XBMC on Revo Windows or Linux
#1
I intent to buy an Acer Revo 3610 to be used exclusively as HTPC. Unsure of whether to install a XBMC Live onto it dual booting with the existing Win 7 or just install the XBMC win version onto the Win 7.

What I want:

Shorter boot times. 95% of the time I will be using this for watching local media content stored in HDD. Only 5% I would even go to browse online. So I prefer a set up that can boot up very fast and bring my media ready to play on the TV. What is the time difference between booting from a Live CD installation vs booting the win 7 and opening up the XBMC? I am assuming I can typically wake up the machine from sleep if it is on win 7 to save some boot up time.

Use revo as a DVR if possible. I would like to record some TV programs and store in revo's internal hard drive.

Use revo to automatically download some TV show torrents and store them locally using something like a Torrent Episode Downloader.

I dont intent to play 1080p content or Blue Ray ISOs. My TV's native resolution is only 720p.

Will keeping the revo on sleep when not in use (without fully shutting down) for extended periods (may be weeks or months together) affect its durability? does it consume a lot of electricity to do that...?

Your help is well appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
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#2
I am new to the revo/xbmc myself, but I will "try" to answer few of your questions based on what I have learned/tried in past few weeks since owning the 3610.

For starters, I installed a new 500gb hard drive (had 3610 on surgical table) and clean install of windows. From other reviews, a clean install really helps performance since there is so much bloat ware on by default. I created a USB boot disk, copied Win 7 files over from a CD I had, and modified the CD to allow installing of any version of Win 7 (original cd was for Win7Pro, Reno comes with Win7HomePremier) by removing a single file (pretty slick).

Boot times, while have not timed it, are relatively fast: 35 (?) seconds at most. Most times, however, I place the Revo in sleep mode. From sleep, it is < 5 seconds for it to come back up (most of time waiting for TV itself to turn on). If I leave a heavy application running, such as adobe lightroom or itunes, add few seconds ontop.

In end, 7 second wakeup (max) is fine as it takes me that long to get my butt comfortable and legs propped up.

Power wise, I don't know specifics, but from my surge strip, which has amperage levels shown, very little power is used by Revo in sleep. In full use, it is still very low (barely even registerable) compared to power 52" lcd pulls. I have left it on for a week and not a problem. In general, I rarely turn my pc's off.

I am running both DVD and Blu-Rays off external hard drive and have not had a problem. I am using the xbmc SVN from first of month (29759?). Have hardware acceleration in xbmc turned on. On all DVD's, not a problem. 1/2 of blu-rays play without problem in xbmc. Other half have codec problems (svn IS beta), so simply run those through Media Player Classic. Not a hickup. Even run high bitrate Avatar and smooth.

As far as torrents, dvr, and such, I have no experience on this, so hopefully someone else can chime in here.
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#3
Thanks for your detailed response. Can you point to me which remote control you are using?
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#4
Actually, I am not using a remote. Yet. I have been very happy with the wireless mouse/keyboard of the revo. I DID buy one from amazon, which got pretty high ratings and is supposed to work with Win7, but it is still unopened. Win MCE remote.
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#5
Hi there, I also have a revo Aspire and love it.... awesome little machine!!

Im using XBMC Live with my media stored on a unRaid server with no problem viewing 1080p (although you don't need this)

I'm using the following remote from Maplins http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=218643
This works out of the box, the first one I got was faulty and I spent hours trying to get it to work!

On a side note if you are storing your media on a usb HD you will have to tweak the boot see here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=70694&page=2

Hope this helps Smile
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#6
Thank you guys. Will look into the MCE remote.
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