[protocol77]

i was thinking of buying a raspberry pi for more curiousity than anything and to test out the xbmc port to it i was thinking of using the openelec version for it but the one on raspbmc has a simply windows installer like normal openelec so probably try that first

now obviously it is not going to be lightning fast but curious as to whether it is worth getting one espeically at this stage the wait time is about 5 weeks so if i am going to get one i want to get the ball rolling on getting it delivered as soon as possible


does anyone have one and can comment on it i would only use it for xbmc as i have no linux knowledge whatsoever also curious being that storage is limited to sd and usb drives if the 100mbps ethernet is powerful enough to stream 1080 videos over the network from my file server i am currently using a gigabit network so don't know what the performance of a slower network is like

[GavinCampbell]

I got one and it is pretty good. I wouldn't say its the most stable as it uses the beta builds and nightlies, and not the latest stable build. However it does work well.

If you used a shared sql database then you will have to update all your clients as the nightlies have a newer database.

I stream 720p content to it nicely and I'm pretty sure 100mb network can stream 1080p as well. It does support that resolution.

It is worth getting. By the time you get it they will probably have a more stable build released. You may also want to look into ordering a case and a wireless remote at the same time so you have them all together.

[jamie1984]

Hi @protocol77 I have two RPi's and primarily got one for XMBC and the other as a thin client remote desktop system.

I have used both OpenELEC and Raspbmc, the latter being the easier to setup with the Windows installer. To be honest, I didn't find much between the two in terms of performance but in my opinion and I'm sure most would agree that it isn't quite there yet due to various and expected road blocks. (mpeg2, codec licensing, GPU acceleration etc...) . I have a similar setup with Gb ethernet, NAS (NFS) and full BR rips created with Make MKV. In my testing it cannot handle 1080p over ethernet or USB, I believe the ethernet piggy backs onto the USB 2 controller on the board so think there is a limitation there. My 1080p rips choke every 2 or 3 seconds (720p fine), I don't whether it is to do with the audio streams within the rips as I haven't had time to test too much.

As Gavin said it will become more stable but personally I am not able to use mine at the moment for what I want to use it for and as such I'm still using my AS Rock ION system.

I'm sure the great work by Raspbmc and OpenELEC guys will improve at a fast rate.

Check out the raspbmc forums to see users experiences, either way if you do get one its not too money to part with.
http://forum.stmlabs.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=7

I think the future great XBMC system may be in an Android setup
http://xbmc.us/njbetzen/2012/07/19/xbmc-...-for-xbox/