Hello all,
I'm thinking of buying an ASROCK ION 330, running xmbc/linux.
Looks like the system does not come with builtin wireless - any advice on cheap 802.11 wireless hardware which will work well with the ASROCK and xmbc linux?
While I'm at it, any advice on wireless controllers, wireless keyboard, wireless mice which will run well with this hardware?
Finally, do people know if this kind of hw will run bbc iplayer well? I was tempted by an acer revo, but all reports indicate it can't deal with iplayer
thanx in advance for any pointers, your time to read this (and maybe respond) is appreciated :-)
supergrapeman Wrote:Hello all,
Finally, do people know if this kind of hw will run bbc iplayer well? I was tempted by an acer revo, but all reports indicate it can't deal with iplayer
iplayer works fine on the revo - i use it all of the time (including the hd streams).
prae5 Wrote:iplayer works fine on the revo - i use it all of the time (including the hd streams).
that's interesting.. glad it's working for you. Elsewhere, I've read multiple times that the revo just can't cope with streamed flash content like iplayer/ youtube.
what would be the differnce between the asrock and the revo with respect to flash?
supergrapeman Wrote:that's interesting.. glad it's working for you. Elsewhere, I've read multiple times that the revo just can't cope with streamed flash content like iplayer/ youtube.
Perhaps on windows, certainly i have never had a problem with iplayer on linux with my revo. I don't use youtube so can't comment on that.
I would need to check, but i suspect the hd iplayer streams use h264, in which case you vdpau will be used so it will all be offloaded to the gpu for decoding.
supergrapeman Wrote:any advice on cheap 802.11 wireless hardware
First, do you plan on streaming 1080p high-def movies over wireless?
Second, what brand and model wireless router do you currently own? Do you plan on getting a new one or using this one?
vikjon0 Wrote:what would be the differnce between the asrock and the revo with respect to flash?
The asrock has the intel atom 330 dual core at its heart, the revo has the intel atom 230 (single core). More powerful CPU for the asrock, then. I don't know if this difference is significant when is comes to playing streamed flash smoothly
rossgemuend Wrote:First, do you plan on streaming 1080p high-def movies over wireless?
Second, what brand and model wireless router do you currently own? Do you plan on getting a new one or using this one?
Well my tv only goes up to 1080i, so not planning on streaming 1080p (yet). Probably more sd stuff right now. Also, I don't have 100's of gigabytes of movies, so most things I intend to play direct from the box. It would be cool to be able to stream stuff too, though.
The wireless router I have is a little long in the tooth, but has served me well. It's a draytek vigor 2600, which can deal with 802.11 b and g. From the machine I'm typing this, it's giving me a 54Mb wireless connection (according to network mamager, under linux mint).
prae5 Wrote:Perhaps on windows, certainly i have never had a problem with iplayer on linux with my revo. I don't use youtube so can't comment on that.
I would need to check, but i suspect the hd iplayer streams use h264, in which case you vdpau will be used so it will all be offloaded to the gpu for decoding.
ok, that's great. Can I check whether you are using iplayer in "streaming mode" or "download and play later" mode? Recently, I've been tending to use the former more, and the latter less.
supergrapeman Wrote:ok, that's great. Can I check whether you are using iplayer in "streaming mode" or "download and play later" mode? Recently, I've been tending to use the former more, and the latter less.
I only use the plugin for streaming, i've never used the download option (not sure the xbmc plugin supports it either).
prae5 Wrote:I only use the plugin for streaming, i've never used the download option (not sure the xbmc plugin supports it either).
ok, that's really useful, many thanks. Perhaps a revo will do all I need, then..
I got my Revo yesterday from eBuyer (£160 - 160GB/1GB RAM). I expected it to play 1080p without trouble which it does, and I didn't expect it to handle any type of iPlayer - I was very wrong!
I installed Ubuntu 9.04 from USB Stick following a tutorial on these forums (I used the full desktop version - not minimal), got the nVidia graphics in etc etc, and then tried XBMC. I put in the iPlayer V2 Plugin, and SD content streamed perfectly, and to my surprise, so did HD.
I used firefox and went to the iPlayer website, and it told me I didn't have flash installed, so I can only assume that XBMC does clever things with the stream and uses the hardware acceleration for it.
I can totally recommend the Revo though
its sooooo quiet!
that's cool, many thanks. And if you setup flash for firefox, how does iplayer/ youtube etc. run?
PS like the idea of this thing running quietly.. I don't want the sound of a jumbo jet in my living room
supergrapeman Wrote:that's cool, many thanks. And if you setup flash for firefox, how does iplayer/ youtube etc. run?
PS like the idea of this thing running quietly.. I don't want the sound of a jumbo jet in my living room
Not putting you off the Revo as I'm sure it would work well, but my Asrock 330 is silent from 5 ft away, you really cannot hear the fans at all, even without sound playing.
fdrzrich Wrote:Not putting you off the Revo as I'm sure it would work well, but my Asrock 330 is silent from 5 ft away, you really cannot hear the fans at all, even without sound playing.
And on that beefier hardware are things like iplayer (fullscreen) / youtube etc. smooth?