I agree with NAS.

 

Single core will be fine once video has been offloaded. Even if you can't offload the video it's probably quick enough for most common formats other than HD / x264.

 

However everything else will be impacted - skin performance, library updates etc.

 

Get the dual core, worst case you have a bit of extra head room for future developments and expansion.

I agree little head room for future needs.

 

I own 330 for about a week now. I installed XBMC live on entire hard disk as I dont plan running something else. I have 3 story house and don't have cat5/6 running and don't want to use wireless-N a lot of people saying its not reliable anyway. I have FIOS and my router is MOCA enabled so I did buy MOCA adapter it run thru coax. In MOCA should be able to handle up to 270Mbps.

All my 720P videos are fine but 1080P video stutter if bitrate does above 13MBps. I have not tried it yet on my gigabit connection as I use this to stream movies to my bedroom.

 

Its not the average or peak throughput that is the problem it the minimum thoughput at times or contention or limitations of technology which is the problem that causes all these issues

I have the 230 and it has handled everything that I've thrown at it just fine.  However, my TV is 720p, so I haven't tried any 1080p stuff yet (see my earlier post about The Dark Knight oddness).  The CPU usage stays pretty low during 720p playback (20-30%, if I recall correctly), so I really don't see any problem with getting the 230.  Spend the extra money on more media storage space in your unRAID server

 

The most annoying ongoing problem I'm having is still the issue about my 'Documentaries' unRAID share not showing up in XBMC.  If I browse into the individual disk share I can see my Documentaries folders (which span several drives), so I suppose I could map those.  However, then I would have Documentaries 1, Documentaries 2, etc., which is not ideal.  Anyone have any ideas why this may be, or what I can do about it?

 

Also, I'm starting to think that I would prefer a full Win7 or Linux install with XBMC on top of it.  As far as a turn-key solution that I would consider selling to others, XBMC Live is a great system.  For my use, however, I would really like to be able to throw on a youtube video once in a while.  Plus, with a full OS install I could make the HTPC another node in my Crashplan network, which is always a good thing (and I could actually get some use out of that pre-installed 160 GB HDD).

 

 

FYI XBMC can play youtube via the youtube plugin. It works extremely well

FYI XBMC can play youtube via the youtube plugin. It works extremely well

 

  This is why I love these forums.  I figured there must be something like that, I just haven't had a chance to look into it yet.  I don't suppose there's a Crashplan plugin for XBMC? 

FYI XBMC can play youtube via the youtube plugin. It works extremely well

 

  This is why I love these forums.  I figured there must be something like that, I just haven't had a chance to look into it yet.  I don't suppose there's a Crashplan plugin for XBMC? 

Have not found anything like crashplan, but I did install the CBS TV Video plug-in.  Works pretty decent, even with HD content.  Lots of old TV shows, series.  Even watched a bit of the original Star-Trek series re-mastered.  Never looked so good on TV.  I'm very impressed. (this is XBMC on my dual-core Vista laptop)

 

Joe L.

Plus, with a full OS install I could make the HTPC another node in my Crashplan network, which is always a good thing (and I could actually get some use out of that pre-installed 160 GB HDD).

 

 

 

XBMC live *is* a full OS installation. It's just Ubuntu with xbmc pre installed. You can tinker it to do anything you can with a normal ubuntu system.

 

i.e - just install crashplan as you would any other linux system and you'll be fine.

Plus, with a full OS install I could make the HTPC another node in my Crashplan network, which is always a good thing (and I could actually get some use out of that pre-installed 160 GB HDD).

 

 

 

XBMC live *is* a full OS installation. It's just Ubuntu with xbmc pre installed. You can tinker it to do anything you can with a normal ubuntu system.

 

i.e - just install crashplan as you would any other linux system and you'll be fine.

 

I understand that there is a full Ubuntu install hidden underneath XBMC, but how do I access it?  If I quit XBMC will it take me to the Ubuntu desktop?

ssh in - you don't need X windows to install crashplan.

 

Or you would have to change ubuntu not to launch X and xbmc by default, but to instead launch X and a window manager by default.

ssh in - you don't need X windows to install crashplan.

 

Or you would have to change ubuntu not to launch X and xbmc by default, but to instead launch X and a window manager by default.

 

Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff.  Is SSHing in akin to FTPing in (meaning, from another computer)?  I seem to have the notion that SSH is the same as Telnet, but I don't know if that's correct.  Thanks for the hand-holding

ssh in - you don't need X windows to install crashplan.

 

Or you would have to change ubuntu not to launch X and xbmc by default, but to instead launch X and a window manager by default.

 

Sorry, I don't know much about this stuff.  Is SSHing in akin to FTPing in (meaning, from another computer)?  I seem to have the notion that SSH is the same as Telnet, but I don't know if that's correct.  Thanks for the hand-holding

 

ssh is a networked remote secure shell (akin to telnet).

 

scp (secure copy), sftp (secure ftp) use the ssh secure channel to do file transfer.

 

There is an secure shell connection created, on the remote side, the server runs a server program such as sftp-server, then the communication goes from client, over the secure shell channel to the server program.

Thanks WeeboTech.  I'm guessing I'll need two separate clients for this, correct?  File-zilla for FTP stuff (scp and sftp) and telnet (or whatever the built-in windows client is called) to initiate the Crashplan installation?

Thanks WeeboTech.  I'm guessing I'll need two separate clients for this, correct?  File-zilla for FTP stuff (scp and sftp) and telnet (or whatever the built-in windows client is called) to initiate the Crashplan installation?

 

You will need putty.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

 

Putty also has pscp and psftp. Although I like filezilla and have never used pscp/psftp.

I started playing with the XBMC plug ins - wow!  Youtube works exceedingly well, though of course tiny videos look like crap on my 42" TV.  I saw the option to play HD videos if available (and turned it on), but I wonder if there's a way to only browse HD videos?

So I finally figured out a solution to my 'Documentaries' share not showing up in XBMC - rename it to 'Docs'!  I guess XBMC has some sort of share name length limit.  My share 'Concerts and Anthologies' also started showing up when I renamed it to just 'Concerts'.

I'm about to get a dual core revo.  I'm going with the dual core version because I will be loading win7 ultimate and use it to play some cheap Steam games I just bought.  I'll be watching this thread constantly for updates.  I hope to have mine by the start of March.  Waiting sucks!

I'm sure you will be very happy with the dual core Revo.

 

I'm not sure if there will be many more updates to this thread.  My Revo-based HTPC is running smoothly, and I'm very happy with it.  I don't plan on changing much.

 

However, there are two things I would like to do:

1) Configure the remote to be able to power on the Revo (currently it can only power it off)

2) Change the skin.  The default skin is beautiful, but it has one major flaw - after a few minutes of playing music, it goes into this 'music mode' in which you cannot exit back to the main screen without stopping the music!  This means that I can't browse my music (or movie or TV) collection while listening to music - very annoying!  I tried downloading and changing the skin through the built-in method, but every new skin I tried had something wrong with it (one of them made half the screen fuzzy, and another crashed my system to the point where I had to reformat and re-install XBMC Live!).

I'm sure you will be very happy with the dual core Revo.

Try pressing TAB key.

There's something odd about the default skin. I feel sometimes I need to use remote, other times mouse and other times keyboard.

Probably until I learn all the modes and methods to get there. still a bit odd for me.

What does the TAB key do?  I don't have a keyboard or mouse hooked up to my Revo, only an MCE remote. 

 

I think I need to get full-blown universal learning remote, since all mine can learn is power, volume, and channel buttons.  Pretty limited.  XBMC does an admirable job of automatically mapping the MCE remote's buttons, however, I often get the sense that if I had a bigger and better remote that I would be able to do more with it.

I love the logitech Harmony remotes.  I just picked up a Harmony 700 cause the volume keys were starting to not work 100%.  I might, if I get a chance, take the 880 apart and mess with it.

 

I have only had the 700 for about a week but I am liking it so far.  I need to do a few more things but in general it is working very well.