[Dvpetta]

Hello Everyone,

I'm a bit of a newbie and very interested in running XBMC on a proper machine that can play videos without skipping.

I've been running XBMC on an old Dell laptop and it's not going well, it's loud and because I stream videos over my wireless network from another laptop on the network it never worked well for me (major lags and buffering issues).

I've talked to a buddy and he recommends getting a small netbook with a good graphic processor/card, lots of RAM, a decent HD and HDMI out. I'd like to be able to play HD content including 1080p.

This brings me to the forum. I'm seeking advice from the experts out there to guide me what to get. I've been looking for Acer and Asus netbooks and/or mini comps and I'm not sure what I should be looking for. I assume that a top not graphic card would be the top request but I'm sure what is best?

I'd like to spend around $350 but realize that everything might not come out of box to be the perfect HTPC.

I hope my newbie ranks don't keep people away from the post!

Thanks in advance,
Dza

[poofyhairguy]

1080p HDMI Netbook? Why that is why ION is for:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...=A50-10159

I have on older gen model of that and mine plays 1080p like a champ.

If you want a more powerful system that can also work, look here:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...CatId=4938

[Dvpetta]

Cool, thanks for the input. How much RAM do you have in this acer machine? It says that it’s only expandable to 2GB, could bring that up to 4GB?

Also, where do you host your media? Is it on this comp or do you have a NAS or fileserver somewhere else that feeds it? I don’t have either of these so I’m thinking of saving my movies to this HTPC but I don’t want to slow this machine down too much. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on that? I’d be interested to hear what other do.

Thanks!

Dza

[boblinds]

I picked up one of these: http://www.cheetahdeals.com/Acer-Revo-AR...02.011.htm

The refurb quality was virtually new and it runs XBMC nicely, even Aeon MQ 2 (with a little slowness when refreshing media lists.) I host my media on my PC downstairs and stream using SMB through wireless Ethernet (although I've recently been testing an Ethernet over AC setup that also is working well.)

If you want to stream video from a source that is local to your HTPC, I'd suggest picking up an outboard USB HD and using that, rather than the internal HD. Bigger capacity and, IMO, more convenience because you can take your media with you without dismantling your entire system.

[poofyhairguy]

Cool, thanks for the input. How much RAM do you have in this acer machine? It says that it’s only expandable to 2GB, could bring that up to 4GB?

No, it caps at four. I have mine playing 1080p with just 1GB though.

Also, where do you host your media? Is it on this comp or do you have a NAS or fileserver somewhere else that feeds it? I don’t have either of these so I’m thinking of saving my movies to this HTPC but I don’t want to slow this machine down too much. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on that? I’d be interested to hear what other do.

I actually have two huge network file-servers, but my netbook system is usually used on the go (its job is to play my movies in hotel rooms) so it gets used with an external HD for it. That is what I recommend at first- just get a 2TB external HD. None of those systems have large enough harddrives to save much to them (2TB is just a start- I have two 12+TB fileservers because HD content is HUGE).

[Dvpetta]

Thanks for the hook up on the refurbished acer revo! I picked one up and 4GB of ram.

I was talking to a friend and he's talked about installing XBMC on a USB stick and have the comp boot from that to allow even more resources to playing. This sounds like a good idea to me but I have a question that I don't know if will be able to get answered here.

If I have XBMC Live installed on a USB stick and have the comp boot from that, will I still be able to save files to that comp's hard drive over the network? I plan on havin the revo wired into my modem and HD TV. I will then use my mac laptop on the wireless network to download videos but I would like to save them directly to the revo. So my question is, if I have the revo booting up from the USB stick running XBMC Live, will i be able to see the revo's hard drive on the network and could I save files to it over the network? I'd rather not have to stream videos from my mac laptop to the revo, rather I'd like to download torrents via my mac laptop and have the files saved on the revo's hard drive locally to allow for better/smoother playing.

Thanks again everyone, this has been very helpful!!!

Dza

[poofyhairguy]

Thanks for the hook up on the refurbished acer revo! I picked one up and 4GB of ram.

I was talking to a friend and he's talked about installing XBMC on a USB stick and have the comp boot from that to allow even more resources to playing. This sounds like a good idea to me but I have a question that I don't know if will be able to get answered here.

If I have XBMC Live installed on a USB stick and have the comp boot from that, will I still be able to save files to that comp's hard drive over the network? I plan on havin the revo wired into my modem and HD TV. I will then use my mac laptop on the wireless network to download videos but I would like to save them directly to the revo. So my question is, if I have the revo booting up from the USB stick running XBMC Live, will i be able to see the revo's hard drive on the network and could I save files to it over the network? I'd rather not have to stream videos from my mac laptop to the revo, rather I'd like to download torrents via my mac laptop and have the files saved on the revo's hard drive locally to allow for better/smoother playing.

Thanks again everyone, this has been very helpful!!!

Dza

You could do that, but I will say it might be a little complicated (aka XBMC Live doesn't automagically share your Windows drive on a network by default).

But with that said, it does boot fast and it will easily mount your Windows drive if you need it to so you could easily copy the files first.

[Piston Broke]

I have a revo 3700 and use the openelec version of XBMC but have installed it on the revo hard drive and now on my windows machine i have several shares for music, videos,pictures etc no configuration needed loaded ion version of openelec and that was all that was needed apart from any skins and addons you want to add I personally use transparancy

[Dvpetta]

Hello everyone.

So I've got my acer revo! Thanks to everyone who helped, I'm excited to get started (just need to get the wireless adapter to work, not picking up any signals at the moment).

I'm hoping someone can help me out with the spec of RAM i should be looking for to upgrade the revo. I bought what I thought was the correct RAM but it of course isn't and I don't want to get burned again cause I'm not exactly sure what to get.

I was looking to get two of these which I think are the right spec?

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT25664BC1...roduct_top

THanks,

Dza