[meathane]

the time has come in my life where i am sick of my AppleTV, so much so that it nearly went in the bin (didn't even want the satisfaction of selling it) and am going to buy a Revo.

I've been using XBMC on my AppleTV for the last few days and i LOVE it (Alaska skin is beeeeeeaaauuutiful), but it's a little jumpy, low FPS. What i want is a revo that will run it smooth and slick, so all the animations are nice and slick. All of my media is 700mb avi files, and i'm not particularly interested in 1080p mkv playback and stuff (if i love a movie that much I'll buy the blu-ray), so will the R3600 spec Revo be OK with that? (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167153). it's an Atom 230 1.6GHz with 1GB RAM (appleTV has 256MB!! lol right)

i plan on running XBMC live from a tutorial, as i have no experience with linux or windows, but am a certified apple technician.

oh and just a quicky,
1. should i bother allocating 512MB to the graphics card, and maybe buying another 1GB stick? and
2. if i install XBMC to the internal 160GB (i thinks its only about 350MB install) can i use the remaining internal storage for more avi files? it concerned me as im sure i read somewhere u HAD to run XBMC Live off a USB pen...
3. can yu install video plugins like iPlayer in XBMC Live?

thanks for any replies

[MDPauley]

I have the revo 1600 and LOVE IT! I use the default setting for vram and can play 1080p no problem. There is an option to install Live to the harddrive and you can store your media on the internal drive.

The SVN installer plugin is installed by default and you can install other plugins using it.

[meathane]

cool that pretty much sorts me out. i noticed there's an SD slot on it, so i could put an old 1GB or 2GB SD card in there with XBMC live on it and save 100% of the internal for media. does anyone know of any disadvantages with that or is that not a bad idea?

[MDPauley]

I haven't tried it... but from this wikipedia excerpt I wouldnt think it could work:

Unlike CompactFlash, none of the SD card variants supports ATA signaling, limiting their use as solid state drives unless a separate converter chip is used. Although embedded systems exist that use SD cards as their main storage mechanism, a special SD controller chip is often used.

[meathane]

cool, i'll whack it on the internal. cheers for the advise

[prae5]

It will run of an sd card - i had mine running of an 8gb for a while. Only downside was some fanart was a little slower to load.

[spicemuseum]

the time has come in my life where i am sick of my AppleTV, so much so that it nearly went in the bin (didn't even want the satisfaction of selling it) and am going to buy a Revo.

I've been using XBMC on my AppleTV for the last few days and i LOVE it (Alaska skin is beeeeeeaaauuutiful), but it's a little jumpy, low FPS. What i want is a revo that will run it smooth and slick, so all the animations are nice and slick. All of my media is 700mb avi files, and i'm not particularly interested in 1080p mkv playback

If that's a case why bother spending more than a tenner, you'd probably be satisfied with an old XBOX.

[meathane]

good point, but the xbox is loud, big, power consuming and the menus are a little blurry. i love the hd crystal clear interface of alaska, it's 'baller' as ive heard them say on mtv

[saratoga]

good point, but the xbox is loud, big, power consuming and the menus are a little blurry. i love the hd crystal clear interface of alaska, it's 'baller' as ive heard them say on mtv

The xbox is slower then the system you have, and easily plays Xvids. If your system can't it sounds a little weird.