I just ordered a 40G appleTV with the intention of using it soley for XBMC as an upgrade from an Xbox running XBMC.
The only thing I want to use it for is XBMC. I have no intention of using the appleTV stuff at all. I have no itunes library to speak of, and no reason to sync anything to the drive. All of my videos and music are stored on a remote file server which is accessed by multiple xboxes running XBMC.
I bought the ATV so I could watch 720p videos which the xbox cannot handle easily.
Is there any advantage to running the Mac version of XBMC on the ATV1, or would things be better if I wipe the machine and install the Linux version? Does one version have better support, or perform better, or is more reliable than the other? How about remote control options? It would be nice to be able to use my xbox remote with its extra buttons.
In a perfect world, I want this thing to look like an appliance. Fastest boot right into XBMC if possible. I might even get an SSD for it if that would make it faster.
Either way, I'll back up the original ATV, just in case, using directions I saw referenced somewhere around here.
At this time I have no plans to get the crystalHD card.
Any info appreciated.
Thanks
bholio Wrote:I just ordered a 40G appleTV with the intention of using it soley for XBMC as an upgrade from an Xbox running XBMC.
The only thing I want to use it for is XBMC. I have no intention of using the appleTV stuff at all. I have no itunes library to speak of, and no reason to sync anything to the drive. All of my videos and music are stored on a remote file server which is accessed by multiple xboxes running XBMC.
I bought the ATV so I could watch 720p videos which the xbox cannot handle easily.
Is there any advantage to running the Mac version of XBMC on the ATV1, or would things be better if I wipe the machine and install the Linux version? Does one version have better support, or perform better, or is more reliable than the other? How about remote control options? It would be nice to be able to use my xbox remote with its extra buttons.
In a perfect world, I want this thing to look like an appliance. Fastest boot right into XBMC if possible. I might even get an SSD for it if that would make it faster.
Either way, I'll back up the original ATV, just in case, using directions I saw referenced somewhere around here.
At this time I have no plans to get the crystalHD card.
Any info appreciated.
Thanks
OK - mostly bad news for you, without CrystalHD, you're not going to be doing much 720p playback - either under ATVOS, or under Linux. The CPU simply isn't powerful enough to decode H.264 content that you will commonly find.
Next bad news - good luck getting a working SSD without major screwing around. ATV1 uses 2.5" IDE, not SATA, so any cheap SATA drive you see at the local shop will not work. I've seen several threads with people discussing 2.5" IDE to CompactFlash adapters, but I've never seen anything that will work (cheaply) without getting out a dremmel.
Boot time? ATV never goes to sleep (limitation of the power supply). Unless you shut it down, there is no boot time because it's always on. If you insist on shutting it down to save those ~27 watts, boot time is fairly slow under either OS.
Under Linux you gain much better GUI speed, and you gain the option of installing a remote client that unlocks something like 57 IR codes so you can really tweak out your Harmony. I don't miss ATVOS because I don't use iTunes for anything.
I upgraded from Xbox1 to ATV1 myself. I can tell you firsthand that aside from seeing the GUI in HD, and being WAY quieter than the Xbox1, you're not gaining a lot unless you drop a CrystalHD inside. The upgrade doesn't make a lot of sense without it... you're going from one underpowered platform that can only play low-def to another with the same limitations...
my 2 cents anyway
720p mkv work great even without the crystallhd update
nanuk Wrote:720p mkv work great even without the crystallhd update
At what bitrate and encoding settings?
Maybe if you do all of your own rips specifically for your ATV, but successfully playing 720p on a vanilla ATV is not what most users here have experienced. Otherwise - why would Davilla sunk his time into CHD in the first place?
bitrate 1700-1800 most of them with 2 soundtrack plus sub those ar my own rip but so far all the 720p i d/l work great to
Oh well. Bummer.
I didn't really have my heart set on the SSD anyway, so that is no big deal.
I guess I will have to spring for the crystal card someday in order to make this all worthwhile. I was hoping to decode 720p and 1080i as recorded from a TV tuner on my network. According to VLC, the video is mpgv. I think h264 might need more horsepower..
I am not happy about needing to keep it on all the time. I was expecting it to go into some sort of low-power standby mode or something. I guess I should have looked into it more.
bholio Wrote:Oh well. Bummer.
I didn't really have my heart set on the SSD anyway, so that is no big deal.
I guess I will have to spring for the crystal card someday in order to make this all worthwhile. I was hoping to decode 720p and 1080i as recorded from a TV tuner on my network. According to VLC, the video is mpgv. I think h264 might need more horsepower..
I am not happy about needing to keep it on all the time. I was expecting it to go into some sort of low-power standby mode or something. I guess I should have looked into it more.
mine gets really hot and i don't like that. There are ssd drives you can buy that will fit it. A google search will show people who have done it. Im still hoping installing linux on it will get easier. but i guess its not a huge focus now that the new one is out. really i like the old one more at-least with linux and Crystal hd it can do 1080p. Where as the new one is stuck at 720p. I usually encode everything at 720 but i like the option.And no usb support. Ideally i would like to see an easy Crystal hd linux install with harmony remote support built in. And a recommended usb wifi card with built in support to replace the one switched out. How badass would that be. No editing files just plug in a usb drive and it does everything. Oh and built in support for the old xbox remote. People obviously still want to use it.
I convert all h264 mkv videos to xvid MP4 using handbrake, videos labeled XvidHD 720p Brrip with .avi container work great too.
Here are my settings for Handbrake:
format: mp4
codec: Mpeg4 (ffmpeg)
quality: Average bitrate: 4800kbps
audio: AAC 192kpbs or higher
My mac mini (2ghz c2d) rips through the videos very quickly. I played with the average bitrate for awhile, kept moving it higher, I've gotten the best results with 4500-4800.
I do NOT have the CrystalHD addon, just stock apple tv 1 with 160gb hd, xbmc 10. The only problem I have is my move/tv scrapers do not work and have never worked on xbmc 10 (dharma) all the betas and the final release it's been broken. xbmc 9.11 scrapers work perfect.