[NeoDuck]

I have a travel laptop with Kodi installed for watching movies. My laptop has 8GB of RAM. I was thinking about having Kodi load the entire movie from the HDD into RAM. Most of my movies are travel size, so under 2GB each. That way, the HDD will automatically shut off after 1 min and save battery.

Is this possible and if so, how could we do this?

[PatK]

It's obviously possible, just not sure of the best approach. The simple method is to come up with a virtual 'ram drive', there used to be fee virtual ram drive software (google search brings a lot up, I used Deamon Tools) and then copy the files you want into it, make it a source in Kodi and off you go. The other way is a bit more complicated, essentially increasing the buffer size to accommodate the largest chunk of movie in one go, and I'm not sure if the software can handle an entire movie, there is a limit http://kodi.wiki/view/how-to:modify_the_video_cache and here http://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.x...k_settings

The better virtual ram drive software not only allow you to emulate various multiple external drives, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or expandable; some hold the virtual drive open on a reboot, to allow for booting from the software (hardware dependant).

[NeoDuck]

It's obviously possible, just not sure of the best approach. The simple method is to come up with a virtual 'ram drive', there used to be fee virtual ram drive software (google search brings a lot up, I used Deamon Tools) and then copy the files you want into it, make it a source in Kodi and off you go. The other way is a bit more complicated, essentially increasing the buffer size to accommodate the largest chunk of movie in one go, and I'm not sure if the software can handle an entire movie, there is a limit http://kodi.wiki/view/how-to:modify_the_video_cache and here http://kodi.wiki/view/Advancedsettings.x...k_settings

The better virtual ram drive software not only allow you to emulate various multiple external drives, CD, DVD, Blu-Ray or expandable; some hold the virtual drive open on a reboot, to allow for booting from the software (hardware dependant).

Thank you!

I tried changing this setting:

http://kodi.wiki/view/how-to:modify_the_...e_settings

Code:

    <advancedsettings>
        <network>
            <buffermode>1</buffermode>
            <cachemembuffersize>629145600</cachemembuffersize>
            <readbufferfactor>100</readbufferfactor>
        </network>
    </advancedsettings>

But, it doesn't seem to use any more RAM than without these settings? I don't think it's actually buffering into RAM?

[k4sh1n]

Sorry to say what you are after is not possible.

Loading an entire file into RAM does not save any battery (that is not the way in which RAM operates, even if you were able to do this energy would be required to keep each nand gate alive in its 0 or 1 state)

The HDD on a laptop will not switch off at least not with windows (additional services, commands, protocols, etc will need to be run during OS operation, polling may be reduced when idle, but essentially the HDD will not switch off, if medial is stored on a 2nd drive inside the laptop then it will spin down when idle/not off)

Possibly boot into a USB with openelec which has less overheads than the windows OS if your just using it to play files with KODI, should make the battery last a bit longer, alternatively go to windows power settings/modify and also turn off as much unneeded H/W as possible (wifi, bluetooth, etc).

[NeoDuck]

Sorry to say what you are after is not possible.

Loading an entire file into RAM does not save any battery (that is not the way in which RAM operates, even if you were able to do this energy would be required to keep each nand gate alive in its 0 or 1 state)

The HDD on a laptop will not switch off at least not with windows (additional services, commands, protocols, etc will need to be run during OS operation, polling may be reduced when idle, but essentially the HDD will not switch off, if medial is stored on a 2nd drive inside the laptop then it will spin down when idle/not off)

Possibly boot into a USB with openelec which has less overheads than the windows OS if your just using it to play files with KODI, should make the battery last a bit longer, alternatively go to windows power settings/modify and also turn off as much unneeded H/W as possible (wifi, bluetooth, etc).

Ohhh, OpenElec, that's a great idea!

Thank you!

[Ned Scott]

My macbook can spindown the main HDD while running Kodi..

* Ned Scott ducks and runs away

[k4sh1n]

No ducking required, you are correct on that one Ned , spins down, but not actually off

[l'pc]

No ducking required, you are correct on that one Ned , spins down, but not actually off

Well, we don't want it to necessarily be shut off do we ? (Is it simply possible ? With any OS ?) It just needs to save power vs. constantly spinning right ? In that case, a spindown is what would be needed.

Power optimising a computer is not an easy thing to do… and it sadly takes quite some time.

There probably is a HDD led on your laptop somewhere to tell you when the disk is active (writing or reading something). Could you locate it ?
Also, can you feel/hear your HDD ? (and tell when it is spun down ?)

When your computer is idling on the desktop and on battery power after a reboot, does that led stays off (completely) for long periods of time ? If it does, can you tell if the disk spins down or not ?

If the led regularly comes up, you'll have to find somehow find the program who does it and shut it off. First place to look is in the notification tray (not sure how it's called, it is on the bottom right side of the screen.) Skype and other such programs can use an insane amount of power just to sit there and do nothing !

[a11599]

Modern laptop hard drives consume very little power when not working actively. I would not worry too much about it. In Kodi use hardware acceleration and DXVA render method with DXVA scaling; this will use the least battery.

You can also change to an SSD but beware that many use actually more idle power than a HD.

[NeoDuck]

Sorry to say what you are after is not possible.

Loading an entire file into RAM does not save any battery (that is not the way in which RAM operates, even if you were able to do this energy would be required to keep each nand gate alive in its 0 or 1 state)

The HDD on a laptop will not switch off at least not with windows (additional services, commands, protocols, etc will need to be run during OS operation, polling may be reduced when idle, but essentially the HDD will not switch off, if medial is stored on a 2nd drive inside the laptop then it will spin down when idle/not off)

Possibly boot into a USB with openelec which has less overheads than the windows OS if your just using it to play files with KODI, should make the battery last a bit longer, alternatively go to windows power settings/modify and also turn off as much unneeded H/W as possible (wifi, bluetooth, etc).

I tried to install OpenElec and it's not very straightforward. BTW, does OpenElec support WiFi?

[DaVu]

yes it does, but not any WiFi device is supported.

On which state did you stuck to install OpenElec? Normally it's very easy. Except if you want to use dual boot. Then I would follow this:

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Dual_Boot

[NeoDuck]

yes it does, but not any WiFi device is supported.

On which state did you stuck to install OpenElec? Normally it's very easy. Except if you want to use dual boot. Then I would follow this:

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/Dual_Boot

I was trying to run it off a USB drive? So, I made a USB install drive, booted to that and then tried to install OE on another USB drive, but it always got stuck @ 87%.