cheapest / quickest / easiest XBMC setup

Do-more

Not in stock yet, but due in this week plus you will need access to a Parcel Motel pick up point to get delivery as eBuyer don't deliver to Ireland, but this new Acer Revo L80 nettop looks like good value at £149.

Intel Celeron 887 processor 1.5GHz
4GB DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM
500GB SATA 3 hard disk

and a nice selection of connections.

No OS.

Do-more

Do-more wrote: »

Intel Celeron 887 processor 1.5GHz
4GB DDR3 1333 MHz SDRAM
500GB SATA 3 hard disk

and a nice selection of connections.

No OS.

For a HTPC you want Nvidia or ATI graphics, or else a CPU powerful enough to software decode.

PogMoThoin

Deleted User wrote: »

For a HTPC you want Nvidia or ATI graphics, or else a CPU powerful enough to software decode.

Yep, that will struggle with HD. Always run a mile from a Celeron cpu, they are the Intel reject silicon down-clocked so they pass.

stephendevlin

I have an older laptop at the moment I am working on. I have installed OpenElec and it actually runs very nice. However the graphics chip is not up to the task at all Lots of missing pixels over HDMI and VGA. I was thinking of installing a Broadcom Crystal HD card and replacing the wifi card as it wont be used. I think it will be viable and take the heat off the processor / graphics chip. Its also low powered 2w. If anyone has any experience with these I woud love to know your outcome.

Update:

Software decoding seems to work - not perfect but it does work nice. Resolves pixel issue also. I think I still will add the Crystal HD Card as hardware decoding should improve it even more as streaming from the DM800HD can be very sore on CPU. At about €30 for a decoding card and less than €100 for the laptop (screen broken and missing keys) cant go wrong with that.

Do-more

So presumably this one with AMD E450/Radeon HD 6320 Graphics would be a much better option, albeit dearer at £180?

Do-more

Do-more wrote: »

So presumably this one with AMD E450/Radeon HD 6320 Graphics would be a much better option, albeit dearer at £180?

It should do the job fine.

The important thing for playing HD is either a CPU powerful enough to software decode, or else a GPU with good hardware-assisted decoding.

Now if you only plan on playing old-fashioned Xvid then just about any heap of junk will do.

Do-more

Deleted User wrote: »

It should do the job fine.

The important thing for playing HD is either a CPU powerful enough to software decode, or else a GPU with good hardware-assisted decoding.

Now if you only plan on playing old-fashioned Xvid then just about any heap of junk will do.

Cheers, seeing as the Revo comes with 4Gb of ram and a 320Gb hardrive already installed it seems like much better value than the barebones Zotac AD04 which is £192 with the same CPU/GPU.

I was considering building a basic mini-itx with a E350 motherboard but it seems like the Revo would be an easier and probably safer option for not a great deal more money.

Calibos

It is so depressing to me that 8 years after I started using xbmc on an Xbox 1, there still isn't an appliance like sub €100 box that doesn't involve tearing ones hair out configuring it to work or waiting for the next release or the next device that everything will work on or that has enough oomph at the right price. I know it's open source and while on the one hand the pace of bug fixes and added features seems great, in the grand scheme if things we are 8 years since we had a cheap appliance like experience.

PogMoThoin

Calibos wrote: »

It is so depressing to me that 8 years after I started using xbmc on an Xbox 1, there still isn't an appliance like sub €100 box that doesn't involve tearing ones hair out configuring it to work or waiting for the next release or the next device that everything will work on or that has enough oomph at the right price. I know it's open source and while on the one hand the pace of bug fixes and added features seems great, in the grand scheme if things we are 8 years since we had a cheap appliance like experience.

The original Xbox would still be working fine if the requirements didn't move with technological advances in hardware, codecs and file types. Our TV resolutions, files sizes and bandwidth needs have gone up every year. I'm at a stage now where I download HD only and look for DTS or DD sound, quite a few of my movies are over 25GB. When I had an Xbox a few years ago all my movies were 700MB. It's only now that a sub €100 box would have the processing power for 1080p HD. But don't get excited, 4K is just around the corner.

stephendevlin

Calibos wrote: »

It is so depressing to me that 8 years after I started using xbmc on an Xbox 1, there still isn't an appliance like sub €100 box that doesn't involve tearing ones hair out configuring it to work or waiting for the next release or the next device that everything will work on or that has enough oomph at the right price. I know it's open source and while on the one hand the pace of bug fixes and added features seems great, in the grand scheme if things we are 8 years since we had a cheap appliance like experience.

Thats no fault to XBMC. I think you can have a HTPC now for cheaper than ever. Not like your paying for this software. Its played anything I had to throw at it so far even tv streams work great

Access

Have to agree with you Calibos...

I have any old dell SFF desktop running XBMC for the past year now and all is great...

But i too have been looking for something sub €100 to run xbmc in master bedroom/family room and i have started trying it out with Raspberry Pi (or as my son calls it... Ooh! Shiny!... when he saw it in its clear case

But this too has required me to have a fast and steep learning curve in Linux and programming in the past few days! (its a fcuking nightmare to be honest) but it getting there and it should be running smoothly by the weekend... hopefully!

"I had a dream... that one day tv and xbmc would unite together as one!"
- without ripping my hair out!

PogMoThoin

Sub €100 is really pushing things, like I said earlier, there will be Android devices, but wait till it has hardware acceleration and goes full release. It's close, possibly in March to coincide with the Ouya release

stephendevlin

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Sub €100 is really pushing things, like I said earlier, there will be Android devices, but wait till it has hardware acceleration and goes full release. It's close, possibly in March to coincide with the Ouya release

Android devices are coming out now with ARM dual core processors which XBMC are currently being ported to, so will have the much needed HW decoding so the sub €100 might not be far away.

massy086

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056862121 great setup add 2gig ram and run it on a usb stick with open elec and its a great htpc for the money

PogMoThoin

massy086 wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056862121 great setup add 2gig ram and run it on a usb stick with open elec and its a great htpc for the money

That's more like it. Great value

stephendevlin

massy086 wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056862121 great setup add 2gig ram and run it on a usb stick with open elec and its a great htpc for the money

Nice find, wonder does it support dvb-s2

PogMoThoin

stephendevlin wrote: »

Nice find, wonder does it support dvb-s2

It has a DVB-T terrestrial tuner, not satellite

Do-more

stephendevlin wrote: »

Nice find, wonder does it support dvb-s2

It's all dutch to me but this might help!

stephendevlin

PogMoThoin wrote: »

It has a DVB-T terrestrial tuner, not satellite

Exactly lol thats why I asked the question

PogMoThoin

stephendevlin wrote: »

Exactly lol thats why I asked the question

It's a piece of hardware, support depends on what software you put on it.

stephendevlin

PogMoThoin wrote: »

It's a piece of hardware, support depends on what software you put on it.

Mini pci card I would presume openelec may support it. Would make a big difference with dvb-s2 card in there. Especially for a htpc

PogMoThoin

stephendevlin wrote: »

Mini pci card I would presume openelec may support it. Would make a big difference with dvb-s2 card in there. Especially for a htpc

Use XBMCbuntu and then buy a card or usb DVB-S2 with linux support

Calibos

Would that dual core 1.8ghz atom with ati gpu in that arctic run the GUI smoother( fanart/posters) than the likes of the Pivos running Linux xbmc and would openelec need much configuration to get working on this device?

stephendevlin

Calibos wrote: »

Would that dual core 1.8ghz atom with ati gpu in that arctic run the GUI smoother( fanart/posters) than the likes of the Pivos running Linux xbmc and would openelec need much configuration to get working on this device?

Openelec is very fast and real easy

Calibos

Calibos wrote: »

Would that dual core 1.8ghz atom with ati gpu in that arctic run the GUI smoother( fanart/posters) than the likes of the Pivos running Linux xbmc

It would be a lot smoother.

That system is great value, for me the only question mark is the ATI GPU. Nvidia video acceleration has always been better under Linux. Supposedly ATI have improved recently but there is still no MPEG-2 or MPEG-4(2) acceleration which may be a problem for some.

Do-more

Calibos wrote: »

Would that dual core 1.8ghz atom with ati gpu in that arctic run the GUI smoother( fanart/posters) than the likes of the Pivos running Linux xbmc and would openelec need much configuration to get working on this device?

The Artic is on the list of supported hardware for OpenElec using the generic build with no notes of needing anything special so it should be reasonably straight forward (he says hopefully).

One thing to note is that Aria in the UK used to sell this but now have it as "discontinued" that may not mean anything or it could be that it is end of life and explain the low price from Artic, so if you want one it might be best not to hang about.

Calibos

In the notes on the openelec wiki that you posted Do-More, it says for the arctic.... 'for best quality setup 1080p/24hz with hardware acceleration'. Does that contradict what I kill you scum said about a lack of mpeg2/4 acceleration?

I take it the 114 euro price point is heavily discounted end of life. Did I read correctly that this sold for 200 euro plus when new and likely it's successor will too. Would I also be correct in saying that the successor likely wont bring much extra benefit for its intended light use with xbmc so I might as well jump in with both feet and buy the 4 I need?

2 gig of ram needs to be bought separately. Yes?
With this running openelec do I need a hdd even if I run it off a high capacity high speed USB stick with all fanart/poster art on the stick or should I invest in cheap small capacity SSD's for them. I know that makes it 114 euro + the extras but at least I see some benefit in performance and ease of install over the 'not yet ready for prime time' likes of the Pivos at about 100 euro.

Or am I being optimistic and the extras will bring the price up to the 300 euro ion hardware devices?

PogMoThoin

Store the fanart with the media. Use Ember to add fanart, thumbnails and nfo's and then there is no lookup when scanning to the library.

Do-more

Calibos wrote: »

I take it the 114 euro price point is heavily discounted end of life. Did I read correctly that this sold for 200 euro plus when new and likely it's successor will too.

Here is the price history for it, it has frequently been up and down anywhere between €120 and €250 plus delivery but this is the first time it has been down to €99.95 + delivery

Artic's website seems to be way out of date for News and Press releases so it's hard to tell if they have anything new coming down the line.

Access

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Store the fanart with the media. Use Ember to add fanart, thumbnails and nfo's and then there is no lookup when scanning to the library.

I normally scrape from the internet when i do a fresh install of xbmc which is fine but can take hours. (my movies are on my NAS in one big folder altogether just named "MOVIES") - Single files in there i.e.
NAS/Movies/
movie title 1 (year).avi
movie title 2 (year).avi
etc.

If i used ember and stored all my movies info and pics in the folder with each movie on my NAS, does this mean the next time i go to scrape info during a fresh install of xbmc it will get its info from the movies folders instead saving hours?

Also, does it cache the movie info then full time on the htpc in the xbmc database like normal?... reason i ask is that one of my XBMC machines is a Raspberry Pi and it would slow down to no speed at all if it had to pull the movie info in real time each time from the NAS as i browsed the movie list.

I take it that it would then need to look something like...

NAS/Movies/
movie title 1 (year)/

movie title 1 (year).avi
movie title 1 (year).jpg
movie title 1 (year).nfo

Etc.