Is it THAT HARD to find a good 1080P XBMC solution?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Is it THAT HARD to find a good 1080P XBMC solution?

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#746112 17-Jan-2013 08:50

The Pi with the changes I mentioned was massively improved. Video (on three 720p episodes I watched) was flawless when before the same series had the judders and skips. I think I heard the occasional audio glitch though and that might be because I checked an option giving XBMC permission to skip or doubleup on audio to keep stuff in sync. I will try it on some different media tonight.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

TechSol

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#746118 17-Jan-2013 08:54

I too can vouch for Raspberry Pi running RasBMC.

I can stream from my NAS drive, any 1080P files, and have never noticed hitching buffering or skipping. And I believe myself to be very discerning when it comes to this sort of thing, so it's not that I haven't noticed it.

The key with a Raspberry Pi is to ensure you have a high speed SD card, or use a USB stick install (Bear in mind, the USB stick needs to be high speed too - and not based on what the manufacturer says; actually test the speed of it)

If it's still slow then either you have problems with the install itself (unlikely) or problems with your network (it's usually 50 - 50 that, or the slow card problem)

trig42

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#746132 17-Jan-2013 09:15

I think the Pi will be my next Media Player (XBMC). I just need to work out a way to get optical or Coax digital audio out of it (for a reasonable price).

My receiver does not have HDMI inputs, but does have Optical and Coax Digital inputs

MattR

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#746144 17-Jan-2013 09:29

I have a couple of Pis (a 256meg and a 512meg) running OpenElec/XBMC. They're ok. They can be a little slow sometimes.

I also have an Intel NUC, which is currently a little over-spec for media player duty (16gb ram and a 128gb mSATA SSD).

The crazy thing is, currently my Pi works better than the NUC. The NUC pauses during playback.

My NAS is HP Microserver running FreeNAS.

I had a PopcornHour C-200 with Blu-Ray drive, sadly the HDMI audio stopped working. Otherwise, it was great.

BigMal

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#746164 17-Jan-2013 10:01

I have 2 Pi's (512Mb and 256Mb) an ATV2 (running XBMC and Flash Black) and a PCH A210.

The Pi's when hard wired work flawlessly for everything I've played. Admittedly the majority of my content is 720p but the 1080p stuff I tried played perfectly too. The only time the Pi has been a bit flaky for me is when using wireless adapter.

Personally I prefer the Pi's over the ATV2 and the PCH. The PCH plays everything but has an ugly interface and the ATV2 XBMC interface feels slower to me than the Pi.

+1 for Pi.

SumnerBoy

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#746193 17-Jan-2013 10:38

I have 2 Pis (512MB) both running Rapbmc on cheap USB sticks. I tried running them on SD cards but found them very flakey (probably due to the use of cheap SD cards). The USB sticks are much better but I have just shelled out for some much better USB sticks (SanDisk Extreme @ $40 a pop) in the hope it will improve the Pi performance even more.

I love the XBMC interface. I have previously had an HDX1000 (same as the Popcorn Hour) and more recently a Logitech Revue running Google TV + a Plex client. The XBMC is far superior IMHO. Plus I also have a DVB-S tuner in my home server running TVHeadend so can watch/record live TV and view on any TV in the house - much better than MySky which is limited to the main TV.

The Pis will play anything (so far). The menus are a little sluggish sometimes, but I am hopeful these new high speed USB sticks will improve that.

YMMV.

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mercutio

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#746203 17-Jan-2013 10:51

what about something like:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=411921

MattR

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#746224 17-Jan-2013 11:04

mercutio: what about something like:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=411921

That's the Intel NUC I mentioned above. The red version lacks ethernet (but has thunderbolt). I have the black one that has gigabit ethernet.

Talkiet

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#746235 17-Jan-2013 11:08

mercutio: what about something like:

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=411921

That's properly pretty, although the black one with gigE would be a better (and slightly cheaper) choice for a media centre... I think I would have a better option with a long HDMI cable to an unused high spec PC I have in a rack already. That is, if the Raspberry Pi doesn't come up to scratch with the mods I made.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

MattR

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#746238 17-Jan-2013 11:13

One other option that I'm looking at is the ODROID-X2

On paper, it looks great.

reven

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#746256 17-Jan-2013 11:29

MattR: One other option that I'm looking at is the ODROID-X2

On paper, it looks great.

for that price i would personally wait for a ouya, roughly the same price, but it will be better supported and be of higher quality/design. but you have to wait until april (which isnt that far away now)

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reven

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#746257 17-Jan-2013 11:33

also is it a setting, or are all android based XBMC distros forced to show the android taskbar at the bottom of the screen? every video ive seen has had it, and well you wouldn't want that when watching videos (or anywhere in xbmc really)

garvani

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#746276 17-Jan-2013 11:55

MattR: One other option that I'm looking at is the ODROID-X2

On paper, it looks great.

Im waiting for those specs to be on a android stick, with say 8gb nand flash, wifi N etc.. that will be a killer device!

Geez those intel nuc's are pricey little beast's!! Heres the mini pc i was talking about next to my work pc for size demonstrations.. The mobo/cpu can be picked up for ~$120, throw in some cheap ram, cheap case and you could be setup for ~$300

MattR

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#746286 17-Jan-2013 12:03

garvani: Geez those intel nuc's are pricey little beast's!!

Yeah, they're not cheap. I paid $385 AUD for mine last month, then got ram/ssd from crucial.com

For that price, they don't even include a power cable! you have to supply the laptop-style C6 power cable yourself.

...but the box plays the Intel jingle when you open it.

reven

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#746310 17-Jan-2013 12:41

the problem with some of the small form factor PCs, is the power brick. can't stand power bricks. so if i were to go a full PC route, i would get a 2010+ mac mini, which has no power brick. brand new around $850 so could pick one up for ~$600 2nd hand probably.

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