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+---- Thread: Is XBMC the right choice for me? And if so, which XBMC platform would be best for me? (/showthread.php?tid=52525)
Is XBMC the right choice for me? And if so, which XBMC platform would be best for me? - jennix - 2009-06-09
Hi all,
first, i didnt own a xbox, i'm just in search of a mediacenter for looking tv, videos, photos and such things, also MP3 and so on. In the moment i'm using a VDR (easyVDR) only for TV, and i'm thinking about to put this machine in the basement and use it as a streaming server. In my livingroom i want a little, quiet machine with a nice OSD at my TV. At this time there is no need for HD, because my TV is an old Panasonic CRT, a HD LCD or Plasma isnt planned in the near future.
I have a Dell Optiplex SX270 with a 2.8GHz P4 and intel 915 graphics, which i want to use now as a streaming client. Now my questions: is XBMC running at this machine, and which OS should i use for it (Windows or Linux)? I want to stream Live-TV and recordings from my VDR to the new machine, and other stuff like photos, videos, mp3 from another fileserver (also Linux, the stuff is shared via Samba and also as NFS-Share).
Thx for any hint, i need some push in the right direction. Or hints to an alternative.
jennix
- carlpalmer - 2009-06-09
I have to admit that I am not any kind of expert with XBMC, but I have set up 3 systems now and I know my way around the features that I have played with. (i think)
I love XMBC because it is light enough to run on any machine (well almost) that you throw at it. As to which OS is best is entirely up to you. I am a System Admin/Programmer and I am very comfortable manipulating images and so forth in Windows, so that is what I use. If you are comfortable with Linux, by all means go for it. Heck, if you want to toss a little money at this, pick up a mac mini. Whatever makes you comfortable.
XBMC does a really nice job of handling Movies, TV Shows, Music, and Pictures. It is a FANTASTIC media center. It can be a little difficult to get everything working as you want it to. This is no plug and play system unless you want to go with the File Browser mode as I have used for some time. I recently found Media Info Plus, and have spent the time to orgranize everything and download the nfo files, images, etc to really bring my system to life. Then you scan everything into the library, and you get some fantastic results. There are skins to make this baby look any way you want it to.
There is a vast amount of material out there about how to set it up and maintain it. The forums are fantastic, and this thing is very robust. I would never think of using anything else.
Now the bad part. No netflix support that I can find. Live TV and PVR options are something that I haven't found either.
My system is set up so that I can launch a browser window from the programs section. I can then pull up Netflix or any other online streaming app that I want.
I use my DVR that I have from the Satellite company to do everything TV oriented. I would love to figure out how to bring everything to the XMBC, but I am not sure it is possible.
- jennix - 2009-06-10
Thanks, carlpalmer. Do you own a Mac Mini? Or anybody else? How much noise makes this machine with XBMC in HD-Mode? Unfortunately my optiplex sx270 makes noise like a hairdryer when running xbmc even in SD-resolutions. Maybe the reason is its old intel graphics chip (845 or such thing, no 915 as i thought before), so this is not accepted (mainly by my wife) in our livingroom.
regards, jennix
- jmarshall - 2009-06-10
I have no problem with noise from my macmini - assuming you aren't using the dvd drive I can't hear it from across the room unless everything else is silent, and I'm listening for it. Any ambient noise at all and I can't hear it.
If you want to spend that sort of money, then it's certainly a good option.
Cheers,
Jonathan
- jennix - 2009-06-10
A Mac mini with an appropriate graphics chip (nvidia for VDPAU) seems to be a bit expensive (from ~600€ upwards), so i was looking a bit around and found a machine like this. It has passive cooling, an atom 230 processor, and nvidia chipset and graphics. Is this good enough for xbmc, maybe also for HD (later)?
regards, jennix
- carlpalmer - 2009-06-11
I went to the local MircroCenter and picked up an old AMD X2 64 and pieced a system together. I dropped an old Nvidia 7600 into it and threw Windows XP on it. For about $300 I had a new system. Normally I would go to Tiger Direct to save a little money, but I got a bug and had to complete it now. I take it that you are from over the pond, so I really can't tell you where to get good cheap things.
I honestly don't know about the atom processor. I was definitely thinking about going that way, figuring that it had to be more powerful than an old XBox. I finally decided on a PC with a good Sata 2 capable motherboard that has a lot of ports for drives. Now I can add a blue ray drive later, add more hard drives, more RAM, and change out the video card should I choose. Heck I can even get a new mainboard and processor in a couple years. It is simply a much much better choice for the long run if you don't mind having a PC sitting in the living room. Make sure your case doesn't have a lot of annoying lights on the front, or get some black duct tape. I have never had any problems with the PC being loud, even when the stereo isn't on. I image that it is a question of how the acoustics of your living room is. My PC is sitting on a piece of cardboard so it will slide on the carpet easily. The subwoofer sits on one side of it and the entertainment center on the other. There is a little space for air flow, but I think it's location muffles what little sound it would make.
I have a PC by both of the major TVs in the house so that I can drop 6x 1.5 Sata 2 drives in each and have a full local copy which also give me a backup on each machine. Check out Microsoft's SyncBack freebie for an easy way to sync both shares. Unfortunately I have to piece the second drive array together over time. Darn economy.
Having said that, my first XBMC system was an old XBox that I had laying around. Gamestop sells em for $50. It is a little wierd to get the thing to open up and let you FTP into it, but really handy and compact once that is done. There is nothing wrong with a simple little front end client machine, but I want to be able to do Netflix Streaming, Hulu, Email, and anything else that tickles me at the moment. It isn't as quick to start as my old XBox but has a lot more capability. A windows MC remote and I am happy as a clam. I am going to order a wireless keyboard and mouse, and I have the perfect system that lets me do anything I want.
Media Info Plus (windows) is a great program that lets you download art and XML files to populate the XBMC Library.
MediaStream is a great starter skin that looks amazing.
I would love to know if anyone knows anything about using an atom processor with 1 GB of RAM. I imagine that HD will chew up this processor and a GB of RAM for breakfast, but I imagine that it would be a great starter system.
- jennix - 2009-06-12
Hi @all,
thanks for your answers. I've ordered yesterday such a system i linked to in my second post. Another xbmc-user told me, that he has an Acer Revo 3600 which has very similar specs, and he is using it to watch HD-material without problems, so i think it will work for me too. At least while i'm not using high resolutions, because my TV isnt capable to show them.
Now comes the next question: which platform should i use? Linux, which seems to be more flexible and is maybe better for compiling new builds and for the connection to the video disk recorder (vdr)? Or Windows (XP/Vista?), because its easier to manage and there are some games which arent available in linux? My daughter would love to play their winnie pooh game at the tv (even though my wife wouldnt love this to much
)regards, jennix
- SoulSweeper - 2009-06-12
Hi jennix,
i just bought an Acer Revo3600
No noise, playing full HD without touching the processor (decoding done on the gpu). BUT: I'm sure you would get into trouble with the box. For best results you've got to use the HDMI (Audio & Video). On the other hand there's just VGA & 3.5mm plug for audio. So the sound is max. DolbySurround ...I'm using linux (gentoo) on the box, but any linux should to the job.
rgds
- Silverxxx - 2009-06-13
I use xbmc on a windows XP computer I put together from "leftovers", because I got sick of my dvd player being temperamental. The windows platform doesn't have any problems that I am aware of, and the builds are up to date with the linux ones. They can also autoupdate through the "xbox update" utility. So I guess you should choose the platform you are most comfortable with. I like your comment "on linux it's easier to compile", of course, it's not easier then not having to compile anything in the first place. I guess the biggest decision is (and was for me) what sort of control you will choose. I use a mouse, and keyboard, wireless. If you like to use a remote control you should check if it runs on linux, or windows, i guess, and if it is supported by xbmc.