Kodi Community Forum

All,

I'm looking into speccing hardware for XBMC/Linux, and I'm trying to find a *small* htpc case/mobo combination. Most HTPC cases that I see are designed for having a drive or six for local storage, but all of my media is on NAS, so I don't really need that. In fact, I was thinking I could just get away with a SSD disk (8-32GB) and leave it at that. So, assuming HDMI out for audio/video (i.e. one PCIe slot requirement), an optical drive (preferably HD-DVD, but I don't know where Linux support is yet)... is there a small HTPC Case/mobo combo out there?

Linux doesn't support playing movies off HD-DVD, as far as I know. If form factor was my highest priority, I would go with the higher-end mac mini for XBMC. The 2Ghz C2D doesn't have enough horsepower to play 1080p video, but how much 1080p do you really get? It'll play 720p fine. Only thing is, it only has DVI output, not HDMI. You can get a HDMI/DVI cable for like ten bucks from monoprice, but you'll have to use the coax output for audio.

Alternatively, in the "hardware for XBMC" thread some people have listed other barebones computers roughly in the same form factor. But they turn out to be much more expensive than the mac mini, particularly when you factor in the expense of purchasing a fast mobile C2D CPU.

I'd like a small system too but for this I'm willing to run something bigger. I put the silly thing behind my AV center and put the remote sensor out front. I can get to it from the side as needed and the XBOX 360 HD-DVD player is fine out front too. Speaking of HD-DVD Linux DOES support HD-DVD if you can manage to swing getting UDF2.5 compiled into the kernel. From there it's a crypto problem but there's an Ubuntu Wiki page that will help with that. Most folks rip and compress them, apparently some aren't even encrypted which is kewl. Not sure what will play .EVO files however and menus etc. likely aren't done. Rip and watch is probably best path for now.

Anyway, the Mini is a nice sized box but I'd still be a little hesitant just yet to grab one. Apple may yet rev is to something more powerful with better video. I think we can probably forget the AppleTV though for anything over 720P as it seems pretty weak - yes a friend and I tried it with the ATV O/S and Perrian module. Some of the fuller sized cases don't look too bad to me, much as I'd like a small solution I may stick to larger just because it's less hassle for now. Maybe something tiny will be foound later - I'm just happy the software is running so well!

I think that Apple Mini can run 1080p with mplayer and gl out if it's at 2ghz
I have a 1.8ghz C2D, that for the moment isn't overclocked and it runs 1080p WMVHD with mplayer and the gl output, at one core at about 70-80% and the other at below 20%. Sometimes they switch but around that.

elephants dream with the same results. Although it feels just a little chop from time to time but it never goes above 80 so it might be interlace related or something. don't know I'm downloading it at the same time im running it and this might cause issues also.

elephants dream runs super smooth in XBMC though. at 1080p, way better than mplayer with gl, note gl not gl2. Altough my screen is only 1280x1024 if this will interfere.
I think mac mini would suffice, looks good to I'm thinking myself of getting one

Not all video is created equal; xvid or WMV may play fine but most releases these days are matroska wrappers around h.264 video. The general consensus is that a 2.4Ghz C2D is required to cleanly play all 1080p right now. Of course that very well may improve as XBMC continues development.

rodalpho Wrote:Not all video is created equal; xvid or WMV may play fine but most releases these days are matroska wrappers around h.264 video. The general consensus is that a 2.4Ghz C2D is required to cleanly play all 1080p right now. Of course that very well may improve as XBMC continues development.

Yep i know this, that's why i'm quite stunned it works so well for me in XBMC.
I tried a 1080p mkv from v for vendetta, I don't know if there is a general purpose testing mkv out there.

mplayer didn't work god, laggy and overall audio/video out of sync.
xbmc smooth as a whistle, xbmc-cpu about ~110% wich meant both cores at about 55 - 60%. More than playable atleast.

Although it should be said that I have a quite good graphicscard, geforce 8800 gts. Wich could be why this works so good in xbmc.

1. If we talk about CPU capabilities I tested my stock clocked 1,86 MHz Core2Duo E6300 at WINDOWS (got Radeon X1900GT, so ~2fps in XBMC menu) with both CoreAVC and build in KMPlayer codecs (pure software decoding, so no GPU used) and 1080p x264 mkv plays fine with top CPU usage at let's say 85% but most often it was 50-70%

2. I'm little confused about GPU usage (especially OpenGL 2.0 and Shader 3.0 requirements) in XBMC. Especially that old old graphics card managed to run menu smoothly. I heard two(three?) versions:
a) GPU is used to render only XBMC menu and video decoding/dvd playback is fully CPU's job
b) GPU is used to render menu AND do stuff like video deinterlacing etc.
c?) GPU will be used for also video decoding but it's not going to happen for a long time

Also someone said that his powerfull enough CPU and old GPU (not GL 2.0 and shaders 3.0 capable) did the job fine and one of XBMC devs said that high shaders and openGL versions probably won't be used in the nearest future.

I have this case http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/lian_li35/
With an Intel [email protected] and Asus P5k-VM
Small, extremly quited and looks great in my living room!
It's also extremly cheap

embrion Wrote:2. I'm little confused about GPU usage (especially OpenGL 2.0 and Shader 3.0 requirements) in XBMC. Especially that old old graphics card managed to run menu smoothly. I heard two(three?) versions:
a) GPU is used to render only XBMC menu and video decoding/dvd playback is fully CPU's job
b) GPU is used to render menu AND do stuff like video deinterlacing etc.
c?) GPU will be used for also video decoding but it's not going to happen for a long time

a) Not So
b) Yes so
c) Video acceleration is somewhere in the distant future, we're talking general purpose video acceleration using OpenGL here, not been attempted before AFAIK

Reason why we say OpenGL 2.0 is because we set the bar high right now instead of raising it later

Is it something like this you would like to have?
https://www.datorbutiken.com/se/Images/P...MCMATX.jpg

siDDis Wrote:I have this case http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/lian_li35/
With an Intel [email protected] and Asus P5k-VM
Small, extremly quited and looks great in my living room!
It's also extremly cheap

Nice one.
Where are You from? In my country all available cases are ugly and/or >10cm high and/or expensive:/

pike Wrote:a) Not So
b) Yes so
c) Video acceleration is somewhere in the distant future, we're talking general purpose video acceleration using OpenGL here, not been attempted before AFAIK

Reason why we say OpenGL 2.0 is because we set the bar high right now instead of raising it later

Thanks, now it's perfectly clear.

I used http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811204005 to build my XBMCLinux box. It was cheap and I'm more than satisfied.

BLKMGK Wrote:I put the silly thing behind my AV center and put the remote sensor out front... Anyway, the Mini is a nice sized box but I'd still be a little hesitant just yet to grab one.

Exactly. Mount it on the wall behind the TV. Not sure why OEMs aren't making more wall-mountable hardware that can go right behind your mounted LCD. "Set top box" should be an obsolete term IMO.

Go for a microATX slim case. I like this one personally.

Who's running XBMC on Mac Mini? I saw a thread about a port for Mac, but I thought it was very much a work in progress. I have a M8 that "borrowed" his dad's...permanently. I know he wants the xbmc goodness.

So far I've not seen any mATX boards that I'd want to use for this but I'm all ears. I have a video card already that does HDMI and I'd want SPID/F out aka optical. I'm running Intel for a CPU.

I bought a full sized ATX and put it into a full sized mid tower. I'd love a nice case like the Lian Li PCC35 above but have found no one selling it. I need something thin, black, and without all sorts of funky stuff we don't need like a display unless there are Linux drivers for it. Have a display on my XBOX - it's done nothing but look pretty. Don't need that twice <shrug>

I recently built a HTPC specifically for XBMC using this stuff:
Silverstone LC04 case
Gigabyte GA945GCMXS2 MicroATX Motherboard
Intel 2.2GHz C2D E4500 processor

This stuff I had laying around:
Gigabyte GV-NX66L128DP PCI Express video card
Chaintech AV-710 sound card

I chose that particular motherboard mostly because it had the PCI Express and PCI slots for the video and audio cards in the right places to use with the case. Since the cards are mounted parallel to the board, they have to use adapter cards, and the layout is restricted.

The case openings for the expansion card have a closed area near the screw end of the faceplate. This closed area covered half the S-Video port of the video card (who cares) and bumped into the mic-in port of the audio card. I ripped the mic-in port off the card with a pair of pliers.

The video card is fanless and has big heatsinks on it. The one on the back side bumps into the CD drive tray, so I have another card on order.

As far as performance, I have done some extensive testing using different resolution (720p, 800p, 880p, 960p, 1024p) x264 encodes as well as remuxed VC1, all in mkv containers. The video length is 3672 frames long. I didn't encode a 1080p sample, since I figured that if I'm taking the time to encode, I may as well drop the resolution. My plasma is 768p.

At 2.2 GHz, XBMC plays the 720p encode with no dropped frames (other than a few when the video first starts), but the 800p encode dropped 111 frames. The 1024p video totally swamped it at 2100 dropped frames.

Overclocked to 2.93 GHz, the 800p plays fine, but it still dropped 35 frames in one particularly difficult section of the 880p video. 1024p dropped 685 frames.

The 1080p VC1 was much easier to decode than the x264 encodes, and at 2.42 GHz, it dropped only 3 frames.

Wow, that's more than I intended to say, but maybe it will be useful to someone.