I'm sorry if this is a dupe post. I've been reading the forums for a few days and can't piece together whether this will work. I'm looking to buy a [used] Revo 1600 to replace the P.O.S. WD TV Live media player.
I have a
WIFI USB Dongle that allows the WD Live to connect to my media server (unRaid via SAMBA) which I like very much. All of my media is HQ mp4 encodes of DVD rips so there is no lag even on WiFi-G.
My question is can a WiFi USB be use with XBMC 9.11 Live install? I saw on some other thread that a you must run ubuntu+XBMC to enable support for this setup. I don't think there will be any video issues since none of my media is HD (The WD TV does it fine, but I could be wrong).
I plan to run XBMC Live from a 8GB SD card for speed instead of running it on top of an OS. Plus I have other plans for the HDD.
Thanks
Oh side question, any difference in installing XBMC on a Revo 1600 compared to a AR3610-U9022?
If you install it to the SD, then it will be persistent, and you can install and set up the needed wireless packages.
I run wireless on my Foxconn NT-300i up a floor, and about 40 feet away, and it can do all 480p, but if the encoding bit-rate is low enough it can do 720p too.
Thanks MacGyver (nice nick),
I understand. Can I install XBMC live to the SD alone or does it need to be on top of a an OS such as ubuntu for wireless support?
A WiFi USB dongle should work in a Revo 1600 with the proper drivers, correct?
Does XBMC support the Revo 3610's built in WiFi or would drivers need to be added here too?
I'm new here. Thanks!
You can install the XBMC-Live version or the XBMCFreak-Live version to either a USB stick or an SD card, and either one will install a flavor of minimal ubuntu along with XBMC (XBMC needs an OS to run on).
Drivers, maybe, depends on whether the Wifi, hardware is supported natively by ubuntu, so if you find one that people say works right out of the box, you'll be good.
However, you will need to configure/install settings and packages to setup your wifi hardware, but you will find lots of guides and people to help you do that here.
I have an 4gb "emergency" SD card for my living-room Revo 1600, so that if I break my harddrive install, I can throw it in, and the family can watch whatever they want while I search around the internet for answers. So I know first-hand that it can be done.
BTW, the Revo 1600 has a mini pci-e slot in it, so I just threw in an old Broadcom B/G Wifi card I had lying around from a dead laptop into it. Threw it in, updated it's firmware, installed missing packages, configured, walla, wireless Revo in 20 minutes for $0.
Thanks again for the info. I really don't/cant want to run wires and all of my media is HQ mp4 movie files of my DVD collection.
I just ordered a Revo 3610 mainly for the dual core atom. AR1600's are going for ~$200+ on ebay used. Revonate.com has the
AR3610 (factory referb) for only $239. Not bad for the extra ram, dual core, built-in wifi/BT.
I plan to use the machine to run
some emulators too and the extra power could be useful (PS1/PS2/MAME).
I did exactly this on my Revo running XBMC live.
All you really need is the wifi ubuntu package and wpa-supplicant for it to work (if your USB dongle is supported that is).
Basically read this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1425727
Thanks grassmunk,
I did some searching and think I need to preform these steps...
#1 sudo apt-get install wireless-tools (the wifi ubuntu package, right?)
#2 sudo apt-get install wpasupplicant
Then either follow the instructions on your link or
I found this which looks a little easier. I'm going to try the built-in WiFi adapter on the AR3610 first. I hear its not the best and will try the USB dongle if performance sucks.
There is also
this guide found on this forum.
Is
sudo apt-get update and
sudo apt-get upgrade necessary?