| 07:55 | frewtbag | hello! |
| 07:55 | frewtbag | I'm interested in replacing my zotac with a cubox but had a few questions |
| 07:55 | frewtbag | anyone around? |
| 07:55 | cbxbiker61 | just ask |
| 07:56 | jnettlet | there is usually someone lurking. A little early for lots of chatter |
| 07:56 | frewtbag | I'd like to run OpenELEC on it but I've been hearing people on reviews say it doesn't handle the UI well |
| 07:56 | frewtbag | I use Aeon Nox and it runs great on my Zotac and my 720p |
| 07:57 | frewtbag | I tried to buy a FireTV adn sideload XBMC on it but found the UI to be laggy and the video playback to buffer all the time |
| 07:57 | cbxbiker61 | i'm running black glass and it works great |
| 07:57 | frewtbag | Just looking for some experiences with OpenELEC (and preferably with Aeon Nox as well) |
| 07:57 | frewtbag | so no stuttering in UI or video playback? |
| 07:57 | cbxbiker61 | no |
| 07:57 | frewtbag | I'm hosting all my content locally through simple STFP to my desktop |
| 07:57 | frewtbag | Which model of the cubox do you own? |
| 07:57 | cbxbiker61 | i4 |
| 07:57 | jnettlet | the iMX6D/Q can playback the gui at 60fps, the iMX6S/DL about 40fps |
| 07:58 | frewtbag | so the Q, is that the most recent high end one? |
| 07:58 | frewtbag | I don't mind spending the extra for the quad |
| 07:58 | jnettlet | The Q is the quad. If you are just using it for TV then you should get the CuboxTV |
| 07:59 | jnettlet | that is the Quad but only 1GB of RAM which is more than enough for OpenElec |
| 07:59 | frewtbag | By TV do you mean live? If so, I don't have any plans to watch Live TV |
| 07:59 | frewtbag | I have a crap ton of 720 and 1080 movies/tv shows though |
| 08:00 | jnettlet | Do you plan to use wireless or wired connectivity? |
| 08:00 | jnettlet | http://www.solid-run.com/cuboxtv/ |
| 08:00 | frewtbag | Right now, wired |
| 08:01 | jnettlet | then the TV model would be fine for you |
| 08:01 | frewtbag | Is the only benefit of the $150 one wifi then? |
| 08:01 | frewtbag | over the TV, I mean |
| 08:02 | jnettlet | wifi/bluetooth and 2GB of RAM |
| 08:02 | jnettlet | but for just media playback that will really never get used |
| 08:02 | frewtbag | Ahh |
| 08:03 | frewtbag | So for the purpose of OpenELEC which is insanely lightweight already, 2GB of RAM is definitely overkill? |
| 08:03 | jnettlet | absolutely. It really runs fine on 512 |
| 08:03 | frewtbag | This is what I'm coming from, if it's any reference |
| 08:03 | frewtbag | http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173032 |
| 08:03 | frewtbag | That's reassuring :) |
| 08:03 | frewtbag | The FireTV was just a terrible, terrible XBMC experience. |
| 08:05 | jnettlet | yeah the interfaces for hardware optimized Android playback are really not tuned yet. |
| 08:05 | frewtbag | I don't know how NVidia ION compares to the GPU in this thing, but 60 FPS UI + stutter/buffer free video are all that are important to me |
| 08:05 | frewtbag | Yeah, I'd imagine so. |
| 08:05 | jnettlet | we ended up compiling our XBMC apk to bypass them and use the direct hardware playback. |
| 08:05 | frewtbag | you can do that? |
| 08:06 | frewtbag | are you referring to spmc, or you built the apk yourself? |
| 08:06 | jnettlet | if XBMC has hardware support yes. |
| 08:06 | jnettlet | we built the apk ourselves |
| 08:06 | jnettlet | I think it is posted in the community forums |
| 08:06 | frewtbag | I might try that out for kicks. I still have my FireTV |
| 08:07 | frewtbag | what do you run that apk on? |
| 08:07 | jnettlet | I don't think XBMC has hardware support for the Qualcomm SOC's although I may be wrong. |
| 08:08 | jnettlet | The Cubox-i running Android 4.4.4 |
| 08:08 | forest | frewtbag, I just set up a Cubox-i4pro with OpenELEC, and it runs nicely. Smooth 1080p h.264 playback over ethernet. The UI works fine as well. |
| 08:08 | frewtbag | Wonderful! |
| 08:08 | jnettlet | it is still not as optimized as OpenElec |
| 08:08 | frewtbag | @forest, what skin do you use? |
| 08:09 | frewtbag | jnettlet: that makes sense |
| 08:09 | cbxbiker61 | yes, as far as the ui goes...it's pretty much impossible to tell it's not on a big box |
| 08:09 | frewtbag | i was running ubuntu with XBMC on top of it, and then I switched to OpenELEC and my jaw literally dropped the first time it booted stupid fast and the UI was fluid |
| 08:09 | frewtbag | yeah, call it a bit shallow, but I love showing it off to people and I get a bit obsessive about UI lag |
| 08:11 | forest | frewtbag, the default skin. There was a bug that caused the display to freeze when changing refresh rates, but it doesn't seem to have been the hardware's fault. The OpenELEC 5.0 release fixed that. |
| 08:12 | frewtbag | ah good. I saw the 5.0 release today and was planning on fresh installing it to my zotac to try it out. |
| 08:12 | frewtbag | forest: by any chance, could you try the Aeon Nox skin? It's in the default repository |
| 08:12 | frewtbag | It's totally cool if you're not interested |
| 08:12 | forest | I don't have time, I'm afraid. |
| 08:13 | frewtbag | It's a much slimmer lightweight 10foot-style counterpart to Aeon MQ5 |
| 08:13 | frewtbag | no worries! |
| 08:13 | frewtbag | well, you guys are so far selling me on it. it looks great so far. |
| 08:14 | frewtbag | it's not really remotely important, but how is IR functionality? I'm looking at the wiki and it looks pretty straight forward http://www.solid-run.com/archive/mw/index.php/IR_remote_control |
| 08:14 | frewtbag | I use Yatse on my phone but it would be nice to be able to power it on from our Harmony (that is, unless you guys think there's no reason to ever turn it off) |
| 08:16 | forest | It works with CEC out of the box, and if you're up to configuring linux remote control decoders, the built-in IR receiver can be trained to work with many IR remote controls. |
| 08:16 | forest | I don't think you're going to get power on/off via remote, though. |
| 08:17 | forest | Hardware limitation there. |
| 08:17 | jnettlet | frewtbag, it is designed to not be turned off. |
| 08:17 | frewtbag | ah |
| 08:17 | frewtbag | excellent |
| 08:18 | frewtbag | my Zotac heats up my entertainment cabinet. |
| 08:18 | forest | I don't mind. I plan to power it off with a power strip, and if I forget, it sips power anyway. |
| 08:18 | jnettlet | I don't think it has landed but we are working on having Kodi stop rendering the gui when the television goes off. In that state the CBi should drop power draw down to about 90-100mA's |
| 08:18 | frewtbag | ahh |
| 08:18 | frewtbag | jnettlet: are you a developer for solidrun/openelec? |
| 08:18 | forest | jnettlet, nice. |
| 08:18 | jnettle | 08:18 * jnettlet nods |
| 08:19 | frewtbag | cool! |
| 08:19 | frewtbag | great work, please keep it up. |
| 08:19 | jnettlet | I am but a wheel in a cog. The entire community is doing incredible work |
| 08:20 | frewtbag | our household donates at least $10 each month to openelec :) |
| 08:20 | frewtbag | I'd like to do more in the coming days. |
| 08:20 | frewtbag | We all use it on a daily basis., |
| 08:20 | frewtbag | So you guys have definitely sold me. |
| 08:20 | frewtbag | I'm just debating now between the TV and the i4 with the wifi. |
| 08:21 | frewtbag | Is there a real use case for taking the entire cubox to another person's place (with content stored on a portable self-powered drive, of course)? |
| 08:21 | frewtbag | I guess what I'm asking is if people do that at all or just keep it in one place. |
| 08:21 | jnettlet | I bring my development model with me all the time |
| 08:23 | forest | I bought the i4 instead of the TV in case I want to run more than just OpenELEC. A full debian install is likely to be supported before long, console emulators might be ported as well, and Limelight Embedded apparently handles Steam game streaming. Of course, it helped that I got it on sale. :) |
| 08:23 | frewtbag | ah. I'm wondering if the $30 extra for wifi is worth it. |
| 08:24 | frewtbag | the openelec site said I could get $10 if I buy soon? |
| 08:25 | forest | I think that discount is for ordering direct from SolidRun. I don't think it will work if you order from Newegg. |
| 08:25 | forest | http://www.solid-run.com/wiki/CuBoxTV#CuBox-i_family_comparison_table |
| 08:26 | frewtbag | oh I plan to buy direct :) |
| 08:26 | frewtbag | I don't mind supporting the company directly, it sounds like a great little device. |
| 08:28 | forest | It really seems to be becoming one now that the software is starting to catch up. |
| 08:30 | frewtbag | alright, two last questions, I promise. |
| 08:31 | frewtbag | 1, I notice USB 3.0 is absent (understandable, given the price). Are you finding that to be a problem? |
| 08:31 | frewtbag | For when I want to take it to a friends house, I plan on using a 1TB mypassport drive: http://www.amazon.com/Passport-Ultra-Portable-External-Backup/dp/B00E83X9P8/ref=dp_ob_title_ce |
| 08:31 | frewtbag | Do you think I'd have I/O issues with that? |
| 08:32 | forest | I haven't done much with USB yet. I don't remember whether I tried video playback from a flash drive. The USB keyboard works, though, even in the boot loader (before the OS loads). |
| 08:33 | frewtbag | nice |
| 08:33 | frewtbag | well, I imagine it wouldn't be too big of a problem |
| 08:33 | forest | That drive is USB powered. The question is whether the CuBox-i's USB ports and power supply can supply enough power for the drive. |
| 08:33 | frewtbag | but on that note (bootloader); dual-boot |
| 08:33 | frewtbag | a possibility at all? |
| 08:34 | frewtbag | I know the MicroSD slot is not spring loaded, so swapping out cards easily is not really an option |
| 08:34 | frewtbag | I just wouldn't mind having full ubuntu or debian for certain times |
| 08:36 | forest | I have triple-boot set up right now (OpenELEC, GeeXboX, and SolidRun's nonstandard Debian port). It's a bit painful because I don't know how to configure uboot to present a menu of boot options. Instead, I have to move files in the boot partition from within one OS, then reboot into the other OS. http://www.solid-run.com/wiki/index.php?title=Multi-booting |
| 08:36 | jnettlet | frewtbag, if you are looking for an external device I would recommend getting something that supports eSATA. the CBi doesn't support USB 3.0 |
| 08:36 | forest | There is some talk of making uboot do the right thing, but I haven't seen it work yet. http://www.solid-run.com/wiki/Talk:Multi-booting |
| 08:38 | frewtbag | forest: I'm always up for a challenge! Thanks for the link, I'll do some reading :) |
| 08:38 | frewtbag | jnettlet: any 1TB eSATA II drives you'd recommend? |
| 08:39 | forest | Does anyone know how to register on the solid-run.com wiki? |
| 08:42 | jnettlet | frewtbag, right now I think I just have a case from Icy with a Samsung 250GB ssd in it. |
| 08:43 | jnettlet | I have been looking at the WD black dual drives. They put a 120GB SSD and a 1TB rotational drive in a single 2.5" package |
| 08:43 | frewtbag | Nice! |
| 08:43 | frewtbag | Interesting. |
| 08:43 | frewtbag | What does the mechanical top out at for I/O over eSATA II? |
| 08:44 | jnettlet | our eSATA tops out at around 120MB/s |
| 08:46 | frewtbag | not bad~ |
| 08:46 | frewtbag | Just purchased :) |
| 08:46 | frewtbag | Did you use "Ignition" to install OpenELEC? Or did you just do it directly? |
| 08:47 | jnettlet | frewtbag, you can use ignition. But that reminds me I need to test OpenElec 5.0 and add it to the installer |
| 08:48 | forest | I downloaded OpenELEC's tarball, read their installer script, and set up my SD card manually. I'm picky that way. :) |
| 08:49 | forest | I also did it that way because I knew I would be setting up triple-boot. |
| 08:49 | frewtbag | I see. I imagine Ignition is similar to NOOBS for Raspberry Pi? |
| 08:55 | forest | I've never tried Ignition. |
| 08:56 | frewtbag | Would it be possible for me to just create a bootable openELEC stick like I've been doing? |
| 08:57 | frewtbag | I guess I'm wondering how advanced the BIOS/bootloader is |
| 09:06 | forest | As far as I know, the hardware won't boot from USB flash. I have no idea whether uboot (installed on the SD card) will do it. |
| 09:09 | forest | frewtbag, Did you buy the i4? I just remembered a reason why you might want wifi: Kodi/OpenELEC support Apple's AirPlay protocol, so you can (in principle) stream from a mobile device over wifi. I'm not sure if the current linux drivers / firmware for Cubox-i wifi are working well enough for smooth playback yet, but I think it's likely that they will eventually. |
| 09:10 | vpeter | frewtbag: I think you need sd card to start booting. Then you can have some files on usb stick. There is a thread on openelec forum for this. |
| 09:17 | frewtbag | whoops, I saw this a bit late |
| 09:17 | frewtbag | I went with the highest end one they had |
| 09:17 | frewtbag | the i4 quad |
| 09:21 | frewtbag | I'm excited. I just installed the new openelec on my zotac and it's totally flying. Can't wait to see it run on the cubox. |
| 09:52 | suihkulokki | jnettlet: I just booted 3.19.0-rc3-00069-g11c8f01 fine on dove cubox |
| 09:53 | jnettlet | suihkulokki, oh they must have fixed the bug. Glad it was transient. Thanks for testing. |
| 10:54 | ralix | morning |
| 11:36 | suihkulokki | jnettlet: tried also 3.18 release and that one worked for me too |
| 11:36 | suihkulokki | jnettlet: I guess the boot problem was a kernel config problem then |
| 17:53 | Artox | malte_: pong |
| 18:52 | malte_ | Artox |