[Vertigo]

Thank you very much Vertigo. How can I give you a reputation point ?
I've already found instructions how to dualboot between openelec and windows from one hdd drive.
I do not want to use usb sticks as they are much slower than HDD drive.

But you havent seen how fast openelec boots. heck, you could almost boot it from floppy disks if need be. The entire image is like ~80Mb or so. Im taking bets it will boot a lot faster even from the slowest USB stick it will fit on, than windows boots from an uber fast SSD. And since the entire OS is on a read only partition, it wont destroy your sticks in a matter of weeks like most regular bootable sticks do.

But if you dont believe me, at least use an external USB drive and use the same principle (remove the drive to boot windows), rather than trying to dual boot from a single drive. You only need a few GB for openelec (~100Mb for the OS and app, the rest for userdata), its not like it requires a terrabyte.

but but if you must dualboot from one drive, you will need to get your hands quite dirty in linux; good luck following this:
http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=Config_dualboot

edit: the above is for dualbooting ubuntu with openelec. Google around to find one for windows, but it will be harder, not easier.

[scOOtt]

Once again you convinced me .
But tell me how can I use internal HDD with Windows to be my storage for media under openelec which I will boot from usb stick.
I want to use this internal HDD to be my storage for media and also extra HDD plugged into USB port.
So under openelec I want to choose between two HDD's (internal and via usb plugged) containing my whole media and sources from the net.

[Vertigo]

If you boot openelec from an external drive (or USB stick), openelec will mount, and therefore, XBMC will see your internal windows drive, and you can just add the right folder(s) as media source. If you want to use the windows drive to store your XBMC userdata (so not your media, but settings, fanart caches etc, ), that will be more tricky, but rather pointless, so I wont get in to it. You can just backup that data using the backup addon.

[scOOtt]

Thank you for all your help. It seems that now I have all the nessesary knowledge to be able to install and configure XBMC properly.

[latex_labia]

Hi.
I need to buy/build a hardware to run XBMC on it. The hardware must play mkv 720p and 1080p with any problems via usb-hdd or network.
My specific are:
As small as it can be - size like Raspberry PI or Minix or Cubox will be the best
As I mentioned before - must accept hardware acceleration to be able to play mkv at 720p and 1080p with no lags
Must have an optical audio output as my amplituner receiver does not have hdmi input. Alternate way is usb-card Creative X-Fi Surround which I have - but I read a lot that these cards do not work properly on xbmc.
The price for this device must be something about 150$.
Is there any device on market which meet my requirements ?
Any help will be much appreciated.

I use an AppleTV 1 w/CrystalHD card in my bedroom with OpenELEC and it streams 1080p fine, has optical out, and cost less than $100. For a few more bucks you could replace the original 40gb 5400rpm drive with a ssd or even run from SD or USB.

I have 0 issues with this setup. Highly recommend it.

EDIT: Didn't see the other 2 pages of the thread. Disregard.

Thank mate for that answer.
Do ATV1 passes throught DD or DTS via optical out without downmixing it to stereo ?
Will I be able to connect ATV1 with an optical out to my ampli receiver and have Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS audio ?
As far as I know ATV1 has ATA connectors - how do you connect SSD - it has SATA interface - did you used any sort of adapter ?
How you can add SD card to ATV1
All your help will be much welcome.
If above requirements are meet - I will choose ATV1 as my XBMC and HTPC hardware,

Looks like you settled on the revo, but to answer your question yes it will pass through DTS and DD5.1. As for the ssd hard drives (or sd card) you can purchase adapters real cheap from monoprice or the like, or run openELEC from USB drive.

Have fun!