My new media player just arrived

thanks guys - when i get back from my parents' place i shall be ordering the barebones one, 4 gig of kingston 1066 (less than 15 quid at the moment...wow) and using one of the various 16gig usb drives i have to run open elec. I'll be connecting the unit to my synology nas station, which will hopefully work nicely.
 
kidloco said:
If I were you I would get this as the pulse box doesn't pass through dts-hd. Not a problem for me as my amp doesn't.
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Just a quick question - is dts-hd pass through a hardware issue or is it a software feature? Just asking as Im wondering if it is a feature that might become available in later software builds?
 
I was told by some bloke on another forum that it is hardware. No way I can test though as my amp doesn't support them.

Edit. Though some people are saying its just not possible on the Linux build of xbmc which is what I use. If you stuck windows on it then it has the drivers.
 
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kidloco said:
USB stick is more than fast enough mate. No slowdown or jerkiness on the menus etc.
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Hummm.. Whenever i have used USB Stick or SD Card (Even a class 10 one) for XBMCBuntu (Or live in the past) I struggled with slight stuttering when scrolling through the menus with album art/showcase enabled in confluence and it was partiularly bad with the AEON skin. For the sake of it i would get a second hand 32/40gb SSD (The intel one i use is great) and completely sorted the problem.
 
sorted the above - had to reboot then press 1 2 3 4 enter on the keyboard to get it to sync. works a charm now.

also, even using aeon with a library of 1,300 films things are nice and smooth booting off a usb 3 stick :)
 
If I get really bored this weekend I might stick a spare SSD I have in it and see if it is any better but like snow patrol, even with around 1,000 films it nice and smooth.

Snow patrol, how are your temps? I know the case is supposed to act as a giant heat sink but it still bugs me how hot it gets. Never crashes though even when left on playing films all day.
 
is there an addon i can get to see temps within xbmc? It does seem rather warm i must say - i'm wondering if i need to give it more ventilation?

one thing - i left mine on last night as it was updating the library. In the morning it was unresponsive and i had to force shutdown...is there a bios setting or the like that could combat this?

edit: just seen the option in aeon - my temp is 82c in the menu...sounds rather toasty does it not?
 
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That seems to be about the norm for these mate. Which I like you think is rather to toasty. I emailed Pulse support and asked them about this and they said

While users do tend to state that they are concerned by the CPU temperatures, we do not, the CPU has a peak operating temperature of 110degrees, and the case is used as an additional heat sink.

If you wish to improve the ventilation without drilling holes, orientate the case 90 degrees so the heat rises out of the side vents.
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Dont really want to start modding the case but I did swap the fan to a Moiseblocker from OCUK and also added a second fan internally to help get rid of the air quicker. The noiseblocker fans are very nice and quiet. My temps tend to stay around 65-70 now unless the hi fi cabinet door is closed then it will go up to 80. I do have rather allot of warm gear in there though.

Not sure as to why it could have been unresponsive. The thing boots so quick I never leave it on when not in use. Also, what version of OpenElec are you running? The latest Frodo release is nice and stable on mine.
 
Just been looking at these myself. Considered buying the bits to built my own but when i factored in a nice aluminium case/psu, mini itx board and ssd it seemed i couldn't really build one myself for much less than they charge!

One thing though, how does powering up work with a bluetooth remote? Do you need to turn it on at the box each time or do you just leave it in sleep mode 24/7?
 
just moved mine to the lower shelf of my cabinate, which has far more headroom space. temps have dropped to about 65 running a 1080p movie, so i'm fine with that.

one thing though...i just went to plug a usb device into one of the front ports and the usb port has retracted into the case. I'd imagine that it'll be easily sorted if i just open the case up and reposition it though...hopefully.

i'm just running openelec+pulse, version 2.0.4 i think. Can i update to frodo from within xbmc? I don't fancy adding all my sources again and setting everything back up. thanks
 
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relocating the front USB should be easy. Pop the lid and its a little board mounted to the front panel.

You cant update to frodo from the version you have I dont think. There isnt a Pulse version out yet as technically the latest version of openelec is the RC not the final final release. I just downloaded the Fusion version off the openelec website and started from scratch. Installation only takes 5 mins but as you say, setting up sources is a pain.

If you have everything working nicely mate then leave it on the version you have.
 
hmmn, well i'm having a bit of trouble with my bluetooth mirco keyboard (pulse). It tends to pair successfully on bootup, but then when watching a film it turns itself off after a while and usually doesn't manage to pair back up again. Any thoughts??
 
I had a problem with a Logitech BT keyboard on a pc, it kept missing the first character of something you typed. I found an energy saving setting somewhere (stupid me never made a note of it) that stopped the BT going to sleep. Might be worth looking for something like this?
 
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