[sjdean]

I previously tried a foray into media streaming with the D-Link DSM510 which I found to be virtually perfect but for the problem with its wireless connectivity and packet drops.

Now I have powerline networking and a new TV, I thought I'd start again with Media Streaming.

I was about to buy a WD HD Live thingy, but came across this and I thought I could make use of existing memory, and hard drive, and buy a MiniITX Atom mobo and case for virtually the same money and have a better system. Ok, maybe £50 more.

I tried it on an old desktop, DVI->VGA on a 37" Widescreen TV.

Disappointed first and foremost in a few areas, hopefully there's some solutions

1) I cannot get S-Video Out to work. Perhaps Im using the wrong connector
2) DVI to VGA seems limited to 640x480 and the quality on the TV is pretty poor from a 12 MEG CBR MPEG2.
3) There doesn't seem to be an option to set the thing to deinterlace automatically
4) Fast Forward through the 12 Meg CBR MPEG2 is choppy, and frankly doesn't work. Although it says it's fast forwarding, when I hit play it goes back to where it was in the video.
5) Final thing is that the UPnP library doesn't refresh quick enough and even after 20 minutes and a rescan on the server, a reboot of the XBMC box was the only thing that showed the new files.

Graphics card is an nVidia 9800 GT. Networking is Powerline based. I think Im using the Live CD 9.10.

I presume if I went with one of those mini ITX boards, eg http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-AT3N...-s-ITX-VGA - the HDMI output would include sound?

Ta
Simon

[sjdean]

Apologies by the way if I come across a bit garbled and demanding - I didn't have a lot of time to write that post.

Im sure I haven't looked at all the features of the software yet, and as it's all very new, if anybody has any tips to help resolve my issues, I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks
Simon

[pashdown]

1) Not sure why you want S-Video to work. It is going to look like garbage on your widesceen and will only support 480i. If you're insistent, I'm sure it is an NVIDIA option in your xorg.conf.
2) Make sure your xorg.conf is setup for the proper resolution. You may want to boot a Ubuntu live CD to see how it reacts.
3) The deinterlacing of your display will depend on xorg.conf as well. If you're talking about deinterlacing of content, hit return during playback and select the little film icon at the top. You can then turn interlacing off for all your content.
4&5) Not sure on these ones.

[sjdean]

I knew you could turn deinterlacing off on a per video basis, but whenever I played a new video, it would turn the deinterlacing back on. I just never found a global option to apply to that.

Yes, sorry, I meant deinterlacing for the media.

Point taken about S-Video, was just hoping to test it along with some sound.

Guess I need a DVI to HDMI converter then to test more fully, or I should be able to get a much bigger resolution through the VGA connection in the back? It's a tad frustrating having to go into a shell to edit xorg.conf... but if I must.

Thanks
Simon

[pashdown]

I knew you could turn deinterlacing off on a per video basis, but whenever I played a new video, it would turn the deinterlacing back on. I just never found a global option to apply to that.

Yes, sorry, I meant deinterlacing for the media.

Point taken about S-Video, was just hoping to test it along with some sound.

Guess I need a DVI to HDMI converter then to test more fully, or I should be able to get a much bigger resolution through the VGA connection in the back? It's a tad frustrating having to go into a shell to edit xorg.conf... but if I must.

The window that has the deinterlacing option, should have a "save for all video" option at the bottom.

DVI/VGA should be able to support higher resolutions automatically. You may want to boot a live CD and just play with the preferences that way.