2008-09-22, 06:51
OK, so I spent the better part of this weekend building a box for xbmc and after an unbelievable amount of aggravation (getting linux to play nice with my hardware, not xbmc-related), I've managed to get most everything working. My problem is that if I enable VSync, HD movie files cap at exactly 20fps. SD files play fine, and if I disable VSync, HD files are fine too, but I get really irritating tearing.
It's definitely not a lack of CPU power (Core 2 Duo overclocked to 3.33) but I do worry it may be related to the video card (or lack thereof). Hardware acceleration is working in Ubuntu and I can use all the fancy compiz effects (they're disabled for running xbmc). Obviously it's not as powerful as anything nVidia or ATI makes, but it should be enough.
As a side note I'm happy to help others with some of the stuff I HAVE gotten to work properly, notably lirc working with a Harmony 880 and the built in IR receiver on my Fusion 430. I can even boot and shutdown the computer with the remote. That whole process sucked, but after a lot of trial and error and editing config files it works like a dream. I'm also pretty pleased at how easy digital out was to get working.
For reference I'm using
Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha6 (need it for hardware support)
Core 2 Duo E7200 overclocked from 2.53 to 3.33 (plenty of headroom left too)
Asus P5Q EM HDMI motheboard (Intel G45 based)
Pioneer PDP 5070 (fed by VGA running at 1360x760) because HDMI hates me)
2GB DDR2 800
Antec Fusion 430
Harmony 880
It's definitely not a lack of CPU power (Core 2 Duo overclocked to 3.33) but I do worry it may be related to the video card (or lack thereof). Hardware acceleration is working in Ubuntu and I can use all the fancy compiz effects (they're disabled for running xbmc). Obviously it's not as powerful as anything nVidia or ATI makes, but it should be enough.
As a side note I'm happy to help others with some of the stuff I HAVE gotten to work properly, notably lirc working with a Harmony 880 and the built in IR receiver on my Fusion 430. I can even boot and shutdown the computer with the remote. That whole process sucked, but after a lot of trial and error and editing config files it works like a dream. I'm also pretty pleased at how easy digital out was to get working.
For reference I'm using
Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha6 (need it for hardware support)
Core 2 Duo E7200 overclocked from 2.53 to 3.33 (plenty of headroom left too)
Asus P5Q EM HDMI motheboard (Intel G45 based)
Pioneer PDP 5070 (fed by VGA running at 1360x760) because HDMI hates me)
2GB DDR2 800
Antec Fusion 430
Harmony 880