cheapest / quickest / easiest XBMC setup

subway · 12-09-2012 11:10am #1

quick question, I've been asked to set up XBMC for a couple of people since theyve seen it running.

hardware wise, whats the current best options?
android still seems unstable
atv2 seems to have gone extremely dear
pc based always seems overkill
raspbmc seems a little too much

is there a workable XBMC solution (low powered, HD, digital audio, remote, easy maintanance) for between 50-100eu?

PogMoThoin · 12-09-2012 11:23am

subway wrote: »

quick question, I've been asked to set up XBMC for a couple of people since theyve seen it running.

hardware wise, whats the current best options?
android still seems unstable
atv2 seems to have gone extremely dear
pc based always seems overkill
raspbmc seems a little too much

is there a workable XBMC solution (low powered, HD, digital audio, remote, easy maintanance) for between 50-100eu?

Not yet, now is a bad time.

ATV2 has it's 720p limitation and the price has shot up as they're struggling to jailbreak the ATV3.
The Boxee Box has been rooted, but there's little progress there either, it would be amazing if the got it working, the hardware is just perfect.
Raspberry pi is very sluggish with a big library and struggles with higher than 720p also.
XBMC on Android is very early days, no hardware acceleration yet and buggy, but it's getting there. There is a big push to be stable for the release of the Ouya, which is due out in March.

subway · 12-09-2012 11:44am

hmmm, thats the impression I've been basically getting alright.
ouya looks good, but is miles away, and possibly vaporware / something else may come along beforehand anyway.

if HD content d/ digital audio was deprioritised, what would you go for? cost would have to be reduced accordingly, on the basis that an upgrade would be needed once HD capable devices are more widely available.
easily accessible streaming services are the main objective, with the ultimate goal being the all-in-one HD media centre solution

im thinking of possibly just plugging in some old, SFF, P4 pcs for them to do the job for now?

PogMoThoin · 12-09-2012 12:15pm

I'm in the same predicament with my brother, he wants a cheap XBMC frontend and there's nothing available out there, but loads on the horizon. I'm considering a MITX Atom build with Openelec booting from a usb key, but the cheapest this can be done for is around €150, and that being a single core Atom with Nvidia Ion 1 (from 2010) which is dated by todays tech and will end up being less powerful that Ouya etc.

12-09-2012 12:57pm

If you are building something right now I would go with something like one of those Atom+Ion boards, i have seen them fairly cheap on ebay. I think I could probably build something for €100 at a push by going used, and scrounging some ram etc, although for someone else 150 would be a more reasonable budget and I don't really like cheaping out on case/PSU personally.

With XBMC there is always the 'next great thing' that they hint about in their forum... Broadcom Crystal HD, ATV2, Arm port, R Pi, Ouya port. The current next big thing is the Sigma collaboration which has been talked about for at least a couple of years...

I would take the trusty Atom+Nvidia over all these things because its a proven platform and I know it works right now.

johnybean · 12-09-2012 7:57pm

I am in the same boat as you guys. I recently spec'ed a fairly decent htpc on dabs for €160 excluding any drives as I have a couple of 1 tb portable drives with media on them to do for now. I will post the parts list tomorrow but it basically consistent of an Intel g530, h61 board with hdmi and usb3, 4 gb of ram and a fairly basis matx case. It wouldn't be amazing but it would get the job done and you could bout openelec from a usb key to save money on an OS. I was going to get this myself and give it a go but I ordered a pi instead ( Could live to regret that one yet!) which I will be loading raspbmc onto to see how we get on.

califano · 14-09-2012 12:38pm

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Not yet, now is a bad time.

ATV2 has it's 720p limitation and the price has shot up as they're struggling to jailbreak the ATV3.
The Boxee Box has been rooted, but there's little progress there either, it would be amazing if the got it working, the hardware is just perfect.
Raspberry pi is very sluggish with a big library and struggles with higher than 720p also.
XBMC on Android is very early days, no hardware acceleration yet and buggy, but it's getting there. There is a big push to be stable for the release of the Ouya, which is due out in March.

This one has NEON and im hearing some good reports on it . Thread here. I suppose it will be buggy until they release it on play market but the android pre release is meant to be getting better all the time.

Another one closer to home that seems promising and also has NEON is here.

warrenaldo · 17-09-2012 11:44am

Is there anything like this with a Hard-Drive included?

Ive seen some examples:
XTreamer Ultra
Pulse Box

Neither of these have fantastic reviews, any others out there?

syklops · 17-09-2012 11:49am

Definitely not cheap, but if I had the money, I would be opting for the ZBox.

Tea 1000 · 17-09-2012 12:06pm

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Not yet, now is a bad time.

ATV2 has it's 720p limitation and the price has shot up as they're struggling to jailbreak the ATV3.
The Boxee Box has been rooted, but there's little progress there either, it would be amazing if the got it working, the hardware is just perfect.
Raspberry pi is very sluggish with a big library and struggles with higher than 720p also.
XBMC on Android is very early days, no hardware acceleration yet and buggy, but it's getting there. There is a big push to be stable for the release of the Ouya, which is due out in March.

I have the Pi and also have some of my Blu-Ray's and HD-DVD's backed up and stored on my PC, seeing as I couldn't find any decent free encoders, they're around 12GB in size and full 1080p. Pi plays them back no problems.

PogMoThoin · 17-09-2012 12:21pm

Tea 1000 wrote: »

I have the Pi and also have some of my Blu-Ray's and HD-DVD's backed up and stored on my PC, seeing as I couldn't find any decent free encoders, they're around 12GB in size and full 1080p. Pi plays them back no problems.

Playing from the network or local? I don't have a pi, but from what I've seen at a mates house the XBMC gui is pretty sluggish and scanning for content takes forever and makes it lag badly.

superleedsdub · 18-09-2012 6:27pm

I got a raspberry PI last friday and installed Raspbmc, very impressed with it so far.
However, it has taken a lot of configuring and playing around with to get it where I want it.

Some things i`ve initially noted:

- It is streaming files from my NAS no bother, some as large as 20GBs (via SMB).
- Scanning for metadata can take some time to complete depending on the size of your library, but no longer than other media servers i`ve played around with (e.g. Plex)
- While scanning initially, the PI is virtually unusable but subsequent rescans have been ok
- The scan for metadata was fairly accurate (only had to manually rescan a few movies and TV shows, which is easy enough)
- navigating through the menus can be slow, depending on what skin you are using (e.g. NEON is very slow, but looks amazing) or the size of the library or files you are accessing. From what i`ve read the performance of the PI has improved with every firmware update
- works with the remotes from my Samsung and Panasonic TV`s (even when the PI is connected to the panny TV through my Pioneer receiver), Yatse is a great free android remote control app (haven`t found a free IOS app yet) Very limited use with my Harmony 900 that I need to explore further
- Files with DTS encoded are stuttering when no receiver is connected (this is due to the PI having to transcode the DTS signal, when a receiver is connected it decodes the audio signal)
- mkv backups i`ve created using makemkv don`t work due to a problem playing MPEG2 files. I believe there are fixes in the works....
- I was frustrated not having a remote ability to turn on the PI until I discovered that if I connected it to my Samsung TV via micro USB and not using a mains socket to power the unit, turning the TV on and off using the TV`s remote turned off the PI (haven`t tested this on Main Panasonic TV yet)

All in all, not a bad purchase at the pricely sum of €42 (including delivery) although the cost goes up when you add a SD card and possibly a power supply (I used a micro USB phone charger I had spare)

EDIT: just discovered you buy a MPEG2 licence for the raspberry PI

califano · 20-09-2012 1:38pm

syklops wrote: »

Definitely not cheap, but if I had the money, I would be opting for the ZBox.

Got one of those recently. 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM, 32GB SDD (3.0Gb/s and 220MB/s Transfer Rate) and Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows Updates applied, all essentials (such as Flash, Java, Silverlight) and XBMC.
Pretty sweet.

subway · 20-09-2012 2:47pm

syklops wrote: »

Definitely not cheap, but if I had the money, I would be opting for the ZBox.

that zbox looks quality, where can they be bought, and which version would you go for?

Access · 20-09-2012 5:14pm

syklops wrote: »

Definitely not cheap, but if I had the money, I would be opting for the ZBox.

That unit seems to have a normal fan... would it not be better and slightly cheaper to get a fanless and silent acer revo?

Tea 1000 · 21-09-2012 2:35pm

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Playing from the network or local? I don't have a pi, but from what I've seen at a mates house the XBMC gui is pretty sluggish and scanning for content takes forever and makes it lag badly.

Playing from Network. I'd also echo most of what superleedsdub said, it works well with my Panasonic remote through my Denon receiver, even switching the Denon automatically to the right input when I play something or use Air Play via the Pi. I have the XBMC remotes installed on iPhone and Android.

massy086 · 21-09-2012 11:55pm

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221125414615;PdsSession=e637572f1390a47a15e79527fff260c5 this looks great for the money and you can make an offer. only prob is delivery is high but get a few people to buy them and delivery goes down

superleedsdub · 23-09-2012 1:26pm

Tea 1000 wrote: »

Playing from Network. I'd also echo most of what superleedsdub said, it works well with my Panasonic remote through my Denon receiver, even switching the Denon automatically to the right input when I play something or use Air Play via the Pi. I have the XBMC remotes installed on iPhone and Android.

Have you worked out a way to use your panasonic remote to open up the extra options (such as mark as watched, Update library, etc.)
I`ve bought the MPEG2 licence (for €3) so my DVD backups are streaming perfectly.
Hopefully when the bugs with Turbo mode are resolved and Raspbmc RC5 is released, the performance will improve (not that it`s that bad at the moment) and hopefully a fix to downmix DTS to stereo will be released.
At that point the PI will be the best media player i`ve seen:-)
I`ve ordered 2 more.......

stackeye · 27-09-2012 2:27pm

superleedsdub wrote: »

I got a raspberry PI last friday and installed Raspbmc, very impressed with it so far.
However, it has taken a lot of configuring and playing around with to get it where I want it.

Some things i`ve initially noted:

- It is streaming files from my NAS no bother, some as large as 20GBs (via SMB).
- Scanning for metadata can take some time to complete depending on the size of your library, but no longer than other media servers i`ve played around with (e.g. Plex)
- While scanning initially, the PI is virtually unusable but subsequent rescans have been ok
- The scan for metadata was fairly accurate (only had to manually rescan a few movies and TV shows, which is easy enough)
- navigating through the menus can be slow, depending on what skin you are using (e.g. NEON is very slow, but looks amazing) or the size of the library or files you are accessing. From what i`ve read the performance of the PI has improved with every firmware update
- works with the remotes from my Samsung and Panasonic TV`s (even when the PI is connected to the panny TV through my Pioneer receiver), Yatse is a great free android remote control app (haven`t found a free IOS app yet) Very limited use with my Harmony 900 that I need to explore further
- Files with DTS encoded are stuttering when no receiver is connected (this is due to the PI having to transcode the DTS signal, when a receiver is connected it decodes the audio signal)
- mkv backups i`ve created using makemkv don`t work due to a problem playing MPEG2 files. I believe there are fixes in the works....
- I was frustrated not having a remote ability to turn on the PI until I discovered that if I connected it to my Samsung TV via micro USB and not using a mains socket to power the unit, turning the TV on and off using the TV`s remote turned off the PI (haven`t tested this on Main Panasonic TV yet)

All in all, not a bad purchase at the pricely sum of €42 (including delivery) although the cost goes up when you add a SD card and possibly a power supply (I used a micro USB phone charger I had spare)

EDIT: just discovered you buy a MPEG2 licence for the raspberry PI

I have the PI working as a UPNP server, so I download stuff on my Galaxy SIII and push the movies to the PI using the app Bubbleupnp, works brilliantly, you should also see if your TV has CEC, I can control XBMC on my PI with my TV remote,

syklops · 27-09-2012 2:33pm

Access wrote: »

That unit seems to have a normal fan... would it not be better and slightly cheaper to get a fanless and silent acer revo?

I persoanlly have about 3 other PCs in the room in which it will be used. Im now immune to the sound of the fans. Besides, whatever media I am playing will cover the sound of the fan.

How much is the Revo?

Windows® 7 Home Premium

Ah, no. I'll go back to my zbox thanks.

superleedsdub · 27-09-2012 2:33pm

Cheers for the tips. Can you stream metadata over UPNP? I tried but couldn`t display any thumbnails, show info etc...

I can use my TV remotes via CEC but I can`t access the extra menu options ( the menu with mark as watched, update library etc...) has anyone worked this out??

superleedsdub · 27-09-2012 2:40pm

superleedsdub wrote: »

I have the PI working as a UPNP server, so I download stuff on my Galaxy SIII and push the movies to the PI using the app Bubbleupnp, works brilliantly, you should also see if your TV has CEC, I can control XBMC on my PI with my TV remote

Cheers for the tips. Can you stream metadata over UPNP? I tried but couldn`t display any thumbnails, show info etc...

I can use my TV remotes via CEC but I can`t access the extra menu options ( the menu with mark as watched, update library etc...) has anyone worked this out??[/

stackeye · 28-09-2012 4:04pm

superleedsdub wrote: »

Cheers for the tips. Can you stream metadata over UPNP? I tried but couldn`t display any thumbnails, show info etc...

I can use my TV remotes via CEC but I can`t access the extra menu options ( the menu with mark as watched, update library etc...) has anyone worked this out??[/

HI Superleedsdub

Haven't checked the metadata, I don't keep a large number of files and delete once I watch anything, so I don't do any library management, same for the CEC and extra menu options, I delete so don't need the watched option

FastFullBack · 29-09-2012 12:48am

superleedsdub wrote: »

I got a raspberry PI last friday and installed Raspbmc, very impressed with it so far.
However, it has taken a lot of configuring and playing around with to get it where I want it.

Some things i`ve initially noted:

- It is streaming files from my NAS no bother, some as large as 20GBs (via SMB).
- Scanning for metadata can take some time to complete depending on the size of your library, but no longer than other media servers i`ve played around with (e.g. Plex)
- While scanning initially, the PI is virtually unusable but subsequent rescans have been ok
- The scan for metadata was fairly accurate (only had to manually rescan a few movies and TV shows, which is easy enough)
- navigating through the menus can be slow, depending on what skin you are using (e.g. NEON is very slow, but looks amazing) or the size of the library or files you are accessing. From what i`ve read the performance of the PI has improved with every firmware update
- works with the remotes from my Samsung and Panasonic TV`s (even when the PI is connected to the panny TV through my Pioneer receiver), Yatse is a great free android remote control app (haven`t found a free IOS app yet) Very limited use with my Harmony 900 that I need to explore further
- Files with DTS encoded are stuttering when no receiver is connected (this is due to the PI having to transcode the DTS signal, when a receiver is connected it decodes the audio signal)
- mkv backups i`ve created using makemkv don`t work due to a problem playing MPEG2 files. I believe there are fixes in the works....
- I was frustrated not having a remote ability to turn on the PI until I discovered that if I connected it to my Samsung TV via micro USB and not using a mains socket to power the unit, turning the TV on and off using the TV`s remote turned off the PI (haven`t tested this on Main Panasonic TV yet)

All in all, not a bad purchase at the pricely sum of €42 (including delivery) although the cost goes up when you add a SD card and possibly a power supply (I used a micro USB phone charger I had spare)

EDIT: just discovered you buy a MPEG2 licence for the raspberry PI

Can the Raspbmc play Dolby Digital? CUrrently installed RC4 and no DD.

superleedsdub · 29-09-2012 9:54pm

FastFullBack wrote: »

Can the Raspbmc play Dolby Digital? CUrrently installed RC4 and no DD.

It does indeed - have you enabled your receiver in
settings-system-audio?

Do-more · 01-10-2012 5:50pm

What about the UG802?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8g0dOszeSM&feature=plcp

subway · 01-10-2012 11:41pm

Why not, ordered that to have a go

Do-more · 02-10-2012 7:12am

subway wrote: »

Why not, ordered that to have a go

It seems there is another dual core Rockchip android on a stick which ships with Jelly bean installed called the MK808, looks like it is only been on the market a week or so.

It would be nice to know if these Rockchip sticks get over the problem of no hardware acceleration encountered running XBMC on the Allwinner chip sticks.

subway · 02-10-2012 9:18am

I'll do a full write up once it arrives.
Need suggestions for a remote control now :-)

Do-more · 02-10-2012 10:56am

It's a real minefield trying to figure out if any of these Android sticks will run XBMC well.

This morning I stumbled upon this post which I think explains why the G box Dyno linked to earlier in the thread can run XBMC at 1080p because it runs the AMLogic chip for which the source code is available.

It appears that this Android stick from Pandawill for US$55 is the same in this regard and if you use the xios version of xbmc you will have native hardware acceleration and working addons.

vibe666 · 02-10-2012 11:47am

At the moment, there's an Acer Revo R3610 that *might* end up going cheap on ebay if anyone's looking.

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Acer-Revo-R3610-PC-Desktop-/120993073620?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item1c2bbfc9d4#ht_500wt_1361

still using mine daily with win7 and 720p plays fine in windows with 3gb of RAM if you assign the max available to the onboard gfx.

I'm actually thinking about sticking an SSD in mine to give it a new lease of life as well.

cheapest / quickest / easiest XBMC setup

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