[jimmymcmahon]

Yes, think so, it is in the default openelec config.txt anyway. Only put it down as some people like to increase..

Yeah of course mate. Wasn't having a go, was just trying to confirm my understanding was correct

I've had mine running for around 3 days too now @ 1000 and no issues as of yet. Nice and snappy. Im running a usb 3.0 / sd card setup but I would be interested to see if indeed the usb is still necessary.

Might try the SD only tomorrow and see if there are any significant differences.

Haha didn't think you were buddy !!
I personally don't think Usb is needed, see how you get on when you test it out. I'm running off a class 4 sd card at the moment and it's running just fine, I did intend to get a better card but it seems the pi 2 reads it quicker then 4MBps

Millhouse thanks for the info I'll increase the value of gpu_mem to your figure.

Hi mate.

So I tried an sd only install this weekend.
Using an old class 4 micro sdhc card I had.
In terms of responsiveness through the menus etc I agree the pi performs well (albeit with a few temporary lock ups when add ons are updating in the background)

The biggest and most frustrating difference I've noticed from SD only vs usb 3.0 install is the time taken to scan a series in my library from tvdb etc.

In both the below I tested with no overlcock and then the same again with turbo overclock enabled.

If I use a well known series "throne of games" as an example. If I use the "add to library" function on this series for example on the usb 3.0 setup it will add them to the library and scan tvdb for all the info etc in about 10 seconds flat.

On the sd card, the same operation is taking about 10 minutes to complete the library scanning for the same series. I'm talking significant differences in speed. It also causes the pi to become pretty much unresponsive during that process.

Anyone else noticing this behaviour or am I doing something wrong ?

Repeated the above process with turbo overclock and made no difference to snails pace library scanning on the sd only install

[steve1977]

One of the main reasons for using a RPi is that I don't need an extra powersupply (I really dislike cables), so I would love to find a way to get things working powered by the Bravia. It worked perfectly with the RPi1 and I do not have any USB devices attached.

Do you have a second USB port available on the Bravia? If so it might be worth trying a USB Y-cable to power the Pi2.

Unfortunately not. Just one. Not the end of the world as worst-case I can always keep using the factory setting of the RPi2, which works without issues. Interesting enough, the rainbow colored box shows up on the top-right corner at boot, but then it runs smoothly: Anything to be concerned of?

Also, let me try the configuration below. The over_voltage=1 may still be doable...

arm_freq=1000
sdram_freq=500
core_freq=500
over_voltage=1
gpu_men=320
force_turbo=1

[pike]

gpu_men=320

n = m

[Memphiz]

its a new group of marvell super heros ... gpu men - didn't you know?

[oWarchild]

its a new group of marvell super heros ... gpu men - didn't you know?

[jimmymcmahon]

Yeah of course mate. Wasn't having a go, was just trying to confirm my understanding was correct

I've had mine running for around 3 days too now @ 1000 and no issues as of yet. Nice and snappy. Im running a usb 3.0 / sd card setup but I would be interested to see if indeed the usb is still necessary.

Might try the SD only tomorrow and see if there are any significant differences.

Haha didn't think you were buddy !!
I personally don't think Usb is needed, see how you get on when you test it out. I'm running off a class 4 sd card at the moment and it's running just fine, I did intend to get a better card but it seems the pi 2 reads it quicker then 4MBps

Millhouse thanks for the info I'll increase the value of gpu_mem to your figure.

Hi mate.

So I tried an sd only install this weekend.
Using an old class 4 micro sdhc card I had.
In terms of responsiveness through the menus etc I agree the pi performs well (albeit with a few temporary lock ups when add ons are updating in the background)

The biggest and most frustrating difference I've noticed from SD only vs usb 3.0 install is the time taken to scan a series in my library from tvdb etc.

In both the below I tested with no overlcock and then the same again with turbo overclock enabled.

If I use a well known series "throne of games" as an example. If I use the "add to library" function on this series for example on the usb 3.0 setup it will add them to the library and scan tvdb for all the info etc in about 10 seconds flat.

On the sd card, the same operation is taking about 10 minutes to complete the library scanning for the same series. I'm talking significant differences in speed. It also causes the pi to become pretty much unresponsive during that process.

Anyone else noticing this behaviour or am I doing something wrong ?

Repeated the above process with turbo overclock and made no difference to snails pace library scanning on the sd only install

I can confirm that I have tried a different micro SD card as suggested in this thread http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewto...&start=225 it seems that random 4k / 512kb read and writes are the more important stat for an SD card running kodi/xbmc in comparison to the advertised sequential write speeds. The card i used above only had the following 4k / 512 random read / write speeds which will explain the ridiculously slow performance when scanning library.

OLD SD CARD



I then performed the same library scan on a fresh install using the following SD card
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Class-Me...B00D6ENF7M
and can confirm blistering performance in comparison, even without overclock. (I would even say its faster than my USB 3.0 + SD combined kodi installation)

The CrystalMarkResults for this card below show the reason for the marked improved performance - Random 4k /512kb writes are much better which suits Kodi perfectly. No need for that ugly USB 3.0 stick poking out the pi anymore

NEW SD CARD


Good times

[steve1977]

Not sure whether this deserves a separate thread, but would like to pick your brain on the very fastest SD card for the RPi2. I don't mind space (4gb, 8gb, 16gb), but looking for the fastest out there. Changing library scan from 10min to 10sec appears to be absolutely outstanding and something I would have never expected to be an effect just by the SD card...

[Dimitriss]

Not sure whether this deserves a separate thread, but would like to pick your brain on the very fastest SD card for the RPi2. I don't mind space (4gb, 8gb, 16gb), but looking for the fastest out there. Changing library scan from 10min to 10sec appears to be absolutely outstanding and something I would have never expected to be an effect just by the SD card...

Get the noobs sd card (8gb class 6). Cheap and fast.

[abpostelnicu]

Tested different config file setup´s and ended up with this:

OS is the latest Openelec build #0203 from Milhouse
arm_freq=1100
core_freq=520
sdram_freq=520
over_voltage=8
over_voltage_sdram=6
gpu_mem=256
force_turbo=1
disable_overscan=1
avoid_pwm_pll=1
current_limit_override=1
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_drive=2

arm_freq=1100 was the highest value I can get without freezing the Pi during Usage.

But the backpower method with a USB Y-Cable isn´t working, like I did with my old Pi B. I think the reason why I can´t go over 1100freq is the less power provide through the micro usb port. Any Idea how I can get this working again?

And what's your experience in general with the new Pi2? Snappier? Much faster? etc? I have the original Pi and am very interested in this and if things navigate much quicker, etc!

With this setting everything runs really smooth, from my feeling much smoother than with standard settings.
I use the skin 1080XF with many Addons and boblightd active, also playing 1080p movies in the background while scrolling through my movie list ist possible without any lack of speed.

Do you have any cooling to your raspberry? I think an aluminium case would be nice with some heatsink and thermoconducting paste.

[noggin]

Do you have any cooling to your raspberry? I think an aluminium case would be nice with some heatsink and thermoconducting paste.

Like this ? http://flirc.tv/product/flirc-raspberry-pi-case/

http://raspi.tv/2014/the-flirc-case-for-raspberry-pi-b

http://thepihut.com/products/flirc-raspberry-pi-b-case

Does look like a very neat, NUC-like solution. They supply a thermal pad to let the Pi B+ (and I think Pi 2 B) properly thermally connect to the heatsink/case.

[jimmymcmahon]

Not sure whether this deserves a separate thread, but would like to pick your brain on the very fastest SD card for the RPi2. I don't mind space (4gb, 8gb, 16gb), but looking for the fastest out there. Changing library scan from 10min to 10sec appears to be absolutely outstanding and something I would have never expected to be an effect just by the SD card...

Hi mate I can only comment on the 2 cards I have rested. Read performance reviews of other sd cards in this thread. http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewto...&start=225

As others have mentioned in that thread, for the operations that kodi performs sequential write / read speed is not important.
Kodi performs mainly small random 4k/512k read writes a lot and so if you have an sd card with high 4k / 512k write speeds it will perform very well for Kodi.

You will see cards mentioned in that thread that have like 90MB/s sequential write speeds but only 0.1MB/s 4k / 512k write speeds. As such that would be a very bad card for kodi and you would notice considerable lag in the UI / library scan. On the other hand you will see a cheaper card mentioned with much slower sequential write speeds but with a higher speed in 4k/512k writes. As such that card would be better for kodi.

Rule of thumb. Ignore sequential write speeds (they are only good for use in digital cameras / video recorders etc that need to write large files frequently). For Kodi, look for the card with the highest 4k/512k random write speeds and this will dictate its performance in Kodi.

Lots of people are mentioning the stock noobs card as a favourite as above as random write speeds are above 1 MB/s. But as you can see from my results on the sd card I'm using, (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Class-Me...B00D6ENF7M) for about £10 you can get a card with 3-4MB/s 4k/512k write speeds. Trust me it's realy fast and UI does not lag in anyway. Even without overclocking.

I'll also point out that when I said library scan. I was just referring to the scanning in of all the series of 1 particular tv show. It was taking 10 minutes + on the old sd card but less than 10 seconds on the new sd card due to the great 4k / 512k random write speeds.

[Patatra]

Got mine running with this settings (boot on sd, storage on usb with powered hub) :

Code:

# lsb_release
OpenELEC (Milhouse) - Version: devel-20150203210258-r20194-gfa82a48 [Build #0203]

# vcgencmd get_config int
arm_freq=1130
core_freq=530
sdram_freq=530
over_voltage=8
over_voltage_sdram=6
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
disable_overscan=1
hdmi_ignore_cec_init=1
hdmi_edid_file=1
disable_pvt=1
avoid_pwm_pll=1
force_turbo=1

Seems stable for now, and looks impressive!

[mentat]

Got mine running with this settings (boot on sd, storage on usb with powered hub) :

Code:

# lsb_release
OpenELEC (Milhouse) - Version: devel-20150203210258-r20194-gfa82a48 [Build #0203]

# vcgencmd get_config int
arm_freq=1130
core_freq=530
sdram_freq=530
over_voltage=8
over_voltage_sdram=6
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
disable_overscan=1
hdmi_ignore_cec_init=1
hdmi_edid_file=1
disable_pvt=1
avoid_pwm_pll=1
force_turbo=1

Seems stable for now, and looks impressive!

That's a great result!

I would like to ask the community a question (or two) regarding the specific parameters...

First, regarding (disable_overscan=1)
It is my understanding that this should be enabled if the HDMI output does "not fit" on the TV display.
I usually leave this off (disable_overscan=0) as there are no "borders" displayed on my Samsung TV (Picture Size : Just Scan).
So, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (are the freq or voltage settings dependant on overscan)?

Next, regarding (avoid_pwm_pll=1)
If I set this this parameter, will I lose any audio features (I use usually set HDMI audio to 5.1 passthrough for my AC3/DTS receiver).
Again, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (to use these specific freq combinations)?

BTW, my "understanding" of these settings comes from: http://elinux.org/RPiconfig

Thanks.

[popcornmix]

First, regarding (disable_overscan=1)
It is my understanding that this should be enabled if the HDMI output does "not fit" on the TV display.
I usually leave this off (disable_overscan=0) as there are no "borders" displayed on my Samsung TV (Picture Size : Just Scan).
So, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (are the freq or voltage settings dependant on overscan)?

disable_overscan only affects the framebuffer (only used by initial splash screen when loading). It has no effect once Kodi has launched.

Next, regarding (avoid_pwm_pll=1)
If I set this this parameter, will I lose any audio features (I use usually set HDMI audio to 5.1 passthrough for my AC3/DTS receiver).
Again, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (to use these specific freq combinations)?

No effect for HDMI. It degrades analogue audio, but allows core_freq and other gpu frequencies (h264_freq, v3d_freq, isp_freq) to be run off separate plls.

[mentat]

I appreciate your prompt response, but just for clarification...

First, regarding (disable_overscan=1)
It is my understanding that this should be enabled if the HDMI output does "not fit" on the TV display.
I usually leave this off (disable_overscan=0) as there are no "borders" displayed on my Samsung TV (Picture Size : Just Scan).
So, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (are the freq or voltage settings dependant on overscan)?

disable_overscan only affects the framebuffer (only used by initial splash screen when loading). It has no effect once Kodi has launched.

Next, regarding (avoid_pwm_pll=1)
If I set this this parameter, will I lose any audio features (I use usually set HDMI audio to 5.1 passthrough for my AC3/DTS receiver).
Again, is this parameter required to realize the speed settings described here (to use these specific freq combinations)?

No effect for HDMI. It degrades analogue audio, but allows core_freq and other gpu frequencies (h264_freq, v3d_freq, isp_freq) to be run off separate plls.

Setting (avoid_pwm_pll=1) is required to make some (all) combinations of (arm_freq, core_freq and sdram_freq)?

Thanks.