Noob with first HTPC build needing a few tips on performance please
#1
Hi guys - great forum you have here, I've found it very useful so far, reading up in the last day or two.

A mate of mine recently recommended XBMC to me for streaming and I commented that I used to use it on my original Xbox, but I realise now its not quite the same thing. Having installed on my main pc the other day, I love the interface and want to make it my mainstay for media streaming, not least of all, because of the apps for controlling it via iPhone/ipad etc. It's all ideal for what I've been after for ages.

Having built a small HTPC though from stuff that I already had here (from a previous Car PC build) I've got a bit of an issue that I could use some tips with.
The machine I've got is pretty low spec, and I'm aware that in it's current setup as built yesterday it's not really got the cahones for doing any justice to XBMC. But I'm not quite clear on the best means of working around this, so am after advice & suggestions in respect of this if possible.

The machine is as follows:
ASRock A330GC board (Atom 330 1.6 dual core) - http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/A330GC/
1GB (yeah I know but it's all I currently have in this format/spec) DDR2 533 4200 ram
OCZ Vertex2 30gb SSD
Win7 Ultimate

Basically all that's installed is AVG free, klite codec pack, and the ASRock drivers for the board, plus I've tried Eden and Frodo on it to see if one worked better than the other.

Now here's the sticking point. The videos I've got on my nas box for streaming, all seem to play perfectly well on this setup using the installation of mediaplayer classic, which is bundled with the Klite codec pack. In XBMC however, videos play smoothly for maybe the first 10 seconds then hang (Eden), or in Frodo they just play extremely slowly and stuttery and make the mouse unresponsive.

According to task manager the memory isn't maxed out, nor the CPU when this is happening.

My understanding is that the onboard graphics abilities of this board/cpu are pitiful, and that generally you need a standalone GPU/card to get around this. That's fine but for the fact they play well in windows, but just not in XBMC. Everything I've tried so far in varying formats has worked - generally films that are maybe 720 rips and maybe around 700-900mb files of .wmv .mp4 .mpg .avi

So I realise this machine spec is pushing its limits in trying to do this task, but I'm puzzled why it is fine in windows, but fails in XBMC when there doesn't appear to be any resource maxed out that I can see, or any notable extra load added by xbmc being run. Am I missing something obvious that would cause this?
I've tried messing with the video options based on what I've seen in other threads here about wimpy hardware spec builds, and it hasn't helped.

Would love to know how to get round this.

Brings me on to my second question. Which is that this board only has an old school PCI slot for expansion. If I really just need a dedicated GPU/card to get round the problem above, is there anything which will go in an old PCI slot which will be up to the job (and ideally dirt cheap!)?
I know nothing about video handling or graphics cards etc so I'm not sure if that provides a cheap & easy solution, or if I'll basically need to build a new rig with the likes of a sandybridge cpu/board, or the AMD equivalent (I read in the wiki that the AMD ones have better integral video abilities).

Many thanks in advance. Ideally I'm looking for a way of making the video work as well in XBMC as it does in media player, without having to buy any more kit, but if a cheap gfx card (no idea what) will solve this, then that's fine.

Cheers!
Jim
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#2
maby turn of hardware decode? (dxva)
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#3
Thanks for the suggestion - thats something I already tried and it didn't seem to make any difference either way.
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#4
If all you're running on this is XBMC I suggest downloading a copy of XBMCbuntu to see how it runs off a flash drive. I suspect your lack of RAM is what's causing the issue for you. I so you can choose whether you want to replace Windows 7 or not. I also have a 330 based Acer Revo (with 2 GB of RAM no less) and it did the same thing with Windows 7 loaded. It runs fine with Ubuntu though.
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#5
maby try a pure xbmc os? xbmcbuntu or openelec?
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#6
Thanks for the suggestions - I probably should have also mentioned that while it's only running these programs at present, I will also need to install another program on it - Blue Iris IP camera software for a camera that I need to run 24/7, which is a windows only job alas.

Currently I run this on a full desktop PC and it uses loads of power and costs me money, so the idea here is that as it doesn't need much resource, I want to have that also running on the HTPC once everything else is sorted out nicely.

I just haven't bothered installing it yet since I wanted to keep things minimal to avoid anything interfering with XBMC performance as a starting point.

Re' RAM, that was my first suspicion, but the highest I've seen it get is about 900mb, and generally is around the 650-750mb level with video playing and XBMC from memory. After the video playback fails in XBMC and I check task manager, there's no spikes in the graph to show it's added more load than there is available memory, although I appreciate that's perhaps not the most precise way of testing since it's probably a very low resolution for picking up that kind of 'blip' maybe?

I did rummage around to look for any PCI graphics cards I might have, and found an ATI Radeon 9258 which I tried, but there are no drivers for win7, and while it functions with that installed, the windows performance score for video dropped from 2/10 on the onboard gfx, to 1/10 with the radeon PCI card running! Big Grin

Edit - I did just find that one of my accounts had just under £100 that I'd missed from weeks ago somehow, so if need be I could put that towards a new mini-itx board and cpu, although I have to confess I'm not sure what option would give plenty of video processing ability (will never need 3d output I don't think) for minimal outlay? Presumably an AMD setup of some sort but that's as much as I can guess.
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#7
Well, I've failed to find a gfx card that goes in an old school PCI slot and works with Win 7, so I have to assume that my atom 330 m-itx board is no use for this role (since I need it to rn windows, not linux).

So after lots of reading and head scratching I've just about decided on an AMD A6-3500 cpu and whatever m-its board I can get for this that's cheap but functional. This should tick all the boxes I think:
  • Low power draw
  • Run windows for having my IP camera software running 24/7
  • Have decent speed for the purpose of an HTPC
  • GFX that are up to the task of streaming video adequately when using XBMC
  • Not cost a lot to buy mobo & cpu (about £120 for the pair I think)
So I'm thinking about buying these 2 bits. Not got a suitable case to install in yet but there's no rush there.
Already have 30gb ssd for it, and various PSUs, plus probably memory of some description.

Any comments/suggestions on this, or things I should watch out for with this plan?
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#8
My first thought was if it runs fine in an external player, why not configure XBMC to launch the external player? Many of us had to do this for years to get HD audio bitstreaming support (even if some purists here will consider that "not XBMC").

A6-3500 will work great and be a serious upgrade. 30GB SSD will be a PITA for Windows 7 unless you are always on top of the space issues.
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#9
Didn't realise XBMC had that level of configuration as I'm quite new to it sorry chief. I'd be slightly concerned that it wouldn't be as seamless to look at or operate if it's got to do that though, although I'm sure I had to do something years ago when I built a car PC which used roadrunner front end or something like that.

Re' the SSD, it's only for booting, installing XBMC, and the Blue Iris camera program. All my media is on a couple of Nas boxes.
Do you mean that win 7 gradually begins to use up more space by itself over time? I've not noticed that really with other installs of it that I run I must admit. Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick and that's not what you meant.

This is about the only use I've got for a 30gb SSD anyway - got to use it somewhere! Smile
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Noob with first HTPC build needing a few tips on performance please0