Comparing XBMC to WDTV Live Hub

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
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Anyone here have experience using XBMC on a HTPC?  While I would love to just use my WD as my only media player, I’ve had so many problems getting moviesheets to work that I am now considering a HTPC instead.  Ideas, suggestions and comments welcome … still in that investigating mode …

Thanks,

Mike

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Just ran the “Live-CD” XBMC version 10.1 (latest) and I gotta say this … while it compiled movie data very quickly (my WD isn’t thru after 3 days) it had some very incorrect information and the display for browsing movies is lousy – basically WD with no metadata, a browse and click with no preview info.  Guess I will stay with the WDTV Live Hub.  It has the best movie data and backdrops I’ve seen, if you can just get them to display.

Back to the drawing board, thumbgen, mojo and FW 2.07.17 for me …

Enjoy,

Mike

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Once the Raspberry Pi is released, sometime mid February, I will be getting one and run XBMC on it. From what I have read so far, I think it might out preform the Live Hub hand down. Tinkering with this stuff is a little passion of mine.

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The Raspberry PI does look interesting, although from what I’ve read the release looks closer to March.  I’m not sure how well it will work as a media player though, but for $25 or $35 it would be something worth having.

Also the FXI Cotton Candy looks interesting, not sure if will run XBMC, but it does run Android & Ubuntu.  The only problem with it though is the price, which is closer to the cost of the HUB (or so it’s being reported).

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Here a blog with video showing the Raspberry Pi running XBMC really well http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/571#comments. And there is a project at http://www.raspbmc.com/. I will definitely be be trying this setup.

1 Like
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Yeah, I saw the video and wish they had shown more.  However, one problem with it is the lack of connections, since it only has 2 USB connections (on the B model, the A model only has one), which would be needed to connect a mouse and keyboard, you basically would be left with a streamer (unless you opt for the A model which doesn’t have an ethernet port).

Also, there is the lack of codec.

Codecs

Two licensed codecs will be provided at launch, MPEG4 and h.264.  Codec licences have quite an impact of the cost of the device which is why there are only two at this stage. There are non-licensed Codecs such at MPEG2, VC1 etc, but for the moment they will not be accelerated by the GPU.

Dom adds: As an aside, the GPU can hardware decode H264, MPEG1/2/4, VC1, AVS, MJPG at 1080p30. It can software (but still vector accelerated) decode VP6, VP7, VP8, RV, Theora, WMV9 at DVD resolutions. We are restricted due to licensing what we can support. We should be able to support VP8, MJPG and Theora, as I believe they are license free.

And I really can’t seem to find any info on what audio it will handle.