[Mickeyjuice]

Cheers mate. I'll have to do some trawling, most likely get one from the States.

Tho stuff from HongKong etc usually arrives quicker down under.

I found one for $8, but postage was $216 to Oz!!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/HP-MEDIA-CENTER-I...1c199a9695

[poofyhairguy]

I have found that other models like it don't work with LIRC. I bought my recent one from this vendor:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hp-Media-Center-IR-I...500wt_1156

[Mickeyjuice]

Heck, if you wanted you could run OpenELEC (XBMC "distro") on a flash drive. It is lightweight, fast, user-friendly, and only 80MB.

Which version of OpenELEC did you use? The Generic one or the Intel Build? I don't see one for AMD processors?

[bmcclure937]

I use generic without any issues. I run AMD CPU.

[Mickeyjuice]

No. XBMCFreak worked great for my GT430. It had the latest drivers bundled and worked nicely.

I am really loving OpenELEC though. Lightweight. Fast. Responsive. User Friendly! The configuration literally takes under 10 minutes. Boots in under 20 seconds (maybe even closer to 10 or 15). I do not really count, and 10-15 seconds is longer than you think when talking about a HTPC boot time.

I installed OpenELEC no worries (after I formatted my HDD first, otherwise installer can't see the drive).

Nice and snappy! I might install XBMCFreak just for curiosity.

Yet to buy a remote, but that'll be soon. Plus try it on my TV via HDMI.


Only minor hiccup is an error on bootup:
"[1.2412571] [drm:i915_init] *ERROR* drm/i915 can't work without intel_agp module
could not open framebuffer: no such file or directory"

EDIT: Problem solution here: http://www.openelec.tv/find-help/documen...ash-screen

[Mickeyjuice]

Thought I'd post this up for prosperity... ie sound configuration.

Took me 2 hours to finally get the sound working in OpenElec.
All I wanted was audio output via optical S/PDIF (motherboard = Asus M4A88TD-M with ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC)

I created the asound.conf file under \\openelec\Configfiles

After trying all sorts of combinations I found this one that worked (from an old thread here

Code:

pcm.!spdif {
             type hw
             card 0
             device 1
}

pcm.!default {
            type plug
            slave {
                  pcm "spdif"
                  format s32_LE
            }
}

Then system settings in XBMC.
Audio Output: Optical/Coax
AC3 and DTS checked
Audio output device: Defaults
Passthrough output device: iec958 (iec958 = optical out)

I havn't got menu sounds working, but that might be next on the list!

[EarnheadJ]

Mickeyjuice, that's odd because I use the same configuration in XBMC for audio that you posted and it just works. Didn't create a custom asound.conf. Maybe because my onboard sound is Realtek ALC889A instead of ALC892? Wouldn't think that would be the case though. I am using the latest OpenElec 0.99.3. Glad you got it working though, Jim

Edit: Oh and my menu sounds work too. I have AC3 and DTS checked also

[Mickeyjuice]

Menu sounds are now working OK without changing anything. EDIT: Found out they don't work when using a mouse, but do with keyboard/remote. That's why I thought they weren't working
I may have missed something in my hungover state state yesterday

As you said, I'm guessing the onboard sound (being ALC892) is the reason it didn't work out of the box... Oh well, at least it's working now (pain in the butt to get going initially tho! esp. for n00bs like me )

[Mickeyjuice]

After running for a few weeks all seems to be ok with my hardware. Plays everything I've thrown at it without a hitch.

Still working on the Harmony One remote features, but all ok atm.

The only major problem I have, and it's almost a deal breaker, is that OpenELEC doesn't have ffmpeg support... so I can't run the MythTV plugin

http://openelec.tv/forum/19-feature-sugg...ith-mythtv