[PantsOnFire]

Hi all,

Friend of mine is thinking on an Acer Aspire Revo.

XBMC for windows on this machine would not really perform the 720 and 1080 goodness. (unless you used the LaunchPlayer plugin maybe).

So he's considering using XBMC live off a usb memstick.

Few questions:

1) Is VDPAU supported in XBMC Live?
2) Would he be able to use any remote controls? (wiimote, harmony)
3) The machine comes with an 8GB SSD. Could it be setup to boot into XBMC Live, and if the stick was removed (before power-on obviously!), load XP?
4) Is XBMC still able to access the net if a connection is present? (for imdb, iplayer, AMT, Last.FM)
5) I have a couple of 500GB NAS drives on the network. Can XBMCLive still access these?

Lastly, for anyone who has Aeon+XBMCLive:

6) Would 2GB? (or the spec of the Revo) be enough to display fanart etc. at good speed?

I realise that last q isn't specifically Live-related, but it is loosely connected and it's what we're trying to find establish.

Thanks.

[snoxbox]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes

With the exclusion of booting XP, that describes my setup. As long as you set the boot priority in the BIOS, 3) will work.

6). The single core Acer may be a little slow on resource intensive skins such as aeon. I think it would be fine for Mediastream, Pm3.HD etc.

[kurai]

1) Is VDPAU supported in XBMC Live?

Yes

2) Would he be able to use any remote controls? (wiimote, harmony)

Lirc is included so, yes - it works with most common devices.

3) The machine comes with an 8GB SSD. Could it be setup to boot into XBMC Live, and if the stick was removed (before power-on obviously!), load XP?

I don't think they are shipping the SSD versions any more. They ran down stocks very quickly and started shipping the `Linux` versions with the same 160Gb 2.5" SATA as the Windows versions. (even though the product code and labelling were the same)
Either way - yes. Nothing to stop you installing XP to the HD and leaving XBMC-Live on the USB stick.

4) Is XBMC still able to access the net if a connection is present? (for imdb, iplayer, AMT, Last.FM)

Yes

5) I have a couple of 500GB NAS drives on the network. Can XBMCLive still access these?

Yes

6) Lastly, for anyone who has Aeon+XBMCLive:
Would 2GB? (or the spec of the Revo) be enough to display fanart etc. at good speed?

Yes. When you are in a view with a lot of large (720p+) images scrolling by fast it can lag a little, but it's only by a handful of FPS - certainly not a showstopper. (N.B. The speed of the storage medium is key here, rather then CPU horsepower - the issue will be more apparent with the the slow SSD (if still available) and USB drive than it will be from the SATA HD)


The XBMC build in the Live image is starting to get a little long in the tooth now - if your friend wants the latest refinements, features and plugins, or wants to use complex skins (Aeon included) he may run into problems.
My personal recommendation would be to install the Live build to a partition on the internal storage, then update it to a recentish SVN PPA build. Install Windows on a separate partition, then just set up a Grub boot menu to pick which one to start.


N.B. The Revo Linux editions that are supposed to come with the 8Gb SSD only have 1Gb ram. This is also true of the substitute models that have the same part number but the 160Gb HD instead.
It's only the Windows Vista models that have 2Gb+.
The amount of memory you can assign as video memory in the BIOS depends on how much ram you have installed. 1Gb RAM only allows 256Mb VRAM, therefore you'll need to stick in a second 1Gb SoDIMM so that you can assign 512Mb as VRAM (needed for smoothest spec 1080p playback).
It's not expensive - an extra 1Gb PC6400 SoDIMM only cost me 10 UK Pounds

[lefty420]

I run xbmc on my acer revo 2gb and it runs very well. The backdrops on aeon have a slight delay but its hardly noticable. Check out this crappy video I made of the revo running. Its kinda old now as Ive updated alot of the features ect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCSQFt1vHfw

P.s. Its not hard to update the xbmc live it can all be done via ssh, ftp or terminal because xbmc live is basicly ubuntu So getting aeon and upgrading svn's is not an issue Best £150 media center out there forget popcorn hour the revo is where its at.
Oh and I use a wiiremote to control theres a quide on the youtube description for getting it all working.

[PantsOnFire]

Snoxbox, Kurai, thanks a million for your replies. Very helpful, and Kurai.. thanks for the insight regarding the other various things, such as build date, storage speed etc. All very useful.

Lefty420, thanks for the link to your video. Actually, I had seen it already when checking out the Revo on youtube but good to put a name to the face (sort of thing). Yes I see what you mean about the bkdrop transitions, more than acceptable really IMO. I noticed that the video started very quickly.

So a few q's..
1) In your setup, where is xbmcLive stored? Memstick? Internal drive?
2) Also the 720p backgrounds.. where are they stored?

last thing, pretty cool to see Aeon/XBMC pick up the wiimote!..

3) Do you find the wiimote to offer enough buttons to use xbmc effectively?


Good to know that you can pick up a GIG of ram for about £10 also (thx Kurai).

4) Lefty420, would you be willing to shoot a more updated video of your current setup? It would be good to know how it handles the Wall and Showcase views of Aeon. How about when the icons are tilted? (itunes-esque).

5) Thumb quality: In AdvancedSettings.xml you can set the thumb quality up to 512 for every image displayed in XBMC. What is yours set to? (maybe this option isn't really available in the Live build tho?)

Sorry if this is all a lot of q's.. but it would be cool to see it all spiffy and updated on youtube anyway!

Cheers.

[lefty420]

So a few q's..
1) In your setup, where is xbmcLive stored? Memstick? Internal drive?

Xbmc live is installed to the internal hd I didnt need another os.

2) Also the 720p backgrounds.. where are they stored?

My backgrounds are located in /home/xbmc/Pictures which you can access via sftp

3) Do you find the wiimote to offer enough buttons to use xbmc effectively?

Yeah man its totaly usable I don't notice any main features missing and I really like the feel of using the wiimote.

5) Thumb quality: In AdvancedSettings.xml you can set the thumb quality up to 512 for every image displayed in XBMC. What is yours set to? (maybe this option isn't really available in the Live build tho?)

Im not sure where the file is located sorry

Ive been meaning to make a new video ill get on it but I'm affraid it will have to be made on my iphone which isnt the best.

[PantsOnFire]

Thanks for your replies, appreciated.