RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC
#16
@maiky76
well, the PI is limited by it's CPU, and actions that require much CPU processing are slower compared to a real HTPC (like aggregating a large list of library or plugin items). But in general it should be fast enough - UI at least is snapping fast in recent builds. It also can play/stream content via UPNP/DNLA (android can stream via UPNP) and does support AirPlay (stream audio/video from iOS, no mirroring though). Mounting and unmounting of USB drives is handled automatically, but the PI requires a USB hub for USB HDDs (it can't power harddiscs).
As for the chineese sites - if there are addons around it should be able to play it.
All RaspberryPI distros should be able to handle this quite fine, but I can only speak for OE because that's the one I use. And if you care about speed on the PI, try using one of MilhouseVH test builds - they include many speed improvements.
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#17
This topic has grown beyond my initial question, but I just wanted to share the links if anyone wants to run OpenELEC and have it boot from a 3.0 USB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGFdQVwc8Q0
download this: http://www62.zippyshare.com/v/19323035/file.html
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#18
(2014-02-27, 05:19)couchpotatotalk Wrote: Thanks for your answer. I tried RaspBMC a year ago and was disappointed with the menu lag times. It was completely unusable at times if I was trying to sort by year or genre. Just too many files for it to sort. So by fastest, I was referring to menu speeds and general browsing speeds. I know all of them will give similar playback.
If you last tried Raspbmc on a Raspberry Pi a year ago you'll be amazed at the progress since then. I helped a friend set one up about 9 months ago and the GUI performance was rather disappointing to say the least. Very slow and stuttery, as well as blurry thanks to the GUI being rendered in 720 and up-scaled.

It's a completely different story now - as long as a library scan is not going on in the background the GUI is smooth and fluid at full 1080p (at least on the Amber Skin) and although my Movie Library takes about 3 seconds from pressing the button until the list appears, (about 300 movies) once the list is up I can scroll through it in real time with art work changing in real time, about a 1 second pause from pressing info until full screen info is displayed etc. Slower than a dedicated HTPC but perfectly acceptable.

About the only thing that is slow is CPU demanding tasks such as a full library scan (that can take a while the first time) or searching/navigating certain video addons, it can take a while to build a list of movies in a search for example. So it takes a little longer to find and start streaming something, but once you do it does a perfect job of playing it back - the hardware accelerated decoding of the GPU is very capable - I've even tested playing a 70Mbit/sec 1080p clip output at 1080p from the SD card and it handles it without glitches. My Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo (software decoder) can't even come close to that bit rate. (It can manage 15Mbit/sec if its lucky)

I've only tried Raspbmc and OpenElec and my favourite at the moment is definitely Raspbmc, for a number of reasons.

1) You can enable true 1080p GUI rendering (instead of up-scaled 720p) with a single toggle switch. Yes, 1080 will be default in Gotham, but until then Raspbmc is the easiest way to run the GUI at 1080, as I believe OpenElec requires manual tweaking of config files. (There's nothing in the GUI settings to enable it)

2) The new f2fs file system implemented in the last release of Raspbmc is considerably faster than ext4 when running on SD card. I don't think any of the other distros are offering f2fs, although that may change soon.

3) Although it takes a wee while I find the install and upgrade process of Raspbmc better.

4) It's easy to break out of xbmc to a local linux console if you need to - just plug a keyboard in, quit xbmc then press ESC instead of letting xbmc re-launch. Comes in handy sometimes.

5) Much easier to enter MPEG2/VC1 codecs - just do it through the GUI.

6) Set up of the underlying Linux OS is much closer to a standard Raspbian install, making it easy to install Raspbian packages with apt-get. For example I recently installed OpenVPN from the Raspbian package sources.

I've been running my Pi on super over-clock on an SD card install since early December and it has been exceptionally stable - it runs 24/7 and is never turned off except when I occasionally steal the Pi from the TV to mess around with Raspbian! Big Grin

I think the main trick to getting a stable Pi is to have a GOOD power supply, a good quality SD card, and also cross your fingers you get one with Samsung ram (as mine is) which are said to over-clock better than Hynix ram.

I really bought my Pi as a bit of a punt after being slightly disappointed with the one I set up for a friend last year, and it has easily exceeded my expectations. Out of the box support for HDMI-CEC and on the fly refresh rate switching (including 1080p 24fps) is great too - a lot of HTPC boxes can't do either.

What a difference a year makes!
Kodi 18.3 - Mid 2007 Mac Mini, 4GB, 2TB HD, Windows 7 SP1
Kodi 18.3 - Vero4k, Raspberry Pi 2. OSMC.
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#19
Well i like the Raspbmc the most, because i can make a vpn while booting to xbmc. The openelec won't let me use apt-get for installing VPN needed libraries!
But, when i have made it perfectly, the Raspberry Pi isn;t strong enough using VPN and playing even 720P streams over the internet!
Well without vpn or streaming, it can't play 1080P content without stuttering..
so, we really needs a Raspberry Pi with more processor power! But then again, so bad that we can't play netflix with it standalone! Like android or windows can!

So, i have mad a decision, to go with Intel NUC Next Unit of Computing! O yeah! the NUC DC3217BY really rocks! with Win 8! It does do everything right!
the only thing is, i miss some on board stuff like a gigabit adapter and IR Sensor. I will test the DN2820FYKH also, because there is a gigabit adapter in it and an IR Sesor.
but it has just a Dual Core Celeron processor, and i don't know if it's still fast enough to do everything!

Well if i have some more info, i'll keep you posted!
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#20
(2014-03-28, 00:31)Fandy69 Wrote: Well i like the Raspbmc the most, because i can make a vpn while booting to xbmc. The openelec won't let me use apt-get for installing VPN needed libraries!

why you need to install VPN? its included in OpenELEC by default. About "apt-get" my Fedora dont let me use apt-get too... why every user expect that every distro must be based on ubuntu/debian? we have done a lot of work to create a OS from scratch, we have done this byself and we dont depend on other distro developers.

apt-get needs a repo behind with prebuild packages done by developers. We do this the XBMC way... with addons. Why apt-get if XBMC has a nice addon system where you can install/deinstall/update/enable/disable and configure addons. its in my eyes more powerfull then apt-get.

(2014-03-28, 00:31)Fandy69 Wrote: So, i have mad a decision, to go with Intel NUC Next Unit of Computing! O yeah! the NUC DC3217BY really rocks! with Win 8! It does do everything right!
the only thing is, i miss some on board stuff like a gigabit adapter and IR Sensor. I will test the DN2820FYKH also, because there is a gigabit adapter in it and an IR Sesor.
but it has just a Dual Core Celeron processor, and i don't know if it's still fast enough to do everything!

also here OpenELEC is (one of) the best OS, i think. because we are free to do what we want and dont depend on other distros we can provide a distro for ARM systems like RPi and for PC hardware like the Intel NUCs - or if needed for special hardware like ATV1 or for AMD systems. OpenELEC works the same on every system which is supported... and its free and faster - compared to Windows.
greetings, Stephan

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RaspBMC USB boot vs XBian vs OpenELEC0