Why should I keep XBMC?
#1
Hi guys, nice forum.

After 9 months of using my standard ATV2 I took the plunge and JB'd it today. I installed XBMC which was the main reason I went for a jailbreak.

I have a ATV2 downstairs and an Xbox 360 upstairs (both wired to the network). Both of them stream HD movies from a 2TB WD MyBookLive, but I was sick of converting films to both MP4 and WMV so they could be played in both rooms. This is why I went for XBMC on the ATV. I figured that I would only need to store movies in WMV format and so I needn't convert to MP4 or waste disc space with two formats.

However, having successfully installed XBMC I have discovered that it is useless at playing my HD WMV movies. The picture is so jerky that the video isn't watchable.

I have a few questions:

Is this symptomatic of 1080p WMV playback through XMBC?
If so, is there any solution?
If this will never work, is there any other benefit to keeping XMBC (and the jailbreak)? (Because I'd quite like my remote and remote HD functionality back.)

Your advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.
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#2
Are they XVID codecs? The ATV2 will struggle on XVID HD files as they are software decoded (as stated in the FAQ Wink )
Set Up
Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc - XBMC 12.2
40" Samsung ES6800 LED Smart 3D 1080P TV
Onkyo HTS3405 5.1 DD True HD and DTS-HD Surround Sound
ReadyNAS Duo with 4TB (2 x 2TB X-RAID) Western Digital Caviar Green using NFS
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#3
ATV2 is limited to decoding HD videos that are in h.264 codec, which can be in a lot of containers. WMV HD is almost always in Microsoft's VC-1 codec. XBMC might be nice to hang on to for the add-ons/streaming content if you don't use it for files so much.
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#4
Thanks for the reply guys. I converted the videos to WMV using Windows Movie Maker so pretty sure they're the VC-1 codec.

I'm a bit puzzled though because the movies play, just very jerkily and slowly. I would have thought that if it was a codec issue then they wouldn't play at all. Am I wrong?
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#5
(2012-06-05, 08:43)lhurren Wrote: Thanks for the reply guys. I converted the videos to WMV using Windows Movie Maker so pretty sure they're the VC-1 codec.

I'm a bit puzzled though because the movies play, just very jerkily and slowly. I would have thought that if it was a codec issue then they wouldn't play at all. Am I wrong?

Because they are not encoded in H264 the ATV2 will use the CPU instead of the video chip to play these clips. It will play them but they are jerky because the cpu is not fast enough to decode them.
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#6
Ah, thanks.

Looks like I'll have to continue with the two formats then.

Cheers guys.
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#7
may i suggest installing some kind of DLNA server ? ps3mediaserver, for example, would recode the movie to both formats "on the fly".
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#8
(2012-06-05, 02:05)Ned Scott Wrote: ATV2 is limited to decoding HD videos that are in h.264 codec, which can be in a lot of containers.

Just to add to your point. Not only is the AppleTV limited to hardware decoding of HD video in h264 codec, in my experience it also MUST be in either an .mp4 or .mkv container. Occasionally I'll run into h264 encoded video in an .avi container (mencoder does this). Even though the codec is correct (h264), the AppleTV can't hardware decode it from an .avi container and reverts back to software decoding. This produces jerky HD playback.

Bottom Line: HD content (either 1080p or 720p) running on a jailbroken AppleTV using XBMC MUST be in h264 codec in either an .mp4 or .mkv container to playback smoothly using hardware decoding. However, the ATV2 will NOT playback either 50fps or 60fps material so be sure to IVTC your material properly for film-material (23.976 for NTSC countries), or decomb for video-content to a maximum of 30fps (29.97).

Handbrake is a good encoder that will generate proper, good quality HD files that will play back properly and smoothly on the AppleTV. If encoding from either raw HDTV (MPEG2) or Blu-Rays, I recommmend Handbrake.
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#9
Some feedback from me belongs to XBMC:
I'm now with XBMC for around 6-7 weeks.
I'm a Hifi-/High-End-Homecinema-Freak since long long time.
My Homecinema has via beamer a dimension on picture 4,30 meters width.
So, the picture has to have best perfomance/quality in order to enjoy
perfect homecinema feeling; beside best sound (other issue).

My experience with XBMC on that: XBMC offers in combination with my
HTPC (Lenovo Q180) best possible picture in comparison to my blu ray
player and other output equipment.
So the here described problem could only causes by the SD/HD material.
I only use nearly uncompressed material. Needs more space for files,
but no compromises on picture.
Also SD-Material is nearly perfect, beside some interlace/deinterlace issues
(could be better).
If you only look compressed (strong compressed) material you have the
effect as you described. This is also the reason, why I could'nt use
solutions like AppleTV; to much compressed.for big picture viewing
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#10
Do not use any form of WMV, period.

H.264 video with AAC audio in an MP4 container is the most compatible codecs and format today, H264 videos in MP4 works on everything that you can buy today except for the Xbox360.

So blame Microsoft, however since they won't listed you should just install a transcoding UPnP media center like http://www.ps3mediaserver.org on your computer to serve the Xbox360.
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#11
Cheers guys. However the great thing about using the 360 is that it plays the WMVs direct from the MyBookLive with no computer interface needed.

I wouldn't move to a solution which required additional transcoding.
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#12
(2012-06-07, 17:19)lhurren Wrote: Cheers guys. However the great thing about using the 360 is that it plays the WMVs direct from the MyBookLive with no computer interface needed.

I wouldn't move to a solution which required additional transcoding.
Then forget about Apple TV 2/3 and get a proper HTPC if you want to continue using XBMC, as you will never get good WMV playback on an Apple TV 2/3 without first transcoding it to H264
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#13
Ok thanks. As i only installed XBMC to play WMVs I'll just continue to use the two formats.

Does anyone know how I 'un-jailbreak' the ATV? Just update the software via the onscreen menu?
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