Reply to: Just Ordered One of These

[Spacecadet]

I think the problem is the apps assume it's a mobile.

It does seem that way, which is bad as it should be telling apps that it's a tablet!

There is a cyanogenmod rom out for these devices, I was planning to flash at somepoint but my Nexus 10 arrived today so I'll be busy with that for a while

[vetran]

14Mb/s from the internet according to SpeedTest, which is about what I get from my "20Mb" ADSL.

I think the problem is the apps assume it's a mobile. If I use "Browser" (not Chrome), take care to check the "request desktop site" option and browse to the normal web URL for iPlayer, then it plays with the Flash player and does give decent quality, and gives you the option of HD too. But there seems to be a bug where it doesn't stay full screen - it frequently jumps to quarter screen. Also DroidMote gives you some nice media player controls, but they don't work with the Flash version, and it's all too obvious that you're using a website interface designed for a PC as it's all very clumsy. Much the same with YouTube: it just took me about 10 goes to click on the tiny tiny settings button and then the 720p option, but when I got there then yes the quality is good.

It's all very frustrating. If this all just worked, it'd be brilliant.

Had similar problems with Android, very annoying.

[gingerjedi]

Yatse is fantastic XBMC controller for android devices, I had my phone plugged in to the TV via HDMI and controlled XBMC from my Nexus7 which worked a treat but Android Frodo isn't that great to be honest though I have no doubt it will get there.

It did the same with my laptop running windows and XBMC, anyone use hub wizard? V good!

Just ordered this as I wanted a dedicated player and the price was just too good to resist, going to be running openelec (stripped out linux) on an SSD so should be super quick and completely silent.

[VectraMan]

Your iplayer and youtube issues sound like slow wifi, iplayer was fine for me when running in a browser.

14Mb/s from the internet according to SpeedTest, which is about what I get from my "20Mb" ADSL.

I think the problem is the apps assume it's a mobile. If I use "Browser" (not Chrome), take care to check the "request desktop site" option and browse to the normal web URL for iPlayer, then it plays with the Flash player and does give decent quality, and gives you the option of HD too. But there seems to be a bug where it doesn't stay full screen - it frequently jumps to quarter screen. Also DroidMote gives you some nice media player controls, but they don't work with the Flash version, and it's all too obvious that you're using a website interface designed for a PC as it's all very clumsy. Much the same with YouTube: it just took me about 10 goes to click on the tiny tiny settings button and then the 720p option, but when I got there then yes the quality is good.

It's all very frustrating. If this all just worked, it'd be brilliant.

[vetran]

Raspberry Pi reaches critical mass as XBMC hardware

CEC is the way to go for remote control.


<Stuff about="code" />: Raspberry Pi - BBC iPlayer Personal Podcast

this looks so cool.

[Spacecadet]

I still need to have a proper play with mine, not touched it since I last posted on here!

XDA have a forum for stick computers now:
Android Stick Computers - xda-developers

Your iplayer and youtube issues sound like slow wifi, iplayer was fine for me when running in a browser.

[VectraMan]

So I now have an MK809, that's slightly newer I guess. It seems to work pretty much as advertised, though I haven't tried powering it off the TV, and there was no problem getting a decent WiFi signal, which is one bad thing I've read about these devices.

I went through the painful process of rooting it last night to install DroidMote, which means I can control it from my phone - well sort of, as it's pretty clumsy.

BBC iPlayer works. However, the quality is pretty poor - very blocky and stuttery playback. Watching the same, even the lower quality version via the internet TV option on my Sony TV is much better, whereas iPlayer on Sky HD is almost as good as the original broadcast. So it looks like even though you get a much better web interface, you wouldn't actually want to use it for iPlayer.

YouTube works fairly well, but again low quality video, and annoyingly I couldn't work out any way of making the YouTube app play video full screen.

[Spacecadet]

Installing raspbmc on a sd card and installing it on the pi.

ok....

[eek]

what took 2 minutes?

Installing raspbmc on a sd card and installing it on the pi.

[Spacecadet]

I'm using mine as an Apache server live on t'internet for some dev testing. I used to have a dedicated PC for that not to mention the Cobalt Raq4's that are sitting in a rack unused.

Have you tried the plug computers?

[Spacecadet]

well its a bit difficult to do on a PI! Took me 2 mins.

How to turn your Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media centre | Reviews | CNET UK

runs a treat by the way.

usb LCD, Tvheadend & LIRC to go

then we need a nice case.

what took 2 minutes?

[Cliphead]

...then we need a nice case.

Here ya go

[vetran]

well its a bit difficult to do on a PI! Took me 2 mins.

How to turn your Raspberry Pi into an XBMC media centre | Reviews | CNET UK

runs a treat by the way.

usb LCD, Tvheadend & LIRC to go

then we need a nice case.

[Cliphead]

Turned up today and works a treat

One slight annoyance is that the BBC iPlayer app doesn't work, or rather the BBC don't let the app run on "unrecognised" devices! I can still access iPlayer through the website though

The only other annoying thing is that I was hoping to power it directly from the USB port on the TV. That did work until I started playing a video file at which point I realised that there was a lot of background noise. Plugging into the mains fixed that - not sure what the issue is, maybe it's just a grounding reference problem for the HDMI connection or just the fact that it was forced to reboot as I switched power sources.

Plex runs and streams HD video from my laptop PC to the device.

External USB stick works without any issues

Plugged in an external drive and that crashed the device but I was expecting that as the power being drawn is too high, it will need a powered USB hub for that to work properly

The keyboard and mouse remote control I got as part of the package feels extremely cheap but worked straight away.

For under £50 it's not a bad piece of equipment!

I'm using mine as an Apache server live on t'internet for some dev testing. I used to have a dedicated PC for that not to mention the Cobalt Raq4's that are sitting in a rack unused.

[Spacecadet]

Turned up today and works a treat

One slight annoyance is that the BBC iPlayer app doesn't work, or rather the BBC don't let the app run on "unrecognised" devices! I can still access iPlayer through the website though

The only other annoying thing is that I was hoping to power it directly from the USB port on the TV. That did work until I started playing a video file at which point I realised that there was a lot of background noise. Plugging into the mains fixed that - not sure what the issue is, maybe it's just a grounding reference problem for the HDMI connection or just the fact that it was forced to reboot as I switched power sources.

Plex runs and streams HD video from my laptop PC to the device.

External USB stick works without any issues

Plugged in an external drive and that crashed the device but I was expecting that as the power being drawn is too high, it will need a powered USB hub for that to work properly

The keyboard and mouse remote control I got as part of the package feels extremely cheap but worked straight away.

For under £50 it's not a bad piece of equipment!