1080p playback & skins
#1
Does the raspberry pi play 20+ gig 1080p mkv files flawless without lag or stutter? also does a skin like aeon nox or refocus (big) lag at all or are they fluid without hiccups? I am debating about getting a raspPI or waiting a few months to see if a similar like device comes out that can achieve the above Smile.
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#2
regarding the full hd files playback,works like a charm here
latest XBian Alpha 4 with latest fw/kernel update Wink
http://www.xbian.org
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#3
(2013-01-21, 19:21)rikardo1979 Wrote: regarding the full hd files playback,works like a charm here
latest XBian Alpha 4 with latest fw/kernel update Wink
http://www.xbian.org

what about the menu's and such? is it fluid or is it lagging? If its fluid what skin are you using?
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#4
Well, I got it working very good, but I know for a fact that some skins, widgets and add-on can cause some problems.
Many skins uses scripts to update playlists etc. and this can cause a short CPU peak, which in turn can cause stutter in HD movies.

Setup correct it can be very smooth, but all depends on Pi, distro, overclocking, skin, addons etc.

Aeon nox is known to be quite heavy for the Pi.

I have tried all 3 of the biggests distros with success, but I have spent a lot of time trying different settings and skins.
Conluence is probably the best option since it don´t use that many widgets and addons.

I am is using Hybrid (disabled many functions) with quite high overclocking that I have tried out for some time.

Edit: Have in mind though that the Pi is nowhere close to a PC. I also have a ATV2 running XBMC and it is actually much smoother in GUI than the Pi (even though the Pi is more powerful in other ways).
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#5
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#6
(2013-01-21, 19:30)PobjoySpecial Wrote:
(2013-01-21, 18:33)hewligun Wrote: Does the raspberry pi play 20+ gig 1080p mkv files flawless without lag or stutter?

Yes, but it will stutter with DTS audio or anything higher. Either passthrough or re-encode to 2-channel AC3.

Quote:also does a skin like aeon nox or refocus (big) lag at all or are they fluid without hiccups?

Aeon Nox = lag
ReFocus (normal) = fluid, except for view types with significant animations (e.g. cover flow)

ReFocus Big has a lot of extra clutter added, so no idea.

Quote:I am debating about getting a raspPI or waiting a few months to see if a similar like device comes out that can achieve the above Smile.

There will always be better options in the future. It just depends on how long you want to wait. The Pi was cheap enough that I bought it as an interim solution. It worked well enough that I doubt I'll upgrade for a long time.
thanks for these answers. As far as the audio goes does that mean if its going to a receiver that the receiver will handle all audio? or does it mean I cannot achieve 5.1 SS?

on 1 tv it would just be hdmi from the tv and use the tv's volume to control. the other room would be going to an onkyo receiver.

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#7
If your receiver/TV support DTS you can just passthrough, that will work.
If not XBMC must decode the DTS and this might cause stuttering on heavy HD videos.

There is a simple solution to force passthrough if your receiver does not communicate correct with the Pi.
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#8
(2013-01-21, 19:51)miappa Wrote: If your receiver/TV support DTS you can just passthrough, that will work.
If not XBMC must decode the DTS and this might cause stuttering on heavy HD videos.

There is a simple solution to force passthrough if your receiver does not communicate correct with the Pi.

I guess I am slightly confused by this. is there a link where I can read more on this? my receiver does allow DTS so i should be able to just do a passthrough?

what about the other tv where its just using the tv speakers. can I just not enable dts in xbmc? sorry Im noobish.

also what is the recommended rpi buy? v2 512mb?
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#9
It´s quite simple, if your receiver/TV supports DTS it will handle the decoding and therefor XBMC does not have to.

I have a 512mb and quite happy with it, but there have been much progress to get the 256-model working quite good with XBMC as well.

I am by no means an expert though so correct me if I´m wrong anyone.
All I can say is that I have a 100% working system, even with HD and DTS.
But to be honest, the first models of my TV did not support DTS and I have not found anything that supports my theory that it really does (only that it can transcode DTS to AC3).
So, either it does or my Pi handles the (software) decoding without any problems what so ever.
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#10
(2013-01-21, 20:07)miappa Wrote: It´s quite simple, if your receiver/TV supports DTS it will handle the decoding and therefor XBMC does not have to.

I have a 512mb and quite happy with it, but there have been much progress to get the 256-model working quite good with XBMC as well.

I am by no means an expert though so correct me if I´m wrong anyone.
All I can say is that I have a 100% working system, even with HD and DTS.
But to be honest, the first models of my TV did not support DTS and I have not found anything that supports my theory that it really does (only that it can transcode DTS to AC3).
So, either it does or my Pi handles the (software) decoding without any problems what so ever.

hmmm Yeah I would be bummin if it chokes up on playback....

Do I have to install the os and xbmc on a sd card or can I install to a usb stick? the files will be stored on the network and probably mysql on the network so xbmc shares the same DB.
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#11
You have to at least boot it from a SD card.
But there are choices (depending on distros) to install to USB or a NFS share.

As I said though, I have never experienced stuttering other than when I have tested it to it´s limit (meaning playing heavy files with heavy skin at the same time as scanning media).
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#12
(2013-01-21, 20:17)miappa Wrote: You have to at least boot it from a SD card.
But there are choices (depending on distros) to install to USB or a NFS share.

As I said though, I have never experienced stuttering other than when I have tested it to it´s limit (meaning playing heavy files with heavy skin at the same time as scanning media).

what is the recommended setup for fastest smoothest playback? as far as distro goes? It is just going to be a player so I dont need anything real fancy. also what is the recommended sd card? I see people saying not to go above a class 4 sd card.
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#13
All distros are good, I would have to say that you have to test yourself.
Since it´s XBMC and omx player on all they are very similar, it´s more question of what you are looking for.
Search the forums, it is many threads discussing distros.

If you plan to install on SD only I would suggest a class 10 card.
If you install to USB or NFS the card doesn´t really matter since it will only boot from it.

The class 4 information is probably old, most people are today using class 10 cards without problems.
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