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JeroenDierckx · 2011-09-08, 14:53

Hi all,

First of all, congratulations to all the XBMC developers over the years that have made it what it is today, and especially the ATV2 developers that made the AppleTV device useful here in Belgium :-)

I have been using XBMC for more than 7 years now, on my old xbox. It always has been a great experience. I was using different crappy means to play HD content and I didn't really pay attention to the XBMC scene lately. When I found out that it has been ported to ATV2 though, I immediately ordered one and put XBMC on it.

Especially using the latest nightly builds, it works quite stable. The only minor setback (apart from the hardcore porn fanart that seems to be associated with The Social Network movie) is the reaction speed of the GUI: it seems to take approximately half a second from pressing a button on my remote control to the GUI reacting to it. As I said this is not a major issue at all, but it makes XBMC feel less 'snappy' than what I was used to on the xbox.

Is that an issue that could still be resolved in the future? Or is the ATV2 hardware just too limited to get it perfect? I can understand that this isn't high on the priority list right now but I just want to know if it could be resolved some time.

I read here and there that dirty rectangling is being added to the XBMC code, which could help, right? Is that feature enabled already? Is it stable enough to test on ATV2? I am having difficulties finding much information about it, and on how to enable the feature (actually, I can't find much information about advanced settings on ATV2 in general).

I have almost ten years of experience in C++ now, and I might have some spare time in a couple of weeks. So if there are specific parts of the code that I can look at, I would be glad to do so.

Greetings,
JeDi

canadave · 2011-09-08, 15:15

are you using the absolute latest nightly build? The ones within the past few days have dramatically improved the GUI speed.

As for dirty regions and advancedsettings, it's all in the wiki.

JeroenDierckx · (This post was last modified: 2011-09-08, 17:12 by JeroenDierckx.)

Hi, thanks for the reply

Actually, the build I am using right now is from four days ago (Sep 5 2011). I will update right away!

I was searching for dirty rectangles the whole time, while it seems to be referred to as dirty regions here. Stupid me. If anyone else is looking for it, the wiki page about advanced settings is http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Adv...ttings.xml

Thanks again!

canadave · 2011-09-08, 17:28

You're welcome. Don't expect TOO too much from the GUI; it's not "instant"; but it's good enough that it shouldn't be noticeable--when I'm clicking through the menus it is *almost* instantaneous, and it's quite good enough that it shouldn't be an issue in the slightest. My only complaint with the GUI had been the extremely slow thumbnail/fanart loading times, but that has since improved dramatically with the latest set of nightly builds. It's still not "perfect", but it's pretty darned close and completely reasonable now; plus, give the devs time and I'm sure it will be even better!

**jabba_29** · 2011-09-08, 17:34

I find it way quicker. I have a build from the 5th. Library images come way quicker than before for me.

JeroenDierckx · 2011-09-08, 20:16

I noticed indeed that the image loading is way faster than before. But the delay I was talking about is in interacting with the GUI: the delay between pressing a button on my remote and the action happening on-screen.

With one press of a button, it is not too bad. But when pressing down a lot of times when going trough a list for example, the actions seem to be queued and it can sometimes take several seconds before the item I want is actually selected. Of course, by then you have pressed too many times and you have to go back up. All by all a little frustrating.

Is that behaviour normal? Or could it maybe be a problem with my Logitech universal remote?

Haohmaru · 2011-09-08, 20:55

JeroenDierckx Wrote:Or could it maybe be a problem with my Logitech universal remote?

Definitely. It's a common problem with lots of Logitech Harmony remotes.

canadave · 2011-09-08, 21:05

JeroenDierckx Wrote:Or could it maybe be a problem with my Logitech universal remote?

LOL....

In a word, yes, it is. I'm surprised you didn't think to double-check by testing the GUI with the ATV2 remote...

ste0803 · 2011-09-08, 21:53

just stuck the latest nightly on my atv2 and its a massive improvement on what it was. still not as quick as say the PC would be but my god its brill.

didnt think to get the nightlies till i saw this thread.

will have to keep updated.

ste0803

**dazex** · 2011-09-08, 23:31

The Logitech universal remote has that delay. There are ways to shorten it, but it's always present. Try using the included Apple TV remote. You'll notice things are near instant.

dan1son · 2011-09-09, 05:52

In the harmony remote configuration tool under devices you can go to the troubleshooting section. In there you'll find something like "My device responds too quickly or not quickly enough." That allows you to set the inter-key delay. Set it to 100ms. The other setting is "My device responds too many or too few times." That allows you to set the repeat. Try 0 or 1 for that. Mine defaulted to 0ms delay and 3 repeats. With 100ms and 1 repeat it was considerably better and still reliable.

Search google for plex and harmony... you'll find an article with some test matrix that might help you.

It seems the harmony defaults are sometimes a bit conservative and make things more sluggish than you'd like on an interactive device like an HTPC.

JeroenDierckx · 2011-09-09, 15:24

Thanks a lot for the info. The delay was set to 0ms default, which is correct. It was the other option that made the difference. Now that I set it to 0, the delay is about the same as with the Apple remote.

Could still be better I guess, because there is still delay when navigating through a list with images attached, but this is almost perfect. Great!