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I'm considering adding a small, low-powered XBMC box to my bedroom, to get around the obvious hassles of using my desktop rig to switch back and forth between the computer monitor and my TV.

The thing is, though, my desktop is a pretty powerful gaming system and one benefit is that XBMC performance is smooth and flawless.

I realize I'll have to give up some of that speed in moving to an ION-based nettop or, hopefully, the much cheaper ATV2. But as I expected, a few people on this forum have mentioned that menu performance is a bit sluggish in the current iOS build, owing to the fairly weak ATV2 system specs.

So for people familiar with the performance of both systems, how does it compare between the ATV2 and a standard mainstream nettop? Is the latter worth the extra $100-200?

eg4190 Wrote:I'm considering adding a small, low-powered XBMC box to my bedroom, to get around the obvious hassles of using my desktop rig to switch back and forth between the computer monitor and my TV.

The thing is, though, my desktop is a pretty powerful gaming system and one benefit is that XBMC performance is smooth and flawless.

I realize I'll have to give up some of that speed in moving to an ION-based nettop or, hopefully, the much cheaper ATV2. But as I expected, a few people on this forum have mentioned that menu performance is a bit sluggish in the current iOS build, owing to the fairly weak ATV2 system specs.

So for people familiar with the performance of both systems, how does it compare between the ATV2 and a standard mainstream nettop? Is the latter worth the extra $100-200?

A standard nettop which is based on ION will do about any format out there in 1080p. The GPU on an ION is miles ahead in performance and can do advanced scaling algorithms at 30fps. Our gui-engine will get better and better with time and should hopefully work close to 30fps on these weak systems (atv2 and any embedded device). It is also not far fetched to see skins being optimized for these devices and a PoC skin I made does 30fps on beagle in 720p (much slower hw than atv2).

If its worth the extra dough, for the bedroom I would probably say no but it depends on your values more than anything. Can you live with the gui being somewhat sluggish and are you fine with perhaps not using the most complex skins out there, if you can you gain a cheap box which is completely fanless. For your living room where you might go 1080p at some point, the ION will be way more future proof but draws more power and only some of them are fanless (and they cost quite a bit more than ATV2).

eg4190 Wrote:I'm considering adding a small, low-powered XBMC box to my bedroom, to get around the obvious hassles of using my desktop rig to switch back and forth between the computer monitor and my TV.

The thing is, though, my desktop is a pretty powerful gaming system and one benefit is that XBMC performance is smooth and flawless.

I realize I'll have to give up some of that speed in moving to an ION-based nettop or, hopefully, the much cheaper ATV2. But as I expected, a few people on this forum have mentioned that menu performance is a bit sluggish in the current iOS build, owing to the fairly weak ATV2 system specs.

So for people familiar with the performance of both systems, how does it compare between the ATV2 and a standard mainstream nettop? Is the latter worth the extra $100-200?

You could just get like an Asus O!play or WD TV Live Plus or something.. they are only a $100 bucks.. WD TV Live Plus will play netflix... I have an Oplay and that thing will play almost anything I throw at it. The only down fall to these devices is the 100MB ethernet port. Don't expect to play a 40GB mkv file over the network. But i can confirm that my Oplay will play a 40GB mkv file if you play it locally off of a usb hard drive.
The O!play is not nearly as pretty as XBMC but it can get the job done. I actually replaced my O!play with XBMC HTPC in my man cave. I'm probably going to put the O!play in my bedroom

There is no real reason that stops a straight BD rip being played on a 100 ethernet port. Wireless it's a different beast, but wired... there are no problems. Tested personally (not on an ATV2, with a normal HTPC).

I Bought an ATV2 over the weekend after I heard about the XBMC Release. I am currently running XBMC in just about every situation possible. My Home Theater is running an Aspire Revo 3610 with XBMC Live only. Bottom Line its flawless. I just wrote a buddy of mine on the same question that you just asked.

Hope this Helps!

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Alright, I got XBMC up and running on the AppleTV on Friday night and played around with it over the weekend and here is what I have found.

Pro's

1) Damn things is small!
2) The output of the thing is crystal clear
3) Plays Videos with no lag, studder or judder
4) Able to download and setup menu art etc without issue.
5) The Remote works without issue and has the ability to link in with Harmony One.
6) Also works with XBMC Remote Apps.

Now the Con's and Showstoppers

1) No keyboard support. Makes trying to connect to your password protected NAS shares an exercise in frustration because you have to use the remote which is painfully slow.
2) Requires a JAILBROKEN Apple TV which at this point with current iOS version requires that you tether to a Mac Computer when you first boot it up (which is enough to be a pain in the ass)
3) While Video play is great, menu navigation is JUST slow enough to be slightly annoying when you are use to the snapiness of XBMC on a normal machine.
4) NO ISO SUPPORT! This is a big one because 90% of my movie collection is currently ISO so this one is probably the biggest SHOWSTOPPER at the moment.
5) Only some skins work properly. Even Confluence out of the box did not work well. BackRow appears to be working the best although it seems to be a little more device intensive so there is a trade off in menu navigation speed.

Those are the major points at the moment.

The 2 and 1/2 showstoppers that I see is the NO ISO Suppoort, The Tethered Boot and No Keyboard Support (this is at least manageable)

Do I see this as a REPLACEMENT for my current XBMC box? Not by a longshot!

BUT, if they can resolve the ISO and Tethered boot issue then I could see this as being your BEDROOM BLU-RAY replacement You know what I am talking about? The el-cheapo blu-ray or DVD player that you put in your bedroom or Kitchen etc. This thing could absolutely bridge the gap between Home Theater XBMC box and Rest of the House XBMC box.

Am I glad I got it? Absolutely! Now that XBMC is running on it the Dev's are going to quickly work out the kinks and bugs so in a couple of months this thing is going to be champ!

If it isn't primary.. Go with the Apply TV 2g... This is my bedroom box to replace a modified xbox (original).
My livingroom tho is an acer revo..

topfs2 Wrote:A standard nettop which is based on ION will do about any format out there in 1080p. The GPU on an ION is miles ahead in performance and can do advanced scaling algorithms at 30fps. Our gui-engine will get better and better with time and should hopefully work close to 30fps on these weak systems (atv2 and any embedded device). It is also not far fetched to see skins being optimized for these devices and a PoC skin I made does 30fps on beagle in 720p (much slower hw than atv2).

If its worth the extra dough, for the bedroom I would probably say no but it depends on your values more than anything. Can you live with the gui being somewhat sluggish and are you fine with perhaps not using the most complex skins out there, if you can you gain a cheap box which is completely fanless. For your living room where you might go 1080p at some point, the ION will be way more future proof but draws more power and only some of them are fanless (and they cost quite a bit more than ATV2).

Based on the hardware/chips being used I doubt that it is a hardware limitation - unless Apple crippled it on purpose.

I think it depends on the persons needs and their media sources.

I could use an ATV2 in my primary viewing area (living room), where I currently have a Popcorn Hour A-100 which plays everything. All of my content is either XviD for SD or AVC/H264 for HD, both of which play great with XBMC on ATV2. I've been jailbreaking devices for the past 4 years, so this doesn't matter to me and I own PC and Macs, so no big deal there for me. Last bit is 720p only output. That one is the only one that kind of bothers me, but given my viewing distance and TV size, I'm in an area where I can't tell the difference anyway, so not a concern as of today.

ATV3 (or whatever its called) with the dual core A5 processor will probably solve all of today's problems, other than the jailbreaking requirement, but that device is 12 months away.

Id also bought a aTV2 over the weekend.

Ive been a follower of the iPhone scene for a long time now, and although i had no real issues with jailbreaking it, as i own a mac and been jailbreaking my iDevices for the last 2years, i can see it being a real hassle for many.
Although its currently tethered, it doesnt mean it will stay that way for ever and software aint always just limited to mac.

As for a primary device. no way, not by a long shot.
You need some sort of NAS, samba or some sort of server to make use of the aTV2 - as its purely a streaming device.
without it, its kinda pointless.

That and the limitation of 1080p - It will decode 1080p, it just wont output any higher then 720p (please someone correct me if my statement is wrong)

However the future is bright, there are people already working on a iOS friendly skin and when cydia and Apple's AppStore gets integrated, it will only get better, and obviously that means more features!!
Wishful thinking, but im hoping someone will be able enable the microUSB slot to allow external HDD support.

It doesnt replace the core HTPC, but will compete with the links of WDTV and co (well most devices in the $50-150 range)

well I bought one of the weekend and I am enjoying it as a streaming device. I have it hooked up to my revo using samba and it works pretty well. I just dont understand why someone would buy this from apple and then buy movies from it.. you just gave apple 100.00 and then you are giving them $ for each movie etc...

I do wish there was some more web content to stream from. Currently I only have cartoon network and youtube. Hopefully some devs come up with more content.

Well back to the main question.. I would go with a ion nettop for your main xbmc setup. Then an atv2 for another room.

patranus Wrote:Based on the hardware/chips being used I doubt that it is a hardware limitation - unless Apple crippled it on purpose.

What do you base that one? Throughout the team we have alot of embedded platforms and the GPU's are no way near as powerful as a desktop system. This is a fact and you saying that it is just shows your lack of knowledge. Many of these GPU's aren't even designed around 1080p, atleast not with advanced graphics. Most of them or designed for phones and more recently tablets. What they are designed for is to first draw little power and secondly have performance. The latest of the GPUs in the embedded market however do seem to be powerful enough to handle xbmc in 1080p, the sgx540 core for instance.

I just got an Apple TV2 yesterday too, and, yeah, the menus are slow, but with XBMC on it, running a nightly build and Aeon MQ2 'minimal' skin is so awesome! I just wish we could use a keyboard and maybe if the remote was a little better, but I could always spring for another one.

Also,

topfs2 Wrote:What do you base that one? Throughout the team we have alot of embedded platforms and the GPU's are no way near as powerful as a desktop system. This is a fact and you saying that it is just shows your lack of knowledge. Many of these GPU's aren't even designed around 1080p, atleast not with advanced graphics. Most of them or designed for phones and more recently tablets. What they are designed for is to first draw little power and secondly have performance. The latest of the GPUs in the embedded market however do seem to be powerful enough to handle xbmc in 1080p, the sgx540 core for instance.

I think he's basing that on the fact that it's common knowledge that the PowerVR SGX535 that Apple put in the Apple TV2 is capable of outputting 1080p video. You can google it. It's also the same chip Intel uses in the GMA500.

erock3742 Wrote:1) No keyboard support. Makes trying to connect to your password protected NAS shares an exercise in frustration because you have to use the remote which is painfully slow.
!

There is a link somewhere on this forum for enabling BT support inside the ATV2. I have a bluetooth keyboard set up and working with it

I still have some issues with my ATV2 setup. Not with regular movies 720p, 1080p, etc., but with more special ones, made with my camera .. or e.g. pictures, if the pic is too big, it sometimes takes the ATV2 down and I have to restart XBMC.

I just recently had issues also with one of my series, 720p, pretty standard stuff. Now I am thinking about replacing the darn thing and getting something with more power.

So if I would have a TV in my bedroom or kitchen for that matter, I would prefer the ATV2, since it is a pretty slim, nice looking, low power, low costly thing and the XBMC interface is just awesome.

But in my living room, where I also like to show off my new pictures to my family and might even want to surf an internet page or two the extra buck for a htpc is probably the way to go.

Massively old thread is massively old. Almost nothing in this thread applies anymore, and without a debug log we can't tell you if it's a software bug or an actual limitation of XBMC.