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Monday, December 28, 2009

Can I create an inexpensive home theater solution?












  1. Does the Revo's hdmi cable carry audio?

  2. Yes, it can. There is a setting in XBMC that tells it to use HDMI for both video and audio. When I tried using Hulu Desktop, the sound did not come through the HDMI but that just could be that I missed some setting somewhere. If you run Windows XP that comes bundled, there is a note about setting the Windows drivers to use HDMI for all sound. Since I'm running Linux, I never tested that.

  3. Two questions:
    1) what u think the average life span of revo will be? Is it going to be another $200 in 3 years..

    2)Can you turn on Revo with that remote? If so how long does it take for u to be able to play any media on it from the time you turn it on.


  4. One more question. Will an External HDD connected to the Revo work like a NAS while the revo is on. Will I be able to transfer files to and from the HDD to my laptop which is in the same network but wirelessly?

  5. RMJ, I can't predict the life span of the device but I would expect it to be useful for years to come. No keyboard, mouse or display to fail so it might even last longer than a laptop. I haven't explored turning on the Revo via the remote but I did notice that the BIOS had some "wake on" settings which might make it possible to do so. As far as the making the Revo share files, it shouldn't be an issue. XBMC doesn't have any file sharing support but you should be able to do it easily from the OS itself. Something like FreeNAS would be an interesting experiment -- you can run it off of a USB key and leave the Revo's hard drive alone.

  6. Thanks Ron for ur quick response. I am torn between a revo kind of setup vs. a cheap old XBOX + XBMC setup.. Still wondering which one I should jump to. Since revo is a standard PC, its not going to upscale your SD content I suppose. Does XBMC do that?

  7. RMJ, I also have XBMC installed on a couple of XBOXs and I think the PC version of the software is better. I can't say for sure if XBMC does upscaling or not but I can say that standard def DVDs look fine on my 42" LCD TV. The primary issue with the XBOX is its limited horsepower. If you play standard DVD ISOs there is no problem. If you try and get it to play H.264 content, it can struggle depending on the encoding settings used. I've used Handbrake to create an H.264 encoding of the current Star Trek movie using its high profile settings and the Revo XBMC played it just fine. FYI, the same file also plays on my XBOX 360 and Gen 3 iTouch. An XBOX classic solution is only about $50 USD but the Revo probably has more uses. I loaded Boxee on the Revo and it I use it to play internet TV shows. You can't do that on the XBOX.

  8. Ron, just bought the Revo and remote and was going to get started. Like you, I was thinking of just going ahead and installing Linux and xbmc rather than installing the live version. As you point out, boxee is then an option as well.

    My question is about the "NVIDIA drivers"? The original article talks about a version of xbmc with the NVIDIA drivers alreay installed? Did you need to do anything with "NVIDIA drivers"?


  9. Robert, I don't believe I did anything out of the ordinary regrading the video drivers. In the BIOS, I made sure to dedicate as much RAM as possible to be video RAM -- I should probably drop in another 1GB stick of RAM at some point. I also had Xubuntu install the hardware drivers for the video card but all of that is gui driven -- no hand editing of XML needed.

    Good Luck,

  10. Ron - good work writing this all info. Thanks.
    I'm thinking about a similar setup (before that I need to decide revo 1600 vs. 3600). I'm looking at 3600 only because it comes with a dual core. Do you have 1080p working smoothly? I know somewhere else on other forum who has boot XBMC version running 1080p smoothly. But since you have an OS and XBMC both, does it leave enough power to run 1080p content? Thanks. qwert1234

  11. qwert1234, my current use case is to play Standard Definition DVDs so I don't think I can answer your question. Although my TV says that everything is coming over at 1080p, I'm not pumping through any hi-def content, such as a Blu Ray movie. To be honest, I'm not sure if CPU or GPU is the primary factor in smooth playback of hi-def content. If you got the bucks, I say go for the dual core.

  12. Ok, thanks Ron. GPU would be primary for video playback if you are using media player that have hardware acceleration enabled and your GPU supports decoding the video.

  13. Conor [Dublin, Ireland]March 18, 2010 at 9:46 AM

    Hi Ron,
    Very useful article. My Revo has just arrived and I'm planning on duplicating your setup.

    I've a few questions:
    1. Can you bind a button on the remote to close XBMC if you wish to return to Xbuntu to browse the web or whatever?
    2. Would it be possible to have a torrent client downloading stuff in Xbuntu while XMBC is playing video, or would that be beyond the Revo's (or Xbuntu's) limits?

  14. Conor, XBMC does have a couple of exit options: shutdown the entire box, exit XBMC or restart the box. I haven't attempted to bind the "exit" function to the remote. I usually just select the correct button and select the "exit" option. I drop out of XBMC once in a while just to apply any updates.

    Regarding downloading torrents, I can't see why the Revo wouldn't be able to handle that but I can't say that I've tried it. The only potential issue I can think of is if the torrent download somehow hogs all of the bandwidth so you can't play your media from your network shares. Most torrent clients I've seen have some sort of bandwidth limiters so I bet you can avoid such an issue.

  15. Great article!

    I was wondering what your experience has been with trying to view Flash content - I've heard performance on Hulu, etc is terrible. True?

    Also, have you tried XBMC? How is it compared to *buntu? Oh, and why not use Mythbuntu?

  16. Ron, I did figure out the NVidia driver stuff. I installed regular Ubuntu then XBMC. Surfing the internet was fine. But XBMC was unbelievably slow. Then I went to the System menus and under the Administration part, there was the "Hardware drivers" selection. It found and installed the NVidia drivers and XBMC was off and running.

    I have a couple of issues: When hooked up to my 24 inch LCD television, the edges are cut off. I did find a zoom feature in XBMC so I can shrink the XBMC but the regular Ubuntu menus are cut off. Also, I got the recommended "AVS Gear HA-IR01SV Infrared Certified MCE VISTA Remote Control" and it doesn't do anything. (It is good for throwing at my daughter's cat.) Lastly, my screen is wavy. Any thoughts?

  17. Samen, I would agree that Flash does not perform well in this environment. Hulu is extremely choppy and pretty much useless.

    Regarding your question about XBMC, I don't really understand what you are asking. I am using XBMC + Xubuntu to create my HT solution. If you are asking me why I don't use Mythbuntu instead Xubuntu + XBMC, my answer would be that I'm not interested in capturing new content, just playing back the stuff that I currently own.

  18. Robert, I know I had to adjust the screen under XBMC to make everything fit just right. I think XBMC calls it Video Calibration. I don't remember if I had to adjust the TV to properly view the Xubuntu desktop or not but it would make sense to look in your TV's menu and try some adjustments.

    Regarding your remote control issues, did you install the lirc package as described in the post? Following those simple steps allowed the remote control to work under XBMC for me.

  19. Is XBMC an application just like Boxee?
    Can the two be run on the same aspire revo r3610?
    The aspire revo I'm looking at purchasing comes with the Linux operating system. Can I load XBMC, use Boxee, and search the internet?


  20. XBMC is an application that started life on the XBOX classic but then got ported to Windows, Linux and the Mac. Boxee is a "fork" of the XBMC code meaning that Boxee started life from the XBMC code but the Boxee development team has changed it to suit their needs. I have both installed on my Xubuntu box and they both run fine. I like XBMC to manage the media I own and Boxee to view internet-based media, such as Revision3 - If your Revo comes loaded with Linux then you will be able to use it as a regular PC and will be able to browse the web.

  21. Is it possible to use hdmi output for video but still keep sound on the headphone socket? I don't have hdmi port and I am thinking about hdmi-dvi converter plus speakers from the headphone socket. I have read somewhere that using hdmi disabling sound on the headphones. Can you please confirm?

  22. Bart, I'm sorry but I've never experimented with that configuration. You'll have to look elsewhere for the answer.

  23. Hi Ron
    Great More HDMI ports i use this auto switcher and its worked fine for me here is the link..

  24. Ron

    Love the article, use this HDMI switcher to get another port. FYI this site has more options for more ports but this will be the cheapest. I prefer one with a remote.

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