2012-09-03, 21:54
using 2.0 optical in OSX and 2.0 in eden runs fine using 12.0-ALPHA5 Git:20120827-f8f5a56
2012-09-04, 17:30
2012-09-04, 20:58
yep or use reciever to upmix 2.0 to 5.1 but you will lose 5.1 decrete channels. In other words, 2.0 gets played over 5.1
2012-09-04, 21:41
No you won't lose anything as spdif only does stereo pcm anyways. It will still switch to 5.1 passthrough if it's enabled, even with the channel count set to 2.
2012-09-06, 18:07
(2012-08-02, 21:22)Chris! Wrote:(2012-08-02, 20:00)lapino Wrote: Is the disappearing mouse cursus problem fixed? (mouse cursor always vanishes when I quit XBMC after running it for a while).
I found a simple click brings it back.
It does not, I assure you. I even tried reinstalling OSX from scratch, problem remains. The cursor does not disappear when I start xbmc and quit within a few mins. But when xbmc was on for quite a while and having played some movies (mkv/avi etc), and then quitting. The cursor is gone. Only solution is to logoff, other stuff does NOT work.
2012-12-13, 07:42
(2012-07-25, 18:23)davilla Wrote: If it's not broke, I would not upgrade for the kicks of it. Here's what happens, every single time Apple posts a new OSX version. Users upgrade without a thought, something does not work right, they get told to downgrade, then they start complaining
Personally, (and I'm a dev too) I never, ever update a box that I depend on until maybe years after the update pops out. Why, the first one is always buggy as hell, and it takes a few rounds of get things right.
Hint, my mainline production boxes run 10.6.8, why ? It's stable as all get out
Well, my old media server was a PowerMac Digital Audio from 2001 and while it was updated to ~2005 specs with a 1.8GHz G4, etc., Apple dumped all support for it in iTunes, etc. (not to mention surfing was getting slow and virtually all official browsers dumped it as well), so NOT upgrading wasn't exactly an option at this point unless all I ever wanted it to do was serve XBMC. Thus, I bought a new computer and guess what, they come with Mountain Lion, not 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. So the idea of not upgrading for stability reasons is great and all, but not exactly practical at times.
My experience using Eden on ATV1 (which I guess is where it will stay since I was told XBMC will not be updated for Gen1 ATVs running Apple's own software anymore...so much for NOT updating operating systems, I guess) is that AFP is more or less broken since most of my tv shows will pretty much lock up after about a half hour or so and from what I've read on here, it will not likely ever be fixed (and even if it is, ATV Gen1 won't see the fixes either way).
SMB is broken in Mountain Lion for anything but browsing files from XBMC (i.e. media files won't play), so I used SMBUp to switch to Samba3. This "mostly" works, but I've found some truly odd behaviors as well. For instance, I have a photo gallery set of directories and most images load fine. However, one entire batch of photos (that loaded fine from my old server) refuse to load now, BUT if I use AFP instead for that directory, those same files load just fine (slaps head in frustration). Fortunately, I think AFP is stable enough for just pictures, but I can't fathom why it refuses to load them in SMB only. No file renaming helps, but re-encoding via Photoshop did result in a readable version (but why do they work with AFP and the old server's SMB?)
Similarly, I've found some TV Shows that will not load correctly with Samba3 from Mountain Lion. One entire DVD series won't play, but again, if I use AFP instead, they play just fine (and they played fine from the old PPC Leopard server with SMB). An episode of a show which I encoded myself with Handbrake in HD does the same thing (worked fine on old server with SMB but only plays with AFP now, but AFP risks a lock-up sooner or later). All the SD versions of the show I had previously encoded work fine with SMB. Other shows I encoded in HD with the same Handbrake settings work fine with SMB so I'm totally baffled as to what the cause of the issue is.
On the other hand, on the old server there were a few movies that would not play correctly in XBMC (e.g. The Black Hole Anchor Bay DVD I encoded to M4V would have audio but no picture before, but the newer Disney release I encoded played fine, but now they both play fine on the new server (one still doesn't show the "SD" logo, though).
Ultimately, I had to choose between running an old server that had no redeeming features for other applications (browser out of date, iTunes no longer supported, etc.) but worked fine with XBMC or switching to a brand new Mac Mini Quad-Core i7 that should be usable for many years to come. Of course, I had no idea that the new machine would present any real issues when I got it. Overall, I like Mountain Lion better than Snow Leopard (other than the loss of Rosetta, which had some impact here for a few apps, but running Wine and/or VMWare Fusion let me use Windows versions instead and they weren't used much anyway.) Sadly, I guess the server software was better in Snow Leopard (making it a snap to set up NFS shares instead whereas it's been removed from the server software in Mountain Lion and you have to manually set it up or buy some 3rd party software to do what Apple used to apparently do just fine from what I've read. There's also WebDav, but I have not been able to get it to work yet with XBMC (directory shows up empty or with some odd sub-folders and it was supposed to be just a one-click affair).
At the rate Apple is starting to move with OS updates and dumping support for older computers, the idea of remaining with a stable version of the OS like Snow Leopard forever will quite probably become less and less realistic. And if developers stick with older machines, it's just that much more likely that things will break for people with newer computers. I guess too bad for them. Personally, I'm starting to think it might be simpler in the long run to just convert all my AVI and MKV files over to M4V and then I can be sure they will work in AppleTV's own GUI. OTOH, Apple's newer ATV units (I also have one ATV Gen2 unit) also sometimes fail to play files for reasons unknown. I have a few HD movies I encoded myself with Handbrake that played fine on ATV Gen1 and in iTunes on the new computer, but just sit there with the busy thing running in ATV2 (other moves encoded using the same Handbrake settings play just fine and so again, I have no idea what it is the ATV doesn't like that any other computer plays just fine with.) Personally, I find it all frustrating. I just wanted to not have to use DVDs and/or BDs anymore (the server and ATVs let me just beam the entire library around the house and sync to my iPod Touch, etc. easily so it sucks when a file doesn't work for reasons unknown).
2012-12-13, 08:36
I'm sorry, I lost focus after the third paragraph, was there a question or issue in that sea of words ? 
2012-12-13, 09:46
Serve content over NFS if you can. Besides, Mountain Lion should be fine with XBMC at the moment, there are workarounds for remote and wakeup problems. Not sure if some people are still having problems with optical audio or not..
2012-12-13, 15:02
Run Crystalbuntu (wiki) from a USB drive. That way you don't have to erase the original ATV OS, and you'll get future updates. Although right now Crystalbuntu doesn't have Frodo yet, and I'm not sure how long that will take, but generally speaking Crystalbuntu runs soooo much better on the ATV1. I've got two ATV1s (also with the BCHD (wiki) chips) running Crystalbuntu, and I love them and use them every day. Very solid machines.
10.6 won't actually be "out of date" for a long time, at least for any software worth it's salt.
That being said, use NFS and NFS Manager (wiki) for a nice GUI. Since NFS Manager makes it easier for people to set up and manage, NFS is now Mac users' best bet.
Also, rumor has it that AFP support in XBMC will get a lot better in the future, but no ETA or anything like that, and only a rumor. You didn't hear it from me.
10.6 won't actually be "out of date" for a long time, at least for any software worth it's salt.
That being said, use NFS and NFS Manager (wiki) for a nice GUI. Since NFS Manager makes it easier for people to set up and manage, NFS is now Mac users' best bet.
Also, rumor has it that AFP support in XBMC will get a lot better in the future, but no ETA or anything like that, and only a rumor. You didn't hear it from me.
2012-12-14, 03:45
Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and I would like to ask for some help.
I have 3 devices that I want to stream video.
I can use my android phone running MediaHouse to stream DLNA from the iMac/XBMC to the Topfield 2400pvr and vice versa.
I can also stream to and from the phone.
The Topfield can browse the iMAc/XBMC and initiate streaming.
BUT I can't use the iMac/XBMC to initiate the streaming because it can't browse the Topfield or the Phone.
Is there some way that the iMac/XBMC can "see" the files on the other 2 devices?
I'm new to this forum and I would like to ask for some help.
I have 3 devices that I want to stream video.
I can use my android phone running MediaHouse to stream DLNA from the iMac/XBMC to the Topfield 2400pvr and vice versa.
I can also stream to and from the phone.
The Topfield can browse the iMAc/XBMC and initiate streaming.
BUT I can't use the iMac/XBMC to initiate the streaming because it can't browse the Topfield or the Phone.
Is there some way that the iMac/XBMC can "see" the files on the other 2 devices?
2012-12-15, 12:03
2012-12-15, 12:39
XBMC should be able to see most UPnP sources if you add those as a file source.
2012-12-16, 07:00
I guess my question is whether there might be a setting in the default SMBUp Samba3 setup that might be causing XBMC to not be able to view certain pictures and/or TV Shows on my new Mac Mini Server running Mountain Lion. From what I've read, XBMC is Samba3 and that is what SMBUp installs, so I can't help but wonder if there's something I'm missing somewhere that 95% of my files read/run fine with SMB, but at least one entire TV Series and an HD version of a show and about 20 picture files won't read under SMB, but do run under AFP (and did run on my PowerMac PPC machine running Leopard and its older Samba install).
I guess I could try to set up NFS instead, but that would mean re-doing all my movie/tv libraries all over again across multiple AppleTV units (not fun) plus it's around $30 just for a GUI to set up something that used to be one click in older OSX versions (kind of sick of putting out money on this new computer right now) and no guarantee without trying it that I won't have any issues with that either (seeing as I ran into odd problems with both AFP and Samba3 on the new computer).
Is there something in the XBMC log that might help me figure out what the issue is for those particular files?
I guess I could try to set up NFS instead, but that would mean re-doing all my movie/tv libraries all over again across multiple AppleTV units (not fun) plus it's around $30 just for a GUI to set up something that used to be one click in older OSX versions (kind of sick of putting out money on this new computer right now) and no guarantee without trying it that I won't have any issues with that either (seeing as I ran into odd problems with both AFP and Samba3 on the new computer).
Is there something in the XBMC log that might help me figure out what the issue is for those particular files?
