2009-05-15, 02:53
Hello!
I am not exactly a newbie* to XBMC, however, I have not updated my old xbox in a couple of years (no need to as everything works perfect
). I heard about the new 9.04 release and decided to give it a shot on a spare PC. It is a P4 3.0Ghz, 500GB Sata 3Gb/s drive, 3 GB of memory, and according to lspci the video card is "Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller". The monitor is an old Hitachi 21 inch CRT that supports upto 1600x1200. Though if I get this working well I would eventually like to hook it up to my TV.
I downloaded the Linux 9.04 ISO and installed it. The install was smooth and I saw no problems.
1) The first problem I have is that the screen settings started out at 1600x1200 85.00Hz. The best way to describe the menu interface would be /painful/. After stumbling around on the net I finally enabled debug mode that gave me the wonderful stats at the top of the screen. I was getting no more then 5fps.
I toyed with the resolutions and the one that I eventually found that was a good balance of clarity and menu-speed was 640x480 @72.81Hz. I just don't think that is right. I think it should be better then that. Are there any suggestions for improvements?
I did download Big Buck Bunny for HD testing (ogg files which I renamed to ogm and they played perfect). The 480p played perfect with about 20% processor load and ~24 FPS. The 720p played perfect with CPU load fluctuating between 50-80% and ~24FPS. The 1080P played perfect for the first 5 seconds then went way out of sync. It was 100% CPU and fluctuated badly between 9 and 15FPS.
2) I thought it might do some good to check for updates. If I go to Scripts->Common Scripts->Aptitude it fails with "Python script failed: special://home/scripts/Common Scripts/Aptitude/default.py". So I did ctrl+alt+F1 and did a `cd /; sudo find . -type d -name "Common Scripts"` and it found nothing. There is no /home/scripts folder at all. Can someone help me out? I didn't find anything when I Googled it (I feel like this is something that would have been reported by now so weak Google-fu on my part perhaps?).
3) I did a manual `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade` but got errors about keys not being valid. I found this website [1] suggesting I load this [2] key. But I am getting connection refused. *scratches head* Is the link broke? Or maybe there is a problem the last hour or so with the site? I would appreciate it if someone could verify this for me.
[1] http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_insta...ep-by-step
[2] http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lo...4791E7EE5E
4) Lastly, I have a Mythbuntu 8.10 install that runs my MythTV throughout the house. I have heard that XBMC can now stream from MythTV, but I have never bothered with it. At first all I found on Google was related to an actual Xbox install of XBMC and not the PC versions. From what I can tell there is a difference in how it is done (I could be very wrong). As I was Googling the subject I found a post that said the best way to install on the PC version was to install XBMC Zone Installer [3] as it can install all of the plugins I need. Great! So how do I install it? According to the site:
"Download Extensions for XBMC Media Center. If you don't know how to install read these instructions [4]."
So I did as the youtube video said until I got to 17 seconds into it. I have no "Video Plugins" option and I am pretty certain the 9.04 is the latest release. Can someone point me to what I did wrong?
[3] http://xbmczone.com/plugin_details.asp?id=66
[4] http://xbmczone.com/instructions.asp
I really do appreciate any help people can provide.
Thanks!
~Stack~
*To explain the newbie part. Several years ago I modded my Xbox (first just softmod then later upgraded the hard drive) and installed XBMC. At first I knew someone with the Microsoft dev kit so my first install was a home compile. Later I upgraded to a PIMPED version when I had issues with a video file. It has been running great since then! I copy movies/photos/music to it all the time and take it with me to places so that I /know/ that the movies/movies/pictures play exactly as I intended them to. The devs did an absolutely fantastic job!
Anyway, I have not touched XBMC code in at least 2 (almost 3) years when I last upgraded to the PIMPED version (don't even know if they are still around). So I know the basic layout of XBMC pretty well but a LOT has changed for the better that I am still catching up on.
Thanks again
I am not exactly a newbie* to XBMC, however, I have not updated my old xbox in a couple of years (no need to as everything works perfect
). I heard about the new 9.04 release and decided to give it a shot on a spare PC. It is a P4 3.0Ghz, 500GB Sata 3Gb/s drive, 3 GB of memory, and according to lspci the video card is "Intel Corporation 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller". The monitor is an old Hitachi 21 inch CRT that supports upto 1600x1200. Though if I get this working well I would eventually like to hook it up to my TV.I downloaded the Linux 9.04 ISO and installed it. The install was smooth and I saw no problems.
1) The first problem I have is that the screen settings started out at 1600x1200 85.00Hz. The best way to describe the menu interface would be /painful/. After stumbling around on the net I finally enabled debug mode that gave me the wonderful stats at the top of the screen. I was getting no more then 5fps.
I toyed with the resolutions and the one that I eventually found that was a good balance of clarity and menu-speed was 640x480 @72.81Hz. I just don't think that is right. I think it should be better then that. Are there any suggestions for improvements?
I did download Big Buck Bunny for HD testing (ogg files which I renamed to ogm and they played perfect). The 480p played perfect with about 20% processor load and ~24 FPS. The 720p played perfect with CPU load fluctuating between 50-80% and ~24FPS. The 1080P played perfect for the first 5 seconds then went way out of sync. It was 100% CPU and fluctuated badly between 9 and 15FPS.
2) I thought it might do some good to check for updates. If I go to Scripts->Common Scripts->Aptitude it fails with "Python script failed: special://home/scripts/Common Scripts/Aptitude/default.py". So I did ctrl+alt+F1 and did a `cd /; sudo find . -type d -name "Common Scripts"` and it found nothing. There is no /home/scripts folder at all. Can someone help me out? I didn't find anything when I Googled it (I feel like this is something that would have been reported by now so weak Google-fu on my part perhaps?).
3) I did a manual `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade` but got errors about keys not being valid. I found this website [1] suggesting I load this [2] key. But I am getting connection refused. *scratches head* Is the link broke? Or maybe there is a problem the last hour or so with the site? I would appreciate it if someone could verify this for me.
[1] http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=HOW-TO_insta...ep-by-step
[2] http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lo...4791E7EE5E
4) Lastly, I have a Mythbuntu 8.10 install that runs my MythTV throughout the house. I have heard that XBMC can now stream from MythTV, but I have never bothered with it. At first all I found on Google was related to an actual Xbox install of XBMC and not the PC versions. From what I can tell there is a difference in how it is done (I could be very wrong). As I was Googling the subject I found a post that said the best way to install on the PC version was to install XBMC Zone Installer [3] as it can install all of the plugins I need. Great! So how do I install it? According to the site:
"Download Extensions for XBMC Media Center. If you don't know how to install read these instructions [4]."
So I did as the youtube video said until I got to 17 seconds into it. I have no "Video Plugins" option and I am pretty certain the 9.04 is the latest release. Can someone point me to what I did wrong?
[3] http://xbmczone.com/plugin_details.asp?id=66
[4] http://xbmczone.com/instructions.asp
I really do appreciate any help people can provide.
Thanks!
~Stack~
*To explain the newbie part. Several years ago I modded my Xbox (first just softmod then later upgraded the hard drive) and installed XBMC. At first I knew someone with the Microsoft dev kit so my first install was a home compile. Later I upgraded to a PIMPED version when I had issues with a video file. It has been running great since then! I copy movies/photos/music to it all the time and take it with me to places so that I /know/ that the movies/movies/pictures play exactly as I intended them to. The devs did an absolutely fantastic job!
Anyway, I have not touched XBMC code in at least 2 (almost 3) years when I last upgraded to the PIMPED version (don't even know if they are still around). So I know the basic layout of XBMC pretty well but a LOT has changed for the better that I am still catching up on.
Thanks again
).
