cheapest / quickest / easiest XBMC setup

guinnessdrinker

Does anyone know if it is possible to install any satellite tuner cards into this unit?

Do-more

Here is something to look out for, a set top box with a good range of connections and a quad-core Samsung Exynos 4412 processor.

That's the same processor that is used by the Odroid development boards which seem to be powerful enough to run 1080P with just software decoding.

Some of the XBMC developers are working on hardware acceleration using the Odroid so hopefully that can translate to a Exynos STB.

[Edit] Another Exynos STB here, I can only find wholesaler links at the moment, nothing for retail sale yet but I guess it's only a matter of time.

Do-more

Just spotted this over on XBMC.org test builds of android with hardware acceleration reported to be working flawlessly on an MK808, might be of interest to anybody with an android stick.

tippgod

newbie to this XBMC idea. How much would a system already loaded with XBMC set me back. i have a 500g drive that i would like to connect to it

thanks


( i do have an old xbox if that helps. )

PogMoThoin

tippgod wrote: »

newbie to this XBMC idea. How much would a system already loaded with XBMC set me back. i have a 500g drive that i would like to connect to it

thanks


( i do have an old xbox if that helps. )

There is no system pre-loaded with XBMC, you're going to have to get your hands dirty. It's been a long time since XBMC ran on an old Xbox, it's moved beyond that long ago as the hardware isn't capable of HD.

tippgod

PogMoThoin wrote: »

There is no system pre-loaded with XBMC, you're going to have to get your hands dirty. It's been a long time since XBMC ran on an old Xbox, it's moved beyond that long ago as the hardware isn't capable of HD.

ok. just looking at ebay at the moment and stuff like the G-box midnight. Are they any good. What initial system should i be looking for?

thanks again

Calibos

Its pretty easy to get a system up and running but that said I wouldn't jump in feet first. Install the windows version on your PC first to try it out.


I've been running XBMC on a load of old Xbox 1's since 2006. I haven't updated the XBMC software since 2007. The only things that stopped working were some of the Add-ons for Youtube or Apple Trailers or the likes due to changes to the websites sometime in the last 6 years. An update would have gotten everything working again I just wasn't bothered. The things are still playing every format I throw at them 7 years later. The problem is that they aren't fast enough to play H264 files or Hidef perfectly with stuttering. The 'Scene' is phasing out xvids at the moment and there is now more and more stuff that I cant play properly. Thats the only reason I got up off my arse and started looking to finally replace my old xboxes.

That shows XBMC is pretty bullet proof.

In advance of my MC001's arriving I decided to install XBMC on my PC last night to play around. Just so happens on the very night that the latest version went Gold. (Frodo)

A straight install will install it on the PC as a Program. For a HTPC one would set it up to start straight after boot, but for our testing purposes we just install it normally. It was painless and I had all my content sources added to XBMC in minutes, same process as XBMC on my xboxes all those years ago. ie. Much more powerful software now, can do much more than it did in the old xbox days, looks better and yet its still just as easy to setup and use.

You should try it out on your PC first to get a feel for it before you start investigating what way you are going to use it before you can decide the best device to run it on connected to your TV.

For me having used it on Xbox for so long, I already knew what way I would use it. Pretty much just watching archived media content on a Nas/server. So I knew I wanted a box that could play 1080P HD, wasn't bothered about HD audio formats. Ordinary Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 is grand for me, knew I'll just watched ripped content from the server, however also knew I wanted to use some of the fancier skins. Thus I knew that the tiny 100 euro android boxes or Raspberry Pi wouldn't quite cut it performance wise for me but neither did I need a 400 euro Nettop with the latest Trinity chipset etc

It just so happened that I was shown this thread for a device that was selling at the moment for the 100 euro android box prices and yet had the middle of the road performance I needed for skins that normally cost 200-300. Since I don't care about HD audio nor Mpeg 2/4 the fact that this box is an unusual combo of 1.8ghz dual core atom but ati mobility GPU does not affect me in the slightest.

In short. Install XBMC on your PC first and play around with it before you decided on what kind of box for under your TV you want to buy and how much you want to spend

Do-more

PogMoThoin wrote: »

There is no system pre-loaded with XBMC,

Not true! You can buy an Xtreamer Ultra 2 with XBMC pre-loaded!

Not that I am recommending it like...;)

tippgod

Do-more wrote: »

Not true! You can buy an Xtreamer Ultra 2 with XBMC pre-loaded!

Not that I am recommending it like...;)

A friend in work recommended this

http://www.xiosds.co.uk/

Do-more

tippgod wrote: »

A friend in work recommended this

http://www.xiosds.co.uk/

They definitely have the best support of all the android boxes and you can put linux on them also but the European prices are silly, they are $99 in the US.

At that money you are much better off getting the Arctic MC001 that Calibos is talking about, it will cost you around €150 all in and will be a hell of a lot more powerful than the Pivos.

Calibos

Wasn't really able to judge the new skins too well because most of my movie collection had old faux 3D DVD case art thumbnails. Texture map those into the new ways of displaying film posters in the skins and you've got yourself an ugly mess.

Then remembered that I haven't even downloaded new ones in years, so there's a rake of movies without any poster/fanart assosciated with them in the folder, thus scraping my movie folder will yield enough of the posters/fanart to be able to judge. Sure enough any movie that had an old thumbnail displayed it but all the newer films had the new posters and fanart. Saw the option to only display recent stuff and bingo, got to check out all the skin display modes with out the jarring faux 3D thumbnails.

Wow! Loving all the new skins, loving the new display modes and fan art.

Can't wait to get my mc001's up and running and displaying on the plasmas. Now I just need to delete all the old crap thumbnails, set ember to work on my media folders and scrape all that juicy poster/fanart goodness!

Of course all this is ancient history to you guys and the last few years of releases have been more about adding PVR functionality and compatibility stuff under the hood so to speak but for me the look of Xbmc now is a revelation because I've been running a 2007 build on old xboxs with the original mayhem skin and haven't bothered scraping in years.

PogMoThoin

If You're setting Ember to work, this is the best format for the new XBMC (they have changed to fanart.jpg and poster.jpg)

Movies:
<movie>-poster.jpg (the XBMC Frodo FAQ says "poster.jpg", but this setting is better because this is the standard to which the XBMC database exported (separate files).
<movie>-fanart.jpg
<movie>.nfo

TV Shows:
tvshow.nfo
fanart.jpg
poster.jpg
banner.jpg (not supported atm)
seasonXX-poster.jpg
seasonXX-banner.jpg (not supported atm)
seasonXX-fanart.jpg
season-all-poster.jpg
season-all-fanart.jpg
season-specials-poster.jpg
season-specials-fanart.jpg

Episodes:
<episode>.nfo
<episode>-thumb.jpg

Actors cache:
<firstname_name>.jpg

Calibos

Deleted User wrote: »

Sorry, I meant the option that is called 'export to separate files' in XBMC.

What that does is put a nfo, poster, banner etc into the folder of each movie or TV show (and you should definitely store your movies in separate folders, it is much neater).

Then in future if you need re-scrape your library (in the case of a second machine or reinstall) it will see those nfo etc files and use them instead of going online.

Can someone explain what all the MySQL malarkey is all about then. I'll have 4 Arctic MC001's running Openelec under the TV's and 2 Desktops and 3 laptops running Windows XBMC in application mode. (8 adults living in house and adjoining apartment(connected to our Network))

Am I right in thinking that MySQL is as much if not more about keeping track of and keeping separate every instance of XBMC's 'Watched Status' etc) than it is about central repository for NFO data for Library syncing.

None of us care about the likes of Watched Status. All I care about is that scraping doesn't take long, that I don't have to intervene in the process much if at all to correct stuff, That 8 instances of XBMC aren't downloading the same stuff 8 times over. MySQL scares me and I haven't got a Nas/Server capable of running it. My PC isn't on 24hours but we are a 24hour household. Is it a problem if my brothers machine is looking for the MySQL DB on my PC at 4am but my PC is switched off etc

Would it be simpler for the time being for me to simply use ember to put my movies into individual folders. To Scrape on my instance of XBMC on my PC. Export Library to separate folders anytime a re-install of someones XBMC is required, otherwise the autoscraping/updating on each machine keeps their XBMC's up to date??

Calibos

Calibos wrote: »

Am I right in thinking that MySQL is as much if not more about keeping track of and keeping separate every instance of XBMC's 'Watched Status' etc) than it is about central repository for NFO data for Library syncing.

That is pretty much it. It syncs the entire library which is everything, watched status, resume points, title edits etc.

Is it a problem if my brothers machine is looking for the MySQL DB on my PC at 4am but my PC is switched off etc

Yes that would be a problem, it needs to be always on, or always wakeable with a WOL packet.

Would it be simpler for the time being for me to simply use ember to put my movies into individual folders. To Scrape on my instance of XBMC on my PC. Export Library to separate folders anytime a re-install of someones XBMC is required, otherwise the autoscraping/updating on each machine keeps their XBMC's up to date??

Should work fine.

Calibos

I know I probably missed something simple, but I used Filebot to rename all my content, used ember to put it all in indivdual folders and scrape the art and create NFO's etc. I even clicked the Frodo option in ember.

Added sources to my Openelec MC001's today.

They scraped from the internet. I've one left on over night downstairs as we speak still scraping away after hours and hours.

What did I do wrong. Why didn't it just pull the nfo's and artwork from my NAS instead of going online.

Should I have selected 'none' in the scraper section when adding source??

PogMoThoin

Calibos wrote: »

I know I probably missed something simple, but I used Filebot to rename all my content, used ember to put it all in indivdual folders and scrape the art and create NFO's etc. I even clicked the Frodo option in ember.

Added sources to my Openelec MC001's today.

They scraped from the internet. I've one left on over night downstairs as we speak still scraping away after hours and hours.

What did I do wrong. Why didn't it just pull the nfo's and artwork from my NAS instead of going online.

Should I have selected 'none' in the scraper section when adding source??

Yes, you should select the scraper source. It double checks each online ID (thetvdb.com and moviedb.com) from the .nfo, but it shouldn't scrape images.

Calibos

Ok, I think I see the problem. The .NFO for each episode of a series is named with the name of the episode. However, the .NFO for the Series itself is named TVSHOW. Now although I scraped the movies with Ember, with the TV SHOWS I used the instance of XBMC on my PC. I 'Removed Source' on my Movies so that my instance of XBMC would not screw with the work I had done with Ember on the movies. I Cleaned the Library and then I 'Exported Library as multiple files'. Thus my instance of XBMC populated my TV Show Series and Season Folders with the NFO's and artwork. So What did I do wrong within the settings of XBMC that meant it correctly named the NFO's for each Episode but incorrectly named the NFO for the Series itself.

Folder structure on my TV Show NAS is:

Z:\Tv Shows\True blood\Season 1

BTW, I've connected to my shares from OPenelec 2.99.2 with SMB. Could this be why any movie I tried to play last night cut out after a minute or so. ie. Do I need to mount the shares or something like that. What would you use??

Thanks for all your help btw. Been a great help to me. As I said before I have been out of the XBMC loop for about 5 years

Calibos

Calibos wrote: »

Ok, I think I see the problem. The .NFO for each episode of a series is named with the name of the episode. However, the .NFO for the Series itself is named TVSHOW. Now although I scraped the movies with Ember, with the TV SHOWS I used the instance of XBMC on my PC. I 'Removed Source' on my Movies so that my instance of XBMC would not screw with the work I had done with Ember on the movies. I Cleaned the Library and then I 'Exported Library as multiple files'. Thus my instance of XBMC populated my TV Show Series and Season Folders with the NFO's and artwork. So What did I do wrong within the settings of XBMC that meant it correctly named the NFO's for each Episode but incorrectly named the NFO for the Series itself.

Its hard to read/follow that but to be honest its just easier to forget about ember. Just scrape with an instance of XBMC (make sure to use Frodo) and then export. You know everything will be named properly.

BTW, I've connected to my shares from OPenelec 2.99.2 with SMB. Could this be why any movie I tried to play last night cut out after a minute or so. ie. Do I need to mount the shares or something like that. What would you use??

I heard someone complain of the same issue on OpenElec forum on the Arctic with wifi. It would cut out after a minute.

Im using wifi temporarily on the Arctic and I have no issues although saying that I use Hanewin on Windows which is a NFS server. I just found that I have less issues than Windows built in SMB.

Calibos

Gets weirder and weirder. As of this morning, only a handful of shows had scraped and showed episodes in the library. I started scraping each show manually. Takes about 20 minutes for each one so I know its scraping online. I make a change described above. ie rename series .NFO from tvshow.nfo to True Blood.NFO and initiate a refresh for True Blood. Nothing happens, I go back to series list and now library is fully populated for all my shows.......except True Blood!!!!

The speed the rest was populated while I was in the True Blood folder doing a manual refresh tells me that something I did triggered a refresh of all the other series and that this time it did see all the NFO's (all named tvshow.nfo) and pulled all the stuff on the server in a matter of seconds.

If I can figure this out I'll have the other 3 MC001's I bought for XBMC setup with fully populated libraries in minutes.
If I can't figure it out it'll take me a day for each one

As to the movies stopping after a minute.

Wired gigabit network.
Tv Shows on one Dlink DNS323 and Movies on another DNS323
Both sources added to XBMC via SMB
Turns out all TV Show content on TVSHow DNS323 plays without a hitch.
All Movie Content on Movie DNS323 stops after a minute.

silvine

Is there any advantage to Ember if I am using Sickbeard and Couchpotato to handle my images etc?

PogMoThoin

silvine wrote: »

Is there any advantage to Ember if I am using Sickbeard and Couchpotato to handle my images etc?

With Ember you can select which poster and fanart, not just go with the first one found.

PogMoThoin

Also, Sickbeard creates .tbn files, XBMC Frodo no longer uses them (see my earlier post)


I found this great mod for the Aeon Nox theme for Frodo that displays rotating extrathumbs on the infowall layout
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=154664&pid=1324954

Calibos

Deleted User wrote: »

Its hard to read/follow that but to be honest its just easier to forget about ember. Just scrape with an instance of XBMC (make sure to use Frodo) and then export. You know everything will be named properly.

Yep, that seems to be the way to go. I populated my Movies folders with Ember and populated my tv shows with an export from xbmc on my PC. Now while I am still a bit confused why xbmc on the mc001 scraped from the Internet for the first few shows, it did pull the majority from the server in a few seconds while I was trying to do a manual refresh of on series.

Ember was a waste of 18 bloody hours. Even though I selected Frodo with the button it saved my posters as .tbn and I reckon it didn't put the irks in the .nfo. Opened one up in notepad and all I could see we're urls to actors thumbs. Probably a combo of bug and user error:D

PogMoThoin

Calibos wrote: »

Ember was a waste of 18 bloody hours. Even though I selected Frodo with the button it saved my posters as .tbn and I reckon it didn't put the irks in the .nfo. Opened one up in notepad and all I could see we're urls to actors thumbs. Probably a combo of bug and user error:D

You didn't do it right. I gave you the formats you should manually set Ember to, maybe I should have posted a screenie:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=82970673&postcount=193

PogMoThoin

Ok, this is how I've setup my Ember for artwork for Frodo

Movies



TV Shows



And this is the resulting folders when you run the Artwork Downloader addon (set to local) to add extrafanart, actor thumbs, banners, logos and clearlogos

Movies



TV Shows



Season folder



Now, my method follows the developers recommended format for Frodo, I've since learned that the only slight problem with my method is that when you do an export of your library, Frodo does not stick to these dev rules and exports as the following (even though they are in individual movie folders):
<movie>-poster.jpg
<movie>-fanart.jpg
<movie>.nfo
So therefore you would be better off opting for them instead for movies (I'm going to change mine at some stage). You can also export from Frodo before you set Ember up and it will see and edit the .nfos and .jpgs when you scan them into Ember.

neacy69

Can anyone tell me if i can use xbmc on this machine? (either openelec or xbmxbuntu or am open to suggestions)

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/advent-eclipse-e300-910588/review

Its my mams old laptop and the screen in bust so i was just gonna leave it under the telly and use it as an xbmc device....

PogMoThoin

I think it only has VGA, no HDMI. VGA can be connected to your TV but does not carry sound. You will also be limited to resolutions the laptop supports (1366x768)

neacy69

neacy69 wrote: »

Can anyone tell me if i can use xbmc on this machine? (either openelec or xbmxbuntu or am open to suggestions)

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/advent-eclipse-e300-910588/review

Its my mams old laptop and the screen in bust so i was just gonna leave it under the telly and use it as an xbmc device....

You could always grab that €99 barebones and use the HDD and ram from the advent.

neacy69

Deleted User wrote: »

You could always grab that €99 barebones and use the HDD and ram from the advent.

Thanks - you just cost me €115 ...i bought the barebones ARCTIC MC001-N....i needed a new one cos my WDTV is acting up and it can go into the bedroom now...

PogMoThoin

Doubt ram from the advent will work, it'll most likely be ddr2