Is XBMC mature enough to consider replacing Popcorn Hour players?


PeterB

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I currently us two older generation Popcorn Hour players, a C200 and an A200.  Since these have been superseded by the C/A300 range, I'd been wondering about replacing my units.  However, it has come to my attention that XBMC has matured considerably since I made the decision to buy the Popcorn Hours and, perhaps, I should consider moving in that direction.

 

I ask the question here because it seems that there are a number of XBMC users here, serving media content from unRAID.

 

Being a long-term Ubuntu user, I initially was attracted by the XBMCbuntu option.  Then I came across the OpenELEC project, and found the concept of this minimalist dedicated build very attractive.

 

I have trialled OpenELEC on my desktop machine (Intel DH55TC/i650) and, apart from the DNS problem in the latest two betas, it seems to be very attractive.

 

So, how many XBMC users do we have here, and which build do you all use?  What hardware are you running it on?

 

If possible, I'd like to opt for a very simple build, using on-board video, if possible (I didn't find any objections with the video built in to the H55 chipset video and audio are passed throubh the built-in HDMI port without any apparent problems or limitations).

 

I would want to centralise the video catalogue/database on the unRAID server - does this work okay with mySQL?

 

Do any of you have any advice/recommendations - software and hardware-wise?

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Xbmc user here and former popcorn one.

 

I'm glad i made the switch,xbmc is so superior in organizing my movie info,posters,banners etc etc. I have a an amd fusion e-350 build,4 gb ram, 60 gb ssd and a simple mce remote. Using windows 64bit + xbmc. All is working great once you disabled all those catalyst control center "improvements" settings that ruin the picture quality. I did a test yesterday between a bluray played on my ps3 and the same movie in mkv untouched played with my xbmc and i cannot spot the differences on my 42" lcd.

 

Best of all : xbmc is "wife ready" ! :)

 

Unraid is working great too, i leave my server always in sleep sending a wake on lan packet from my xbmc when i want to watch a movie.

 

My popcorn is in my garage now ehehehe

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I think XBMC is great. There are only 2 things I wish it had that it does not have:

 

1) Slow motion. Slow motion is not something I use often & when I want it, I end up opening whatever video I am watching in VLC. People have asked for slow motion in XBMC forums & been told it has to do with the player that is used.

 

2) PVR functionality: watch & record live TV. This can be achieved through extra programs, details to be found at http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Watch_TV_in_XBMC. A lot of extra steps, but something I plan to setup for myself soon.

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I have the C-200 and while it was great at its time, it has gotten a bit sluggish and constantly needing a reboot.  I ended up seeing a deal posted here for a zotac ID33BR, it has an Intel Atom D525, onboard graphics and built-in Blu-ray drive.  I installed win7pro on it tho, as I heard there were more drivers available for windows to get everything playing nicely.  I like the zotac it has been able to stream 1080P mkv's wirelessly with no stutter, unlike the c-200.  I've also found that the movies are scanned correctly on xbmc where on the pch/yamj I always get incorrect movie scans.

 

I'm waiting for the c-200 to completely breakdown before replacing it with an xbmc machine.

 

*edit*

I also installed xbmc on my main computer and have mysql running on unraid.  It links xbmc machines nicely.  I start a movie or tvshow on my computer and once the tv with xbmc is available (kids need to watch their shows :D ), I can switch to that tv and it picks up the show/movie right where I left off.  And it correctly keeps a record of watched tvshows/movies.

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I don't like running XBMC on Win7 as a HTPC personally - I do the same as MyKroft and use an Openelec cut of XBMC.  I think it's the best solution available at the moment as it is somewhat akin to unRaid - i.e. a slim version of Linux that is customised to do one particular function and do it well (and fast!).  Highly recommend taking a look at it if you're going down this path.

 

With regards to its maturity, I've been using XBMC exclusively for a couple years now.  I have a PCH that's been sitting in the cupboard for a while!  A few years back, it wouldn't have got the wife seal of approval, but now it certainly does.  Combined with a MySQL shared library, she loves that she can stop a movie/TV show in the media room and then go watch it again in the bedroom from where she left off among other things.

 

 

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I used the Popcorn A100 until a year ago when I discovered XBMC and OpenELEC. I'm using a Zotac HD-ND22 with 2 GB RAM and a 30 GB SSD drive. The Zotac is mounted on the back of my TV (makes my girlfriend happy as she can't see it ;) ) and we control it with either a Galaxy Tab 10.0 or one of the Android phones people in the household are using. I only have one XBMC unit in the house so all scraped data is stored locally on the Zotac. unRAID and XBMC is a great combo. :)

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I have only 1 xbmc in the house too and before unraid i was storing all the metadata in every movie's folder.

Question  : Are disks spinning up while watching the movie list inside xbmc or is there a cache for it ? I 'm using cache_dirs with unraid but of course metadata are not directories :)

 

I have to rethink all my metadata storage if that is true

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I used the Popcorn A100 until a year ago when I discovered XBMC and OpenELEC. I'm using a Zotac HD-ND22 with 2 GB RAM and a 30 GB SSD drive. The Zotac is mounted on the back of my TV (makes my girlfriend happy as she can't see it ;) ) and we control it with either a Galaxy Tab 10.0 or one of the Android phones people in the household are using. I only have one XBMC unit in the house so all scraped data is stored locally on the Zotac. unRAID and XBMC is a great combo. :)

 

I concur. I own 2 HD-ND22s, they are very fast due to their CPU, silent if the fans are throttled in the BIOS and the streams via 500mbps PowerLAN are no problem.

The only problem you might encounter is that the menu sounds are not working, which in turn causes the resume from sleep not working on LG TVs (?!, very weird I know). But this fix is easily done. If you consider buying this device just PM me and I will guide you through the installation and some nice tweaks.

 

Centralization works a treat if you follow my tutorial, and sharing thumbnails via cache/snap-mounted drive is a nice aspect too.

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I've been watching XBMC for a while but haven't taken the plunge yet.  I have 3 Sigma based media players in the house streaming from unRaid and for now that's fine.

 

I know XBMC were looking at developing a true client/server based solution.  When that's available for Beta I'll take another look and see if it's time to replace my boxes.

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I've been using xbmc for years since way back when it was actually the xbox media center on the xbox 1.

 

I diverted off to media portal for a while but soon came back.

 

No problems at all. I've never used a Popcorn hour but I wasn't aware xbmc was ever considered immature, it's been around for at least a decade now.

 

I'm just running straight xbmc eden on an asrock ion box.

 

I'd like to try openelec but more out of curiosity than any pressing need.

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I've never used a Popcorn hour but I wasn't aware xbmc was ever considered immature, it's been around for at least a decade now.

I was also using XBMC before PopcornHour appeared.  I got one in early 2008 not long after they first came out, kept it for a year and then sold it since it looked like it would never catch up.  Since then both platforms have moved forward a great deal, but I agree, XBMC could hardly be considered immature by anyone that's used it extensively, and with its support for different platforms and operating systems it seems well placed to continue for a very long time.  Devices such as the PopcornHour have their place, but I think they perhaps appeal to a different type of user.

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I used the Popcorn A100 until a year ago when I discovered XBMC and OpenELEC. I'm using a Zotac HD-ND22 with 2 GB RAM and a 30 GB SSD drive. The Zotac is mounted on the back of my TV (makes my girlfriend happy as she can't see it ;) ) and we control it with either a Galaxy Tab 10.0 or one of the Android phones people in the household are using. I only have one XBMC unit in the house so all scraped data is stored locally on the Zotac. unRAID and XBMC is a great combo. :)

 

I concur. I own 2 HD-ND22s, they are very fast due to their CPU, silent if the fans are throttled in the BIOS and the streams via 500mbps PowerLAN are no problem.

The only problem you might encounter is that the menu sounds are not working, which in turn causes the resume from sleep not working on LG TVs (?!, very weird I know). But this fix is easily done. If you consider buying this device just PM me and I will guide you through the installation and some nice tweaks.

 

Centralization works a treat if you follow my tutorial, and sharing thumbnails via cache/snap-mounted drive is a nice aspect too.

 

 

I tried the generic build of openelec on 4 different computers with combinations of intel cpu, amd cpu, intel gpu, amd gpu and nvidia gpu. Getting the sound to work was the same 2 step process on all of them (through either regular audio, hdmi or spdif).

 

First step for getting media sounds working:

 

If the sound on your OpenELEC machine doesn't work correctly (or at all), try these settings to get your sound working.

General solution (if theres no sound output):

get your audio device by entering "aplay -l" on ssh-console (in my case card 1, device 3)

Goto audio device configuration in xbmc

choose "custom" and insert "hw:1,3" for audio device and audio pass through device

 

Second step for getting menu sounds working:

 

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Config_sound_menusound

 

All of the computers I tried required both of these steps and the sound worked perfectly on all of them  ;)

 

The aplay -l command will output clearer definitions of the devices than what xbmc displays in its settings page. That way you can tell exactly which one is hdmi or spdif, etc.

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...I am using pulse-eight builds along with this little piece of hardware: http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx

 

Only one remote (the original TV) is what you need...that's what bought me into XBMC.

 

I am also using "for-the record" for recording DVB-S(2)  in a VM on my server (ESXi build) and

it integrates well with it's XBMC-plugin for viewing recordings (live-tv feature I do not use, my TV is a DVB-S2 one).

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Can't say too much about XBMC. I would say that MediaPortal 1.2.3 (plus Streamed MP skin which gives a nice complete package including MyTVSeries and Moving Pictures) is an excellent replacement for standalone devices. I have two HTPCs in my house both running MediaPortal. The main one in the lounge runs MP 1.2.3 plus Streamed MP. The one in the gym is testing MP 1.3 alpha (which is very stable) plus Streamed MP, and also has MP 2.0 Alpha installed which is feature lacking at present.

 

I am able to play multiple 40GB+ blu-ray ISOs from my Unraid server to my HTPCs simultaneously without any issues. In the last month I have played around 50 movies (mix of blu-ray and dvd iso images, plus netflix and tv shows) due to family and friends visiting. No stutter, no issues.

 

As I was installing MP 1.3 onto the gym HTPC, I also installed XBMC Eden to see what it was like. I tried to like it but I personally preferred MP.

 

Unless you are looking for a linux Media Portal player then I'd recommend installing both MediaPortal (with Streamed MP) and also XBMC and see which one you prefer after a couple of weeks usage.

 

The main benefits of MediaPortal for me where I found it much easier to import my media and to see which ones were matching imdb/tvdb etc. I also found the navigation more intuitive and required less 'clicks'.

 

Alex

 

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