Hi,
I have plans to build a xmbc linux player using the following components.
2Core1333DVI-2.66G motherboard
2gig DDRII667 ram
160gb sata hdd
sata dvdram
These parts are basically my desktop, built it about 8months ago, fanstastic no probs using either vista or xp (duo booted).
I have a spare 40gb ide drive to install Ubuntu804 and xmbc and test the functionality, performance etc.
The motherboard is very well priced at apx 90GBP, and could be a very good way of building a decent xmbc linux player on a budget.
check the link for the specs on the motherboard
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Mo...3DVI-2.66G
If all works well and proves good, then i will simply build the real deal, using the same specs as the desktop with a nice media case etc, and when bluray drives are supported simply upgrade!!
Does anyone have any advice they can give regarding the hardware i plan to use or anything to be aware of?
or does anyone have any links to someone building a xmbc linux from scratch?
cheers
Personally I would try for a motherboard with nvidia graphics.
I am using
this one
(XFX nForce 630i/7150)
It works well over dvi and hdmi. SPDIF out for audio.
This will play 1080p/dts bluray and hddvd rips (Original resolutions) no problem.
This motherboard was about $130 Aussie dollars, so about 62GBP
Sorry forgot to mention that the asrock board comes with the intel e2140 ready overclocked up to 2.66ghz, however because intel don't like overclocking, asrock will not tell you its an intel.
cheers
"Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, DirectX 9.0 and Max. shared memory 224MB"
I would stay away from the intel gma 950 graphics. Go with an NVIDIA card that is HDCP capable (for future bluray possiblities). I built a XBMC box this weekend and ended up with a Nvidia 8400GS (HDCP). Make sure to put at least a 2.6ghz c2duo chip in the board if you plan to reliably watch all possible forms of 1080p video. My machine currently only has a 1.86 c2d and its clearly not powerful enough to play 1080p. 720p is ok.
2.6GHz c2d will NOT play the killa sampla w/o dropped frames. e8400 seems to be minimum for futureproof 1080p h264.
Thanks for the information Al. Couple of questions:
1) What is the killa sample and where can I obtain this? (I have been looking for a good 1080p benchmark).
2) E8400 is obviously a 45nm chip.. For us users limited to 65nm 775 chips, do you think the E6850 would suffice for 1080p playback (specifically the killa sample) ?
althekiller Wrote:2.6GHz c2d will NOT play the killa sampla w/o dropped frames. e8400 seems to be minimum for futureproof 1080p h264.
While you're right that you need a seriously hefty machine to play the insanely high bitrate bird clip, it's simply not a representative sample. Fact is that a decent 2.0Ghz C2D can play pretty much every 1080p h.264 "scene" release available without dropping frames. If you really want to ensure that you're covered, blow the extra cash on a 2.4Ghz C2D. Anything more is simply unnecessary.
drewjacks0n Wrote:Make sure to put at least a 2.6ghz c2duo chip in the board if you plan to reliably watch all possible forms of 1080p video.
I based my post off that. Is the bird scene not 1080p video?
althekiller Wrote:I based my post off that. Is the bird scene not 1080p video?
I think it violates bitrate limitations specified in a specific h.264 level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264#Levels
XBMC on certain hardware is probably good for level 4.0, but not 4.1, and I have no idea whether bird_scene breaks 4.0, or even 4.1. There's probably a tool out there to determine all though.
rodalpho Wrote:Fact is that a decent 2.0Ghz C2D can play pretty much every 1080p h.264 "scene" release available without dropping frames.
I'm curious if a 2.0 core2duo really is enough to handle 1080p. I have a 1.86 (quite close to the 2.0) and it struggles playing a "scene rip". It would seem to me to be safe (and able to handle fast forwarding, rewinding, etc) I would at least go 2.6. Personally, I'm with Al on this one, I'll be going with a 3.0 c2d just so I know I'll be ok from here on out.
Well I based that upon the osxbmc guys playing 1080p on mac minis. They don't seem to be having any problems.
Aah, yes good point I did read a report or two that the OSX guys were able to play 1080p on the minis.... It would be nice to see if someone who owns a mini could run xbmc in osx and run it in linux and see what kind of performance difference (if any) is seen.
I do not think that the Minis are having as easy a time as you think with just a 2Gig CPU. I was running into issues with that Bird Scene at 2.66Ghz - on my OWN encoding and not the version downloaded here. It wasn't until I went to 3Ghz and XBMC decoding was improved some that I no longer had issues with ANY movie including the Bird Scene downloaded here. Mind you I encode my own HD video from BD and HD-DVD and don't download so I am probably using a higher bitrate than "scene" crap. An advantage to the E8400 is cooler operation and it will clock to nearly 4Ghz stable - on air. I run this in my desktop at 3.8Ghz and at the rate prices are falling I may buy one for the XBMC machine!
Also, why buy an HDCP compatible card exactly? Do you think that Linux is going to support that anytime in your lifetime? Unless you intend to run Windows at some point I wouldn't sweat the HDCP garbage.
Lastly, even with my CPU pushing 3Ghz I run into issues with FFWD. I am trying to watch a movie right now that I've seen part of and mistakenly started at the beginning - XBMC has hard locked twice trying to forward to where I left off
XBMC for windows has come a looooong way. I tried the installer build earlier this week and it's extremely usable already. So yeah, if nobody figures out how to get blu-ray working in linux I might switch to the windows version at some point. Hopefully that won't be necessary, but you never know.
I don't think the seeking problems are due to your CPU speed, XBMC is just buggy on seeks sometimes, particularly with WMV content.