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Asus Chromebox announcement
(2014-07-10, 16:21)Matt Devo Wrote: Honestly, you're lucky that all you got was a reboot when you selected the wrong option. You've previously said you were running a standalone Ubuntu setup, so why would you choose the legacy BIOS update option, which is under the Dual Boot heading? And if you weren't sure, why not refer to the post which explains all the options?

Flashing firmware isn't trivial, and has the potential to brick your box if you flash the wrong thing. Fortunately in this case that didn't happen.

Yeah fair enough - I was tired and in a rush. Oops.
Anything I need to check? or if it is working then it's fine?
(2014-07-10, 17:02)xaphod Wrote: Yeah fair enough - I was tired and in a rush. Oops.
Anything I need to check? or if it is working then it's fine?

nope - if it flashed the Coreboot update successfully then you're fine.

I should put in something to check/disable the dual-boot options when running non-stock firmware. Maybe in the next version.
Any idea how I could add a bind in keymap.xml that would do a reboot command of the Chromebox when it freeze/hang on a video ? (Only a Hard reboot can fix it) After that I could bind that keyboard key to my flirc and reboot the chromebox with my remote !
Shouldn't be having any freezing/hanging on videos unless you have hardware acceleration enabled, which currently doesn't work. You can ssh into your Chromebox and run
Quote:killall -9 xbmc.bin
to restart XBMC AFAIK once XBMC is hung not much else you can do.
important for anyone looking to buy a chromebox and plans to watch Hi10p content on it:

I bought the base chromebox (Celeron 2955U) a few weeks ago and have ran into issues with Hi10p content. I watch alot of 1080p Hi10p encoded anime, and the problem arises with scenes where there is a "film grain" effect (during flashbacks for example in "Another - Episode 10") this only happens on SOME anime, mostly with larger file size episodes (more reference frames maybe?). Anyway, the video just stops to buffer for 30 seconds, continues play back for 10-20 seconds, then stops to buffer again. As soon as the film grain flashback ends, playback continues smoothly.

CPU usage is about 50% during regular scenes and 80%-98% during scenes with film grain. Memory usage remains below 20% (I added a second 2GB stick of RAM for total of 4GB), and I am also playing from a USB 3.0 connected HDD (which I also tested on my Desktop PC and had no issues); so I am sure this problem is caused by the CPU.

Again, I do have other 1080p-Hi10P anime that plays without issue, but keep in mind this box is not able everything you throw at it. The CPU seems like it is just barely managing to keep up IMO.

I will likely return the chromebox and get an i5 Brix or something with a beefier CPU.

EDIT: Btw the box is running the latest XBMC on OpenELEC 4.0.7.
Which one did you play Underwater or Coalgirls? I mostly only play 720p since the majority are upscaled and a waste of space.
(2014-07-14, 01:36)tetsuya Wrote: Which one did you play Underwater or Coalgirls? I mostly only play 720p since the majority are upscaled and a waste of space.

Underwater. I only play 720p when the Bluray release is a DVD upscale, I don't beleive Another is upscaled though.
I've watched half of the Coalgirls and haven't had any freezes or buffering from my NAS. I'll try Underwaters and see how it plays. It does slow down to 20 fps on the grain scenes and I've had around 120 drops. I know the 1080p of Suzumiya Haruhi buffers at the beginning of the text heavy OP. For some of these 1080p Hi10p anime an i3 or better U processor would be needed. The Brix looks nice and you wouldn't have to go out of your way to get things working.

Edit: I finished Underwaters and had 16 drops and 23.976 fps the entire way. I'm using Arch linux with openbox, XBMC and 2GB of memory.
(2014-07-14, 03:34)tetsuya Wrote: I've watched half of the Coalgirls and haven't had any freezes or buffering from my NAS. I'll try Underwaters and see how it plays. It does slow down to 20 fps on the grain scenes and I've had around 120 drops. I know the 1080p of Suzumiya Haruhi buffers at the beginning of the text heavy OP. For some of these 1080p Hi10p anime an i3 or better U processor would be needed. The Brix looks nice and you wouldn't have to go out of your way to get things working.

Edit: I finished Underwaters and had 16 drops and 23.976 fps the entire way. I'm using Arch linux with openbox, XBMC and 2GB of memory.

Did you try episode 10 specifically?
I watched episode 10 from both releases off of my NAS using NFS. I didn't try it off of a usb3 drive, so I didn't have that extra overhead. CPU's were mostly between 45-55% usage and up to 95-100% on the scenes with a lot of grain. We should be have the same updated versions of software and openelec and arch are both pretty much straight from source without to much modefications done. I would still suggest going with the i3 or i5 brix if your going to be playing a lot of 1080p Hi10p content.

I can try playing it on my i5 4200U ultrabook with openelec tomorrow, but I don't see why it wouldn't play it. I can let you know the CPU usage and and any drops I get with Coalgirls since it more demanding on the CPU.
The main issue with Hi10p content is that the Source is only 8bit not 10bit so that is a waste right there. I honestly have no idea why people started encoding 8bit into 10bit when the source is only 8bit. As of right now 10bit can only be software accelerated and that is a no go for lower end boxes like the celeron 2955U and Arm boxes out there. So I tend to stay away from the 10bit stuff personally.
(2014-07-14, 05:08)Topken Wrote: The main issue with Hi10p content is that the Source is only 8bit not 10bit so that is a waste right there. I honestly have no idea why people started encoding 8bit into 10bit when the source is only 8bit. As of right now 10bit can only be software accelerated and that is a no go for lower end boxes like the celeron 2955U and Arm boxes out there. So I tend to stay away from the 10bit stuff personally.

I would prefer not to play Hi10P but it seems all fansub groups are in love with it...
(2014-07-08, 01:55)DocG Wrote:
(2014-06-25, 08:02)DocG Wrote: I can also confirm that the Pulse-Eight USB CEC Adapter works with the Chromebox. Just tested it on my LG TV.

After some use, it seems like I need to make a minor revision to this statement.

The Pulse-Eight USB CEC Adapter can not survive off, at least not if used as intended. If it is connected as generally required, and you happen to turn your Chromebox (either Asus or HP) completely off, next time you turn it back on you have lost the video signal.

After some discussion with Pulse-Eight, it turns out their USB CEC Adapter needs power to the USB port BEFORE there is any video out, or it simply will not let any video signal through.

There are, however, several workarounds.

First option, either always leave your Chromebox on, or just put it into standby. Never turn it off.

Second option, use a USB hub to connect the USB CEC Adapter through, so the Adapter always has power.

Third option, in case you've got a spare HDMI port, you actually can split video in and control in for one HDMI channel using two physical HDMI ports. The video will be connected to the main port, and that's the port you use in the HDMI config settings in XBMC, and then you simply connect the USB CEC adapter to a spare HDMI port, does not appear to matter which.

Just thought I should mention this, in case people wish to use CEC.

There also is one further difference between the Asus and the HP that I've just noticed which may be important to some people as well.

The HP actually does produce more noise.

It's still very quiet, and I couldn't actually hear it in my lounge room during the day from a couple meters away. I could not, however, hear the Asus in my bedroom at night from a couple meters away either (the bright white light is a different matter altogether). Due to the HP being better suited to our bedroom in terms of style, I actually swapped them around yesterday, and I can hear the HP from a couple meters away when it is dead quiet at night. For anyone who is sensitive to noise, and might want to consider the Chromebox as an always-on solution for the bedroom, the Asus is definitely a better choice.

I contacted ASUS support in hopes of finding some BIOS option. Looks like the ASUS Chromebox doesn't have a USB charger plus setting, so it looks like we'll need one of the above options.
(2014-07-15, 20:11)knocktrade Wrote: I contacted ASUS support in hopes of finding some BIOS option. Looks like the ASUS Chromebox doesn't have a USB charger plus setting, so it looks like we'll need one of the above options.

there are no user-configurable firmware/BIOS options on the ChromeBox. Powering the USB ports enough to charge a device while powered off is something I could conceivably implement in the custom coreboot firmware however. Given that the firmware situation is pretty well sorted, my focus currently is on the video lockups when using HW acceleration.
(2014-07-14, 01:02)melter Wrote: important for anyone looking to buy a chromebox and plans to watch Hi10p content on it:

I bought the base chromebox (Celeron 2955U) a few weeks ago and have ran into issues with Hi10p content. I watch alot of 1080p Hi10p encoded anime, and the problem arises with scenes where there is a "film grain" effect (during flashbacks for example in "Another - Episode 10") this only happens on SOME anime, mostly with larger file size episodes (more reference frames maybe?). Anyway, the video just stops to buffer for 30 seconds, continues play back for 10-20 seconds, then stops to buffer again. As soon as the film grain flashback ends, playback continues smoothly.

CPU usage is about 50% during regular scenes and 80%-98% during scenes with film grain. Memory usage remains below 20% (I added a second 2GB stick of RAM for total of 4GB), and I am also playing from a USB 3.0 connected HDD (which I also tested on my Desktop PC and had no issues); so I am sure this problem is caused by the CPU.

Thanks for the info. I mustn't have watched anything with grain yet, but I'll test Underwater's Another Episode 10 (will be streaming directly off my NAS, though).

Edit: Ran through the file a few times, and the maximum number of drops I had was 6. Yes, 6! Generally a couple right at the beginning, and then a few more during the OP when the picture has a lot of grain. That also seems to be the only time where fps wander a bit, otherwise it's a stable 23.98 all the way through. During some scenes I see one of the cores jump to 100%, but without affecting fps and without causing any further drops. Subjectively, I'd have to say the file played absolutely fine. Definitely no stopping and buffering anywhere. Could this be caused by something else, and not the CPU?

P.S. I'm running that particular Chromebox (Asus with 4GB RAM) in dual-boot with Chrome OS and OpenELEC 4.0.7.
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