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IsleOfMan · 2011-06-30, 21:46

I've been using XBMC for some time in my Home Theater and bedroom. Now with the progress made on the ATV2 an ease of setup of MySQL Database Library, I've decided I want to roll XBMC out to the whole house. My wife would greatly appreciate a unified UI around the entire house and I myself want multi-room resume and cover/fanart syncing.

The one problem I'm running into is my Livingroom TV. It's an older Philips 32" 4:3 CRT that only supports 480p or 1080i over component YPbPr input. This obviously eliminates the ATV2 as an option and seemingly limits me to ATV1 + Crystal or PC. Since I have a P4 and 8400GS laying around, I'm leaning heavily toward the latter.

That said, how easy is it to setup XBMC, preferably with Confluence, for use on a 4:3 display over component video at either 1080i or 480p? In terms of OS I'm open to Win7 or Linux. In the distant past (i.e. Geforce 4, Win XP, and Powerstrip) it was EXTREMELY difficult to get reliable 1080i output over component video, but 480p wasn't too dificult. Overscan compensation will also be important because I kno for a fact that I have as much as 15% overscan on the TV(can't see sports scores or news tickers at all on TV channels).

What is the current state of affairs for setup of 1080i 4:3 component video output? If 480p is much easier, that's fine with me in terms of playback, but does it severly hamper the appearance of the Confluence skin?

I'll be experimenting this weekend, but in the meantime I'm speculating the work day away... thanks in advance!

seand · (This post was last modified: 2011-06-30, 22:31 by seand.)

For component video, the old ATV1's are the way to go since they are cheap on ebay these days and have component video built in. I use one on 480p for the TV my kid watches Sesame Street on.

On the one with the Crystal HD card which to be honest is still a little frame droppy on 1080 depending on how the source material is encoded I have only used it with HDMI since dropping in the Crystal HD card. But its my understanding the Crystal HD also lets you output 1080 via component. You might want to check out back threads which are under MacOs. The Apple TV 1 ran a version of the MacOS natively if thats confusing, as compared to the ATV2's that run iOS. But you can also run the ATV1 strictly under Linux using Sam Nazarko's build of XBMC Live available in these forums.

Even without the Crystal card the old ATV1's did just great on 720p dvix avi's to component video for me. Mkv's at high bit rates especially with AC3 audio a little less so.

Re centralized database:
Even if you don't go all the way there in terms of setting up a shared SQL database, exporting your library to individual files under Settings>System (i.e. XBMC puts art and nfo files in each folder for each video) does a pretty good job of syncing up different XBMC installs. Everytime you restart it will sync the library by loading the nfo files on whatever XBMC anyway.

I'm assuming the Component Video is for older TV's so I'm also assuming cheap is paramount, so try the the ATV 1's.

seand · 2011-06-30, 22:28

Dupe post.

IsleOfMan · 2011-06-30, 22:30

The issue is I have a mix of media ranging from 480p to 1080p and mostly h.264 mkv with ac3. This makes me think ATV1 without crystalhd is not really an option. I also already have a capable P4 pc and 8400gs video card, meaning $0 in added cost.

Surely someone is running component video out of a PC at 1080i given the huge number of older RPTVs out there...

seand · (This post was last modified: 2011-06-30, 22:51 by seand.)

Ah I somehow missed you already had a card that puts out component, which is less prevalent these days. That does change things. I thought you were connecting a TV that had never been hooked up to any kind of HTPC for the first time and looking for the cheapest connection.

I would just try it. XBMC is pretty flexible in compensating for overscan and video format. Skins run well or less so, depending on the processor power of the HTPC. Lower resolution does not effect performance of the menus, as I understand it.

Really it seems an issue of the drivers for the card more than anything in terms of the 1080. The Pentium 4 and card should be able to downsample to 480 worse case scenario.

ATV1 even with Crystal HD does not, in my experience, love x264 with ac3, for whatever reason, but results vary wildly depending on bitrate. Sometimes its just great, sometimes its jerky or fights with audio sync.

jhsrennie · 2011-07-01, 09:02

A new TV seems the obvious option. Even an entry level 32" is going to give a better picture than a CRT, and the cheaper end of the 32" TV market is well under £300 these days.

JR

IsleOfMan · (This post was last modified: 2011-07-01, 15:58 by IsleOfMan.)

There's really no reason to replace our existing TV. It is in fine working order (other than the obligatory overscan), fits extremely well in the cabinet it resides in, and is basically the fourth most watched location in the house. Even shelling out $250 for a 32" LCD (price I saw for a Toshiba at HHGregg this weekend) is an outlay that wouldn't see a return on investment.

That doesn't mean, however, that I don't want the same uniform UI on this TV as the rest of the house. It's mainly used for movies for the kids when they're playing in their adjacent play-room, so it would be very nice to have the same UI as I plan on having in their bedroom (ATV2 + XBMC) as well as the ability to pause/stop/resume between rooms using MySQL.

If I can't get it going with the existing hardware I have (P4 2.8, 1gb DDR, 8400GS) then I guess I'll run a secondary PLEX server and use a ROKU box I happen to have laying around, but this will break the uniform UI and probably present a notable load on the server and network giving PLEX+ROKU's dependence on transcoding. Even the existing BriteView CinemaTube gets the job done, though it's not pretty or user friendly. I would even stick with it if the other options meant much of a cash outlay.

I just thought for sure that, given the number of RPTVs still out (especially high-end Pioneer Elite and Mitsubishi models that offer reference quality picture) there, that someone would have some experience with 480p and/or 1080i component video output.

jhsrennie · 2011-07-01, 18:00

IsleOfMan Wrote:There's really no reason to replace our existing TV.

Apart of course from fixing your problem and making you happy :-)

That's usually the reason I buy consumer electronics. I find logic to be greatly overrated in this respect.

JR

IsleOfMan · 2011-07-01, 18:23

jhsrennie Wrote:Apart of course from fixing your problem and making you happy :-)

That's usually the reason I buy consumer electronics. I find logic to be greatly overrated in this respect.

JR

If this were the case in the theater (100" front projection) or the bedroom (37" LCD), I'd probably just upgrade the display... but not for the living room, being the least watched TV in the house.

Anyone out there with some experience settup up component video output at 1080i or 720p with an NVIDIA card?

IsleOfMan · 2011-07-02, 05:28

Well... that was easier than I expected. All of the proper settings were right there in the Nvidia control panel, including overscan correction. Strangely my 32" 4:3 HD CRT doesn't play nice with 4:3 1080i signals, but does fine with 16:9 1080i.

That said, this did spark me to check Craigslist for some 34" 16:9 Sony XBR CRTs and they are ridiculously cheap ($50 - $100) for reference quality displays. I may pick one up this weekend since doing the overscan correction setup showed me how absolutely horrible the geometry is on my current display. The last few generations of Sony XBR CRTs also have HDMI which will make using the HTPC that much easier/better and also allow me to go with an ATV2 if I decide it works well elsewhere in the house.