Mepo to xbmc (1 Viewer)

onelegend

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  • July 16, 2010
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    Hello

    Thought I would post with my Xbmc experience so far.

    I'm currently an avid mepo user, thought I would check out some of the competition to see what they are doing.

    My first step was to create a new partition for Xbmc, I've had fun and games getting to where I am on the install (not used Linux much at all) so fired up the xbmcbuntu - after several hours I gave up trying to install it (it kept freezing/getting stuck at a where are you page and an infinite spinner).

    Not willing to give up, i tried Using the full Ubuntu setup and I have it now installed (FYI I still had the infinite spinner problem but found out unplugging the network would let it pass - big bug IMO), I still have issues to resolve but will update (if anyone cares :) ) once I have worked out how to use tvheadend. My current progress is up to the point of managing to install the amd drivers to fix the sound through hdmi, installing Xbmc and tuner and a basic install of tvheadend (which I can't work out how to set off on grabbing the epg)

    Some pros so far:
    Ubuntu/Xbmc are very fast at booting/loading and grabbing extensions via GUI is a breeze. Everything is fast in general.

    Importing movies - wow, maybe mepo devs can nose at how they are doing it (I use my videos in 1.3 btw, have used moving pictures in the past). The importer scanned in my entire movie library in the time it takes mepo to do 2 lol. Not only that but all the covers were perfect, I don't need to go through and change any of them - my videos I had/have to go through every movie manually to find a nice looking cover to use, it takes AGES. It must be possible to select the preferential cover via code, they appear to use tmdb (same as mepo if not mistaken)

    Cons so far:
    An a*se to setup, what is a basic task in windows is a mission NASA wouldn't want in Ubuntu. Something's are easy (come along way since I last used Ubuntu)

    My biggest problem is down to me not having much Linux knowledge.
    I have a chicken and egg error stopping me using apt-get, being a novice and solely relying on forums for help - this will drain a few more hours to resolve.

    Hdmi audio a pain to fix/setup and still not there yet with getting pass through (amp is currently flashing the right lights eg true hd) but playback is terrible and sound cuts in and out every second - my primary goal is to finish setting up tvheadend to test tv functionality prior to delving deeper into fully setting up movies (crap tv = me not willing to test further :) )


    Anyway thought it was worth posting my experience so far and maybe mepo can take some thing from it with regards to movie importing (my jaw literally hit the floor) - I normally go and make a cup of tea whilst mepo does its import but I didn't even have time to get off the chair in Xbmc, impressed


    Ian
     

    Lehmden

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  • December 17, 2010
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    Hi.
    If you don't want anything other than XBMC it's best to use OpenElec. Slim, fast and super easy to setup. TVheadend is included also... I also didn't got XBMCBuntu up and running. But OpenElec is completely easy. And there are several different builds to fit your hardware. About 90 - 160 GB incl OS in total...

    As I'm using Nvidia I never got trouble setting up HDMI or other GPU stuff. AMD didn't deliver usable drivers for Linux. AMD Drivers really are a pain in the a**. If you want Linux it's highly recommended to have a NVidia GPU. Intel GPU is possible too (also not as good drivers as NVidia), but AMD is horrible on Linux.
     
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    onelegend

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    Aye, I have tried openelec and would prefer to use it

    My tuner (tbs 6981), isn't supported in openelec unless I compile and I'd guess my amd card is a pain in ass to setup there too so thought I'd go with full blown Ubuntu with the idea that it has the most users for looking up problems encountered
     

    DJBlu

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    Just tried xbmc on the intel nuc and have to say I am impressed. A lot has changed since I last tried however and this is a huge however the TV is still not acceptable.

    Channel changes are greater than 2-3 seconds sometimes 6-8 seconds.
    The EPG timelime isn't groupable.
    Navigating through channel groups isn't simple.

    What I do like about xbmc is the "ice" way "films" can be watched and the rewind/ff works properly.

    I'll be sticking with MePo for the foreseeable future as I know how to change it should I need to.
     

    onelegend

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    Yeh, I installed xbmc on windows and used Mepo as the backend - tv integration still not there and it's a bit clunky. It's a quicker/easy way to test new releases any how

    Not acceptable for friendly use imo :)
     

    CanadianEh

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    I use one of the Openelec builds for my bedroom TV. It works decent enough for a secondary TV when paired with an MCE remote, and saves me the Microsoft OS costs. I still can't see myself putting this in the living room until there is a better integration on how to manage recordings, a better way to access the guide through menus, and such.
     

    noxx2

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    Aye, I have tried openelec and would prefer to use it

    My tuner (tbs 6981), isn't supported in openelec unless I compile and I'd guess my amd card is a pain in ass to setup there too so thought I'd go with full blown Ubuntu with the idea that it has the most users for looking up problems encountered


    Try yavdr
     

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