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I'm running XBMX Dharma (live/ubuntu) on a pretty basic Dell Studio Hybrid. I currently have the Alaska theme on and it works extremely well, runs all 720p MKV files I can throw at it. It does tend to struggle at playing larger 1080p files but that may be due to the data transfer limit over my network (home-plugs). The Dell is hooked up to a HP MediaSmart EX490 which is running Windows Home Server where all my files are stored. The connection between the Dell and the Server is wired using Netgear Home-Plugs (20mbps). The server is connected to usenet and I have a load of RSS feeds set up to grab TV shows as they appear, using Sabnzbd+ it also categorises these RSS feeds and plonks the files in the relevant folders so XBMC can scrape the info and display everything nicely. I can also trigger downloads remotely from iPhone/iPad etc which is handy. If you have a server running WHS I thoroughly recommend a plug-in called 'Ligh's Out'. This will put your server to sleep when it's not doing anything and also wake up on certain triggers, like when you turn your HTPC on. It's a highly customisable plug-in and will save you a few pennies on your electricity bills. All of that hooked up to 40" TV and a Onkyo 5.1 reciever with Jamo Pack speakers, controlled with a Harmony One remote. It's an absolute beaut.
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Jan 14, 2011 13:52
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Cream posted:I recently purchased a REVO 6310. I have an issue where after coming out of sleep there will be no sound. There are two ways to fix this, one is to restart and the other is to unplug and replug the HDMI cable. Anyone else have this issue? I had this issue. I went to nvidia's website and downloaded just the HDMI Audio driver for the ION and ran the installer. Never had an issue again.
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Jan 14, 2011 18:08
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Chaucer posted:I had this issue. I went to nvidia's website and downloaded just the HDMI Audio driver for the ION and ran the installer. Never had an issue again. Tried that, still have the issue. Could you be a kind chap and find out the driver version you're using?
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Jan 15, 2011 02:36
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EC posted:I'd love to hear what you come up with. My HTPC happens to my most powerful system in the house, and I'd love to see if I could get some of these Steam games working on it that aren't available on the consoles. Finally got around to doing this today. Long story short: works like a charm with a few easy steps: 1. Use advanced launcher. 2. Use the program here to run windows shortcuts like ROMs in an emulator: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=676665 3. Add the URL extension to the list of ROMs the shortcut launcher reads (in addition to lnk - just add lnk|url to the ROM type). This is because Steam shortcuts are actually URLs. 4. Make sure Steam has saved all your logins and passwords, it it's already running and you're logged in. You'll probably still see it chugging a little. Also if you don't want their stupid deals of the day showing up, disable that in your menu too. 5. I had to disable all the social notifications on Steam to get the game to run right, otherwise it seemed to cause the launcher to hang as it gave the "press alt-tab for socials" notification. It still takes a good ten seconds to launch the game and the screen lingers in XBMC before fully launching, and even then I found games hanging for 10 seconds or so as they were loading - IE, between the logo screen and the start screen. Once I was over that though it ran great - I'm using Xpadder to emulate the mouse and I was playing Poker Night at the Inventory as though it was on my Xbox.
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Jan 15, 2011 22:15
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I want an HTPC to do the following: * Mount a file share via NFS over gigabit (my file server is touchy about CIFS -- don't ask). * Browse and play every sort of video file, including 1080p mkvs with 5.1, outputting both audio and video over HDMI to a receiver. * Be small * Be fairly quiet * Work with a Harmony One, ideally including power up and power down * Be powerful enough to be able to reliably rewind and fast-forward 1080p * I'd prefer to use Linux, but OS X might be okay I had been looking at the Revo 3700, but now I'm wondering about the new Mac Mini. I assume it's powerful enough to do all of the above? It would be nice because then maybe I could do some iTunes / iPhone / iPad integration stuff as well (though that's not my primary goal). Is there anything I'm missing or any annoyances / gotchas with using a Mac Mini with XBMC or something similar? Would I need an IR receiver with the Mac Mini? Thanks!
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Jan 15, 2011 23:06
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Rewinding and FF in HD content doesn't work well no matter what you are using. Any faster than 2x-4x and there will be artifacting and stuttering. I just use the skip function in XBMC, it's percentage based so depending on how long the movie or whatever you are watching it will skip ~30 seconds for small skip and ~10 mins for big skip. I don't even think my bluray player FF or rewinds well. I like the skip though, just hit one button and skip back a few seconds and go back to what you were doing. As for the rest of your list, yes a 3700 or similar will do perfect. I don't think you can power on an HTPC with a remote, but you can bring it back from a sleep state which is what I do, and only actually shut it down if it won't be used for a day or two. I'm not positive about NFS file shares, I use Samba shares over the network to my unraid file server. As for IR receiver, yeah you will need one, the best option would be to buy a cheapo MCE remote (there are many variations of basically the same thing, just pick one) and use the IR receiver that comes with it. Traxxus fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jan 16, 2011 |
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Jan 16, 2011 13:41
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frunksock posted:Is there anything I'm missing or any annoyances / gotchas with using a Mac Mini with XBMC or something similar? Would I need an IR receiver with the Mac Mini? Thanks! If you're OK with the $700 price tag, the MacMini is a fantastic HTPC and can handle anything you'll throw at it. You can run the OSX-native Plex, or there are ports for XBMC and Boxee.
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Jan 16, 2011 18:38
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Yeah I got the Mini yesterday and I've been using Plex. I've hit a few bugs, but overall it's great. I can't believe how long I dicked around with ps3mediaserver and pytivo. The surprise bonus is being able to browse and playback my media collection (including video) on my iPhone or iPad. That's awesome (though it's also the part that's still not working 100% right).
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Jan 16, 2011 21:09
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Traxxus posted:Rewinding and FF in HD content doesn't work well no matter what you are using. Any faster than 2x-4x and there will be artifacting and stuttering. I just use the skip function in XBMC, it's percentage based so depending on how long the movie or whatever you are watching it will skip ~30 seconds for small skip and ~10 mins for big skip. I don't even think my bluray player FF or rewinds well. I like the skip though, just hit one button and skip back a few seconds and go back to what you were doing. As for the rest of your list, yes a 3700 or similar will do perfect. I don't think you can power on an HTPC with a remote, but you can bring it back from a sleep state which is what I do, and only actually shut it down if it won't be used for a day or two. I'm not positive about NFS file shares, I use Samba shares over the network to my unraid file server. Yeah, I just use the skip options as well. I also set it up so that skip backward was half the time skip forward was. That way you can get closer to the time you want. For example, if I want to move ahead 5 minutes, I can skip forward 10 and then back 5.
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Jan 17, 2011 00:35
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Yeah, it turns out the FF/RW in Plex work far better than I actually hoped. I wasn't hoping for super-smooth perfect FF/RW, just something remotely functional, which I've never had in ps3mediaserver. It works great in Plex. I can switch between 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x, etc, and it handles all of them decently, including in RW. The only thing left not really working very well is using the iPad / iPhone client, where I get a lot of stuttering / pausing / AV sync issues. Still working on that, and since I didn't even expect that feature anyway, I'm not really upset.
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Jan 17, 2011 01:34
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If you're a part of HTPC Opus Dei and run Windows Media Center as a DVR, I just found a utility that really easily converts WTV files into something else. It doesn't go straight to MKV, but it'll give you a Divx .avi or high-quality .mp4 among others. I've never been able to get DVRMSToolbox to work and this one's very straightforward and has folder monitoring, so you can have it automatically make copies of recordings in a format your Boxee Box can play.
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Jan 17, 2011 03:18
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I have a Revo 1600, which has a HDMI output that I am currently not using. I run XBMC under windows 7... My question is will I be able to use the HDMI output for video and still use my USB soundcard to pass digital signal to my receiver (as I do now- video goes through VGA), or will I be stuck having the only audio output be on the HDMI. My receiver does not have HDMI inputs, so the plan was to go HDMI to TV for video, and toslink to receiver for audio when the new TV arrives.
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Jan 18, 2011 01:42
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chef posted:I have a Revo 1600, which has a HDMI output that I am currently not using. I run XBMC under windows 7... Windows will output sound out of whatever you tell it to. Using TOSLINK instead of HDMI will limit your audio choices a bit but otherwise you'll be fine.
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Jan 18, 2011 01:55
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chef posted:I have a Revo 1600, which has a HDMI output that I am currently not using. I run XBMC under windows 7... In the XBMC menus you can choose what audio output you want to use.
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Jan 18, 2011 01:59
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I just added an old (2007-ish Toshiba P10something, Vista home, gig of ram, 1.7? ghz), busted (screen, old HD died in a fall) laptop to my stereo setup. I took the cover off and mounted an old LCD screen to the wall above the stereo, put it behind a picture frame - the setup looks pretty nice. I'll post a pic if anyone's interested. Anyways, I've now got either the world's most powerful digital picture frame, or a gussied-up MP3 player, and I'm looking for suggestions on how I can make the most of it. Ideas I've had: -for some reason, this computer is slow slow slow. I don't know if it's just Vista, if it's all the Toshiba bloatware, or if iTunes is just a hog, but it really drags rear end. Are there programs that I should be using? I have a lot of FLAC files, so I'll install foobar at some point, but I really like the iTunes interface. I'm open to anything, though. -is there a way to have the whole thing on a timer? I've got the laptop, external hard drive and monitor, and it would be cool for it to turn on and off automatically. This is probably more complicated than it's worth, though. - is there anything else I should be doing with this thing? The tv's in another room, so I'd have to run CAT5 to reach it (and the computer doesn't have HDMI out so that probably doesn't make sense anyways). Home automation, maybe? I'm open to goofy suggestions. Anyways, thanks in advance if anyone has thoughts.
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Jan 18, 2011 19:10
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Huh, i was reading reviews on some of the ion2 nettops and a lot of them say they run worse than the original ion (like the Acer Revo 1600/3610) for HD video because the video chips go through the PCI-E 1x bus. Are any manufacturers fixing this problem?
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Jan 19, 2011 17:03
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Mister Fister posted:Huh, i was reading reviews on some of the ion2 nettops and a lot of them say they run worse than the original ion (like the Acer Revo 1600/3610) for HD video because the video chips go through the PCI-E 1x bus. Are any manufacturers fixing this problem? I don't think it's in their power to fix it. Nvidia isn't sharing something with intel, or vice versa which is causing this to happen. They talked about it a bit in the Netbook thread in SH/SC.
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Jan 20, 2011 05:03
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I've been trying to figure out if a digital audio interconnect issue between my new HDTV and my HTPC is the TV or PCs issue, but I am getting the feeling it is the PCs. The sound is going into the motherboard via a SPDIF Input bracket, and the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 using a Realtek ALC850. I am using Realtek's latest reference driver for Windows 7 x64. From what I understand, since my motherboard manufacturer didn't want to shell out for dolby licensing, the only signal it will accept normally is stereo PCM right? Would something like AC3Filter be able to affect the stream before it gets passed to my computer speakers? Tatsujin fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jan 20, 2011 |
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Jan 20, 2011 14:40
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I did some research into this and I guess this will never work because somehow there is no such thing as a sound card/chip that can decode hi-def audio streams, only output (encode) them. But still, no uncompressed PCM is kinda cheesing me off.
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Jan 21, 2011 03:02
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XBMC officially released for the new Apple TV and iPhone/iPad Supports 1080p streaming on the aTV, making it an extremely attractive product. If the aTV performs as well as the Revo, then I would say that makes it the product to beat. Engadget has a hands on. http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/xbmc-comes-to-the-new-apple-tv/ FCKGW fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jan 21, 2011 |
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Jan 21, 2011 03:47
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BorderPatrol posted:XBMC officially released for the new Apple TV and iPhone/iPad OH poo poo OH poo poo OH poo poo!! I've been dragging my feet for a few months not wanting to drop the money on a Revo. I think this is my answer. With Dharma there is a Hulu plugin correct?
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Jan 21, 2011 07:58
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Engadget posted:decoding our 1080p HD content...with only occasional choppiness. deal breaker.
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Jan 21, 2011 14:51
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wolfbiker posted:deal breaker. Agreed. Dropped frames are unacceptable.
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Jan 21, 2011 15:26
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Falco posted:With Dharma there is a Hulu plugin correct? No. Someone made a 3rd party plug-in in but Hulu made changes to their stuff and it broke. As far as I know, no one is developing anything at this time.
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Jan 21, 2011 15:31
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Bonzo posted:No. Someone made a 3rd party plug-in in but Hulu made changes to their stuff and it broke. As far as I know, no one is developing anything at this time. Theres a Hulu plugin in the official repo that technically works, but it's a complete pain to navigate (Loading Items...................) and pretty unreliable. If you try to pause or fast forward, there's a good chance you'll be restarting XBMC. That's why I'm glad my HTPC is an actual computer, and not a settop gizmo.
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Jan 21, 2011 15:42
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wolfbiker posted:deal breaker. They said they're working on it on the xbmc forums
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Jan 21, 2011 16:35
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eddiewalker posted:Theres a Hulu plugin in the official repo that technically works, but it's a complete pain to navigate (Loading Items...................) and pretty unreliable. If you try to pause or fast forward, there's a good chance you'll be restarting XBMC. drat I was really hoping to only spend $100 vs. a few hundred for a HTPC.
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Jan 21, 2011 18:16
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TheScott2K posted:Agreed. Dropped frames are unacceptable. Someone said that the Apple TV is still capable of 720p only, and that 1080p is either a hack or downscaled for the aTV. Nearly all my content is 720p so this is still very appealing to me. Either that or waiting for the updated aTV whenever that comes out.
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Jan 21, 2011 18:20
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BorderPatrol posted:Someone said that the Apple TV is still capable of 720p only, and that 1080p is either a hack or downscaled for the aTV. A first-gen AppleTV with a Broadcom Crystal HD card is a similarly-priced option, and it comes with onboard storage. It'll cost you Netflix and Wifi, though.
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Jan 22, 2011 03:34
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TheScott2K posted:A first-gen AppleTV with a Broadcom Crystal HD card is a similarly-priced option, and it comes with onboard storage. It'll cost you Netflix and Wifi, though. My other 2 HTPCS are using 5ghx WiFi, which is a big deal. Also, the fact that it'll be more like an XBMC appliance than a PC is a bonus for my mother-in-law who uses it.
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Jan 22, 2011 03:44
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Posted this in the Computer forum but this seems more apt. I'm looking to build a new HTPC, I have a nice looking silverstone case and 4 Sata HDDs, so really i'm looking for a Mobo, CPU, Ram and Graphics card, given a budget of around $650.00usd what would you go for? My last two machines (Gaming) were SLI Q6600 Quad cores and since then I havn't followed technology too much so seem to be pretty much out of the loop, is a high spec Core 2 better than an i3 for example, ram now seems to have so many options it's crazy. This is going to be used for movies, music and some light gaming (maybe a bit of Eve or Dawn of War 2 those sorts of thing) so I will need to install it as a windows platform, so again what platform would you go for that has the media centre? Or would you install a different media client? Thanks for your input and advice.
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Jan 26, 2011 19:04
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bad-yeti posted:Posted this in the Computer forum but this seems more apt. XBMC is always the right answer.
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Jan 26, 2011 19:56
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bad-yeti posted:I'm looking to build a new HTPC, I have a nice looking silverstone case and 4 Sata HDDs, so really i'm looking for a Mobo, CPU, Ram and Graphics card, given a budget of around $650.00usd what would you go for? My last two machines (Gaming) were SLI Q6600 Quad cores and since then I havn't followed technology too much so seem to be pretty much out of the loop, is a high spec Core 2 better than an i3 for example, ram now seems to have so many options it's crazy. I couldn't tell you about the mobo for gaming, but for strict hd movie playback the 1.6 Atom with the NVIDIA ION is capable. As far as Windows, 7 is allegedly amazing. It's also the only Windows platform that does accelerated playback. And as the previous person put, throw XBMC on it for your front end.
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Jan 27, 2011 02:47
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Thanks for the advice, i'll check out this XBMC thing of which you speak. As for the hardware, do you recon a dual core with 4 GB ram would run it all okay?
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Jan 27, 2011 10:56
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bad-yeti posted:Thanks for the advice, i'll check out this XBMC thing of which you speak. If you take gaming out of the equation a dual-core with 4 gigs of RAM is pretty much overkill. I suggest reading some of the thread. I know it's long, just do the last 10 pages, you'll probably have a lot of question answered.
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Jan 27, 2011 12:35
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TheScott2K posted:If you take gaming out of the equation a dual-core with 4 gigs of RAM is pretty much overkill. I suggest reading some of the thread. I know it's long, just do the last 10 pages, you'll probably have a lot of question answered. Yes, I run a Revo 3610 with Windows 7 and only 2GB of RAM. Keep in mind that your GPU is going to be take care of rendering your video so you don't need to go overboard on the RAM if you are just watching TV shows.
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Jan 27, 2011 16:14
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savesthedayrocks posted:As far as Windows, 7 is allegedly amazing. It's also the only Windows platform that does accelerated playback. That's not true. Windows 2000/XP and newer will do DXVA. Windows Vista and newer will do DXVA2.
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Jan 27, 2011 16:21
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XBMC does indeed look very nice as a front end. Got everything set up yesterday as follows: Silverstone case of hugeness. Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 ASUS P5G41C-M Mobo 4Gb Crucial PC 10600 DDR3 Seagate Barracuda 1TB x 2 300Gb WD velociraptor (for the games) Zotac GT430 Generic DVD writer. Loaded on 1.4TB of Movies so will need to add another couple of drives, but the system looks rock solid and runs at a fair pace, I put on Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit, I know I lose half a gig of Ram but it's no big deal. Playing Fallout 3 on a 50"LCD rocks. I need to attach it to my cable box but am unsure what TV tuner to go for.... any recommendations? Edit: I've just realised that the GT430 is a huge pile of garbage so will replace it for a 9600GT or similar. bad-yeti fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Jan 31, 2011 |
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Jan 31, 2011 11:19
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God I forgot how much configuring MAME sucks.  There's a MAME frontend I can download on the Add-Ons menu in XBLA, but there's very little info out there about it on the XBMC boards. Has anyone tried it, or done a comparison to just running MAME though ALA? I tried to get it set up in ALA but the configuration step kicked my rear end and I basically just quit.
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Jan 31, 2011 18:41
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my box: old athlon 64 2 gig of ram ati hd4550 i am using xbmc, and i just noticed that when i play a 720p mkv i have some sort of blocky/fragmented video output in certain areas of the screen. The video plays smoothly, but if someone is standing in front of a wall with nothing else moving but the person, sections of the wall flicker/change color every couple seconds. The file looks fine on my laptop, i am using hardware accelerated decoding in xbmc. Anyone know what I am talking about?
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Feb 1, 2011 03:59
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