[bk123]

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone knew if the Samsung Homesync would run XBMC? And if so how well it would run XBMC? I have tried searching around on the internet and haven't been able to really find anything. Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Ned Scott]

If it runs android, which it might, then it would likely take some kind of tinkering to get any 3rd party programs installed that are not directly Samsung approved.

So, no, no it would not run XBMC.

[Starstream]

On top of that it runs a custom version of Android it only works with Samsung phones/tablets as the controller (no remote supplied) so it's useless as an XBMC box.

bk123 if your looking for brand name Android devices, official AndroidTV boxes the successor to GoogleTV should appear sometime this year.

[bk123]

I mean it has the Play Store on the device, and functions as a normal Android phone would. Apps can be side loaded as well. . It runs Android 4.2.2. It has an Exynos processor, which according to a Wiki page I looked at says it should have 1080p Hardware Decoding. You can also hook up Bluetooth keyboard and mice. I was just wondering if there was any real world cases of someone using it successfully.

Thanks for the responses.

[Starstream]

With a $300 price tag I don't think it's worth it.

An ODROID board which is also Samsung Exynos goes for $60 and use the Android image with it to get XBMC.

[bk123]

For $300 I agree. They were going "Open Box" for $168 on Ebay. That's why I was considering it.

Thanks again

[Starstream]

Well if someone is letting them go for $168 that is a bit more palatable and your getting a 1TB HDD in there too.

I watched a video demo of the unit and it appears that Samsung hide the Android system bar by default which is a plus as otherwise it would require rooting the box (which may or may not be possible) and then using an app to hide the system bar so XBMC runs full screen. There is also some sort of audio bitstreaming support in the box.

There are bluetooth remotes out there meant for Android you could buy but that would likely push you to the $200 mark.

Still a bit of a gamble, like in the manual it makes no mention of display resolutions only screen size = normal and scaling options. I had an archos box & much like the samsung it sounded more promising then the typical rockchip/amlogic arm boxes with a much faster TI OMAP chip at it's heart but it had a raft of problems one of which was no display resolution manual settings it was all automatic & buggy.

If you decide it's worth the risk it would be interesting to hear the results.

[bk123]

Well, ordered a HomeSync. Will report back on how things run on it. I'm hopeful.

[AaronG85]

I brought one of these today and so far its great only trouble is all my 720p content seems to stutter as this is the first time I've used android xbmc is this normal or how do I fix it?

[AaronG85]

Just in case anyone is interested i corrected the above error by installing the latest v13 nightly and following these directions

I had the same issue on a k-r42 which was a rk3188 chip. What I found to be the fix was disable mediacodec in the system-video-playback area. leave libstagefright enabled and everything ran perfect for me.

[Starstream]

What sort of fps does XBMC report in system info if you don't mind checking ?

Is it true 1080p output no upscaling ?

Does bit-streaming audio work if you have a sound system ?

Do BT remotes or USB remote work with it ?

Is the HDD the install point for apps or does it work as a separate storage area ?

Thanks.

[bk123]

Separate storage area. 8gb partition. HD video streams really well. I never could get, what I'm assuming to be MPEG-2 video to work. Would ONLY play the audio. When it was clearly supposed to be a video playing. Overall for running XBMC and other Android apps it proved to be too much of a pain for me. Great potential. Extremely poor execution

[Maddball]

Well I installed XBMC on the Samsung home sync and it works well other than playing 1080 movies locally or streaming. Kinda weird if i play them through the android stock video app they play flawlessly. I've changed every setting in XBMC to no avail. I'm a bit sad because I love this Home Sync box but so little has been put into in by Samsung. The idea is great but even with the decent hardware specs I cant play 1080 movies from the local drive through XBMC. SD movies play ok but still not 100%. Waiting for any help on this issue, its the perfect solution for a home media center.
Thanks in advance..

[nalle303]

I just bought one of these Samsung Homesync and was hoping XBMC would run great on it.

Frodo stable and Gotham Beta/ Beta2 works on SD video but not good at all with 720p or 1080p.

I installed an old Libestagefright nightly build and to my surprise it plays some 1080p movies without any trouble and most 720p without any trouble at all.

the problem i found with the old nightly build is that xbmc video dectection and scanning crashes the app. But for me its ok to just browse for the video i want to stream

I stream via Wifi from a SMB share on a NAS.

wifi speed at about 30-60MB/s

[sebra]

Hello,

I am running XBMC Gotham 13.1 on my Samsung Homesync:
- Stock firmware B9150XXUBNE1, 4.2.2
- Not root
- Wired video streaming using NFS/SMB

My HD TV is connected with Homesync via HDMI.

I have tried almost all combination settings for the video playback (refresh rate) and acceleration (HW/SW) in XBMC but it seems only videos with 23,976/24 fps give smooth playback, regardless SD or HD. The videos with other frame rates like 29,976/60/25/50 are choppy, pressing 'o' while playing video I can see a lot of frame drops or/and frame skips.

My Windows 8.1 Samsung series 9 laptop with XBMC Gotham 13.1 gives perfect playback for all frame rates!!!

I found this thread about Android automatic change of frame rate: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=183322 post #3

Does this mean there is nothing XBMC can do to make smooth playback on Android for videos with frame rates other than 23,976/24 fps