[nila]

Hi all,

I have all my movies (compressed BD movies, some divx, some xvid) on a Seagate GoFlex Home (around 800 movies and probably 20 full tv series).
I also have several thousand mp3's.

I want to setup an XBMC server that will just let me browse these comfortably and smoothly and play them back.

Nothing else apart from the above really.
I just mainly want the system to run smoothly.

I have a Raspberry Pi (original) which I tried but the browsing on it just seems laggy and slow and choppy.
I obviously love the power usage level of it as I can leave it on 24/7 which is what I want but I want smoother performance.

Anyone got any suggestions? Would the newer one with x2 RAM fix the problem or would it still be lagging?
Anything else that costs a little more but is just that little bit more powerful and so can achieve a smooth, flowing XBMC setup?

[jakks]

Did you try overclocking the Raspberry Pi?

[cbrunhaver]

Wayland / Weston appears to make a huge difference for desktop use of the Pi, greatly improving the desktop experience. Of course, having the 512 MB version would be a huge difference when using it as a general purpose computer (and there are better systems for that, in general). I've not looked into this much other than seeing the news announcement, however, as I don't own a Pi.

http://fooishbar.org/tell-me-about/wayla...pberry-pi/

[touser]

Are you just trying to browse a list of files or do you want to use the library mode? It makes a big difference on what hardware will be required.

[nila]

Thanks for the replies.

I want to use the system in Library mode to browse my files, with full cover art and poster art and then playback the music and video files.

[nila]

Been reading this forum a bit more and have discovered two other options that both sound like they would be more powerful options of what I want.

Pivos and the Ouya systems?

Can anyone say if these are the best options for a silent, low powered system that I can leave running 24/7 and get smooth, library using XBMC setup?
Thanks

[nila]

Just found some more options so this seems to give me:

XIOS DS Media Play - $100
G-Box Midnight MX2 - $97
Ouya - $99
Roku 3 - $99

Raspberry Pi - $55 (in Australia)

Now I'm presuming the top ones would give me far greater power and performance, still be totally silent and require very little power while on so could be left on 24/7.
Any preference over them in terms of which performs the best, smoothest and everything with XBMC run on them? Either directly as the OS tied into a Linux build or ontop of Android?

They'd be using the library and playing BD rips from a NAS drive over the network.

Thanks

[bibi]

Hi,

All i can say is that xbmc is not ready for Ouya, and i presume it's the same for all Android boxes...
If you really want an ARM box, go for a PI or a XIOS (XIOS more powerfull), and install a linux on it.

[nila]

Thanks for the input - good to find out without having to waste the $100 first finding out.

Any big limitations or problems with the XIOS that you are aware of or any reason that it isn't perfectly up to the job?

[bibi]

My opinion is that if you want a full features htpc, you have to go to a x86 htpc, with AMD/IntelCPU+nvidia card.

What i mean by full htpc is :

- good deinterlacing
- hardware decoder
- noise reduction, Edge enhancement
- DTS, DTS-HD, True-HD passtrough...
- capability to decode DTS, DTS-HD, True-HD passtrough if you dont have a receiver
- 24p
- possibility to get CEC with the addition of a hardware module (look on the forum)
- linux/windows
- soon 3D, which depends on xbmc
...

If you use windows you can use a full AMD/Intel setup, it will be ok.

Android boxes and port of xbmc on it are really alpha, their advantages are:
- cheaper
- low-powered
- dont have to build your box
- market ?

Not to mention that android is unabled to passtrough DTS..., to switch refresh rate..., thats why Pivos/Pi is the better choice for this kind of box (they replace android by linux...).

If you really want an android box you should wait a little, the time that xbmc with stagefright gets better, and you could compare with the next celeron/atom box, which will get everything you need, full-features with low-powered (well, i hope ^^)

[soana]

Just found some more options so this seems to give me:

XIOS DS Media Play - $100
G-Box Midnight MX2 - $97
Ouya - $99
Roku 3 - $99

Raspberry Pi - $55 (in Australia)

Now I'm presuming the top ones would give me far greater power and performance, still be totally silent and require very little power while on so could be left on 24/7.
Any preference over them in terms of which performs the best, smoothest and everything with XBMC run on them? Either directly as the OS tied into a Linux build or ontop of Android?

They'd be using the library and playing BD rips from a NAS drive over the network.

Thanks

If I remember correct Ouya is not totally silent it has a fan inside the box...

[bibi]

Yes it's really not silent...

[nila]

Thanks bibi - nice having a veteran giving advice.
It would be nice having a box that could potentially do more later if I wanted but the only real things I care about are:


- good deinterlacing
- hardware decoder
- noise reduction, Edge enhancement

I'm not so bothered about:

- DTS, DTS-HD, True-HD passtrough...
- capability to decode DTS, DTS-HD, True-HD passtrough if you dont have a receiver
- 24p
- possibility to get CEC with the addition of a hardware module (look on the forum)
- linux/windows
- soon 3D, which depends on xbmc

I am by no mean a connoisseur of exact perfect quality and usually am happy with whatever as long as its not all blocky.
Its playing out to a Samsung 6 series 40" just using some Harmon Kardon speakers (the ones that originally used to come with the Mac).

No real need or plans to use a receive or anything higher end.

I have zero problems with linux and in fact would love the extra options and possibilities it would leave open to me.
I just really want the low powered so I can leave it on 24/7 without wasting a ton of energy and the associated cost.

What I'd ideally like would be a system like the Galaxy S4 for instance whereby it had a low powered core that run all the time doing basic jobs then it just ramped it up as required for bigger tasks.

[bibi]

To advise you more i need 2 things :

- do you have time to wait, say until end of summer ?
- is extreme low-powered something you really need ?

time + low-powered = wait for next pivos box or next Nuc with Haswell and compare
no time + low-powered = pivos xios ds, but you will be limited for the future (and not sure that it exists on pivos : noise reduction, Edge enhancement )
time + no low-powered = wait for next pivos box or next nuc with Haswell and compare
no time + no low-powered = intel/amd + nvidia (GT520 for instance), the best choice for quality, as it does everything but more expensive and mid-powered

I bought my ouya with the kickstarter campaign, and even if xbmc is an alpha, i'm pretty sure it will never be what i hoped it to be ^^ (a good htpc box), due too the limitation of android. I should have look for informations before...

[nila]

always hard to get information before as you have to wait for other people to have tried it and be willing to share their experiences and hope they ave set it up properly.
Without that you could be waiting for ages.

I probably have time to wait, no huge massive rush. Any ETA's for the next Pivos box and indications of the price it would come in at and what spec it would be?

I was skimming over the Intel NUC as it seems this would give me a super high spec HTPC that was low powered (17W = less than a light I forget to switch off).
The price on it is a bit steep but otherwise it seems like it'd be the best option. It has the Intel 4000 graphics though and I have no idea how good/bad this is?

I'm presuming your 4th option above would be using a full sized system? If thats the case I can just do what I do currently and have it all wired into my full sized desktop that has all the power under the sun (and all the noise and power drain to go with it).