[nono123]

And what are the most stable version of Gotham for the Rpi the moment?
If have the devel addon installed, and there are so many different builds.
I like to try the Stereo Switch addon a bit more.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=185212

(And reading all this, i just ordered 2 USB 3.0 stick, thank for all the advise.)

Maarten

[DBMandrake]

Nope. I just installed a fresh OpenElec 3.2.4 on a spare SD card to double check and the GUI is definitely running in 720. The blurring from the up-scaling is obvious, as is the stutter to GUI animations.

This depends on the build. Gotham builds default to 1080p (but allow a switch to 720p in GUI).
Frodo builds default to 720p (but there are hacks in some builds to get 1080p).

Yes I was referring to Frodo, where 1080 GUI is a hack. It works very well though - is it my imagination that the GUI frame rate is actually better with the 1080 GUI hack enabled ?

I'm curious what the original reason for the up scaled 720 GUI was ? Was it a lack of ram on the original 256MB Pi's (now addressed by the 512MB model) or was there a performance issue that has been resolved as XBMC on Raspberry Pi performance has been steadily optimised over the last year ?

Be aware that performance in Gotham builds is considerably better.
It's probably advisable for a newbie to stick with Frodo for better compatibility with addons, but Gotham will be here soon so you have something to look forward to.

I've already tried one of the Gotham nightlies on Raspbmc and the increase in speed and responsiveness of the GUI is really obvious so I'm quite excited about the release of Gotham.

The main issue for me is compatibility with add-ons so I'll be holding back until officially released, but its nice to have that speed gain to look forward to!

[Milhouse]

If you're trying to overclock the Pi to 1000MHz ARM and 600MHz SDRAM and experiencing instability, don't forget to bump the sdram voltage - running RAM at a high overclock and stock voltage is most unlikely to succeed.

[Bosse_B]

I use a 5.25 volt 2 amp regulated supply with mine. I think the extra voltage makes all the difference as even with cable voltage drop at maximum over-clock and load I'm still seeing 5.1 volts between TP 1 and TP 2, well above the safe minimum of 4.8 volts. With the over clock settings I listed earlier my Pi has been 100% stable. After reading a lot about instability of the Pi I've been very pleasantly surprised at just how stable mine is, even in other OS's like Raspbian.

Just for a laugh I tried powering it off a 10 watt iPad charger - in the same conditions it was only 4.3 volts! (Surprisingly it still booted and ran, but I wouldn't expect it to be stable)

As a general rule chargers do NOT make good power supplies for Raspberry Pi's...

I have found out why some have problems with supposedly good 2W power supplies, like I had when I started building a media player from the Pi.

REASON FOR BAD VOLTAGE BETWEEN TP1 AND TP2
The main culprit in the power supply chain is not the charger or power module itself, it is the micro-USB cable that has too feeble black and red power wires!
The voltage drop across the wires is totally excessive! I had a 2W supply that was 5.2V on the output but between TP1-TP2 I got only 4.6V and XBMC was not even able to download the list of add-ons...

So what I did once I figured this out (took a good many hours to narrow down on the power feed) was:
1) I cut off the two connectors from the cable with about 50 mm cable length remaining.
2) I opened up the ends and extracted the red and black wires
3) I soldered in a piece of copper wire long enough to fit the installation I was making and with a much bigger copper area.
(Red to red and black to black of course!!!)
4) Connected up the problem Pi and measured the TP1-TP2 voltage: 5.1V! The drop was reduced by approximately x5 and the Pi runs perfectly now!

The micro-USB cables made for charging phones are notoriously cheap on copper, with a resulting voltage drop when pulling the supply current the Pi needs!
I have tested several different brands of these cables before I reverted to the solution above....

HTH

[Bosse_B]

Be aware that performance in Gotham builds is considerably better.
It's probably advisable for a newbie to stick with Frodo for better compatibility with addons, but Gotham will be here soon so you have something to look forward to.

(Background: Frodo is the current stable version of xbmc. Gotham is the upcoming version of xbmc, currently in alpha, but moving to beta very soon).

I am on Raspbmc (December build) on a 256 MB Pi (I got mine in the summer of 2012 after being on the first waiting list for a while...).
But I have not used it a lot until I built the media player from it.

Question:
When Gotham arrives, how does one upgrade?
Is it a new install followed by setting everything up again or can it be done in a smoother way?

And by the way, if I would like to back up my XBMC and Raspbmc configurations, which files do I need to transfer out of the Pi for later restoration?