It seems many of the problems users have with XBMC is getting the AUDIO/VIDEO settings set correctly. This doesn't exclude myself. I've spent hours upon hours checking and unchecking boxes to see how it affects performance. It's interesting to me how it seems that things like audio settings can drastically affect the playback of high quality video files. I enjoy tinkering with these things but can see how the average home theater buff looking to try out XBMC for the first time could be turned off....
The point: I wish there was a high-quality video clip with high-definition audio - a sample clip - that you could choose to play upon first loading of XBMC. After the clip played, it would pop up a dialog box, asking "was this clip displayed correctly", and change the settings accordingly.
Example: my system is rather old, but XBMC plays HD files exceptionally well. However, it doesn't play HD Audio without stuttering. I've learned that this is a limitation of my hardware. In this instance, the video would play, but would be choppy. I would answer "Yes, but not smooth" and it would try standard Dolby Digital or DTS Audio. Then the video would play again with HD audio disabled, but would play smoothly. I would then know the problem lies within the audio settings.
Maybe this is all a bit too convoluted to carry out efficiently, but could definitely help those who get frustrated with XBMC and give up too quickly before realizing it's potential.
The point: I wish there was a high-quality video clip with high-definition audio - a sample clip - that you could choose to play upon first loading of XBMC. After the clip played, it would pop up a dialog box, asking "was this clip displayed correctly", and change the settings accordingly.
Example: my system is rather old, but XBMC plays HD files exceptionally well. However, it doesn't play HD Audio without stuttering. I've learned that this is a limitation of my hardware. In this instance, the video would play, but would be choppy. I would answer "Yes, but not smooth" and it would try standard Dolby Digital or DTS Audio. Then the video would play again with HD audio disabled, but would play smoothly. I would then know the problem lies within the audio settings.
Maybe this is all a bit too convoluted to carry out efficiently, but could definitely help those who get frustrated with XBMC and give up too quickly before realizing it's potential.
