XBMC Media Center : Setup Guide, Knowlege Base & Support - Page 92

XBMC 12 is out, so it`s time for a nice Ctrl + A + Delete of the old guide, and starting fresh with a new one, including changing the Media Manager to MediaElch instead of MCM and guides on how to synchronize multiple XBMC installs using MySQL or the new UPnP features (not sure which one works best now) , using the advanced filtering/video nodes to create custom movie collections (like Kid Movies etc.) and more

Oh yeah, and i`m back from the dead

Without hardware decoding even the quad core ARM in your Nexus is too weak for serious H.264 high-bitrate decoding (or VC-1) at 1080p . And as far as i know it`s not about drivers, but about APIs to interface with those drivers.

Well, they are working with something called "libstagefright" , a universal API which should allow hardware decoding on all hardware platforms under Android. Can`t send you the link because the XBMC forum is down, i`ll try again tomorrow when half of the HTPC world has stopped hammering their servers to download Frodo, lol. They have some experimental build . You can google "libstagefright" and the 4th link is a link to that thread on the XBMC forum if you manage to get on the site.

As far as MCM is concerned, i prefer MediaElch due to it`s simpler interface (and nicer). It lacks the auto-scanning feature of MCM, but i`ve talked to Komet, the developer, and since it`s an open source project, he said i can fork it and implement/code it. And that`s what i want to do, since i`m studying software development/ Computer Science at college (that`s why i`ve been dead for the last months around here). But i`ll try that at best next month, since i`m still in an exam session right now . A notification system exists in MediaElch , but you have to do it manually, clicking the sync button. I`ll attempt to also code an automatic sync option, when i get to working on MElch.

As far as OpenELEC, what do you mean it doesn`t stay powered off ? Are you talking about sleep mode, or actually powered/turned off ? What hardware are you using ?

Yeah, i also like OpenELEC, i`ll see what i can write about it, but my wireless usb dongle (my streaming source since the dog chewed on my wired network cable and i`m to lazy to put another one) doesn`t work to well with it, so i`m still on Windows 7, might upgrade to 8 since i get it for free from college

Hmm, i`ll try the Intel builds (need to remove my GT610 from my HTPC and find a spare USB thumb drive) this weekend and see if it acts weird, it`s probably a coding error, the OS once shut down can`t start an x86 machine by itself as far as i know, OpenELEC is probably generating a reset/reboot command instead of a shut-down one. But if it`s well known that means the devs are aware of it and will probaby fix it. In any case i`ll let you know if i encounter it and if any version after RC2 fixes it.

Yeah we talked on the PM system (still need to reply to your last PM ). I only tried it when it first came out, but it was buggy as hell and hardware decoding for the Mali 400 GPU (what i have in my tablet, the only Android device with a an HDMI output in my house at the moment) was not supported at that time. I`ll try again this weekend along with OpenELEC for Dark_Slayer . Yeah, i`ll be around the forums a lot more often now, only this semester was a pain . The next one is easier (so said my friends from the bigger years).

But as far as i know about the Pivos XIOS is this :

XBMC on Linux on the Pivos is faster than on Android, or at least it was, Davilla (the main Android dev) said a week ago that he submitted some patches that should make performance equal on both platforms, so that could have changed.

XBMC on Android does not support 24p, but i`m not sure, this is old info i have regarding this.

XBMC on Android does not support DTS-HD/TrueHD bitstreaming , will be fixed by Davilla (it`s only a couple of lines of code away, quoting him).

That`s all i know at the moment, if you can wait until Friday i`ll give you more info when i test it. As far as the ATV2 is concerned, at first XBMC on the ATV2 was buggy as hell, but it got better, i think it should work ok now if you still have the box. It can decode 1080p vids, but it will output them at 720p . I have a friend who has an ATV2 and he can stream 1080p vids with it now over the wired network (not on wireless, the wireless adaptor in the ATV2 is too weak, forget about going wireless with 1:1 rips and the ATV2 ), in the last couple of months with the latest XBMC builds.

Ok, so i just tested on my tablet. No hardware decoding for the Allwinner A10 chipsets (Mali 400 GPU + A8 Cortex @ 1.2 Ghz), so any HD content is choppy/un-watchable. I need to get a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter to actually connect it to the receiver, in the audio settings there are options for TrueHD / DTS-HD but until i get a cable i can`t test out anything.

Performance is decent for a single-core Cortex A8 with the default skin, some lag in the menus, since the Pivos XIOS DS is an Cortex A9 it should be better, but don`t expect to run heavy skins like Aeon Nox, Aeon MQ, Xperience 1080p etc. without lag. It`s not a quad-core Exynos chip in any case, and certainly no Intel i3 .

PS: Hardware decoding works on the XIOS because it has a dedicated video decoding chip besides the MALI 400 GPU, which takes care of the decoding, so you don`t need to worry about that with your XIOS.
Edited by GreenEyez - 1/29/13 at 4:12pm