Sorry if this has been asked before.
What is the best hardware to run XBMC? (Other than the xbox).
Basically, if I wanted to build a new system to run XBMC on, what is recommended by you devs? Are there any users that have an absolutely problem free experience with their hardware setup?
Up until the most recent update, my little computer in my room (Athlon XP 3200+, Geforce 2mx, 2gb DDR, and some off-brand motherboard) ran it PERFECT. Literally months of problem/crash free use before today when I had a couple crashes (that now seem to have gone away).
I am assuming the best hardware to use this on would be what the devs use. Do you devs all use the exact same hardware? If so, can you tell me what it is?
Also, does anyone have experience with xbmc on osx86? I wonder if that is more stable. Hardy is absolutely great but maybe for stand alone a different os (gentoo, fedora, suse, osx) might be better.
There are quite a few threads on this already, even on the front page.
If your current PC runs it perfectly then surely that gives you some idea of the setup you require. I can't imagine the software is going to get significantly more CPU hungry, especially given its humble XBOX background.
As for OSes, from what I can work out only Ubuntu is 'officially' supported, but I can vouch for it running like a dream (or, as much of a dream as Alpha software can be expected to run) on an OpenSUSE system.
Probably a third of all posts here in the
XBMC for Linux - End-User Support (Help) Forum discuss hardware/computers to run XBMC on, please search and browse.
Team-XBMC do not have any specific recommended hardware, and I do not think that we will bee able to put together any such list this year, (maybe sometime next year we will be ready for that).
And none of them asked or answered the question of what the developers use. If you would like to change the title of the post to "What hardware are developers on?" then fine by me.
Just to double check, I read through about 6 threads to see if any of the devs say "Hey we all use the same hardware and it is this:" or "Well I am a developer and I use...".
Guess what? None of them did.
On most forums, when a question keeps getting asked over and over, I would make a sticky with the answer. (which by the way, I did notice there were a lot of threads about this but none seemed to be answered the same or with any consistency. So maybe you guys can come up with one solid answer before getting angry about too much of the same question. Seems to me that if I got asked the same question by people I would, both, decide on one answer and maybe pin it to the door).
Instead of trying to one-up me now, maybe you could sticky the answer to "What do the developers use?"
You're welcome for the suggestion.
Not to mention I have asked this before in another thread with no answer.
Actually, to me more constructive than argumentative; If I wrote a php application that let people input their system specs and then any problems they had, would you guys sticky it?
Obviously it would make detailed reports and charts so that one could get an idea of what types of hardware setups work better.
Can you do me a favor and next time you make a post, wait 5m before you click submit? Don't even start w/ the "Then enable the edit button" crap, cause we've been down that road and it ain't happening.
BTW I dev on a thinkpad t61 w/ c2d @ 2.5GHz, 4GB RAM, and nvidia quadro nv140 gfx. Everyone on the team devs with whatever they have on hand, we don't get enough donations to supply the team with dedicated dev boxes (hint hint
).
Like it is a big deal to make 5 posts in a row
I had to sign up for a paypal account just so I could pay you that $20 you won from me in that bet.
So yes or no on this web app? I would host it if you wanted.
Just enable the edit button...
If you build it, they *might* come.
Currently dev on a macmini or whatever i can scrape up at work.
wow annoying user... anyway already have such as system
i'm actually making the 'stat'part..
but if you want to make it be my guest...
owyeah enable isn't going to happen.. forgot about it.. and just think about clicking submit && read your post 10times
flexgrip Wrote:If I wrote a php application that let people input their system specs and then any problems they had, would you guys sticky it?
Yes, and please do, (and it would be great if the user could input which platforms "Linux", "Live", "Mac", and "Windows", plus list what the native resolution of their TV/display, and if digital or analog audio is used, and maybe it they can playback 1080p H.264 videos smoothly or not with a link to some samples). You could maybe even ask them to benchmark their system with
Phoronix Test Suite.
flexgrip Wrote:What do the developers use?
Well first of all, I can not speak for anyone else on Team-XBMC but I believe that many XBMC developers have two or three computers with XBMC, (one HTPC for living-room that they normally actually just 'use' XBMC on like a regular end-user, then one workstation computer at a desk which is probably their main development computer, and also a laptop for developing on-the-road, some might not have a workstation computer at a desk though and only use their laptop for development).
As for actual specific hardware used by XBMC developers, I do know that on Team-XBMC quite a few people have a
Mac Mini (running Mac OS X, Linux, and/or Windows dual-boot) and quite a few people have
AOpen miniPC Duo MP965DR, ...but I do not know if those who have them use them only as a dedicated HTPC for living-room or if they only use them for development, or both. Note also that both
Mac Mini and
AOpen miniPC Duo MP965DR are relativly expensive given their performance though they are have a very small form factor which is why they are so popular, and note that these are similar hardware-wise to
DELL Studio Hybrid PC which is equally as expensive.
I myself have a
AOpen miniPC Duo MP965DR with a 2.4Ghz Intel Core2 Duo processor connected to a 720p 42-inch LCD TV in my living-room.
icekiller Wrote:wow annoying user... anyway already have such as system i'm actually making the 'stat'part.. but if you want to make it be my guest...
owyeah enable isn't going to happen.. forgot about it.. and just think about clicking submit && read your post 10times
Yeah the enable button comment was sarcasm (invented in the 1950's, sarcasm is stating the opposite of an intended meaning in order to sneeringly, slyly, jest or mock a person, situation or thing.) Next time I will include (sarcasm) next to what I say so there isn't any confusion. (sarcasm)
Platform:
- OS
- OS_Version/platform
- XBMC_Version
- XBMC_Revision
- XBMC_Install_method
System Specs:
- CPU
- Mainboard
- Bios revision
- Memory Amount
- Bus architecture
- GPU
- GPU Driver
- Sound Card
- Sound driver pulseaudio/alsa/oss
Method of Use:
- Native resolution of display
- Can play 720p yes/no | if_yes mkv/x.264/etc
- Can play 1080p yes/no | if_yes mkv/x.264/etc
- Audio Digital/analog
- Plugins used
- Network storage (SMB, NFS, LDAP, uPNP, FTP)
Problems:
Okay, should this be split into categories like crash, freeze, blank screen, video probs, audio probs, meta data, other. Then they could leave a description of the problem and maybe what fixed it. (probably getting into trac territory here so let me know)
I need suggestions on the problems section and also suggestions on anything I might have missed.
I have the db and functions setup already and am working on the UI tonight. So if I missed anything I can just add to the mysql tables.
I think the reports will produce a graph and a list of matching results based on your search entries. So one could input their system specs and versions of everything, query the database and predict what problems they might run in to.
flexgrip,
any updates on the progress for this application ?