OpenELEC FTW!!!

I know that there are quite a few people here that use XBMC as their chosen Media Center platform.  I also know that there are a few threads on here that talk about OpenELEC, but nothing that specifically sings its praises.  So...that is what I am going to do.  

I have been a loyal XBMC user for ~7 years now...back to the XBMP days.  Like many of us, my original platform was the first generation XBOX and I moved to the PC platform the very day it was made available.  My ultimate goal was always to have more of an "appliance" rather than a full-blown OS (much like what XBMC on the XBOX was).  For this reason, I gravitated to XBMCLive.  Unfortunately, XBMCLive has been presenting a few challenges lately after performing manual updates/upgrades.  It became such a hassle that I had to rebuild my XBMCLive system 4 times in one week.  At one point, my wife said "pretty stable system you got there".  That is when I knew I had to find a better solution.

Enter OpenELEC!  http://openelec.tv/

I had heard the name before but never really investigated it.  Honestly, I thought it was just another Linux distro and XBMC would need to be layered on top of it.  WRONG!!!!  According to the author, it is actually a Linux kernel that he “built from scratch”, is VERY thin (all of the “FAT” has been removed) and has XBMC already integrated into it.  (FYI…the developer of OpenELEC is actually an XBMC developer).  Here is a quick blurb from the website:

What is OpenELEC?

Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, or OpenELEC for short, is a small Linux distribution built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a complete XBMC media center. OpenELEC is designed to make your system boot as fast as possible and the install is so easy that anyone can turn a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes.

Probably the main thing that draws users to OpenELEC is the boot time.  Since all unneeded services/software have been removed, I can boot into XBMC in 8 seconds from the time I push the power button (16GB SSD).  Now of course I am going to use wake-on-usb so this really isn’t a big win for me, but it sure is cool to see it move that fast!

The fact that this flavor has all of the extra stuff removed is huge for me.  Again, this iteration is designed to be more of an appliance than an OS.  This allows for much tighter control of updates/upgrades and aids in the prevention of drivers and software becoming corrupted or broken.  It also has an “Update” feature that can be set to Automatic, Manual or Disabled.  No more “apt-get update”…etc.

As I continued to read, the one thing that really drew me to OpenELEC was the fact that there was a specific flavor developed for the ION platform which is what I use (Zotac IONITX-A-U).  The installer could not be more simple and everything worked out of the box.  All of the known tweaks are already integrated (i.e. DDSFanart, sound over HDMI, wake-on-usb, etc.)  The only thing I had to do was to enable 24p since my new TV is capable (it is disabled by default to avoid issues).  Here is the quick guide how to enable it:  http://openelec.tv/find-help/documentation/howtos/display/item/43-how-to-configure-24p-playback

Setting up NFS shares couldn’t be easier also.  No more rc.local ot fstab mucking.  Just add you shares to a config file as described in this guide:  http://openelec.tv/find-help/documentation/usage/network-shares/item/56-mounting-network-shares

I literally had this up and running in about 20 minutes from the time I booted from the flash drive, enabled 24p and added my shares.  There is a really good guide here for creating the flash drive:  http://www.xbmcboxes.com/howto-create-a-openelec-tv-xbmc-appliance-usb-installer/

Anyway, all of you XBMC users out there, if you are in the same boat that I am and prefer an “appliance” look and feel, I urge you to try OpenELEC.  Granted, I am still feeling it out but if you run into any snags, just flag me down and I will try to help.

John

Were you able to get the wireless to work? I have the same motherboard and was unable to get the wireless working with openelec. I posted for help on their forums and didn't get any help.

Since I mainly stream Blu-Rays, I won't go anywhere near wireless (only hardwired gbit).  So sorry to say that I haven't even tried it.

Did you see this thread:  http://openelec.tv/forum/24-ion-platforms/4493-wireless-network-problems-with-zotac-id40-ion2

2 users got wireless to work on a different Zotac but with some issues...

I also have the ZBOX ID40.

I did a quick test.

First I set my router to broadcast SSID.

Then entered SSID manually in the "Programs" -> "OpenElec Configuration" -> "Network" settings. Encryption set to PSK and entered my pass.

Network type set to WLAN and adapter is wlan0.

 

disconnected the cable and rebootet.

I got an IP address automatically assigned and it is displayed on the info page.

I can ping the address from another machine within my network

I'm not able to access the SAMBA shares nor connect with SSH.

John

I am using OpenELEC on a JetWay Mini-Top and I really like it.  It is a very clean fast version of XBMC that has an appliance like feel.

So far the Mini-Top has been working a treat for me in its role to replace the XBOX running XBMC.  I was gathering more HD content and the XBOX just could not keep up anymore.  The only this I am missing is a DVD/Blu-ray drive in the Mini-Top, but I am planning on getting a slim external Blu-ray player so I can move it between systems as I need to.

The remote that comes with the Mini-Top works out of the box (at least with the version of OpenELEC I am running).  There are some keys that are not used and I would like to do some custom mappings of those... but I have not had the time to sit down and actually figure out how to do that.  I also have a harmony remote that a taught all the Mini-Top remote commands to, so I am using the Harmony 99% of the time with my box.

This is exciting! I was just planning to install this on my test XBMC installation (Read SD card in my Revo) to see how it behaved. Glad to hear you are so positive about it.

I tried XBMC Live as well for awhile, but found it much too restrictive. My only complaint with the version I am now currently using (Minimal Ubuntu install with XBMC), is that the channel mapping for 7.1 LPCM sounds is messed up. This is a common issue it seems with 7.1 sound and XBMC, and though people have posted solutions, none of them seem to work for me.

It's an irritation more then anything, as fixing it just adds an extra few button pushes for every movie, and of course, it reduces the WAF slightly...

Anywho, what is your experience with 7.1 sound and OpenELEC? Does it map channels correctly?

Also, the auto-updating sounds cool, but are you limited to updates from the OpenELEC developers, or can compiled nightlys (when they come back) etc. be installed?

Thanks!

Yeah I saw that and I was very impressed too. I have an AsRock ION 330 and currently I have everything working just the way I like it on my XBMC. Of course the build I downloaded had hdmi audio, Xbox dvd remote, 24p fix and a few other things, but I've since lost that install and I've tried to get everything working before on other builds and failed.

I guess I should image my drive again or swap out another 2.5" and give openelec a try.

Yeah I saw that and I was very impressed too. I have an AsRock ION 330 and currently I have everything working just the way I like it on my XBMC. Of course the build I downloaded had hdmi audio, Xbox dvd remote, 24p fix and a few other things, but I've since lost that install and I've tried to get everything working before on other builds and failed.

 

I guess I should image my drive again or swap out another 2.5" and give openelec a try.

If the asRock has a card reader, just pop in an old SD card (We all have those 1-2 GB cards floating around I'm sure ). Works a treat and saves you from mucking about with your working installation....

Thanks for the great review!  I'm currently using XBMC Freak which is pretty good - as far as I know it is basically the stock XBMC Live with the ION tweaks pre-configured.  However, my boot time is more like 30 seconds (from a 30 GB SSD) and I've never been able to get the box to turn on from the MCE remote (not that I've tried excessively hard).  Considering that I'm currently having a weird issue with SD files lagging, then maybe I should just upgrade to openelec instead of futzing around with XBMC Freak.  I've also been planning on setting up the DDS fan art tweak, so I'm glad to hear that it is already integrated into openelec.  Sound pretty bi-winning to me...

Anywho, what is your experience with 7.1 sound and OpenELEC? Does it map channels correctly?

Sorry....the system that I have this running on is only hooked up to my TV.  I am going to build a second box fro my media room downstairs which has a 7.1 receiver and I will report back then.

Also, the auto-updating sounds cool, but are you limited to updates from the OpenELEC developers, or can compiled nightlys (when they come back) etc. be installed?

Right now it is only XBMC and OpeneELEC.  There are talk about incorporating nightly builds but since OpenELEC in only in RC stage, it has not yet been added.

John

...and I've never been able to get the box to turn on from the MCE remote (not that I've tried excessively hard)...

Word is that the MCE remotes work out of teh box.  I just ordered a different remote from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00123UGWQ) because I have now had 2 MCE IR receivers die on me.

John

Openelec is great. I usually run xbmc live, but i've installed openelec to boot from an 8gig sd card for testing and so far its been great, boots up in under 10 seconds. (i normally just have my boxes go into s3 sleep mode so fast bootup isnt all that a huge plus for me, but still). xbmc does seem a bit snappier though on my revos when using it. Only thing that is keeping me from moving to it fulltime is I use the xbox 360 media remote and it isnt straightforward how to add mappings for it in openelec. But MCE remotes are supposed to work out of the box.

Sorry....the system that I have this running on is only hooked up to my TV.  I am going to build a second box fro my media room downstairs which has a 7.1 receiver and I will report back then.

Looks like I just got myself a weekend project!

Huzzah!

Sorry....the system that I have this running on is only hooked up to my TV.  I am going to build a second box fro my media room downstairs which has a 7.1 receiver and I will report back then.

 

Looks like I just got myself a weekend project!

 

Huzzah!

Weekend???  The nice thing about OpenELEC is that it will only take 20 minutes from your weekend! 

John

ps. For anyone who has a TV capable of 24p, I highly suggest you enable it.  I couldn't believe the difference in clarity once I did!

Weekend???  The nice thing about OpenELEC is that it will only take 20 minutes from your weekend! 

Well then! Even better!

I also just read that OpenELEC appears to support trim for SSDs right out of the box! That's another reason to test it out! . ANyone know if that covers Garbage Collection as well?

I have OpenELEC running on a Zbox and I love it!  Still haven't figured out how to get the "click click" menu sound to work but I'm ok without it.  Not a real deal breaker.  Even had a thread running in the OpenELEC forums but nothing seemed to help    Very supportive though if you ever run into any problems.  And I was very surprised at how easy it was to set up, it's gotten even easier the last time I did it! Now it's down to 1 thumb drive and really only takes a few mins.  Someone else on the forums here pointed me to OpenELEC and I couldn't be happier!

Were you able to get the wireless to work? I have the same motherboard and was unable to get the wireless working with openelec. I posted for help on their forums and didn't get any help.

FYI...I gave your post on the OpenELEC forum a bump and it now has Stephan's attention.  Di you think you can post the output from what he asked for?

John

Got OpenELEC up and running.  I can't say my boot time is any better than before, though, it is still about 30 seconds (with an SSD).  The DDS Fan Art thing does make a difference though.  The biggest annoyance was that my sound didn't work right off the bat.  I used to just set everything to hdmi and it worked...this time I had to use these settings:

Audio Output: HDMI

Speaker Configuration: 5.1

Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: Yes

DTS Capable Receiver: Yes

Audio Output Device: Custom

Custom Audio Device: plughw:1,7

Passthrough output device: custom

Custom passthrough device: plughw:1,7

Found those here.  I have no idea why I need to use these custom audio settings now, but it all seems to work so I guess I'm happy.

My TV show library doesn't seem to be updating properly either, but that's a problem for another day.

I installed openelec on my new ZOTAC ZBOXHD-ND22-U R with 30 gb ssd just two days ago and am very impressed.  I tried xbmc live and could not get it to work.  Openelec worked right out of the box.  Boot time 8 seconds.  Just trying to get mysql working now and then all is good.  Been using xbmc for the last three years on windows machines

I installed openELEC on my Revo over the weekend, and unfortunately, though the install process was unbelievably easy, it has serious issues with 7.1 channels for audio via LPCM. Channels get randomly mapped incorrectly and, for example, center channel ends up coming from Right Rear...

This happens with both full 7.1 audio, as well as 5.1 audio that is being sent to a 7.1 receiver. NOTE: The ION platform (which I am using) does not support bitstreaming DTS-MA and TrueHD, so this is being done via LPCM. Regular bitstreaming of 5.1 audio works flawlessly in both installations.

This is an issue in the standard XBMC release as well, though for whatever reason (read: tried every work-around found in the forums), I managed to get it to correct itself by toggling the "convert to 2 channel audio" in the Media menu while the movie is playing. This work-around doesn't seem to work for the openELEC version...

To reiterate: This is not a shortcoming of openELEC. This is a basic flaw in XBMC that has yet to be addressed. I believe the upcoming Audio Engine work will, among other things, correct this issue...

Were you able to get the wireless to work? I have the same motherboard and was unable to get the wireless working with openelec. I posted for help on their forums and didn't get any help.

 

FYI...I gave your post on the OpenELEC forum a bump and it now has Stephan's attention.  Di you think you can post the output from what he asked for?

 

John

I saw that, thanks. I will try to reinstall openelc again today and update the post.

Update..

Reinstalled openelec yesterday and the wireless worked with RC5. Although one thing I havent figured out yet is how to setup nfs. The only guides I find refer to editing the netmount.conf file but I also thought I read that this method is not valid anymore. I did try this anyway and it did not work.

Maybe I'm missing something but does anyone know how to setup nfs on openelec?

If editing the netmount.conf file is still correct, I will have to look at the way I set it up to see why its not working.

I think I might be going back to XBMC Freak

The reasons I switched to OpenELEC are:

1) Faster boot time

2) DDS Fan Art

3) Felt like a change of pace

What I'm actually seeing is:

1) Exact same boot time (~30 seconds on an 30 GB OCZ Agility SSD)

2) DDS Fan Art (yes, this rocks, and is worthwhile)

3) An incomplete library.  My TV Shows page only shows 6 of my ~100 TV shows.  I've told it to update the library many times, but the rest of the shows just down appear.  I'm reduced to browsing in the 'videos' page, which shows file names and no IMDB info.  My Movies also has multiple duplicate entries for Movies that are broken into multiple parts (such as the Animatrix, which I have encoded into individual files per short).  Some movies seem to have duplicate entries for seemingly no reason at all (and I have enabled the 'remove duplicates' option in the settings).

I'll give it a few more days worth of tinkering, but if I make no progress then I'll likely go back to XBMC Freak.  It wasn't perfect either, but it at least got me further than I currently am.  Oh, and the strange audio settings still kind of weird me out as well...why didn't it work with everything set to HDMI like it did in XBMC Freak?  All the hardware is the same...

So at the moment I'm thinking OpenELEC FTM (for the meh).

You can enable DDS fan art in XBMC just the same you know.

I think I might be going back to XBMC Freak

 

The reasons I switched to OpenELEC are:

 

1) Faster boot time

2) DDS Fan Art

3) Felt like a change of pace

 

 

DDS fanart isnt a feature of openelec but a feature that is of xbmc itself. So you can enable it in the xbmc freak install. Just need to edit it in the advancedsettings.xml. It just so happened that by default on openelec they put it in there.

just need the the following line in your advancedsettings.xml file (and if you don't have the file, just create it)

 <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>

So if you don't have an advancedsettings.xml file and are creating on from scratch it would look like:

<advancedsettings>

 <useddsfanart>true</useddsfanart>

</advancedsettings>

P.S. You shouldn't have such long boot times with that SSD whether you are running xbmc-live or opelec. They should easily be half that. Is there something set in the BIOS of your machine that is greatly lengthening your POST on bootup?

Sorry to go a bit off track, folks, but what's the big deal with DDS fanart? I tried researching it, but it seems like it's just a different extension type for covers and stuff? I must be missing something... Anyone care to elaborate for me as to why it's super awesome?

DoeBoye

Normally a JPG is compressed and it takes time for your machine to uncompressed it. With DDS like you said its another extension, but instead of being compressed its well uncompressed

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=59115