Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[TheBoy]

OK, especially for Tunnie...

Running a versin of xbmc on mr RPi, with the media stored either on the MCE (recorded TV/video) or one of the servers here (MP3).

Added a magic packet on the if-up event to wake the MCE every time the RPi comes up. Disappointed the xmbc interface is still so clunky, but its usable as a streaming device.

Pros:
Less than 5W at full chat (no local storage (other than the 32Gb SD card))
Wakes up the MCE (after some trivial scripting at the Linux level)
The Samsung TV remote can control the RPi software, with the TV relaying the commands down HDMI
Cheap

Cons:
xbmc is still clunky, its going to be an uphill struggle to get Mrs TB to be able to use it
Not particularly stable
Quite fussy what it will play
Needs an additional licence to play MPEG2
Occasional aspect ratio issues
Web Interface looks to be on its way out, ruling out using phone etc to control it
Not all TVs seem to be able to relay remote commands down HDMI
No live TV or sceduling
1080p streaming seems to buffer occasionally. MCE is Gb, RPi ia 100FD, so I suspect its not bandwidth.


Conclusion:
OK if you can tolerate xbmc, and all its weaknesses. Pretty essential your TV can relay remote comands down the HDMI, else you'll need a USB keyboard.  Needs the MPEG2 licence (£2.40) and possibly the VC1 licence (£1.20). Needs a fairly stable PSU - most iPhone chargers aren't up for the job.

All based on my earlier type RPi/256Mb, with MPEG2/VC1 licences, and the current raspbmc build.

[tunnie]

OK, especially for Tunnie...

Running a versin of xbmc on mr RPi, with the media stored either on the MCE (recorded TV/video) or one of the servers here (MP3).

Added a magic packet on the if-up event to wake the MCE every time the RPi comes up. Disappointed the xmbc interface is still so clunky, but its usable as a streaming device.

Pros:
Less than 5W at full chat (no local storage (other than the 32Gb SD card))
Wakes up the MCE (after some trivial scripting at the Linux level)
The Samsung TV remote can control the RPi software, with the TV relaying the commands down HDMI
Cheap

Cons:
xbmc is still clunky, its going to be an uphill struggle to get Mrs TB to be able to use it

I don't find it clunky at-all its very clear, far superior to MCE, out of the box maybe, but options view tweaked its excellent.

Not particularly stable

Its not crashed on me yet with 7 year old PC 

Quite fussy what it will play

Its played everything I've asked it too? Huge range of file formats from torrents

Needs an additional licence to play MPEG2

Trust you on that, but I'll dig through what I have, sure I have some MPEG2 format

Occasional aspect ratio issues

Not had a problem here

Web Interface looks to be on its way out, ruling out using phone etc to control it

I disagree, phone controllers over WiFi here to stay.

Not all TVs seem to be able to relay remote commands down HDMI

Phone controls ok for me, so not a deal breaker.

No live TV or sceduling

Sorry little fatty, quite wrong there. BBC iPlayer plugins allow full access to iPlayer & Live Streaming (same with 4oD & Five) - Although no EPG guide

1080p streaming seems to buffer occasionally. MCE is Gb, RPi ia 100FD, so I suspect its not bandwidth.

Hoping the second edition ones will be better here


Conclusion:
OK if you can tolerate xbmc, and all its weaknesses. Pretty essential your TV can relay remote comands down the HDMI, else you'll need a USB keyboard.  Needs the MPEG2 licence (£2.40) and possibly the VC1 licence (£1.20). Needs a fairly stable PSU - most iPhone chargers aren't up for the job.

Buying a dedicated "proper" PSU for it

All based on my earlier type RPi/256Mb, with MPEG2/VC1 licences, and the current raspbmc build.

Thanks 

I've added some comments in above

[TheBoy]

Tunnie, I'm talking about xbmc on the RPi, not on a PC. *sigh*

All comments still stand



But for xbmc in general...
FYI, Web Interface is now being withdrawn (well, deprecated for now), so expect that to go. Phone control uses it, so that will stop working when it does.

Live TV is not selecting one of the few streams available from a scattering of players. Its being able to see anything the telly can see. Live TV is not a deal breaker for me, just means I need to keep the STB on my analogue telly. Shame, but not essential. Not being able to schedule is a deal breaker.


Clunky interface - yes, it is. Its really bad. Even I get frustrated with it. For example, I have to mix MCE Recorded TV and Films into same libraries, which then become unworkable.  Even if its just Recorded TV (its most likely use), scrolling through 600 odd recordings file by file is not practical via a remote control. MCE blows xbmc not just out of the water, but into another world in this respect (and most others).

I've not used xbmc since I had an (original) XBOX, and would have hoped the interface would have improved. It has, but still lags 10yrs behind as a 10' interface.


As to the RPi port, well, its still early days, so hopefully they can get some of the glitches out which are (most likely) specific to the RPi version.

A fully specced up RPi, with IR receiver, fast SD and decent PSU is about £70, £80 with wifi...  ...about the same as a 2nd hand 360 slim, which gives the far superior MCE Extender I/F, with FULL functionality.

[tunnie]

iPlayer Plugin, that does work on Pi (all BBC Live Channels)

http://xbmc-iplayerv2.googlecode.com/files/iPlayer-v2.4.15.zip

EPG?

Here (Windows) - http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=PVR/Backend/MediaPortal

You can get everything broadcast on Freeview with the addons 

You might like this:

http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2012/08/27/mediaportal-why-i-switched-from-windows-media-center/

But your last argument, a 360 is just an extender, it does nothing more. You still have to have a very powerful setup to make it run right, I think the Pi will do an excellent job.

Looking forward to having a good play and getting all Freeview Live channels working 

I don't understand your issue with libraries, you just make another source, point it to another folder? Unless you have TV & Films mixed in a single MCE source folder?

Can you show me a link to say Web Interface is being withdrawn? Using iOS/Android mobile device to control XMBC is major part, I've Googled for some time trying to find articles saying its being withdrawn but cannot find any 

[tunnie]

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:IPlayer

For Live TV a Windows or Linux build of at least SVN:21747 (2009-07-18) is required.

[TheBoy]

Mediaportal is one my list of products to try again in a couple of years (when Win7 becomes too dated), but last time I looked, it was still too immature. One of the guys at work uses it, but is always having to frig about.

Currently, MCE + RP (now no longer developed, but has been open sourced) is the best solution I've come across. But its not perfect - anything can be improved upon. But won't run on anything like an RPi . Powerwise, at full chat, my MCE comes in at about 40W, but peaks to 60W in the first few seconds of resume from standby, as disks spin up. RPi comes in at less than 5W, although (serious) storage is not included.

I can see no single advantage of xbmc over MCE at any level. So for now, I'm sticking with my ultra reliable MCE (now I've ripped out that shitty mobo - wanna DG45ID mobo with Core2 Quad CPU? Seems prone to BSOD when resuming from standby if connected to a LAN via onboard RJ45).


One thing with media centres, they should just work, and without frigging about all the time. MCE is kept fully updated as part of the standard MS regime, with the exception of TunerFreeMCE plugin, which needs manual updates , and RP which is no longer developed . xmbc relying on so many plugins to work usefully will end up being a mare for auto updates at 4am.


Don't worry, I suspect my RPi won't go to waste, I suspect it will still end up as an extender, possibly not running xbmc, possibly running the web I/F from RP, but that will require a mouse .  And it will still act as a fallback for OOF, as it has before


The web i/f issue with xbmc, further investigation is its the api over http (so the mobile phone apps) thats been removed, presumably as its too large an attack vector
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Web_Server_HTTP_API

[tunnie]

I can see no single advantage of xbmc over MCE at any level. So for now, I'm sticking with my ultra reliable MCE (now I've ripped out that shitty mobo - wanna DG45ID mobo with Core2 Quad CPU? Seems prone to BSOD when resuming from standby if connected to a LAN via onboard RJ45).

Yup, I'd take it! I don't use standby. Cold boot only, as often just turn it on when I want to watch TV shows or Film while farting around doing other things, then come back to. (I'm used to a 5 minute boot time  )

Whats its physical size? I don't know if it will fit my case 

[tunnie]

Thing is about PVR, I find I'm using it less and less.

If its a BBC program say Top Gear or Merlin or Palin type stuff, I just catch up via iPlayer App (on which ever platform, XBMC being the new fun one to use)

There are very, very few programs I like which are not on the beeb to be honest, those I do like are often way ahead in the states (Big Bang Theory for example)

So I torrent 90% of my TV shows as I'm too lazy to even fast forward adverts 

So if I can get XBMC working with iPlayer and the other big on-demand services, I'll torrent the rest. No need for recording TV

[TheBoy]

http://ark.intel.com/products/34684/Intel-Desktop-Board-DG45ID

No RAM, shoved that back in my Dell.

I've put the standard Intel stock cooler on it. Cooler had never been used, so its quiet at the moment, but they do have a habit of getting a bit noisy after a year or 2 (but probably still better than most 3rd party, overpriced coolers). You may need to reenable the fan speed control in the Intel ME - think its currently disabled, whilst I was chasing that BSOD problem.

The integrated graphics is HDMI and DVI. For VGA, you need one of those DVI to VGA adapters. Plays 1080p fine with recent drivers (under Windows, dunno about Linux). But most likely hopeless for games

[TheBoy]

Thing is about PVR, I find I'm using it less and less.

If its a BBC program say Top Gear or Merlin or Palin type stuff, I just catch up via iPlayer App (on which ever platform, XBMC being the new fun one to use)

There are very, very few programs I like which are not on the beeb to be honest, those I do like are often way ahead in the states (Big Bang Theory for example)

So I torrent 90% of my TV shows as I'm too lazy to even fast forward adverts 

So if I can get XBMC working with iPlayer and the other big on-demand services, I'll torrent the rest. No need for recording TV

I still record no end. Currently sat at 600 recordings, 1.3Tb. Some we've watched and keeping (like the better Top Gears), some were recorded ages ago, and aren't allowed to be viewed with me in the house (eg, Downton Abbey), so official Replay services would time out.

I would imagine that using bittorrent to download a TV show is illegal (forgetting the criminal/civil arguments for a minute), thus you wouldn't catch me doing it.

Oh, MCE has an automatic advert stripper, that actually does work bloody well.  I personally haven't reinstalled it after removing it during my BSOD problem, as I'm of an age where an ad break every half hour is quite useful to go for a wazz