Hi,
I have a Asrock ion 330 which is on windows XP. I am planning in turning this into a media center which will play files from my external HDD.
I have already tried Boxee but didnt like the user interface. I was about to install xbmc for windows xp but was informed by users on this forum that as xp does not have graphics acceleration it would be no good for this.
Today I have installed Xubuntu and partioned the drive so that I have the option to load xp or xubuntu at boot up. However I havent got a clue on what it is I have to do now to get xbmc on there.
I am not very computer literate so as always would appreciatte any help.
Based on your description it sounds like you should rather install XBMC Live, which is XBMC booting directly "on top" of a stripped down Linux OS (Ubuntu). If you're not familiar with Linux, this is probably an easier route to take. You can still do so in parallell to an XP installation, I have this very setup with Win7 and XBMC Live on same HD.
As long as you have the space left on the HD (I think it's best if unpartitioned, 2-5 Gb is enough), you can just start the install, choose to install on the free space on the HD and XBMC will finish the install up by automatically setting up dual boot (screen for 10-20 seconds letting you choose XBMC or XP).
Google is your friend, there are a few install guides and even if some are for XBMC 9, I'm sure they will be of help (and there's most likely something about XBMC 10 Dharma too).
You should probably prepare for a minimum of tinkering to make everything work, just so that you know.
As for XBMC on XP and graphics acceleration in general, this means that XP can't offload hardware decoding to the GPU, it will fully burden the CPU. That does however not necessarily mean you can't do it. I've played full 1080 mkv's with VLC/XP on a P4 and it works (CPU load does make the fan spin up a tad though).
There may ofc be something with XBMC that makes it less viable, but why don't you just install it and see how it goes?
If it's JUSt going to be for playing videos, OpenELEC.tv
BigMo Wrote:Hi,
I have a Asrock ion 330 which is on windows XP. I am planning in turning this into a media center which will play files from my external HDD.
I have already tried Boxee but didnt like the user interface. I was about to install xbmc for windows xp but was informed by users on this forum that as xp does not have graphics acceleration it would be no good for this.
Today I have installed Xubuntu and partioned the drive so that I have the option to load xp or xubuntu at boot up. However I havent got a clue on what it is I have to do now to get xbmc on there.
I am not very computer literate so as always would appreciatte any help.
i think
sudo apt-get install xbmc should work.
Quote:I am not very computer literate so as always would appreciatte any help.
I am not quite sure XBMC Live would be a great idea for you, as it will require quite a bit of tinkering to get things to work properly. If you are looking to learn a little bit about Linux and would enjoy the challenge, go for it.
If you are just looking to get the box up and running so you can watch videos and listen to music, go with the Openelec option.
http://www.openelec.tv
They have a version tailored specifically for the Nvidia ION chipset, requires very little tweaking to get up and running, and installation should be no more than about 10 minutes. Just remember that with Openelec you will only get an XBMC appliance, so you cannot use it as a desktop PC and run other applications.
sdsnyr94 Wrote:I am not quite sure XBMC Live would be a great idea for you, as it will require quite a bit of tinkering to get things to work properly. If you are looking to learn a little bit about Linux and would enjoy the challenge, go for it.
If you are just looking to get the box up and running so you can watch videos and listen to music, go with the Openelec option. http://www.openelec.tv
They have a version tailored specifically for the Nvidia ION chipset, requires very little tweaking to get up and running, and installation should be no more than about 10 minutes. Just remember that with Openelec you will only get an XBMC appliance, so you cannot use it as a desktop PC and run other applications.
Also remember that openelec reformats the entire hard drive, and will wipe out the Windows partition.
If you install it from the installer.
The drive is already partitioned, you just need a boot loader like GRUB and point it to the right files.
darkscout Wrote:If you install it from the installer.
The drive is already partitioned, you just need a boot loader like GRUB and point it to the right files.
Well, let's not get carried away, BigMo has clearly stated that he/she is "not very computer literate", which I can respect and relate to when it comes to the Linux world. I am myself "advanced amateur level literate" about things in Windows, network and general stuff. It does help, but I sure still don't feel too literate when it comes to command environment Linux (or anything command line really).
BigMo: My best advice to you is to simply install XBCM on top of XP and see how it works. That way you can handle the basic OS stuff in an environment which is familiar to you.
In short, I do agree with sdsnyr94, but if you then really like XBMC and it doesn't quite run as smoothly as you like (or if it makes the CPU fan go bananas due to lack of GPU acceleration), you know it
might be worth looking for a good and thorough guide for installing on your particular hardware (I had immense help from a guide written for my particular rig and might have given up without it).
Whether that install should be on top of a full Linux distro like Xubuntu (with the benefit of a graphical interface for OS settings, but still an unfamiliar environment) or the Live version running on it's own background stripped down Ubuntu OS (with the risk of you sooner or later having to do command style settings, but on the other hand have a one step complete install) is hard to say, so just try out the XP route first
Yup, I'd concur with that. Try XBMC under Windows initially, see how it works. Whether you even need acceleration or not does depend on the sorts of files you're playing - standard definition MPEG-2/DivX files are a far cry from H.264-encoded HD stuff such as .MTS camera files. I can comfortably play SD content without VDPAU acceleration on my ION, but you can forget about HD flash/streaming.
The other option... XBMC live or similar on a bootable USB stick. It'll take a bit longer to start up, but will happily trundle along once it's running and then you get the advantage of full Linux capability (w/ VDPAU) without worrying about trashing XP by accident.
cowfodder Wrote:Also remember that openelec reformats the entire hard drive, and will wipe out the Windows partition.
I probably should have mentioned that for the OP the best bet would be to install Openelec onto a USB drive, so that he does not affect his existing setup. I highly recommend Openelec on a USB Drive, as you can remove the HDD from the unit which will lower the heat produced, which should keep the fans to a tolerable level.
Openelec's Install instructions are pretty easy to follow:
http://www.openelec.tv/find-help/documen...stallation
Good Luck.
Guys thank you all for your advice, I ended up installing xbmc live 10.1 and deleted everything else. It works better then I expected and as I already have another Asrock (ion 3D) which has windows 7 64bit installed I didn't really need windows on the xbmc machine.
I am trying to get a remote to work with the system now but I have started a new thread in general discussion so hopefully I can get this sorted.
Like I said I'm still new to all this but a big thank you for your efforts and for replying to my post.