Advice for a XBMC build

StevieP · 24 Feb 2014 at 15:24

If its for purely XBMC then I'd have a look at the Little Black Box - I had one around 6 months ago but it was a little "unfinished" although it's probably a lot better now! (I went the NUC route myself with OpenElec on it but this would exceed your budget!)

bhindi · 24 Feb 2014 at 21:32

if its just xmbc for watching films stick it on a raspberry pi ( raspbmc ) . Cost about 50ish quid with a nice case and good sd card.

StevieP · 25 Feb 2014 at 09:51

bhindi said:
if its just xmbc for watching films stick it on a raspberry pi ( raspbmc ) . Cost about 50ish quid with a nice case and good sd card.

I found the XBMC UI painfully slow on the Pi - but playback was smooth as you like so if you can put up with a slow UI then this is definitely the cheapest way to get yourself up and running!

dan958 · 25 Feb 2014 at 10:13

StevieP said:
I found the XBMC UI painfully slow on the Pi - but playback was smooth as you like so if you can put up with a slow UI then this is definitely the cheapest way to get yourself up and running!

I've been told that if you do the USB install that the UI goes much faster. I haven't tried it myself.

bhindi · 25 Feb 2014 at 22:34

The only time I find the UI slow on the raspbmc is when I use a keyboard . I don't know why , but when I use the official control app on iPad and iPhone it very smooth .

StevieP · 26 Feb 2014 at 12:31

dan958 said:
I've been told that if you do the USB install that the UI goes much faster. I haven't tried it myself.

I tried this and couldn't see any improvement to be honest!

bhindi said:
The only time I find the UI slow on the raspbmc is when I use a keyboard . I don't know why , but when I use the official control app on iPad and iPhone it very smooth .

I never used the app as I was using a wireless keyboard and mouse! I know the app is probably loads faster as you are going straight to the file rather than browsing the UI but for me half the fun of using XBMC is showing off the box art etc!

Like I say, playback on the Pi was spot on but it definitely needs more power to browse smoothly imo!