows MCE testing, much better but not HD capable due to CPU. So, having seen how stable it was even at this Alpha level of development I bought hardware to run it. C2D CPU running 2.66ghz, 2gig memory, a fanless MSI 8500GTS vid card, the rest I had laying around. After some tweaking and playing I've found that it installs easiest on top of MythBuntu. My MCE remote is working, ALSA sound drivers working with PCM optical out, I have HD video via HDMI. For the first time I can now watch my MKV HD shows in a familiar interface. Yes, there are some glitches, yes this is some pretty powerful hardware to watch HD, but IMO it's a damned promising project. If some of you with Linux experience could help it might even move faster - they need help. In the meantime check it out. Here's an XBMC thread in their forums discussion hardware -> http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29552 With no video accel for Linux available from the drivers you need to do it with the CPU <shrug> Here's a link to learn how to compile it to try yourself - it's not hard! http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOW-TO_compile_XBMC_for_Linux_from_source_code Quote Link to comment
flambot Posted December 10, 2007 Share Posted December 10, 2007 Hey thx for this post. As a keen XBMC user I've been checking into the linux side of XBMC occasionally - looking for an opportunity to do exactly what you have done (tho via a VPC). Haven't got there yet, but it's coming sometime soon. I have heard that the linux port is coming along very nicely. I'm a complete linux noob - don't even have HD in the house yet - but I realise in time the xbox (maybe even now) has seen it's day. Thx again. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted December 15, 2007 Author Share Posted December 15, 2007 I'm FAR from a Linux pro! I installed Mythbuntu from a distro CD, shut off the Myth part, and then followed the instructions on the XBMC page to build it. I turned on the NVIDIA binary drivers from a script. I had some learning to do do to enable sound but that was about it. LinuXBMC has some quirks right now that I can detail if anyone cares. I can tell you that I have now watched probably 8-10 hours of downloaded video on it with NO problems. I'm currently working on getting some serious HIGH def stuff on there to test with but right now it's not sweating at all Unfortunately DVD playback doesn't work - I have the old XBOX for that for now. I guess my point is that setting this up isn't too hard even if you're no Linux expert. If you wanted you could follow what I did for hardware easily enough and the instructions aren't bad. If you've got a spare PC hanging around throw a drive in there and try it - even on crappy hardware that won't perform it's good practice. I did it on two different machines before I tried it BTW, I broke down and bought an HDHomerun clear QAM\OTA tuner box. It has two tuners in it although I've not yet got them both setup correctly. I'm currently watching HDTV off my local cable TV. Local channels only but hey it's two tuners more than I had before with my SD DTivo! Heh, and from an SSH shell I just updated XBMC from SVN. I'm not going to try compiling though until the woman is done watching her show - just in case Myth gets upset at the background activity. Next I need to add some storage or figure out how to mount a drive on my unRAID. I suspect the NAS won't be fast enough at writes and I'll have to slap a drive in it but hey I'll have learned something. <shrug> Frankly for me it's as much about learning something as it is anything else - I enjoy the journey and if you decide to try this out I'll be happy to try and share what I've learned. Quote Link to comment
NAS Posted January 19, 2008 Share Posted January 19, 2008 I will be following suit as soon as they document a standard build list that can handle up to 1080p. I want to test things properly and IMHO the only way to do this is to have some testers on identical hardware. VERY excited about this project and try to be as active in the project as my skill set allows. So your not alone my home is literally full of XBOX1s with XBMC. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted January 19, 2008 Author Share Posted January 19, 2008 I'm on about my fourth hardware setup for this. My first was a laptop with a spare HDD just to get comfortable with the build process (it was handy). My second was a slow MCE machine that proved to me the interface could run faster than 2FPS (lol) but who's CPU was too slow for HD decoding on the fly (1.6gig Athlon XP), to a third machine I built for testing that had a 2.66Ghz C2D and cheap fanless 8500GT in a midtower case I had sitting, to now a mATX using the same CPU\memory and vid card. Sadly this last has been hardest because I'm trying to get a less than standard IRDA receiver to work, a VFD display to work, and the spiffy new Intel video just wasn't working out. I'm using a laptop drive in the new machine too - laptop SATA has standard SATA connectors and the little WD passports have these drives in them Of the 4 builds the third was the closest to a cakewalk but I can tell you that Linux video setup is a royal PITA compared to Windows on many HD flat panel displays. Using a Microsoft USB MCE IRDA receiver\remote, an easier to find ATX M/B, and skipping cute stuff like displays would have made life far easier - but I'm learning lots! If this box would play my ripped IFO\VOB format DVDs for me I'd pretty much call it feature complete. However it won't - yet. so I use my XBOX1 for that and download or record (using the MCE box) HD versions of video to watch in the living room. The developers are making huge progress and someone is even porting it to OSX. Meanwhile I see that Myth is being ported to Windows - hell must be freezing over! The hardware reqs for XBMC on Linux are well enough known right now that you could be active with it NOW. A C2D running 2.66Ghz is fine for most media and can clock to 3Ghz easily. 7x and 8x series NVIDA cards are fine for video. I use M/Bs that allow for coax or optical digital output to my receiver for sound - no HDMI audio on Linux yet I'm afraid. The full sized ATX board I tested with is now going into a new desktop using the midtower case I tested with - which was my gameplan all along. This is more expensive than an XBOX1 for sure but the vid is awesome in HD and playing MAME games with an XBOX 360 controller will rock! Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 i love xmbc. i bought an xbox just for that. even at 1080i the menus are so crisp and nice. it skips through things properly, mounts over samba and plays ISO files like native disks. it basically supports all video formats i'll ever care about in the near future too. except when i try mkv files and such it definately shows the weak processor, it's somewhat noisy too. i don't understand why it has taken so long for anyone to make an xbmc port for linux (or even windows) - i mean, mplayer already runs natively on linux. i would think it would be more difficult to make xbmc run on an xbox due to the proprietary executable format, not vice versa! when i asked on the xbmc for linux channel they basically said "it might not even work for what you want" so i haven't really bothered yet. but mainly just divx/xvid/iso playback with samba mounting support (and normal skipping controls) is the majority of what i care about... and of course a remote control that makes sense (would be great for DVD navigation, it's a little funky right now on a normal xbmc) those requests shouldn't be too hard... it sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult to try it out on my own though, but i wanted to try using at least 1080i if not 1080p, and i would need to get a decent video card for that, not to mention a PC that would fit it (i don't have any pci express boxes, all mine are 3 year old shuttle XPCs...) - so that's been another reason. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 i love xmbc. i bought an xbox just for that. even at 1080i the menus are so crisp and nice. it skips through things properly, mounts over samba and plays ISO files like native disks. it basically supports all video formats i'll ever care about in the near future too. except when i try mkv files and such it definately shows the weak processor, it's somewhat noisy too. i don't understand why it has taken so long for anyone to make an xbmc port for linux (or even windows) - i mean, mplayer already runs natively on linux. i would think it would be more difficult to make xbmc run on an xbox due to the proprietary executable format, not vice versa! when i asked on the xbmc for linux channel they basically said "it might not even work for what you want" so i haven't really bothered yet. but mainly just divx/xvid/iso playback with samba mounting support (and normal skipping controls) is the majority of what i care about... and of course a remote control that makes sense (would be great for DVD navigation, it's a little funky right now on a normal xbmc) those requests shouldn't be too hard... it sounds like it wouldn't be too difficult to try it out on my own though, but i wanted to try using at least 1080i if not 1080p, and i would need to get a decent video card for that, not to mention a PC that would fit it (i don't have any pci express boxes, all mine are 3 year old shuttle XPCs...) - so that's been another reason. Umm, I'm watching High Def MKV files on this new setup easily. You really ought to do some research on this on the http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52 XBMC forums. Remote control isn't an issue either if you use the MCE receiver and remote codes. I'm having some issues with VOB\IFO playback of DVD but others are doing fine with ISO files.As for the video card, a 7x series NVIDIA card will work fine - my 8500 was maybe $60. As for a Windows port - forget it, not happening. There's someone working on OSX but Windows is a closed platform and these guys are not interested. Honestly I cannot blame them, Linux has much to offer a project like this. Windows would NOT be a cakewalk for this but yeah the vid acceleration would be nice. Bitch at the hardware guys for not releasing specs or decent drivers - even NVIDIA's drivers don't accelerate nearly as much on Linux as they do on Windows. The solution is to simply use a poweful CPU and brute force it - my 2.6Ghz C2D does just that and the new 45nm ones areWAY better <grr>. Anyway, could go on all night but your time is better served in the XBMC forums reading P.S. BTW they are NOT using Mplayer for Linux, the DVD player is their own code. Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Umm, I'm watching High Def MKV files on this new setup easily. You really ought to do some research on this on the http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52 XBMC forums. Remote control isn't an issue either if you use the MCE receiver and remote codes. I'm having some issues with VOB\IFO playback of DVD but others are doing fine with ISO files.As for the video card, a 7x series NVIDIA card will work fine - my 8500 was maybe $60. As for a Windows port - forget it, not happening. There's someone working on OSX but Windows is a closed platform and these guys are not interested. Honestly I cannot blame them, Linux has much to offer a project like this. Windows would NOT be a cakewalk for this but yeah the vid acceleration would be nice. Bitch at the hardware guys for not releasing specs or decent drivers - even NVIDIA's drivers don't accelerate nearly as much on Linux as they do on Windows. The solution is to simply use a poweful CPU and brute force it - my 2.6Ghz C2D does just that and the new 45nm ones areWAY better <grr>. Anyway, could go on all night but your time is better served in the XBMC forums reading P.S. BTW they are NOT using Mplayer for Linux, the DVD player is their own code. i expect everything to run fine on decent hardware. i'm talking about mkv files on my -normal- xbox. i don't want windows. i would prefer linux. i said i'm surprised a port hasn't come out sooner. since you have to compile XBMC proprietary format i would think it's just as easy to compile everything to windows format too, since it appears all the tools run on windows... and yeah, i know they are using different tools in linux now. i mainly don't want to fuss with even more hardware at the moment to try it out and be disappointed. does your nvidia 7 series export component or HDMI? i guess DVI to HDMI adapter isn't that bad. will it do 1080p? Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 A 733mhz P3 isn't ever going to do HD really well, not without some serious vid acceleration and they do not have access to that hardware on the old XBOX. Windows and the code on the XBOX aren't synonymous, one cannot easily compile into the other. The tools to build skins and whatnot run on windows because that is what they were built to run on, If it were easy I also have no doubt it would have been done. Understand about not wanting more hardware but the XBMC interface is excellent and being able to play HD with it makes it worth it for me - great learning experience too! Compressing an HD-DVD now to try out, looking forward to seeing how it looks! Currently I'm not using a 7x series NVIDIA but an 8500GT card from MSI - it's an HDMI output. I've used both an HDMI to DVI converter and a DVI to HDMI with no problems. Biggest hassle is if you're using a panel with screwed up EDID data like my Vizio panel. Once figured out though it looks GREAT! Yes, I've played back 1080P trailers off of the Apple site since so little 1080P stuff exists to test with. The National Treasure trailer looks great without a glitch. If you've got spare hardware and a drive by all means try it out. It does still need work for DVD playback but MKV, AVI, MOV, etc. Won't play .EVO files though - bummer! Oh there's work being done on a USB image to boot from but it's not got NVIDIA drivers etc. in it yet. Not tried it myself <shrug> P.S. I think that onboard 6x series NVIDIA video has also worked for some folks. Linux really doesn't need $300 vid cards... Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 A 733mhz P3 isn't ever going to do HD really well, not without some serious vid acceleration and they do not have access to that hardware on the old XBOX. i know that. Windows and the code on the XBOX aren't synonymous, one cannot easily compile into the other. The tools to build skins and whatnot run on windows because that is what they were built to run on, If it were easy I also have no doubt it would have been done. they're not identical but from what i saw when looking at how to build XBMC it's mainly just a different build environment. seems like it should compile just fine under windows too, without many tweaks. but i'm sure many people more knowledgable about the subject dismissed that already you mentioned vizio - i have a vizio 47" 1080p TV (model GV47LF http://www.vizio.com/products/detail.aspx?pid=20) - is the issue you mention something simply remedied? tell me it wasn't fixed by actually having to buy/use a different TV... Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 If you look at the source code I think you'll find that there are XBOX specific calls in the source from XBMC. Lots of folks have wanted it and one port was even attempted - it's not maintained. Having nto dived into the source and not having the programming skills to tell you exactly why it won't work that's about all I can say. I know it's a sore spot for the developers when they are asked about it. That Vizio panel might actually be the EXACT same one I'd have to look at my model number to be sure as it's not handy and I'm headed for bed but if not it's damned close. Check the Ubuntu forums for Vizio and you'll find the threads where I sought help, AVS and NVIDIA forums too. None of the suggested configs helped and the NVIDIA guys didn't seem to want to bother - grr! I got it working 1080i right now and am pretty sure with some modeline tweaks 1080P is possible as apparently others got it working. I didn't post what I did out of frustration at the lack of interest\assistance from others but if you take the plunge I'll be happy to give you what I've got and try to explain how I came up with it. The EDID data according to the NVIDA driver conflicts with itself, my onboard HDMI video (G35) from Intel didn't seem to have quite that problem but I could never figure out how to get their drivers working and it was dog slow so I went back to NVIDIA. It's possible the NVIDIa drivers are bugged trying to read the EDID but no matter, I've got a good picture now. The menu bar is slightly overscanned but once in XBMC it's pretty much perfect! Tonigth I tried to play back a MKV that was transcoded from an HD-DVD .EVO file using X.264. It played GREAT but sadly the audio is crackly so I have to redo that - I think the bug is in FFMPEG's beta EAC support <sob> -> http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=129001 if anyone else cares to try it. Be advised the 2pass vid compression took me forever to do, a new 3Ghz 45nm C2D coming in will fix that to say the least P.S. Gave Google a quick shot - mine is reporting as a GV47L - no F. It's also 1080P capable but I do not know what the other differences might be. Had it over a year, love it! Oh, use ENVY to install the lates NVIDIA drivers, not th eUbuntu package manager... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=Qm6&q=ubuntu+vizio+blkmgk&btnG=Search Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 thanks, if i wind up doing this in the near future i'll reference this thread as a start. VIA has a mini-itx/etc mobo with HDMI output, i wonder how well VIA drivers work, or ATI... Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 thanks, if i wind up doing this in the near future i'll reference this thread as a start. VIA has a mini-itx/etc mobo with HDMI output, i wonder how well VIA drivers work, or ATI... there are some VERY good hardware threads on the XBMC forum. The minimum requirements for the software are somewhat hefty and include a specific shader and OpenGL support. there's one specific SMALL hardware setup that's an exception - mostly because the developers use it and coded hacks to get it to work Check out what they have used and ask questions, lots of folks looking for good hardware for this who would like ideas or who might have tried what you're considering... Quote Link to comment
RoninTech Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I anticipate at some point a developer with the right skillset and desire will come along and get it working on Windows. Similar to what recently happened with elan's Mac port. Here's a relevant post quote: The Linux branch of XBMC also have active developers on both the Linux side and the Win32 side Once it happens I'll jump right back into XBMC with both feet. Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 ah i am perfect with linux. i'd prefer if it was one platform and linux is so much easier to maintain. not to mention (depending on what hardware really needs to be there) you could possily run it inside of a VM anyway. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted February 1, 2008 Author Share Posted February 1, 2008 I anticipate at some point a developer with the right skillset and desire will come along and get it working on Windows. Similar to what recently happened with elan's Mac port. Here's a relevant post quote: The Linux branch of XBMC also have active developers on both the Linux side and the Win32 side Once it happens I'll jump right back into XBMC with both feet. I believe that the entire post might put things into clearer context: Win32 from the trunk is never insteded to become a full working version of XBMC for one thing, (you can read more about that here), plus the trunk is only designed for Win32 while the Linuxbranch is specificly designed to run on Linux which has many similarities to UNIX and should thus be easier to port to Mac OS X which is more UNIX like than Win32 like. The Linux branch of XBMC also have active developers on both the Linux side and the Win32 side, the trunk on the other side only have active developers on the Xbox side (and not the Win32 side, again because the Win32 build from the trunk is never intented to become a full working version of XBMC). That doesn't sound terribly promising nor does it sound as if the WIN32 side is very active. When the question has been asked in the threads I've read the answer has never been positive. Frankly I'm not holding my breath. The Linux port is moving along at lightspeed though! Quote Link to comment
RoninTech Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Speak of the devil Cheers, Ronin Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Speak of the devil Cheers, Ronin You realize that's a port of the Linux based version of XBMC using SDL right? That's not the DirectX based XBMC from the XBOX. In the end, if it works well, it won't matter. However at this point it looks like just the one guy. Hopefully others will pitch in and make it as accessible on Windows as it is for Linux. Right now if you or I wanted to compile it I do not think it would be nearly as easy as it is for Linux. Have you tried running the .EXE he posted yet? Quote Link to comment
crankbearing Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 BLKMGK, Holy COW! Batman. My brain is swelling... I just got an xbox two weeks ago and with a soft mod up and running on XBMC shared to unraid streaming etc... now with TV SHOWS and music. Learned that stuff last week. NOW This!!!. What version of Linux are you using? Is there a USB or CD ISO yet for the install to be had. Is there a compiled version of the XBMC SVN out there somewhere? finally when it's all said and done, can you boot straight to XBMC GUI or is it command line only. Sorry for all the questions. I just did the XBOX thing to replace my HTPC in the living room (too noisy) XP MC 2005 too many crashes, not stable with Suspend S3 states... activation upon reinstall. Now I would like to start ripping my HD and Blu Ray movies to my Unraid server to stream as well and I guess this is going to be my avenue. Thanks, Dave Quote Link to comment
miketew Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 i tried it. couldn't get my remote to work, display was pitifully slow. it was using onboard intel graphics on my brand new shuttle. someone else posted with the same box and said it worked flawlessly, but that's the issue with DIY... i didn't buy the shuttle FOR it, so i only messed around a little bit. as with everything (especially X11-based stuff) YMMV Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted February 27, 2008 Author Share Posted February 27, 2008 No, there's not yet an ISO for installing it however it's designed to sit on top of Ubuntu 7.10 so it's not terribly hard to build. the hardware requirements are spelled out on the Wiki pretty clearly - do understand it's considered "Alpha" although I'd argue it's further along than that. If your video card falls below spec for OpenGL then yup, slow framerates is your punishment. I use an 8500GT from MSI that's fanless and with the ENVY install script it was a breeze to install and cofigure the video although my LCD was a little less cooperative. Linux uses CPU rather than hardware video acceleration so a decent CPU is required. That said - they have dual core decoding working for MPEG and .264 CODECS so I can watch my HD-DVD rip of Transformers glitch free and in surround sound while not seeing more than 50-60% CPU usage on my two cores VC-1 playback is a little wonky but they are aware and I transcode to X.264 anyway <shrug> I rip normal DVD to IFO/VOB and that playback hasn't worked well for me yet but ISO images apparently work well for others. I use an MCE USB IRDA receiver and a Harmony remote control - others just use XBOX controllers to control it. The MCE stuff works PnP in Ubuntu with Lirc, interface runs about 60FPS, video at it's proper 23.9FPS or whatever. Downloaded video plays smooth too, WMA video supposedly has issues but I have none of that. Do a search on the XBMC Wiki for compiling in Linux to get the scoop - be sure to read the Readme that's linked. The forum is active and I'm on there daily, if you're going to begin rippingHD-DVD or Blu-Ray I may be able to help with that too although I've yet to do a BR disk P.S. Right this moment having build issues so you might want to wait a tiny bit before compiliong - I'm sure someone will be along to fix it soon Quote Link to comment
toonz Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Being a Mac user at home I've been keeping a close eye on the OSX port of this. The developer is doing a great job, and has it running very nicely on a Mac Mini. From what he's been saying (through his blog), I'm not sure which dual core Mac Mini he's got, but he played a1080p MKV of Rumor Has It, average bitrate of 11.5Mbps, spikes to 15-20, with only 230 dropped frames through the entire movie. His CPU only hit 130-140% as well, so with some more tweak a Mac Mini will be capable of pretty much all 1080p content. IMO that will make the perfect OSXBMC device. Now for someone to add a front end for Myth or HD Homerun's and I can finally do away with the last remnant of Windows in my house! (being a Vista MC). Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 I believe he is using a 2Ghz Mini, the dual core support helps a great deal. There IS Myth front-end support being coded for the Linux box, I'm betting the OSX port will get it too. Quote Link to comment
NAS Posted April 4, 2008 Share Posted April 4, 2008 I have been using the win32 SDL port on sourceforge to do the cataloging before upload to my XBOXs. The performance difference is VAST. Quote Link to comment
BLKMGK Posted April 4, 2008 Author Share Posted April 4, 2008 I have been using the win32 SDL port on sourceforge to do the cataloging before upload to my XBOXs. The performance difference is VAST. Good or Bad? Good I'd hope! They now have a packaged "Alpha" for Ubuntu if anyone is interested. Go check it out! http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32073 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.