[GlennGlenGlenn]

G'day all!

I've been playing around with XMBC for a while now after I found it after buying an Android miniPC (basically an MK802 I believe - AK-212MiniPC, A8-212MiniPC, Allwinner A10 1.5GHz [1GHZ CPU, .5GHz GPU], 1GB RAM ...) and stumbling on XBMC.

Wondering how others are going with it. I saw http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=149673 which seems happy but I have wasted SOOOO much time on this thing. It is SOOOO close to doing what I want but keeps on JUST not making the grade. Sooo frustrating. If it didn't work at all I would have trashed it a while back but it is so close I keep thinking if I can jst tweak it to get that last bit working ... LOL.

Anyway. What I have done is copy the main VIDEO_TS off my DVDs to a USB 2.0/3.0 3TB drive. XBMC on mny Apple iMac laptop works just great with it - no worries - but I don't want to use my laptop as a permanent media center. But on the Android it doesn't QUITE p[lay the video with distortion, mostly what I call "hunting" as it seems to play fine but ever second it speeds up for 1/4 or a second so it goes play, surge, play, surge, play, surge. So annoying - if it went play, slow down, play slow down, ok then its not got enough grunt, but the bloody thing actually seems to speed up! Grrrr. I have tried every setting I can find to no avail. I have killed every background app I could. I have tried several versions from Beta 2, to RC3 and RC3-1 and a couple of special versions. Every timer it almost works then fails. Then when it seemed OK the audio was a few fractions of a second out of synch. I found how to fix that with advancedsettings.xml (which I have subsequently lost and couldn't find again! grrr) but the video surging was still an issue. I several times tried using alternative players - generally that wouldn't work but then I used a more recent playercorefactory.xml and that then worked - yay - UNTIL I tried playing from the library to find the external players couldn't handle the fact XBMC was selecting the VIDEO_TS.IFO file as the main/ first video file and the other players can't play it or move on to the actual movie file ... I tried deleting the .ifo file but the XBMC doesn't find it so it's not in my library.

Actually I think the latest RC works EXCEPT for the audio delay thing which I have to find the correct advancedsettings.xml file for - it surges with the info overlay showing with the movie but once you hide that (i.e. just full screen video) it seemed OK. I think -- I have tried so many variations and tweaks and versions and settings I am not totally sure what the hell was and wasn't really working .... arrrggghhhh. My hair, tearing out, I am. LOL.

I can't find here or anywhere any one else with similar posts so I thought I'd post this in case anyone else is/ wants to share my agony.

I am seriously thinking of ditching the android and getting a small dedicated PC box. I think that in the end the android just doesn't have the grunt and smoothness. Pity. Such a pity.

Or would I just wait a month or two and try the XMBC android builds then? Am I just too impatient, or am I wanting too much from this poor little thing and need to just get a real computer?

Ciao.

[ixian]

XBMC Android really isn't for people who just want to watch movies and deal with the occasional bug. It is undergoing development, and is a long way from prime time. On top of this, the Android ecosystem - devices, hardware, etc - is incredibly fragmented, so it seems unlikely that "rock solid" support will exist other than for a few devices, and the team haven't fixed on exactly what those are yet, beyond the official test hardware from Pivos (a sponser). It says as much in the FAQ. It's going to be a while.

You should really buy a small x86 box like one of the Zotacs and put XBMCBuntu on it. Yes, Android hardware is cheaper, and quieter, and etc etc etc we all know this, that's why these developments are so exciting - but it's not there yet. It's not something you are going to be able to just fix on your own, unless you have the ability to contribute code to the project (if so, please do!). Otherwise, just be patient, and wait.

[aenoch]

also the mk802 is very low powered mk808 is perfect first you need to switch out the 5v 1a power adapter with a 5v 2a one

go to freaktab.com they can help ypu make your mk802 better and faster

[GlennGlenGlenn]

XBMC Android really isn't for ...

ixian,

Thanks VERY much for your reply. I can see you really got where I was coming from! I do play around with tech stuff and even do a bit of coding now and again but all I was trying to do here was to see if this little miniPC could run as a media center and if so get it up and running nicely and easily. Hah hah - it would have been "better" if XBMC wasn't so GOOD on the android - it really is pretty impressive and so almost fully functional ... that's what got me - it was so close I thought "this was it" and hence the hair tearing and frustration feeling so close and yet so far ... and I hate giving up and the Android was SOOOOOO close. But as I want something NOW I think I will go the x86 way for now.

Once again thanks - that was really a very spot on reply.

also the mk802 is very low powered ...

Cheers. I think'll I'l go the x86 way though - I was just playing with the Androids to see what they could do. Impressive but if I am going to get something else might as well get a "proper" box it seems - for what I want to do.

[Ned Scott]

Try this out: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=152005