[fnc1]

CascadeEffect... happen to have a Bluray iso you could try with it?
and some 3d content? which version did you get?

Well, my initial thoughts are: awesome product! It does seem a lot more responsive than the PI of which I'm used to.

I was about to test the Aeon Nox skin on it, which I tried on the PI but it was too slow for it, but the GUI seems to have hung while its updating the video library.... so I'll test it in the morning.

I have tested a 3GB movie and it played without any issues at all. Media info below.
Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)
Resolution: 1280x720
Frame rate: 23.976215
Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YUV

Thats it for now.

S.

[Mass13]

What about Aeon Nox and other heavy skins ?

[theslime]

I got my Cubox i2ultra recently, and I'm using the patched Geexbox mid-December build from the SolidRun site. It works really well so far. Only one seemingly random reboot (could be that it got too hot after scraping my entire library?), and it seems I have to shutdown from ssh if I ever want to shutdown. Apart from that, no problems.

It's a bit early to tell, but so far It's working better than any other htpc I've had so far (more or less perfectly out of the box, just had to change the audio output from optical to HDMI), and I'm not even using a build that was ever advertised as stable, so I'm not complaining about the minor speedbumps I've encountered. Not really recommending it for the perfect-out-of-the-box crowd, though, as an interest in tinkering is recommended for the time being.

Looking forward to even more stable Geexbox builds (or possibly OpenElec) in the future, but this is already my daily driver.

PS: Haven't tried any truly heavy skins, since I only ever use XeeBo.

[nomi34]

Have you tried the build in IR receiver with LIRC etc? And can you please try a heavier skin? I would like to know if those two pieces are working well.

[goujam]

Can this bitstream hd audio ?

[theslime]

I'm foggy on these concepts since I used an all-analogue amp until recently and bitstream was basically sci-fi to me, but I'm pretty sure I haven't tried anything above DTS so far. I'm not even sure I have anything above DTS to test with.

I haven't tried the IR receiver yet. I don't have any usable IR devices except a really old Apple Remote (which I used before with a FLIRC usb dongle on my last HTPC, a Shuttle without IR capabilities). Now I use Yatse for Android. I'm meaning to try it with LIRC, though, I just can't be bothered just yet.

I guess I could try it with Aeon Nox or Xperience1080 or something later on and post back. I suspect it'll be quite slow, though. Also, there's some slight tearing going on when navigating the menus (but only there! - actual videos looked fine out of the box).

Also, I should mention that there's something not working perfectly about changing fps. My TV doesn't report a Hz change like I'm used to from my old Shuttle with AMD graphics. I guess this could mean that the TV is stuck at 60hz even though I'm watching 23.976 fps material. I have checked change framerate in settings, but it doesn't seem to help. The GeexBox build should be able to output 24hz (24p was why I went for GeexBox instead of Android (which is locked at 60 not matter what you do)), but something's apparently stopping it from actually doing so. It didn't bother me all that much, though.

[joelbaby]

guess I could try it with Aeon Nox

please do.

[Lake Camelot]

I'd like to know also (Skin). I am waiting a little while to see how everyone likes it. But I am watching this box closely.

[Lake Camelot]

Well I suppose I could just see what people on the CUBOX forum say. But I was hoping to hear something on skins from anyone?

[theslime]

Found out why framerate change to 24p and PAL (50hz) didn't work properly, and it's bad news. Apparently XBMC doesn't handle a mode setting required by non-X platforms like the iMX6 SOC used by the Cubox-i. Still, there's hope, as there's apparently special handling for the Raspberry Pi in mainline XBMC. But for now I'll have to live with 60hz all the time.

I can barely tell the difference between true 24p output and 24p on 60hz, and I'm pretty sure my girlfriend didn't notice at all, except in that it's a lot smoother than my previous XBMCbuntu setup. So I'm still happy with this. But it's something to keep in mind if this is important to you.

I also just tried Aeon Nox, and it's... ok. As in perfectly ok, but a bit too slow and laggy for my tastes. It's not bad, I could use it, but it doesn't respond immediately on keypresses like XeeBo does, and I'm an easily annoyed person. If you are too, I advise against this combo. (Mind you, I have the i2ultra. The i4pro should have less trouble, and I'm gonna guess that Aeon Nox works quite well on that version.)

[nomi34]

Test out the IR receiver by chance?

[Lake Camelot]

Thanks for reporting back. I really appreciate it. I am still torn though. I think I will wait.

[joelbaby]

it doesn't respond immediately on keypresses like XeeBo does

Thank you: Hi TheSlime. Thank you so much for posting your results. My cubox-i2ultra is shipping soon, but it may be another 3-4 weeks before it arrives.

Observation: XBMC is heavily reliant on Storage I/O to get fanart, DVD covers art, etc..

Question: What "Class" SD Card are you using to run XBMC (e.g. does it say 2,4,6,8,10, or I) ? Is it the one that Solid Run sent you?
See here: https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/

You might be using a Class 4 card which has 4MB/s transfer speed.
Aeon Nox could easily try to display more than 1-2 MB of pictures in one screen.
Just one Aeon Nox fanart background can be 1MB = 0.25seconds to read from a Class 4 card.


Idea: I think XBMC might be much faster by upgrading micro SDHC card.

For example:

$12 - 30MB/s card: http://www.sandisk.com/products/memory-c...pacity=8GB

$30 - 80MB/s card: http://www.sandisk.com/products/memory-c...pacity=8GB

[nomi34]

Ooo could you please try - must live vicariously through you! Also might be something I can afford. So your testing is of great assistance.

[theslime]

@joelbaby, I use a class 10 card. I didn't go for the SolidRun-supplied SD card because I would be installing a newer GeexBox build anyway, so I bought a 4gb Kingston class 10 micro SDHC card. I normally prefer Sandisk or Samsung, but my local store only had Kingston in that size and class, and I thought it would be good enough as long as it was class 10. So I don't think that's it, I think it's more that the general CPU or bus speed or whatever is just a bit too puny for XBMC with a heavy skin. But I suppose it could improve once the builds are better optimized for the platform, either on future GeexBox builds or with the upcoming Raspbmc/Linxbmc or OpenElec versions.

@nomi34, I don't really have a proper IR device to test with now. I could possibly try with the old Apple remote next week, but no guarantees.