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theslime · 2012-10-12, 14:53

I successfully installed the testing-v6 version this week, and I love it. I have a Shuttle XS35 GTA V3 with the AMD 7410m GPU, and I ignored all the advice that I should go with Windows and tried XBMCBuntu anyway. After an arduous journey with a plethora of weird errors after googled advice and tutorials, I ended up with the best HTPC setup I've ever had.

I first screwed up by trying to install AMD Catalyst 12.8 - apparently this breaks HW accelerated video for no good reason, and after relentlessly pursuing every course of action for hours except the right one, I ended up rolling back to 12.6 and it fixed everything. I love AudioEngine - no more aplay -l and googling custom passthrough codes and entering weird strings that breaks menu sound. And after struggling with a few of XBMCBuntu's quirks and the crappy terminal client (I ended up doing most of the setup through SSH on a macbook), fstab-ing my network drive and crontab-ing Auto Trash removal (among other things), I'm truly happy with everything for the first time in my HTPC life. (On an unrelated note: Maraschino rules.)

Thank you all so much for making my life better! Seriously!

FuryStryker · 2012-10-12, 14:59

(2012-10-12, 14:53)theslime Wrote: I successfully installed the testing-v6 version this week, and I love it.

I completely agree. All of the sound/video problems I was having are gone! I'm testing it out in the "LIVE" format for a few days before I upgrade to it on my Acer Revo 3700. So good! :-D

theslime · (This post was last modified: 2012-10-12, 15:07 by theslime.)

Also, it says that there are plenty of bugs, but this is BY FAR the most stable XBMC setup I've ever had. Eden-stable on Ubuntu Natty with NVidia ION (on a Zotac ID33) was a nightmare, the sync was always off, sometimes getting progressively worse over the course of watching a film (I tried all the options) and random crashes was a part of the daily routine. I ssh'ed sudo reboot (the only thing apart from hard button-shutdown that it reacted to on a crash) more times than I can count, and my less technically-inclined girlfriend often gave up on it and watched regular tv programming instead.

This is what I've been looking for for a long time.

EDIT: Also, dealing with the xorg woes I was having with AMD Catalyst 12.8 through SSH, I finally learned how to use vi(m)! esc u a yy p esc ZZ Big Grin

FuryStryker · 2012-10-12, 15:10

Yeah, I just haven't had time to really watch/use it more than setting it up for the girlfriend. I was using pre-Eden previously but the lack of native remote support (lirc fml) with my harmony remote was the huge turnoff for her.

Oh! There's also PseudoTV to check out if you want to experience "Channel surfing" from your own collection. It's insane how well it works, I'll hunt for something to watch for 10-15 minutes, try PseudoTV and I'm watching something in like 2.

theslime · 2012-10-12, 15:23

Cool. I'll try that.

About lirc, I'm almost glad my computer has no IR support so I had to buy a FLIRC usb ir receiver. It's a breeze to set up (command line is surprisingly easier than the GUI!). I use an old white Apple Remote, and map the menu key to the randomly chosen keyboard key J, and define J as the previousmenu (the escape key behaviour) on global and audiodelay on fullscreenvideo in the XBMC keymap. I map the buttons as up, down, left and right and play/pause to the enter key, so I don't waste keys. I can play/pause with enter and use menus - all with just six buttons. All I really miss is the context key, and I rarely use that anyway.

Really happy with this setup. Finally.

**ixian** · 2012-10-13, 01:39

My mini-HTPC has an Intel chipset/video - I noticed with the lack of VAAPI that there's no hardware acceleration. Is there a XBMCBuntu/Frodo build out there with VAAPI compiled in, or a way I can roll my own?

pumkinut · 2012-10-13, 04:07

You can roll your own by compiling XBMC from source with the --enable-vaapi flag in the ./configure step. VAAPI should be working on the ppas available. Have you made sure that the Intel Xorg drivers are up to date?

sirhcjw · 2012-10-13, 04:57

Quick question how would I go about cloning the audio on my xbmc running alpha7 build 06/10/2012.

My amp has a zone 2 function but it can only run from analog inputs so for my music I want to be able to output to hdmi and 3.5mm jack so this function will work.

There is no option in the gui to do this is it just a matter of following this guide here http://mce.commsbyte.com/index.php?optio...&Itemid=99 or is it different now with the audio engine?

**wsnipex** · 2012-10-13, 10:42

(2012-10-13, 04:07)pumkinut Wrote: You can roll your own by compiling XBMC from source with the --enable-vaapi flag in the ./configure step. VAAPI should be working on the ppas available. Have you made sure that the Intel Xorg drivers are up to date?

vaapi is not enabled in my builds yet, because its not been tested. Nathan Rennies builds include it.

**ixian** · 2012-10-13, 23:01

(2012-10-13, 10:42)wsnipex Wrote:
(2012-10-13, 04:07)pumkinut Wrote: You can roll your own by compiling XBMC from source with the --enable-vaapi flag in the ./configure step. VAAPI should be working on the ppas available. Have you made sure that the Intel Xorg drivers are up to date?

vaapi is not enabled in my builds yet, because its not been tested. Nathan Rennies builds include it.

Is there a pre-rolled XBMCBuntu image with Nathan's builds in it out, or do I need to install the latest one from here and then compile XBMC from source?

Also, am I correct in assuming that if I have a Intel HD video setup (it's a Zotac box, the ID81-U) then I need VAAPI for hw? I made sure I had the latest Intel drivers, etc installed - works with Eden/VAAPI, but not with these images.

I know they are alpha and I appreciate the effort and the fact not everything may be working yet, I just want to make sure I'm on the right path.

**fritsch** · 2012-10-13, 23:03

@ixian:
Yes, you need vaapi.

I don't know of an xbmcbuntu with nathan's build. but this should be easy to get.

Just remove xbmc xbmc-bin. Also remove wsnipex ppa from /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and add the rennie waldock version, install xbmc-bin xbmc again - that's it.

It could be that you also need the i965-va-driver (easily installed via apt-get install).

**ixian** · 2012-10-14, 01:09

Hey, thanks! I checked out Nathan's nightlies and will give them a try, I didn't think about how simple it would be to add to this XBMCBuntu update.

I did install the i965 driver but thanks for mentioning it; that threw me off even with Eden when I first tried it as I didn't realize I needed it. This is the first non-AMD/Nvidia XBMC box I have built.

ialand · 2012-10-16, 05:15

I've found something in V6 that I can reliably crash XBMC every time. but it crashes restarts and wipes out the log file Sad

just press the up/down arrows on a remote quickly, hold them down actually. After a few seconds, KABOOM.

it will do it with the android remote for XMBC also, but will do it much faster (seems that it will send the key presses way faster.

Wish I could say more, but the logs go PHFFT! Sad

other than that, remarkably stable!

**fritsch** · (This post was last modified: 2012-10-16, 08:27 by fritsch.)

@ialand:
Known problem. Disable Menu sounds. And report your issue here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=128298

A possible other workaround could be to add: <audio><streamsilence>1</streamsilence></audio> into your advancedsettings.xml

More Info on this setting can be found here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=AudioEngine

ialand · 2012-10-16, 21:14

@fritsch - thanks... will do