Kodi Community Forum
RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - Printable Version

+- Kodi Community Forum (https://forum.kodi.tv)
+-- Forum: Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=33)
+--- Forum: General Support (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=111)
+---- Forum: Raspberry Pi (https://forum.kodi.tv/forumdisplay.php?fid=166)
+---- Thread: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC (/showthread.php?tid=187615)

Pages: 1 2


RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - couchpotatotalk - 2014-02-26

I'm putting a Raspberry Pi box together for my parents to use XBMC to watch movies off of. I want something that is stable and fast.
I was planning on running RaspBMC from a 3.0 USB flash drive, but have since read that XBain is faster than RaspBMC. Is it faster than an SD operated RaspBMC as well as a USB driven one?

I also read you can install Xbain and boot from USB but it sounds like there are more steps involved with that than I want to mess with right now.

So what will get me the fastest running XBMC experience?


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian - xbs08 - 2014-02-26

OpenELEC Big Grin


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian - couchpotatotalk - 2014-02-26

(2014-02-26, 23:01)xbs08 Wrote: OpenELEC Big Grin

Is that the fastest solution? I read that was pretty stripped down. However, that might be useful to my parents as they wont need any plugins. They just want to see thumbnails and descriptions.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELC - xbs08 - 2014-02-26

I believe so.
Its fast and simple to setup.

"In addition, OpenELEC is designed to be managed as an appliance: it can automatically update itself and can be managed entirely from within the graphical interface. Even though it runs on Linux, you will never need to see a management console, command terminal or have Linux knowledge to use it."

http://openelec.tv/component/content/article?id=1


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELC - couchpotatotalk - 2014-02-26

(2014-02-26, 23:06)xbs08 Wrote: I believe so.
Its fast and simple to setup.

I imagine it's also possible to boot from USB for even more speed? Looks like I will be trying OpenELEC


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - xbs08 - 2014-02-26

You mean run xbmc from USB flash drive, boot is always from SD card on the RPI.

Make sure you use a fast USB 3.0 for best performance.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - BenH - 2014-02-27

(2014-02-26, 22:51)couchpotatotalk Wrote: So what will get me the fastest running XBMC experience?

Why do you need the fastest? There have been many speed improvements in all builds in recent times and they are all pretty fast if you are using the latest testing builds. As long as it is acceptably fast, then it shouldn't matter if it's the fastest or not.

I say try all 3 and get a feel for them. There's more to it than speed - how often are updates, how easy is it to update, are their test builds available, how easy is it to install test builds etc.

I started out using xbian because it performed best for me, then moved to raspbmc when that started performing better (for me), then when my sister-in-law wanted a box I installed openelec because that was performing best for her purposes at the time, then when she had an issue I installed raspbmc for her because that was performing best again (for her purposes).

Now that I know the 3 fairly well, I only look at openelec and raspbmc because they work best for me and I don't want to keep up looking at 3 builds (or 4 if you want to try geexbox).

I prefer to run off an SD card as it's fast enough for me and it doesn't use up one of the usb ports. And since firmware updates late last year you can overclock on sd card without corruption (or at least low risk).

When I set up a pi for someone else I take an image of the sd card just in case.

Ben


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - couchpotatotalk - 2014-02-27

(2014-02-27, 04:03)BenH Wrote: Why do you need the fastest? There have been many speed improvements in all builds in recent times and they are all pretty fast if you are using the latest testing builds. As long as it is acceptably fast, then it shouldn't matter if it's the fastest or not.

Thanks for your answer. I tried RaspBMC a year ago and was disappointed with the menu lag times. It was completely unusable at times if I was trying to sort by year or genre. Just too many files for it to sort. So by fastest, I was referring to menu speeds and general browsing speeds. I know all of them will give similar playback.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - xbs08 - 2014-02-27

GUI speed in library is related to number of items in library. A 100 item library will perform better then a 500 item library.

Check out popcornmix video responsiveness thread.

I guess acceptable speed varies from user to user. It can be fast for some and slow to others.

Try the USB install and the SD and see what's best. Mine USB is much faster scrolling through a 500+ movie library.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - BenH - 2014-02-27

(2014-02-27, 05:19)couchpotatotalk Wrote: I tried RaspBMC a year ago and was disappointed with the menu lag times. It was completely unusable at times if I was trying to sort by year or genre. Just too many files for it to sort. So by fastest, I was referring to menu speeds and general browsing speeds. I know all of them will give similar playback.

I'd give it another go if it's been that long. I was actually referring to speed in general as well as the ability to play large files over a network, but I have quite a small library.

Ben


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - prae5 - 2014-02-27

I've used RaspBMC, XBian and OpenELEC and regularly test them all.

OpenELEC is by far the most stable and usable in my experience.

It is the only think I install when providing devices for others - it just works Smile


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - couchpotatotalk - 2014-02-27

(2014-02-27, 14:20)prae5 Wrote: I've used RaspBMC, XBian and OpenELEC and regularly test them all.

OpenELEC is by far the most stable and usable in my experience.

It is the only think I install when providing devices for others - it just works Smile

Thanks for the feedback. I found a tutorial to install OpenELEC to a USB drive and how to set it to Turbo. I am going to test that out tonight when my new USB 3.0 flash drive comes.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - Siafix - 2014-02-27

Hi All,

I have been reading all you guys been saying and it is very informative. I am very novice to all these but have some engineering background to be able to understand the technical aspect of all that.

Now my question is: Having installed Raspbmc,,which is an OS on its own ground, or any other ones mentioned in this forum, would it be possible to autorun the add-on's i.e. FilmOn?

Many thanks in advance.


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - maiky76 - 2014-02-28

Hi All,

Real questions - Real answer: a thread that does help me as also a new RPI/XBMC user, thanks.

Is there a clear out-off-the-box feature list for each of the RPI XMBC distro?
It seems OpenElec would be ok but I like that Xbian is ipleneting the latest fixes
here is my short list in terms of importance:
• Reasonably fast (I can handle OC scripting)
• Stable for family use
• Play content from the ASUS N56U UpnP server (from Lan and/or Wan, 3GB Media)
• Stream content from iDevices (Airplay, iOS7 and iOS5)
• Mount/un-mount USB drives without scripting with auto display content if possible
• Stream content from the from Youku, Souku, PPS, PPTV and other Chinese sites
• Remote controlled from android Phone ( Official XBMC remote installs on my Huawei P6 but did not try it…)
• Use WiFi dongle (I ordered one that should work)
• Stream content from Android Phone (suggestion?)
• I sometimes use PS3 Media Server a DLNA server so compatibility would be great as well

I have been digging into forums to seek answers but it seems that no one is on using the official versions!
That makes it impossible to relate the desired feature to a Distro version to a working state (yes/no).

Help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Mickael


RE: RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC - dandnsmith - 2014-02-28

A quick read of your list suggests that you're looking for the impossible.
Why?
Well, ...
about half your list concerns either actions with other equipment than the Pi with an XBMC installation, or actions involving addons which are not part of XBMC.
This means that you have to find the places where those features/equipments are discussed, and this will often go outside of any official release - after all, the whole thing is rapidly evolving, and even providing up-to-date feature lists is tricky.