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Solved OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: Solved OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? (/showthread.php?tid=165538)

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OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - turnerm - 2013-05-23

Just like the title says... if I've got a HTPC that's 95% dedicated to just running XBMC, is it OK to just leave it running all the time on that machine or will this eventually start to cause issues?

The reason I ask is because I've been down the path of setting up my Logitech remote to launch XBMC and close it when changing to another activity. The problem is that I've setup special activities on the remote so that my wife can go straight to certain sections of our DVD library (like Baby DVDs or All DVDs or Weather, etc) and when doing this you have to mess around with inserting delays in the IR sequence in order to time things right and I've found that the system doesn't always respond with the same quickness so it starts getting sloppy.

If I can just leave it on 100% of the time then this issue goes away and by the time the TV actually turns on she's just looking at the list of DVDs that she wants to see.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Kib - 2013-05-23

I leave my HTPC (with XBMCbuntu) running for days and days. I reboot it occasionaly myself when testing stuff or when updating it.
No appareant issues come to mind. Make sure that the pc can't overheat and is properly ventilated.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - patseguin - 2013-05-23

I leave mine running all the time. However, a lot of the time I'll turn on the TV and XBMC will have minimizes itself (it does this in the moddle of viewing something too). I used to have slow playing videos after running for a while but it looks like they may have fixed that.[/align]


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - spiff - 2013-05-23

that is your choice of os. iirc using a fake fullscreen window somewhat alleviates it.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - patseguin - 2013-05-23

Windows 8


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - turnerm - 2013-05-23

Thanks for all the replies. I think I'll just leave it on and just periodically reboot the machine once every week or two just to make sure things stay fresh. This will certainly make things easier on the WAF (wife acceptance factor) side of the equation.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Faire - 2013-05-23

I also leave it always on.. I'm using Windows 8


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - locoguano - 2013-05-24

I have my htpc set to update at 3 am, restart at 4 am. Loads XBMC on Windows start.


Re: RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Kib - 2013-05-24

(2013-05-23, 16:39)patseguin Wrote: I leave mine running all the time. However, a lot of the time I'll turn on the TV and XBMC will have minimizes itself (it does this in the moddle of viewing something too). I used to have slow playing videos after running for a while but it looks like they may have fixed that.[/align]
The memory leak issue under windows has been fixed for the biggest part.

You could look in to using FocusBitch, a tool to keep xbmc on top and fullscreen ?


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - msarro - 2013-05-24

I leave it running on my mac mini (mountain lion). Namely because there are a bunch of updater type things which run inside xbmc, and also because I have some backup software which backs up the media pc online (crashplan is awesome). When I don't, I just suspend. I rarely reboot unless necessary.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - bobo1on1 - 2013-05-24

Power usage will increase, enable dirty region rendering in advancedsettings.xml and turn off the rss scroller to lower it.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - turnerm - 2013-05-28

I've left it on now for several days and it's working fine. I only had to modify one little thing in my Harmony logic... my wife had a habit of just hitting the off button or switching activities without first stopping playback so I simply added a "stop" command when leaving this activity. Everything is working great!


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Kib - 2013-05-28

You could consider scheduling a weekly reboot - maybe something like sundaymorning at 6 AM,when everyone is sleeping.


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - turnerm - 2013-05-28

(2013-05-28, 15:41)Kibje Wrote: You could consider scheduling a weekly reboot - maybe something like sundaymorning at 6 AM,when everyone is sleeping.

Yea, but then I'd have to log back into the machine after the reboot and startup XBMC. Anyway to solve this by scheduling a reboot?


RE: OK to leave XBMC running constantly on HTPC? - Dark_Slayer - 2013-05-29

(2013-05-28, 16:59)turnerm Wrote: Yea, but then I'd have to log back into the machine after the reboot and startup XBMC. Anyway to solve this by scheduling a reboot?

run netplwiz, uncheck the box "users must enter password" and apply, move xbmc shortcut to startup folder in start menu