sam9s HTPC Project! powered by XBMC!!

[spirovious]

Finally XBMC 11.0 stable version has been released.

XBMC 11.0 Eden | XBMC

Downloads | XBMC

http://ftp.df.lth.se/pub/xbmc/releases/11.0-Eden-changelog.txt

Haven't tried it yet. I am also interested in the XBMCbuntu. Will try them and report later.

Its supports Hindi too.

 

[baijuxavior]

Hindi didn't work for me. All I could see was some squares. Some font seems to be missing. Also I tried to download XBMCbuntu (~ 623MB). My computer restarted when the download was appx. 580MB. Resume is not supported for this download. Now I need to download it again.

 

[sam9s]

I am running this with hd audio output. The bitstreaming is very nice and also installed the Aeon Mq3 skin. I verified for all types of output dts/dts-hdma/dolby digital/tru-hd all the files work perfectly without any issues so far. Hence I have temporary disabled the playercorefactory.xml file and playing everything directly with xbmc itself. The cpu usage is bare minimum of 8% even with a hd movie rip of 35gb with dts-hd audio. No crashes of the xbmc so far since more than a week I have installed the new version.

thanks.

So this confirms the HD Audio support for EDEN. That is superb news ..... What about BD ISO support, is it there, with/without menus .. ????

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Hindi didn't work for me. All I could see was some squares. Some font seems to be missing. Also I tried to download XBMCbuntu (~ 623MB). My computer restarted when the download was appx. 580MB. Resume is not supported for this download. Now I need to download it again.

Did u try arial_ms_unicode.ttf font?? This could solve the local language problem. I will try and give the result here.

 

[manniraj]

So this confirms the HD Audio support for EDEN. That is superb news ..... What about BD ISO support, is it there, with/without menus .. ????

Hi sam

I am not sure whether the BD ISO with menus is supported, but going thru the xbmc forum people still have issues with full BD ISO menus. Hence this might not have been fixed as this deals with the java support/license. But I played a ISO movie file of around 8gb and it played perfectly and I believe this file did not have menus so cannot confirm the same.

Thanks

 

[baijuxavior]

Did u try arial_ms_unicode.ttf font?? This could solve the local language problem. I will try and give the result here.

I have installed ariel unicode font. It is 22MB right?. It didn't work. Not bothered about local language support, but I have tagged a few mp3s in Malayalam and they show squares. In mediamonkey they show perfectly, even before installing this font. But minilyrics is not showing the font correctly.

Yesterday was a disaster day. I tried Openelec on a pendrive, but it didn't work so I tried to reinstall but unknowingly selected the HDD which wiped out the entire drive. Lost hundreds of HD movies and my entire songs collection. Luckily I had backed up all songs and some HD movies in the laptop. I'm not worried about the movies as I rarely watch them twice. I reinstalled Windows 7 and XBMC from scratch and now the PC boots ultrafast.. I am yet to try the XBMCbuntu live ISO.

 

[sam9s]

Do you want a recover programm that actually works. Once I accedently ran norton ghost on my data drive (so it was a format! not just delete) and all movies, were gone, the worst part was all of my digi pictures were gone as well. I then stumbled upon this magical tool called, ontrack data recover tool. It took 3 hours to read the drive and brought 98% of the data back. the only difference was that I had not touched the drive after I realized that data has been lost. ... In your case you have installed the os, but you still can give it a try ... believe me the tool worked wonders ....

 

[ukjeyaraj]

I have installed ariel unicode font. It is 22MB right?. It didn't work. Not bothered about local language support, but I have tagged a few mp3s in Malayalam and they show squares. In mediamonkey they show perfectly, even before installing this font. But minilyrics is not showing the font correctly.

You are right about the ttf file, yes its 22MB file. I experience the similar problem in logitech SBT. I get all the fonts properly in windows both in winamp and media monkey, it comes as box in SBT. After chaning the default font with other unicode font, some of the fonts appear proper, but not all the fonts.

 

[baijuxavior]

Thanks sam9s. Now that I have reinstalled Windows 7, created new partitions and copied data, I highly doubt that the data can be recovered. All my songs are backed up. Movies I don't care. There is a good tool Partition Table Doctor which can be used to restore deleted partitions and recover data. I tried this and I could see the deleted linux partitions. If I had run this tool before installing windows 7, there was a probability of recovering the deleted partitions. When a linux installation deleted the partitions of my friend's PC, we used this tool to recover the partition successfully.

 

[sam9s]

Hi sam

I am not sure whether the BD ISO with menus is supported, but going thru the xbmc forum people still have issues with full BD ISO menus. Hence this might not have been fixed as this deals with the java support/license. But I played a ISO movie file of around 8gb and it played perfectly and I believe this file did not have menus so cannot confirm the same.

Thanks

manniraj, tell me, that HD audio support, is that natively supported by EDEN or you had to install a separate patch by the developer, to get the HD audio. I am not getting much positive reviews of eden'd hd audio support. First its not native, you have to install a patch, and then its still not stable, atleast thats what I have read on few of the google results ....... can you shed some more light on this .. ???

 

[manniraj]

manniraj, tell me, that HD audio support, is that natively supported by EDEN or you had to install a separate patch by the developer, to get the HD audio. I am not getting much positive reviews of eden'd hd audio support. First its not native, you have to install a patch, and then its still not stable, atleast thats what I have read on few of the google results ....... can you shed some more light on this .. ???

Hi Sam

Here is the link where I downloaded the xbmc eden with the hd audio patch pre-build I think. Just go to the post# 1947 and download from the link. I have installed this over my existing dharma edition and working smoothly for the last 2 weeks without any issues. As I said earlier I have now disabled the mpc-hc as external player and using the xbmc for all kinds of files. It is butter smooth playback with a 6 - 7 % cpu usage even for a 30gb dts-hd file.

thanks

 

[sam9s]

^^ Thanks manniraj, ok the link you shared is the patch, XBMC RC2 HD audio, 47mb...so you installed this patch over dharma right .. or eden ..??

 

[sixthsense]

Hi Sam et all,

One big confusion in setting up my THPC and i would be greatfull if you can resolve it for me.

I'm going to use my HTPC for the following :
1) Watching full HD movies 1080p
2) HD audio output required for my reciever
3) Both HD audio/video should be out from HDMI
4) Will watch Blu-ray iso
5) Bluray 3D/normal disc playback through Bluray drive connected to HTPC
6) Copying files over wireless network
7) Heavy downloading in the background of course, even while playback
8) Internet apps like youtube etc.

I'm not going to use HTPC for gaming.

So the confusion is should i go for AMD Fusion 450 (3d playback is doubtful) or Core i3 2nd gen Or a lower C2D/AMD with a dedicated GPU. If someone can help with the best possible choice within a reasonable budget, it would be of great help. Details fo the mobo+proc and gpu would be appreciated.

Edit : I'll be connecting this to my 3D/HD projector.

Thanks
Kapil

 

[haisaikat]

@sixthsense, More than processor you should look for good GPU, even dual core procs do fine as long as you have good GPU. There are lot of options on this forum, like I used HD6670 and many others have used GT440 both are good ones for 3D 1080p playback.

Do you have an existing desktop, may think of reusing its componets though like I did.

 

[sixthsense]

@sixthsense, More than processor you should look for good GPU, even dual core procs do fine as long as you have good GPU. There are lot of options on this forum, like I used HD6670 and many others have used GT440 both are good ones for 3D 1080p playback.

Do you have an existing desktop, may think of reusing its componets though like I did.

Thanks haisaikat,

If a dedicated GPU costing upwards of 6k is the only solution, then i'll look at buying a toned down C2D and mobo or even a used one to keep the costs low. If the core i3 really can't pull the 3D off then there is no point getting it now and then spending for a dedicated GPU later. any other views on the same ?

Now the question is how low can i get on the CPU+mobo with a dedicated GPU to accomplish the above stuff ? Would AMD be an option and which one or C2D or lower would suffice.

 

[sam9s]

Hi Sam et all,

One big confusion in setting up my THPC and i would be greatfull if you can resolve it for me.

I'm going to use my HTPC for the following :
1) Watching full HD movies 1080p
2) HD audio output required for my reciever
3) Both HD audio/video should be out from HDMI
4) Will watch Blu-ray iso
5) Bluray 3D/normal disc playback through Bluray drive connected to HTPC
6) Copying files over wireless network
7) Heavy downloading in the background of course, even while playback
8) Internet apps like youtube etc.

I'm not going to use HTPC for gaming.

So the confusion is should i go for AMD Fusion 450 (3d playback is doubtful) or Core i3 2nd gen Or a lower C2D/AMD with a dedicated GPU. If someone can help with the best possible choice within a reasonable budget, it would be of great help. Details fo the mobo+proc and gpu would be appreciated.

Edit : I'll be connecting this to my 3D/HD projector.

Thanks
Kapil

I would suggest, GT440 with a C2D (Or i3 if you can shell out few extra bucks), combi rather than AMD Fusion. Not that fusion is a non performer, but the above combi would probably, provide you more room for future possibilities. GT440 is a gem of an HTPC performer, and many have taken that path upon my suggestion on this thread.

This combi will suffice, All of your above points.

 

[sam9s]

Thanks haisaikat,

If a dedicated GPU costing upwards of 6k is the only solution, then i'll look at buying a toned down C2D and mobo or even a used one to keep the costs low. If the core i3 really can't pull the 3D off then there is no point getting it now and then spending for a dedicated GPU later. any other views on the same ?

Now the question is how low can i get on the CPU+mobo with a dedicated GPU to accomplish the above stuff ? Would AMD be an option and which one or C2D or lower would suffice.

GT440 is not more then 4000. I bought it for 4K a year ago so its definitely should be less now. Core i3 is much more than enough to pull 3D, also its not the processor but the GPU that is taxed for and video playback.

Dedicated GPU per my experience has always created some or the other issues when it comes to 3D playback. The best bet is intels HD3000. But as I said it also has its own share of issues.

If you want my suggestion, and want to be on absolute safer side, sacrifice ultra portability (ITX) to get an Macro ATX with a dedicated GPU like GT440 and you would never look back. For processing any C2D/C2Q is more than sufficient to pull the HTPC bandwagon. Get i3 if you plan to do any encoding/decoding stuff as well on your HTPC.

 

[manniraj]

^^ Thanks manniraj, ok the link you shared is the patch, XBMC RC2 HD audio, 47mb...so you installed this patch over dharma right .. or eden ..??

Yes I downloaded this 47 mb file and installed over my existing dharma edition. Everything went smoothly without any issues. Yes the lady who got the hd audio patch working joined the xbmc team and now she is a official xbmc member. So everybody is hoping to get the hd audio patch embedded into the official xbmc edition very soon. Till then you can have this patch working.

Thanks

 

[sixthsense]

GT440 is not more then 4000. I bought it for 4K a year ago so its definitely should be less now. Core i3 is much more than enough to pull 3D, also its not the processor but the GPU that is taxed for and video playback.

Dedicated GPU per my experience has always created some or the other issues when it comes to 3D playback. The best bet is intels HD3000. But as I said it also has its own share of issues.

If you want my suggestion, and want to be on absolute safer side, sacrifice ultra portability (ITX) to get an Macro ATX with a dedicated GPU like GT440 and you would never look back. For processing any C2D/C2Q is more than sufficient to pull the HTPC bandwagon. Get i3 if you plan to do any encoding/decoding stuff as well on your HTPC.

The 1 GB GT440 is 4.5k and 2GB GT520 is 3k, which one do you reckon ?

Also for the processor would you recommend 2nd Gen i3 or the i3 540 would cut it for me ? the mobo would anyway be between 3.5 - 4k for both generations .

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[sixthsense]

How about this deal INTEL G41 MOTHERBOARD + INTEL DUAL CORE PENTIUM D 3.0 GHZ CPU + 2 GB DDR 3 RAM ?

I can add a dedicated GPU GT440 to it, so in total it'll cost me 10k which is quite decent? Would this setup able to handle (stereoscopic) 3D playback from Bluray directly ?