gabbott Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 I saw that AFTER I had upgraded to beta3... and since I see beta3 showing, and everything is working (as far as I know) and I have both sound and menu sounds through HDMI, I think I'm ok for now. The beta2 version I had loaded and subsequently upgraded was this one: xbmcfreak-Dharma_beta2-live-nvidia-260.19.1 One of my boxes I did the same and didn't run into any issues, but just thought I'd mention it since I've never seen the devs actually recommend a clean install before. Quote Link to comment
Senjo Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 I have the Zotac box coming in tomorrow. I've got a spare 1GB stick of memory from my laptop. Do you guys think this would suffice for BD playback and light web browsing? I will be testing the ZBox as a replacement computer for me wife. I plan to VESA mount it to the back of her monitor and use and HDMI output to clone the display to a TV we have in the office so she could browse the internet or watch a movie. I've just got a spare parts HTPC I threw together in my living room but I've occasionally noticed it drop a frame so I'm thinking about ordering 1 or 2 more ZBoxes if this one turns out to work well. I'm currently running Win7 stripped down with Media Browser but I've been wanting to switch to XBMC so I don't have to buy another Win7 license and I prefer linux whenever I can. How difficult was it to get BD playback working with XBMC under linux? I tried XBMC for Windows on my desktop but when I added my unRaid to the sources list it just shows the directory structure for all my BDs and won't actually play them back. I tried to adding the advancedsettings.xml and the playercorefactory.xml to use Total Media Theatre for playback but that didn't work. Do I need to rip my movies in a different format? I currently use AnyDVD HD with the "Rip Video DVD to harddisk" option and I would rather not pull all my movies back out of storage and copy them again if I don't have to. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted October 25, 2010 Author Share Posted October 25, 2010 Thanks for the answers to my questions Rajahal. I did decide to jump on the Shell Shocker deal, I have 2 coming, one for me and one that my brother is nice enough to get for me. I decided to go with the SD cards. Was there a reason that you switched to the SSD instead of the SD card? I appreciate the info on the Shuttle (I wanted gigabit lan) and the Revo's (not had much luck lately with recondition things lately, my back luck I am sure). I basically switched just to try it, since I had an SSD that was pretty much useless for any other application (30 GB is annoyingly small for a regular laptop/desktop boot drive). While it is faster than the SD card, I really don't think it is 'blow me out of the water' faster. The boot time decreased by maybe 5 seconds. The menu navigation feels somewhat faster, but it still isn't instantaneous. However, I'm now doing a lot more with the HTPC than I was before. Library mode, fan art, cover art, etc. So possibly if I had been doing all of that with the SD card the difference would be far more stark. I have the Zotac box coming in tomorrow. I've got a spare 1GB stick of memory from my laptop. Do you guys think this would suffice for BD playback and light web browsing? I will be testing the ZBox as a replacement computer for me wife. I plan to VESA mount it to the back of her monitor and use and HDMI output to clone the display to a TV we have in the office so she could browse the internet or watch a movie. I've just got a spare parts HTPC I threw together in my living room but I've occasionally noticed it drop a frame so I'm thinking about ordering 1 or 2 more ZBoxes if this one turns out to work well. I'm currently running Win7 stripped down with Media Browser but I've been wanting to switch to XBMC so I don't have to buy another Win7 license and I prefer linux whenever I can. How difficult was it to get BD playback working with XBMC under linux? I tried XBMC for Windows on my desktop but when I added my unRaid to the sources list it just shows the directory structure for all my BDs and won't actually play them back. I tried to adding the advancedsettings.xml and the playercorefactory.xml to use Total Media Theatre for playback but that didn't work. Do I need to rip my movies in a different format? I currently use AnyDVD HD with the "Rip Video DVD to harddisk" option and I would rather not pull all my movies back out of storage and copy them again if I don't have to. Yes, I believe 1 GB should be enough for a basic HTPC and light web browsing. Just be sure to use a low resource browser like Chrome. My Zbox generally uses about 33% of my 2 GB of RAM when playing an HD movie. I only ever play BluRay encodes, though, I haven't tried any full BluRay ISOs. I know others can play BluRays directly from the BD file structure as you have them. I figured that XBMC would handle them just like Video_TS folders (DVD format) - you just select the containing folder, press play, and XBMC figures out the rest. If that doesn't work, then you could put your BD files into an ISO container. I don't know how well the Zbox will handle multiple video outputs, since I've never tried that. Please let us know how it goes. Quote Link to comment
gabbott Posted October 25, 2010 Share Posted October 25, 2010 I basically switched just to try it, since I had an SSD that was pretty much useless for any other application (30 GB is annoyingly small for a regular laptop/desktop boot drive). While it is faster than the SD card, I really don't think it is 'blow me out of the water' faster. The boot time decreased by maybe 5 seconds. The menu navigation feels somewhat faster, but it still isn't instantaneous. However, I'm now doing a lot more with the HTPC than I was before. Library mode, fan art, cover art, etc. So possibly if I had been doing all of that with the SD card the difference would be far more stark. Make sure you've added this: <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart> to your advancedsettings.xml It will much improve loading fanart images and make movie navigation snappier. Quote Link to comment
Traxxus Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 I got a random question about the revo, I have had a 3610 for a while, was thinking about nuking the whole install and reinstalling (getting a bigger hard drive, one of the revos is one that i take to friends/family's house with a few movies on it), but will the cd key from the installed version work with a regular windows 7 install? I have the iso's modified to install any version on prompt as documented here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/07/23/how-to-select-any-edition-or-version-sku-of-windows-7-to-install-from-single-edition-dvd-disc-media-or-iso/ Quote Link to comment
talmania Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 In the past few days I've been researching various small form factor PC's to handle 1080p I'm looking squarely at the Zotac and am super pissed I missed out on that newegg shell shocker. Anything else I should consider other than the Zbox or Revo? I don't really want to build my own but I guess I could... Quote Link to comment
prostuff1 Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 In the past few days I've been researching various small form factor PC's to handle 1080p I'm looking squarely at the Zotac and am super pissed I missed out on that newegg shell shocker. Anything else I should consider other than the Zbox or Revo? I don't really want to build my own but I guess I could... I run a JetWay Mini-Top with the openelec version of XBMC on it. It has been working pretty well and I like using it because it can play 1080p content unlike my old xbox running xbmc. The JetWay has a built in IR, which is one of the reason I choose it. There is still some setup that needs to be done by the openelec team to get IR remote working completely and I am trying to help them with that. Once that is done I will be setting up my Logitech Harmony remote to control the box. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted November 2, 2010 Author Share Posted November 2, 2010 I got a random question about the revo, I have had a 3610 for a while, was thinking about nuking the whole install and reinstalling (getting a bigger hard drive, one of the revos is one that i take to friends/family's house with a few movies on it), but will the cd key from the installed version work with a regular windows 7 install? I have the iso's modified to install any version on prompt as documented here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/07/23/how-to-select-any-edition-or-version-sku-of-windows-7-to-install-from-single-edition-dvd-disc-media-or-iso/ I don't know the answer to your question. However, why use Windows at all? XBMC Live will boot and run much faster than XBMC on top of Windows. Quote Link to comment
Traxxus Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 I got a random question about the revo, I have had a 3610 for a while, was thinking about nuking the whole install and reinstalling (getting a bigger hard drive, one of the revos is one that i take to friends/family's house with a few movies on it), but will the cd key from the installed version work with a regular windows 7 install? I have the iso's modified to install any version on prompt as documented here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/07/23/how-to-select-any-edition-or-version-sku-of-windows-7-to-install-from-single-edition-dvd-disc-media-or-iso/ I don't know the answer to your question. However, why use Windows at all? XBMC Live will boot and run much faster than XBMC on top of Windows. Indeed, would probably be a bit more user friendly for the not so tech savvy family members, but I use it for a lot more like hulu, netflix, emulators, etc. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 There's a nice and very functional Hulu addon for XBMC so that's covered. However, I have not seen any Netflix plugins/addons. I think others have managed to get external programs to work as well including some emulators, but I have not researched that myself. Quote Link to comment
chanders Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 Can you point to the HULU plugin? Quote Link to comment
gabbott Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 Can you point to the HULU plugin? You can get it from this repository if you are running a Dharma build: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=79148 Quote Link to comment
Jmmc1397 Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Do either of them come with built in IR, or does it need an external IR for remote control? Lifehacker.com posted up a very interesting guide to setting up an XBMC player, which also includes a paragraph on setting up an IR remote: http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-guide-to-your-xbmc-media-center Quote Link to comment
poofyhairguy Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 I think now this is the premier ION system-fanless, a DVD drive to install and OS, silent: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101114R&cm_re=shuttle_ion-_-56-101-114R-_-Product And its on sale open box. Quote Link to comment
Bolle Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 The shuttle looks the business, but has two issues afaik: 1) no digital out - if you're using an older A/V amp or processor without HDMI (like my TAG McLaren AV32R) 2) has to used on it's side. I'm still looking for an ION2 nettop that offers: *fanless *ir receiver *digital out Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 The shuttle only has 100mbit NIC as well, which isn't a real issue but it's a big disappointment for any system. Quote Link to comment
Paak Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 Quick question Raj, does the lifehacker guide pretty much apply to the Zotac (booting off the SD card) as well? Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 17, 2011 Author Share Posted January 17, 2011 Yes, it does. The only thing I might change is using openelec or xbmc freak instead of stock xbmc as they are preconfigured to make the most of ion gpu's (so you can skip several steps in the lifehacker guide). Quote Link to comment
Paak Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 saw this as well, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139427 would that work with the Zbox? Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 Yes, it would. Good find - they don't make too many SSDs smaller than 30 GB anymore. In the 30 GB SSD I have in my Zbox, I believe about 28 GBs of it is still free space. What a waste. Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Yes, it would. Good find - they don't make too many SSDs smaller than 30 GB anymore. In the 30 GB SSD I have in my Zbox, I believe about 28 GBs of it is still free space. What a waste. It is why I use a 4Gig Compact-Flash drive in an CF-to-SATA adapter in my Revo media player. Cheap, quiet, and did I mention cheap. It too has plenty of space for XBMC live. http://www.amazon.com/Bootable-Compact-Flash-Converter-Adapter/dp/B0030D3T16/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295384089&sr=8-2 Joe L. Quote Link to comment
poofyhairguy Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 saw this as well, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139427 would that work with the Zbox? Be careful. If you have a large library your thumbnail folder could blow away such a small SSD. My Thumbnail folder is like 6gbs already, plus the system files and that SSD is full. Now the 16gb SSD on the other hand shouldn't get full unless you are the largest media pirate ever. Quote Link to comment
Rajahal Posted January 18, 2011 Author Share Posted January 18, 2011 Really? I have around 2000 media files (movies, TV, etc) complete with thumbnails, fan art, etc. and like I said only about 2 GBs of my drive is used. Quote Link to comment
Joe L. Posted January 18, 2011 Share Posted January 18, 2011 Really? I have around 2000 media files (movies, TV, etc) complete with thumbnails, fan art, etc. and like I said only about 2 GBs of my drive is used. same here. Half of my 4Gig compact-flash drive is still free. Joe L. Quote Link to comment
BRiT Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Maybe it's related to the use ddsfanart advanced option? Quote Link to comment
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