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My thoughts on OUYA + XBMC
#1
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This weekend,
i've been helping my friend with his birthday present,
yes, an OUYA box....

He knew about XBMC and what it is
but never played with it and didn't know much on how to set it up on the OUYA...

So after toying around with it for a couple of hours,
i must say i was really impressed on how it handled XBMC for a $99 Android box!!

OUYA performed very well with its QuadCore Tegra3 SoC!!
It boots fast, XBMC is super stable, never crashed on me,
and makes me re-think using Windows or Linux hardware for XBMC....

Honestly, if you only need an XBMC box, man,,, get an OUYA right now!!
Can't go wrong for $99!!
I tried many addons, they all work flawlessly!!
All movies up to 1080P played without a hitch!!
As we know, XBMC for OUYA has Hardware Acceleration working!
I installed XBMC v13.3.2 for OUYA ....

I know there's maybe advanced features that might not work currently,
such as Bitstreaming DOLBY TRUE-HD and DTS-HD MASTER,
but hey, i believe its in the works, and from what i see,
OUYA is heavily supported by the devs and thecommunity,
meaning, you can't go wrong, its getting worked on,
not like all those chinese android devices that dies on you
since they drop firmware updates each time they release a new box...

I know you can't play BD-Discs on the OUYA,
But if u dont need such a feature, since u may already have a bluray player,
big deal, OUYA is an amazing streamer!!

It picked up my friends NAS where all his movies are located in seconds,
SAMBA shares work flawlessly!!

you can definitely control XBMC using the OUYA GAME CONTROLLER.
Works really good actually!
But since there's no keyboard, we used YATSE app on his cell phone
and we even tried XBMC remote for iOS on his GF's iPAD!
Both connected and worked flawlessly!!

There's also an interesting KickStarter project thats now funded called LighPack!!
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Yes, it also works with OUYA,
check out this video here ---> http://goo.gl/blvTZD
KickStarter project page here --> http://goo.gl/PkJbi
Goes for around $90 + shipping, looks fantastic!!

At this point, to me its a done deal,
you just can't beat it for $99,
it works, its stable, its supported, its simply AMAZING!!

If you guys have questions on the setup or anything else about the OUYA,
dont be shy Wink
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#2
I've got an Ouya as well and back up that for the money it is great.
Founder of the Qubi Console
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#3
@Sam@Qubi: Nice to see you also like it! I never thought i'd like it so much, i really was blown by this $99 console!
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#4
Wuts up buddy.. long-time-no see!

Although I agree with most of your reviews, I'd have to disagree with your review of the OUYA when it comes to overall performance. I do think it has great potential and i'm happy to hear that a large dev community is constantly working on it's future. Let me point out the few things that have prompted me to put my OUYA in the garage for now.

1st) I did'nt like the fact that I had to put in CC information upon set-up.(not a performance flaw, but did'nt feel it was necessary). I bought this box primarily for XBMC use of course
2nd) I can't get this box to Pass-Through any form of digital Audio not just HD bitstreaming(HUGE setback for me). There is the a work-around by simply turning off your AVR and turning it on again, but thats sort of a pain.
3rd) I get lots of stutter and frame drops with .m2ts files that contain HD audio. I've tried several settings in XBMC but with no luck.(Maybe you can help with this)

I understand it's price point of $99 so I didnt expect too much, plus I bought it to play around with and compare to other Android boxes. Hopfully I can pull my OUYA out of the archives soon and use it for XBMC when traveling on the road or just showing friends what XBMC can do on a relatively inexpensive hardware.
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#5
@CpTHOOK: Hi my friend, i understand your concerns. there's a huge firmware update on the OUYA released 3 days ago, i suggest you do it!!

1st) its easy to workaround this, go here to generate valid Credit Card infos Wink --> http://goo.gl/KV6go

2nd) my friend doesn't use this feature, but passthrough is been worked on by the devs (Koying is currently working on fixing this),
you can try to side-load this XBMC build here made by Koying --> http://filez.semperpax.com/5e9jhnh
he calls it SPMC for now and its fixes some issues on the OUYA such as playing AC3 and DTS and many more..
and if u have an Onkyo AVR, check this here --> http://goo.gl/iFHKhJ

3rd) your stutter will probably vanish once you get passthrough working!

keep us up 2 date!
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#6
+1. If your in the budget category there really isnt another choice right now. I actually gave away my atom box in favor of using my Ouya as the main box since it plays netflix better. I do wish it had a more traditional remote.
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#7
Other than issues with Dolby and DTS codec licenses, the only downside with the Ouya for XBMC is the fact that it does not come with a remote control.


Would be nice it they at least fixed HDMI CEC support, but even better would be if they shipped their own simple (and cheap) remote control with Ouya.

It would be more than enough if they had an package model that came with a Apple TV or Pivos Xios DS type remote with only buttons to navigate XBMC.

I'm sure that a lot of people would be happy to pay say $120 for a Ouya "Plus" package that came with a such remote, or if sold seperatly for $20

The key thing would be that the remote control should would be officially sold and supported by Ouya themselves, under the Ouya brand.


Sure you can use your smart phone with XBMC Remote App to control XBMC on Ouya, but its not the same and it is definitely not kid or wife friendly.
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#8
No remote control is no deal for me, don't care for the game controller or anything else just XBMC and that needs to be on my Harmony remote Sad
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#9
Hallo everybody! Does OUYA support 24p?
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#10
I have an OUYA which I tried to use as an XBMC device. About 5 months ago, I only spent 30 minutes trying to make it work before I gave up... I am sure I was working with some early release or the wrong build. Getting it to work was not a big priority for me at the time.

Eskro your post has motivated me to give it a second look... can you recommend a guide to do this... or outline the install process briefly..?

Thank you!

H.
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#11
I use a blue tooth remote keyboard and blue board app and works well.

One of the major issues is the range of the blue tooth. OUYA has the Bluetooth and wifi on-board chip. They removed the external antenna port in the production of the ouya (it was found in beta pics). I have been running alpha 9 gotham with few issues but for an alpha version, I'm pleasantly surprised.
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#12
I am just excited that eskro posted. A lot of informative posters here have stopped posting over the past year. We need another revolutionary hardware release to get them back to the Hardware sub.
Theater: The PS4/XBONE killer running Kodi 17.3 3D Movie Box: Raspberry Pi running LibreElec 8.0 Alpha BROKEN Family Room: "A6-Pack" running Kodi 17.3 Whole House: FireTV running Kodi 17.3
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#13
(2013-11-25, 07:34)eskro Wrote: XBMC is super stable,

You used it for a couple of hours and now you can declare it super-stable?

Hey, maybe it's stable, maybe it isn't. I have no idea. But I wouldn't claim stability after a weekend testing something, it doesnt help anybody. It is the same as those guys on Youtube who play a video for 3 seconds and go "look perfect playback" and then stop it.
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#14
Thank you for the review eskro. I've been wondering about the ouya for a very long time now and you've given me the confidence to buy one and see how it performs. I've had a bad taste in my mouth since the pivos and was worried the ouya would provide a similar level of performance. I'm very curious to see how it handles a large video library and extended periods of uptime (only reboot for xbmc updates).
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#15
i dont think the OUYA is getting the credit it deserves..

i recall people stearing away from openELEC /Linux because Bitstreaming HD-Audio wasn't working...
But guess what, it has been worked on, and now it works if you have the correct hardware!!

Everbody needs to call down...

Samething for Hardware Acceleration on Android,

remember, people hated to use an outside player like MX PLAYER,
everybody wanted 1080P playback using XBMC's built-in player to get all the nice features and stuff,
well again, it has been worked on, and still worked on,
But OUYA does have hardware accel and was one of the 1st box
if not the very 1st box to have it working under an android O/S...

And with XBMC Gotham coming out officially in a very near futur,
Hardware Accel will work for pretty much any Android Device (except Allwinner box's)....

So again, people just need to calm down a little bit...

We can find PROS and CONS for any HTPC,
it cost me $700 CAD to get my Windows HTPC going, including hardware, peripherals and more...
And its still not perfect, but working good for the most part!
I had problems like many wher XBMC lost focus, was minimizing for no reason,
i had drop frames issues at some point,
video stuttering also, i mean, i ended up sorting all those out,
but it wasn't an out of the box experience so to speak...
Not to mention how much time i spent on it getting everything up and running,
install windows / drivers / Softwares / Configure everything and blablablabla...

Again, give the OUYA time like we gave XBMC for windows/Linux some time....
it'll only get better no difference!!

And about the OUYA not having a conventional remote control,
come on guys, at $99, jeez, just buy one like the MELE F10 PRO or
the soon to be QUBI REMOTE....

I had to buy a remote for my windows HTPC,
and my htpc costed wayyy more then the OUYA,
so just give it a break guys Wink
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My thoughts on OUYA + XBMC1