[eriksmith200]

It does has optical Audio out dude. I have it connected to my Samsung Surround Sound system via Optical.

That's interesting. Do you maybe have a link to a page with full specification? (can't see the forest for the eees <= lame joke, sorry).

Do you have the B202? How much memory? Which OS? Could you look at CPU load when playing the bird sample at 720p?

[edit]I don't see optical audio out mentioned here: http://hothardware.com/News/ASUS_Eee_Box...ls_Emerge/ [/edit]

[frotsen]

Line-Out (L/R) with S/PDIF x 1 = optical

[tyche]

I recently bought an Apple TV and installed XBMC on it and I couldn't be happier. Everything is running perfectly. I do 720p although I haven't tried to play at very higher bitrates. I usually try and keep them under 3 mbit.

[CASHMON3Y]

Specs:

Motherboard ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2
RAM/Memory 2046MB RAM CORSAIR XMS2 2 GB (4 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Processor/CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, ~2.1GHz
Video Card(s) NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTO 512mb x2 SLI ........resolution 1920 by 1080
Sound Card SoundMAX HD Audio
Power Supply OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply
Case Antec Performance One P180 Silver cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Hard Drive(s) 3x WD 500GB SATA -HARD DRIVES,
Optical Drive(s) 2 Sony DRU-830A DVD-/+18x
Cooling Setup stock AMD

TV: VIZIO 46" 1080p LCD


(make sure you have the newest drivers installed for your video cards)
CPU usage is only at 10-20% now with the beta2 running with playback on H.264 encoded videos at native 1080p resolutions @60hrz on a XP pc

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
here is a list of cpu's and some specs i feel are good/well for XBMC to do 720p, 1080p and more.


Intel

* Intel Pentium E2200 (Allendale core)

o Specs: 2.20GHz, FSB 800MT/s, multiplier x11, 1MB L2 Cache, No support for VT
o Price: $84
o Notes: Despite the name, this dual-core processor is based on the same Core microarchitecture as the Core 2 Duo processors and has nothing to do with Pentium D processors. 2.20GHz is just enough to play back HD contents smoothly.

* Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 (Allendale core)

o Specs: 2.40GHz, FSB 800MT/s, multiplier x12, 2MB L2 Cache, No support for VT
o Price: $133
o Notes: Larger L2 cache helps better performance in several applications (in particular games and encoding).

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (Wolfdale core)

o Specs: 3.00GHz, FSB 1333MT/s, multiplier x9, 6MB L2 Cache, 45 nm
o Price: $183
o Notes: Currently the best bang for the buck among the 6MB L2 cache dual-core processors.

* Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Kentsfield core)

o Specs: quad-core, 2.40GHz, FSB 1333MT/s, multiplier x8, 4MB L2 Cache
o Price: $266
o Notes: If you do lots of CPU intensive tasks (for example encoding), this is for you.

AMD

* AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ ADO4400DDBOX (Brisbane core)

o Specs: Socket AM2, 2.30GHz, multiplier x11.5, 2 x 512KB L2 Cache, 65W
o Price: $75
o Notes: 2.30GHz is just enough for every kind of video playback if your video card supports PureVideo HD Gen2 or UVD. An alternative is Athlon X2 BE-2400 ADH2400DOBOX 2.3GHz 45W (~$100), which runs cooler.

* Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition ADO5000DSWOF (Brisbane core)

o Specs: Socket AM2, 2.60GHz, multiplier x13 (unlocked), 2 x 512KB L2 Cache, 65W
o Price: $100
o Notes: If you need a faster processor for brute force video playback, this is it.

* Phenom 9500 HD9500WCGDBOX (Agena core)

o Specs: Socket AM2+, 2.20GHz, multiplier x11, 4 x 512KB L2 Cache, 2MB L3 Cache, 95W
o Price: $190
o Notes: As powerful as Core 2 Quad Q6600 for realtime decoding (but only for decoding).

I thought at least 3GHz was needed for 1080p decoding?

[xbs08]

I have one and yes it will, one real issue is VGA only

What's the cpu load on SD Divx and 720p Mkv's?
Thanks.

[^tWiSt^]

I recently bought an Apple TV and installed XBMC on it and I couldn't be happier. Everything is running perfectly. I do 720p although I haven't tried to play at very higher bitrates. I usually try and keep them under 3 mbit.

Hi, I'm considering to buy an used ATV 40 Gigs just for XBMC purpose, there is a way to bypass the start menu (where you can select XBMC - BOXEE etc etc) and just let the ATV boot with XBMC as default "dashboard"?

[CASHMON3Y]

Hi, I'm considering to buy an used ATV 40 Gigs just for XBMC purpose, there is a way to bypass the start menu (where you can select XBMC - BOXEE etc etc) and just let the ATV boot with XBMC as default "dashboard"?

I was wondering that also, plus is there a way to put it to sleep in XBMC, or does it start over at the apple dashboard?

[^tWiSt^]

I was wondering that also, plus is there a way to put it to sleep in XBMC, or does it start over at the apple dashboard?

I don't think this will be a problem CASHMON3Y, just check here:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...ldid=10024

btw I think we are going a little OT here, maybe will be better to reformulate the [appletv with XBMC as "dashboard" question] in the macos section....

[ReddwarfUSA]

REad this thread with vigor. It seems that this can be broken down into steps

1. Must boot quickly into windows/linux
2. Quiet
3. Enough to handle 720p and possibly 1080p
4. Ability to playback anything you throw at it.

I watched Tekzilla recently and they showed this Dell SFF pc
http://www.dell.com/hybrid

Do you think it could be the holy grail?

Let me know

[CASHMON3Y]

For that price? Id rather build one...

[Steve_McQueen]

For that price? Id rather build one...

Most of us probably would. But getting a small, elegant case with good laptop sized parts. The sum is going to add up fast..

[CASHMON3Y]

Most of us probably would. But getting a small, elegant case with good laptop sized parts. The sum is going to add up fast..

Yea, I know. Its sucks because I seen the features first and was like "Wow, this has everything I need!" then say the price and clicked the close button. lol. But if someones just looking for 720p video, and nothing more then XBMC, I highly suggest the Apple TV.

[icekiller]

REad this thread with vigor. It seems that this can be broken down into steps

1. Must boot quickly into windows/linux
2. Quiet
3. Enough to handle 720p and possibly 1080p
4. Ability to playback anything you throw at it.

I watched Tekzilla recently and they showed this Dell SFF pc
http://www.dell.com/hybrid

Do you think it could be the holy grail?

Let me know

problem with that thing is that it has a keyboard, vista, ... and a lot of other stuff you don't 'really' need... which drives up the price.. which is kind of a shame, because like you said its a good HTPC base..

[Steve_McQueen]

problem with that thing is that it has a keyboard, vista, ... and a lot of other stuff you don't 'really' need... which drives up the price.. which is kind of a shame, because like you said its a good HTPC base..

While its not needed, its hardly what jacks up the price. Design and size. That's a hell of a evildoer.

McQ

[apanloco]

this is something i will be watching closely:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/hardware...-processor