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Nice work, but please use the search function. Myself and many others have posed the same question, and there are numerous threads on how others have gotten it to work. Good luck.
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Plex "works" because the iMac is doing all the real work in this case. Plus, you have to transcode your video which means a decrease in quality. Probably not enough to be really noticeable, but a quality loss none the less. As you already know, the downside to Plex is that it requires a server (and is often not forgiving of older hardware that can still do the same tasks). XBMC is a full blown install, doing everything on the ATV2 itself.
Also, Plex is only sending the ATV2 a 720 video signal (since it's transcoding to the ATV2 client), even though your source file is 1080. That means less data going to the ATV2, less chance for buffering, etc.
Like someone else said, search the forums. There are some good solutions that are working for a lot of people and will probably help you out as well, but in these early days you might have to dig a little bit. Development of XBMC on iOS is still on going, so improved performance is a pretty safe bet.
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I'm surprised you can get 1080p to work at all using wireless. Switched to fully wired and that will help enormously.
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I think SMB on Time Capsule / Airport Disk is non-standard, and has changed significantly between firmware versions - so that could lead to some differing experiences from people on ostensibly the same hardware. Also it is definitely slower than an SMB share from a Mac, have you tried that with XBMC? This works for me, and the Mac which is sharing the media is only a 1GHZ PPC.
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Thank you johndo, I have the exact same issue and wanted the exact same info. Every time someone who is stuck posts a valid request for assistance, an xbmc admin fires back with "there's an answer for that, search the forums". Granted, many lazy noobs will want instant answers rather than doing homework. But often, the answer is not stated in any forum, only similar issues which may also have no solution. I've had my ATV2 for around 4 months now, and it is only half functional at best. Purchasing a wifi drive and connecting it to my TV would have done the same thing with much less hassle and frustration. Currently only .avi files will play fine. MKV, MP4, forget about it. I've trawled the forums and searched every keyword. Hardware acceleration turned off, subtitles turned off, download/update/settings/equipment/etc turned off, adjusted, restarted, checked. Buffering and crashes abound.
I'm not a tech noob, but i'm not pro enough to try a nightly release which may fix some of these bugs at the risk of causing others. I've JB'd, SSH'd, restored, and re-installed several times now. As it stands, XBMC for iOS is only 6 months old and not a main release yet. It's still a project in infancy and may not be fully functional until the release of Version 11 'Eden'.
A note to fellow users out there: regardless of platform, if xbmc works for you, donate. Downloading free software, bitching about it not working properly (whether valid or not), having an xbcm team member help you remedy the solution, and then sit back and enjoy someone else's hard work with little more than a thank-you, is brat-like behaviour.
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2011-06-11, 10:53
(This post was last modified: 2011-06-11, 10:56 by activate.)
I wasn't sure where to share this since there are so many threads on this topic including ones that I have started.
I have raised/asked questions about the buffering issue pretty much since I installed xbmc on atv2 a few months back. I fall in the category of those using smb sharing. The issues have been consistently been of stuttering and buffering of the files (eg. 1080 mkvs) that are acknowledged in the stickys as possible candidates for those affected.
A couple of days ago I updated to the nightly for the first time (uptill now I had been on the official release). Immediately the stuttering has disappeared. The buffering remains, although less frequent. The end result is the I would now consider to watch files that I previously couldn't. Even though, I had seen a similar remark in the hundreds of comments about this topic, I also found that some of the issues about running nightlies atleast discouraged me from updating to the nightlies.
Anyway, had I known this as possible fix, I would have probably tried it much earlier. As pointed out earlier in this thread, I think it would be worthwhile to compile a list of "possible fixes" for those encountering these issues.
PS. Thank you to those working on the nightlies.
Macmini Server 2011 i7 Quad Core, OS 10.8.2, Amp Onkyo TX-SR308 USB WD drives 3x2TB TV Samsung Plasma 720p EyeTV Integration
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.
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Fire69...did you also try ftp. I still have the buffering as I have mentioned on smb but...Some people have found that ftp has worked for them. I got stuck because mac's native ftp share doesn't allow for anything outside the home directory..and sharepoint is not available for leopard. I'd have to install xcode, etc. to install a ftpserver....so I didn't keep at it.
Macmini Server 2011 i7 Quad Core, OS 10.8.2, Amp Onkyo TX-SR308 USB WD drives 3x2TB TV Samsung Plasma 720p EyeTV Integration
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary, and those who don't.
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Fire69
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No, I haven't tried ftp.
I'm willing to try it by setting up an ftp-server, but I would find it very strange I need to do this to get xbmc running in a decent way.
I've been using xbmc since 2003 on an xbox with smb without any problems, so I think it is still a problem with the atv-build.