[GeorgeStark]

Can anybody share their experiences with XBMC 11 on an Acer Revo L70?

I started using XBMC on my 1st generation Xbox and have been running XBMC v9 (Camelot?) on my Acer Revo R3610 for a few years. It runs amazingly well but I'd like to upgrade it and have pretty much decided on the Revo L70 (the one with the AMD CPU/GPU). The thing is, I've read quite a few things regarding getting XBMC running properly on an L70, especially the video hardware acceleration...there's a page in this very forum (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996) with (what seems to me, at least...I know next to nothing about Linux, etc.) pretty complex and specific instructions for getting XBVA running on AMD hardware. Other forum posts suggest that the only thing needed to get everything working (including smooth 1080p playback) is to up the amount of RAM given to the graphics hardware from 256Mb to 512Mb.

A simple BIOS change prior to install is fine, but I'm not sure I like the thought of having to follow everything on the XBVA thread just so I can have the L70 work as well as my several year old R3610.

Any advice or observations will be much appreciated.

[nickr]

Personally I am a great ION2 fan, and I'd abandon Acer rather than get an AMD GPU at this stage of things.

[fritsch]

@GeorgeStark:
Head over to OpenELEC. They use the same XVBA code, offer easy installation and a great out of the box experience.

[GeorgeStark]

Personally I am a great ION2 fan, and I'd abandon Acer rather than get an AMD GPU at this stage of things.

What would you suggest as an alternative?

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@GeorgeStark:
Head over to OpenELEC. They use the same XVBA code, offer easy installation and a great out of the box experience.

I've had a look at OpenELEC and I'll be honest, I don't quite get how it integrates with XBMC. Is it a replacement, some kind of front end or just a tool which allows a simple boot for your specific hardware that you can then install XBMC on?

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Thanks for the replies.

No respones from people who actually use XBMC with a Revo L70...I can't imagine they're that unpopular.

[ensignvorik]

I have an R70 (I'm in UK, not sure if it's the same model with a different name)

I had these issues you'd mentioned, and basically was never able to resolve it with version 11. In the end I installed an early alpha version of XBMCbuntu with Frodo (v12) on it, and this worked like a charm, I'm still using that build to this day and it's been incredibly stable.

Turning on XBVA is just a case of checking a box in the video settings in version 12. Increase the graphics memory in the BIOS too, and you're away.

If you don't want to use the current RC3 of XBMC 12, just wait a little bit longer for the stable release. I'm sure it's going to drop within a matter of days now.

[GeorgeStark]

I have an R70 (I'm in UK, not sure if it's the same model with a different name)

I had these issues you'd mentioned, and basically was never able to resolve it with version 11. In the end I installed an early alpha version of XBMCbuntu with Frodo (v12) on it, and this worked like a charm, I'm still using that build to this day and it's been incredibly stable.

Turning on XBVA is just a case of checking a box in the video settings in version 12. Increase the graphics memory in the BIOS too, and you're away.

If you don't want to use the current RC3 of XBMC 12, just wait a little bit longer for the stable release. I'm sure it's going to drop within a matter of days now.

Thanks very much for your reply. I am also in the UK...it seems that they're the same model and some retailers use R70 and others L70 (the full name, from the looks of it, is actually RL70) but I could be wrong.

Anyway, what you describe is exactly the situation I'm trying to avoid; I think I'll either wait until the stable release of Frodo or maybe even start to look at the Zotac "ZBOX" units as an nVidia ION alternative.

[ensignvorik]

Glad to help.

As others have suggested OpenElec 2.0 already has XBVA built in to it's Eden (v11) build, you can just install this to the hard drive of your revo (just as you would xbmcbuntu) and you'll be ready to go. All OpenElec is, is essentially a very stripped down Linux OS that autoboots into XBMC and has some minor configuration stuff (such as setting a static IP etc)

http://openelec.tv/news/item/253-openelec-20-released

and for the actual download, you want the fusion build, stable: http://openelec.tv/get-openelec/

And install instructions (as you'll download a tar ball) are here, it's very simple, just download the key tool for windows and it creates a bootable USB stick for you: http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php?title=...g_OpenELEC

That will do the job out of the box for you.

OpenElec also has the added bonus of that it will update itself, so you don't need to worry about OS or XBMC updates. It looks after itself.

RC3 of XBMCbuntu I would imagine is pretty much the final edition anyway. You can always run the PPA update manually from within the Linux OS itself so that all the XBMC files get updated to stable once it's released. This saves you having to reinstall the whole system.

Honestly, I've been running an alpha version of Frodo since July, and it's stable. I don't have issues and even all the remote control functions on XBMC Commander for iOS devices have worked perfectly. I'm not saying you might not come across a bug, but you could quite as easily come across a problem even in the stable version!

You've got nothing to lose.

To be honest, I may switch to OpenElec 3.0 myself once they have a stable port of Frodo. The only reason I'm not on it now is because I was just a little too early for their XBVA build of Eden, and now I'm on Frodo all my files are on a QNAP NAS and the library is run of a MySQL setup on the NAS Box, Basicially I can't go backwards as my database is not compatible with Eden. So I've just stuck to my alpha of Frodo which as I've said, has been fine anyway! Thankfully.

NB: Forgot to add, one thing i did do, was up the RAM to 4GB in the Revo, You may not need to do this, as this was before I discovered the BIOS setting for disabling the onboard management of the graphics memory management and setting it to always be 512MB,

Again, hope it helps, honestly, if you want stable, and you want eden. I'd check out OpenElec 2.0

[GeorgeStark]

@ensignvorik

Thanks again for that very detailed description.

If I'm ending up with a new box, which I'll have the luxury of playing around with whilst still having a working XBMC installation (in case my wife wants to watch 'The Good Wife' or something like that ), I can afford to try both set-ups. I'll certainly take a look at OpenELEC.

Now, unless anybody can recommend a ZOTAC box over something like the Revo, my next stop is eBuyer.com.

[ensignvorik]

My mate is looking at doing the same. Likes the look of my revo but wants a bit more grunt. He's going for the Lenovo q180 on ebuyer. (Hasnt got it yet due to being between jobs) You wouldnt imagine youd get any issues with that on Eden out the box. It is about £50 more thou. Depends what's more important to you. Budget or time? Many say time is money so the extra £50 could be money well spent?

Edit: Sorry I lie. There is a dos os version one for the same price as the revo. Although only has 2gb of ram. I'd imagine te extra 2gb ram chip would be less than £50 thou. You could see how it gets on with 2gb and go from there. The intel processor an radeon graphics I would expect to perform better than the fusions. Thou I haven't seen one in action. I can ask my mate if its still his top choice as he is the sort to research a lot before making final decision.

Edit 2: the l70 is a better spec than my r70. So there's actually not much between them. I'd maybe actually go for the revo. At least you know they work from all the people that already have them.

[Marvt74]

I’ve got the L70 (Amd E450, 4gb ram), fitted a 30gb SSD to it and installed Windows 8 and it works fine to be honest. I’ve set it to boot XBMC straight away and from pressing the power switch it takes about 25 seconds to a functional XBMC and it's pretty snappy as well.

My only issue is with the infopanel list view in the AEON NOX skin, but even that’s still very useable. This is using the latest version of Frodo.

Have you considered the i3 version of the Revo although it is a little more expensive.

[GeorgeStark]

My mate is looking at doing the same. Likes the look of my revo but wants a bit more grunt. He's going for the Lenovo q180 on ebuyer. (Hasnt got it yet due to being between jobs) You wouldnt imagine youd get any issues with that on Eden out the box. It is about £50 more thou. Depends what's more important to you. Budget or time? Many say time is money so the extra £50 could be money well spent?

Edit: Sorry I lie. There is a dos os version one for the same price as the revo. Although only has 2gb of ram. I'd imagine te extra 2gb ram chip would be less than £50 thou. You could see how it gets on with 2gb and go from there. The intel processor an radeon graphics I would expect to perform better than the fusions. Thou I haven't seen one in action. I can ask my mate if its still his top choice as he is the sort to research a lot before making final decision.

Edit 2: the l70 is a better spec than my r70. So there's actually not much between them. I'd maybe actually go for the revo. At least you know they work from all the people that already have them.

Thanks again...now I just have to find the time to buy and install it.

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I’ve got the L70 (Amd E450, 4gb ram), fitted a 30gb SSD to it and installed Windows 8 and it works fine to be honest. I’ve set it to boot XBMC straight away and from pressing the power switch it takes about 25 seconds to a functional XBMC and it's pretty snappy as well.

My only issue is with the infopanel list view in the AEON NOX skin, but even that’s still very useable. This is using the latest version of Frodo.

Have you considered the i3 version of the Revo although it is a little more expensive.

I plan to use XBMCbuntu, so I'm not too worried about fitting an SSD or upping the RAM. I did consider the i3 version but it's a little more than I want to spend and seeing as though it's unlikely this will ever have anything else installed on it or be used for any other purpose than XBMC, it seems like overkill.

Thanks!

[dandirk]

I am running RC3 of xbmcuntu on an Zbox ID-41. These are atom processor, ION2 systems, they have a hard time with the heavier skins (Aeon) but HD audio bitstreaming is working very well (a .5 sec drop out here and there, very random).

If you want HD audio bitstreaming... you pretty much have to avoid Intel and AMD video solutions (unless linux drivers have improved recently). ION2 is the low budget/nettop solution for HD audio/xbmc currently.

[exsertus]

Hi, I've recently (yesterday) bought a L70 (avoided L80 due to noted issues on this and the openelec board). Based on lots of reading on various forums. It was that or one of the Zotac's.

So far, I'm not massively impressed, which I'm hoping is down to config rather than hardware. I've been running Open Elec 2.99.1 on various bits of hardware to find the best performance: Raspberry Pi, ATV (1st gen) and Dell Studio Hyrbid 140g. The Dell was actually pretty good, but struggled a little (stuttering) on HD mkv content (with HD audio - which it down mixed to DD/DTS). My rationale for buying the L70 was that it should be much more powerful that the Dell and hence run Openelec/XBMC a breeze.

On the L70 I'm running 2.99.1 Fusion build (64bit). Only BIOS mod was to change the UMD to 512Mb. Quick summary

* Running Refocus Big skin (I like this, its clean and pretty fluid)
* Running PVR using TVHeadend client and server (with a PCTV Nanostick T2 -which gives me DVB-T and T2 (HD) in the UK)
* XMLtv is the usual faff with grabbers etc (using tv_grab_uk_rt and ActivePerl)
* SD and HD TV is fine
* SD content (mkv and legacy mp4's ok)
* HD content (mkv rips of Bluray) - nothing, steps through almost a frame a second - unwatchable.
* All my content is on a NAS server with gig ethernet and switch

Really feel that this is a build or config issue rather than hardware (given the Dell is 6 years old!). Happy to share findings or take advise.

On paper though, the Revo series is great for this kind of thing

Cheers

Steve

[fritsch]

HD content (mkv rips of Bluray) - nothing, steps through almost a frame a second - unwatchable.

Could I have a xbmc.log for this? This rather looks like wrong Audio configuration.
Make your audio config according to this thread (cause of fglrx limitations):
http://openelec.tv/forum/117-xvba-amd/55...penelec-30

In Short:
Not more than 5.1 Speakers
No TrueHD, No DTS-HD: AMD cannot do this right now - so always disable those.
No LPCM if your speaker number is more than 2.0
No Play Stereo on all channels

[exsertus]

Hi fritch, I spent a morning fiddling with this. Looks like the crux of the matter is HD audio. If I disable HD audio (True HD and DTS-HD) in the system->Audio settings, it plays back fine. Just sending regular DTS/DD to my amp. Left LPCM on, and its fine.

So, actually, my view has changed. Its all good, apart from HD passthrough (over HDMI). Small price to pay for something I'd imagine will resolve itself over time.