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+---- Thread: Am I asking too much? (/showthread.php?tid=176031)
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Am I asking too much? - eds72 - 2013-10-18
I've been fiddling off and on with XBMC on my RPi for probably 6+ months now but just cannot seem to get things to a point that I find acceptable. My primary goal is to get live TV, PVR and timeshifting functions working well enough to dump my lousy Comcast DVR.
I could fill pages with all the permutations of configurations I've tried. The short version is that I've tried lots of combinations of RaspBMC and OpenElec on the pi, and NextPVR and WMC on the back end. I've overclocked, tried different skins, etc. I've had varying levels of success with each, but none has clearly jumped out as superior.
My primary issue at this point is speed. Channel changes are at least 5-10 seconds. But the bigger issue is that seemingly simple tasks - like bringing up the guide - typically take at least 5 seconds. I will sometimes wonder if perhaps the keypress didn't register, only to have several get queued up and happen in rapid succession.
I've read a lot about recent speed improvements in Gotham, but I'm not sure the PVR clients have been updated to work with this release.
Does anyone have this working in a manner they feel is reasonable? By reasonable, I'd say I am looking for something that is in the ballpark in terms of performance and reliability with commercially available DVRs from the major providers. I don't expect perfection, but I also would prefer to spend more time enjoying the system than I do debugging it. Can anyone share details of their setup that they believe to meet this criteria? I believe I have the hardware and ability to setup any of the backend PVR systems.
Re: Am I asking too much? - nickr - 2013-10-18
Try a proper pc.
RE: Am I asking too much? - eds72 - 2013-10-18
(2013-10-18, 23:14)nickr Wrote: Try a proper pc.
No need to try, I am certain it would deliver much better performance.
However, I'm hoping to have my cake and eat it too with the low cost, small form factor RPi if I can squeeze enough out if it to be acceptable. I'm hoping to hear from someone who has done so, or alternatively to get some feedback from folks who have tried but concluded it's not doable.
Re: Am I asking too much? - nickr - 2013-10-19
I dont use my pi for xbmc, but i can say that i have pretty good pvr performance with frodo and mythtv as a backend. Latest pi code seems to be very good too, especially on a fast usb rather than sd card. Look for the threads about it, download and try. You have nothing to lose.
RE: Am I asking too much? - eds72 - 2013-10-19
(2013-10-19, 00:02)nickr Wrote: I dont use my pi for xbmc, but i can say that i have pretty good pvr performance with frodo and mythtv as a backend. Latest pi code seems to be very good too, especially on a fast usb rather than sd card. Look for the threads about it, download and try. You have nothing to lose.
I am running from fast USB which did help performance a bit.
For the "latest pi code" I assume you are referring to some of the recent speed enhancements that I see referenced? I am a little confused about these. Are they available only in Gotham? It appears perhaps some of them have been merged back to Frodo? I've tried to update to recent Gotham builds but as far as I can tell the 2 PVRs I have easily available (WMC and NPVR) are not yet compatible with Gotham? Also, have these "speed fixes" been incorporated into OpenElec, RaspBMC, ??
I hate to ask so many questions, but honestly I've read myself in circles on this. I am not one of those people that just shows up and wants everything spelled out for me, but unfortunately I've tried so many things and gone so many directions of late that I could use a few things spelled out for me if someone would be so kind.
Re: Am I asking too much? - nickr - 2013-10-19
Gotham certainly works with mythtv. Openelec is so easy to try if you have a spare sd and usb stick, so just try them.
RE: Am I asking too much? - Kib - 2013-10-19
During XBMC DevCon someone attached a Pi running one of the latest OpenELEC testbuilds to the beamer.
It had quite fast speed in the menus, but (obviously) I haven't seen it in action with a PVR/Live TV backend.
RE: Am I asking too much? - popcornmix - 2013-10-19
There is a fast channel change patch in rbej's gotham builds (I think) which may be worth trying.
I don't really use PVR so can't comment on the speed.
I was testing tvheadend a couple of days ago and channel change was a few seconds and the epg also took a few seconds,
but I've only got freeview and an internal aerial, so there weren't that many channels.
Obviously removing any channels you don't watch and limiting the guide to a day or two will speed things up.
RE: Am I asking too much? - Jönke - 2013-10-19
@popcormix the "issue" is the long time it takes to open epg timeline view on rpi.
Channelchange takes about ~ 3 seconds so thats fine for me.
Do you think timeline view open time can be optimized on rpi ?
RE: Am I asking too much? - popcornmix - 2013-10-19
(2013-10-19, 13:48)Jönke Wrote: Do you think timeline view open time can be optimized on rpi ?
Sure. If you look at the recent pull requests from Ben Avison for some of the library speedups, a little care with the amount of alloc/copy/free cycles that repeatedly occur in xbmc,
fairly small changes can often make the code go 2 or 3 times faster.
Ben's working on another project for the next month, but we should have him back doing profiling and optimisation on xbmc after that.
Hopefully he'll be able to look into this.
RE: Am I asking too much? - Swifty - 2013-10-19
Thanks for the info, im very interested in this too as PVR section does seem much more laggy then everything else on the Pi.
Having said that even on my dual core atom 1.8 timeline takes a second or two, so it clearly isnt the lightest effort to open timeline
RE: Am I asking too much? - h.udo - 2013-10-19
@eds72
If you feel inclined to test, give this build a go.
Please backup your data! This is under development.
Build info:
OpenELEC 5bf3869
Gotham 923f1c8
PVR d89243e (jdembski)
RE: Am I asking too much? - eds72 - 2013-10-20
(2013-10-19, 18:56)hudo Wrote: @eds72
If you feel inclined to test, give this build a go.
Please backup your data! This is under development.
Build info:
OpenELEC 5bf3869
Gotham 923f1c8
PVR d89243e (jdembski)
Thanks, I'll try and find some time to test it out. Do you know off hand what PVR backends this is compatible with? I have WMC and NPVR installed and configured, so testing with one of those would take less time than if I had to setup another PVR.
RE: Am I asking too much? - eds72 - 2013-10-20
(2013-10-20, 08:30)eds72 Wrote:(2013-10-19, 18:56)hudo Wrote: @eds72
If you feel inclined to test, give this build a go.
Please backup your data! This is under development.
Build info:
OpenELEC 5bf3869
Gotham 923f1c8
PVR d89243e (jdembski)
Thanks, I'll try and find some time to test it out. Do you know off hand what PVR backends this is compatible with? I have WMC and NPVR installed and configured, so testing with one of those would take less time than if I had to setup another PVR.
Well I gave it a try but unfortunately it failed. On reboot it found the new files, md5s checked out ok, went thru update process and rebooted. At this point it got stuck at the rainbow test screen. I re-imaged the sd card back to a working install and verified. Tried update again; this time similar except instead of hanging at rainbow screen it just hung with a black screen.
RE: Am I asking too much? - h.udo - 2013-10-20
It's compatible with all PVRs. It contains a few additional changes specific to pvr.vuplus but everything else is git HEAD.
Update the card manually. Connect it your computer and copy the files over the old ones. Automatic update process using the "Update" folder is known to be somewhat moody.