OpenELEC meets Raspberry Pi - part 1 (XBMC)

So last night I checked out the latest commit of OpenELEC (commit 1e2a31366fa38c4e34e577825190ffc4f8d1a584) and compiled it overnight.

Everything is working, except for 2 things:

1. Airplay works fine with video streaming: the video looks fine and audio plays, but when I try and stream audio only, XBMC doesn't seem to register that it's being streamed to.

2. When I unplug my keyboard (plugged in through a powered USB hub), and plug it back in, nothing responds. I tried it on the system info page, and the CPU meter is still active, so it hasn't hung, but XBMC doesn't seem to be listening to it. If it matters, the keyboard is an Apple Keyboard (Model A1242)

I have tried the latest build from Sparky (Thanks Sparky once again!). This is release number r11312.

1. Openelec (or my receiver) still doesn't recognize DTS passthrough, it converts it to stereo and because of that the screen stutters every 10 seconds. In a previous build it recognized DTS but it didn't play any sound. A 1080p movie (MKV) with Dolby Digital audio works great! Does someone know a fix for the DTS/ stutter issue?

2. SAMBA (SMB) Shares seem to work again! That's good news!

3. The UI is responding faster than ever. All the add-ons seem to work. I haven't tried airplay yet.

So last night I checked out the latest commit of OpenELEC (commit 1e2a31366fa38c4e34e577825190ffc4f8d1a584) and compiled it overnight.

Everything is working, except for 2 things:

1. Airplay works fine with video streaming: the video looks fine and audio plays, but when I try and stream audio only, XBMC doesn't seem to register that it's being streamed to.

2. When I unplug my keyboard (plugged in through a powered USB hub), and plug it back in, nothing responds. I tried it on the system info page, and the CPU meter is still active, so it hasn't hung, but XBMC doesn't seem to be listening to it. If it matters, the keyboard is an Apple Keyboard (Model A1242)

What about DTS audio passthrough? Does it work for you?

I haven't tried DTS pass through, but I an confirm that Dolby is fine. I'll try DTS later and find out.

[sparky0815]

r11318 images + files of FAT partition currenty uploading

http://sparky0815.de

I did a howto guide on building OpenELEC in the cloud (using the recently announce Linux support on Azure, which is available for 90 day free trial).

r11318 images + files of FAT partition currenty uploading

http://sparky0815.de

downloaded this today and I get a full system lockup if I use the 'System info' screen, I need to unplug my RPI as keyboard locks up and the cpu bar goes over 90%. I've also experienced this in raspbmc's latest RC.

any ideas why this is happening?

btw, everything else works just fine.

I have tried the latest build from Sparky (Thanks Sparky once again!). This is release number r11312.

1. Openelec (or my receiver) still doesn't recognize DTS passthrough, it converts it to stereo and because of that the screen stutters every 10 seconds. In a previous build it recognized DTS but it didn't play any sound. A 1080p movie (MKV) with Dolby Digital audio works great! Does someone know a fix for the DTS/ stutter issue?

2. SAMBA (SMB) Shares seem to work again! That's good news!

3. The UI is responding faster than ever. All the add-ons seem to work. I haven't tried airplay yet.

im getting buffering issues while playing DTS movies, not sure if the problems are related?

I haven't tried DTS pass through, but I an confirm that Dolby is fine. I'll try DTS later and find out.

Thanks in advance!

I have tried the latest build from Sparky (Thanks Sparky once again!). This is release number r11312.

1. Openelec (or my receiver) still doesn't recognize DTS passthrough, it converts it to stereo and because of that the screen stutters every 10 seconds. In a previous build it recognized DTS but it didn't play any sound. A 1080p movie (MKV) with Dolby Digital audio works great! Does someone know a fix for the DTS/ stutter issue?

2. SAMBA (SMB) Shares seem to work again! That's good news!

3. The UI is responding faster than ever. All the add-ons seem to work. I haven't tried airplay yet.

im getting buffering issues while playing DTS movies, not sure if the problems are related?

Probably! Does your receiver tries to play the sound as a PCM stream? and the video freezes every five to ten seconds? In a previous build my receiver recognized it as a DTS stream but now it converts it to PCM. Whenever it converts to PCM/ Stereo the video freezes every five seconds or so. Very annoying and makes XBMC quite useless for every DTS movie. 720p and 1080p with dolby digital plays fine!

Also Airplay video (like youtube) works great but when I try to stream music (with spotify) XBMC doesn't recognize or play the airplay stream.

Im using 11320 Todays img. Its working great! Seems alot snappier. Addons seem to be ok ( haven't added any) tried on 3 different cards expanded storage w/gparted and working great Kudood to cpswan i think it is thanks for all the hard work whoever you are!
smuggly sun valley Nv. USA

Im using 11320 Todays img. Its working great! Seems alot snappier. Addons seem to be ok ( haven't added any) tried on 3 different cards expanded storage w/gparted and working great Kudood to cpswan i think it is thanks for all the hard work whoever you are!
smuggly sun valley Nv. USA

You're welcome, and it's good to hear that things are improving. I'm looking forward to trying some of the new builds for myself when I get back to the UK (presently on a longer than usual business trip to NYC).

I did that classic systems admin thing of replacing myself with a shell script, so no hard work involved I'm just glad that the VPS I'm using is part of a beta test for the BigV cloud service, so I'm not having to pick up the bill for hosting. Hopefully OpenELEC on Raspberry Pi will reach a stable build before the beta ends.

It's Looking very good. The picture looks better on this to my hdtv than from my HTPC. very happy camper. Thanks Again smuggly

So I complied the latest git version today(11322 if memory serves) and the keyboard issue still isn't resolved: if I unplug the keyboard, it isn't detected when I plug it back in. I even tried it with a different keyboard with the same results.

Also, after reading some comments on the previous version, I reverted and indeed, SMB file shares didn't work. The new version seems to have fixed that.

I tried a new skin, and found that with PM3.HD I get around 60fps in the UI vs around 30 with confluence.


Finally: AirPlay still seems to be broken for audio only streaming.

Probably! Does your receiver tries to play the sound as a PCM stream? and the video freezes every five to ten seconds? In a previous build my receiver recognized it as a DTS stream but now it converts it to PCM. Whenever it converts to PCM/ Stereo the video freezes every five seconds or so. Very annoying and makes XBMC quite useless for every DTS movie. 720p and 1080p with dolby digital plays fine!

Actually my pi is only hooked up to my TV nothing else, I tried r11160 yesterday and the buffering is practically nonexistent compared to the newer revisions. I experienced the problem with the keyboard not being detected when unplugging/replugging it aswell.

Probably! Does your receiver tries to play the sound as a PCM stream? and the video freezes every five to ten seconds? In a previous build my receiver recognized it as a DTS stream but now it converts it to PCM. Whenever it converts to PCM/ Stereo the video freezes every five seconds or so. Very annoying and makes XBMC quite useless for every DTS movie. 720p and 1080p with dolby digital plays fine!

Actually my pi is only hooked up to my TV nothing else, I tried r11160 yesterday and the buffering is practically nonexistent compared to the newer revisions. I experienced the problem with the keyboard not being detected when unplugging/replugging it aswell.

It probably tries to downmix the audio into PCM and that's something that the OpenElec builds are struggling with. It causes to buffer every five secs.

[sparky0815]

r11324 files of FAT partition uploaded...

you can use the latest sd card image (r11318) and overwrite fat partition with r11324 files

http://sparky0815.de

It's Looking very good. The picture looks better on this to my hdtv than from my HTPC. very happy camper. Thanks Again smuggly

Agree with this. Looks miles better than the built in dnla media player on my TV. Even my wife noticed the difference.

2. When I unplug my keyboard (plugged in through a powered USB hub), and plug it back in, nothing responds. I tried it on the system info page, and the CPU meter is still active, so it hasn't hung, but XBMC doesn't seem to be listening to it. If it matters, the keyboard is an Apple Keyboard (Model A1242)

This is a known and low prio issue in the actual implementation of input device support in the XBMC RPi port (and some other ARM ports). All input devices must be connected before XBMC starts. This will be solved later, you must live with this for the next time.

Stephan

Are these image files "official" & how long before we get to a RC? Thanks Smuggly

2. When I unplug my keyboard (plugged in through a powered USB hub), and plug it back in, nothing responds. I tried it on the system info page, and the CPU meter is still active, so it hasn't hung, but XBMC doesn't seem to be listening to it. If it matters, the keyboard is an Apple Keyboard (Model A1242)

This is a known and low prio issue in the actual implementation of input device support in the XBMC RPi port (and some other ARM ports). All input devices must be connected before XBMC starts. This will be solved later, you must live with this for the next time.

Stephan

Any workarounds for the time being? Would it be possible to have XBMC restart automatically when I plug a keyboard in?

Are these image files "official" & how long before we get to a RC? Thanks Smuggly

the only official builds you find at http://sources.openelec.tv/tmp/image/openelec-rpi/ . all this image files are not official, but you can update them easy to offical versions.

There will be no beta/RC/Release from this RPi builds the next time. You all know XBMC for RPi is still in a very early development state and far away from being stable. It is not merged to XBMC master which will be XBMC-Frodo in some months, until its merged its even not a official (XBMC supported) port. OpenELEC releases stable builds only with released (stable) XBMC releases.

Other then that we regulary release development snapshots, which are usable.

Also we work together with Gimli and many other XBMC devs to fix, improve and optimize XBMC for RPi so it can be merged to XBMC-master soon and will be usable for other Distros too.

Thats why we need your feedback (see also this thread: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7167 )

Stephan

[dom]

Actually my pi is only hooked up to my TV nothing else, I tried r11160 yesterday and the buffering is practically nonexistent compared to the newer revisions. I experienced the problem with the keyboard not being detected when unplugging/replugging it aswell.

Where's your media coming from? SMB share?

Actually my pi is only hooked up to my TV nothing else, I tried r11160 yesterday and the buffering is practically nonexistent compared to the newer revisions. I experienced the problem with the keyboard not being detected when unplugging/replugging it aswell.

Where's your media coming from? SMB share?

nope, NFS.

Playing media from network (smb) share is definatly getting worse..

Now, traying to play a 700mb rip, xvid video and 2 channel audio results in a pause/play cycle every 10 - 15 seconds!

Also experiencing random freezes, no config file, just a fresh clean install of r11324.. Just a remote, ethernet and HDMI connected...

Has anybody installed transmission daemon ? when i go to install addons, openelec mediacenter os ad-ons , services there is only the dcron addon , only that addon