XBMC on Joggler - tweaks and suggestions

[gegs]

I've been very impressed with XBMC on the Joggler but its performance can vary depending on which plugins are used. I thought a thread where users can post advice and tweaks might be a good idea because I've found a couple of things that improve the experience for me. I know that there is a lot of XBMC info on the web but very little is Joggler-specific.

There is a version of XBMC alone that boots and runs from a USB stick (you can download it from http://www.multiupload.com/4TEJYQ2FW1) but my post relates to running it from BuZz's excellent linux images.

Here are a couple of things I've found:

BBC live TV streams
The TVcatchup plugin seems to play the BBC live streams smoother and with less sync problems than the iPlayer plugin does. This might be because TVcatchup streams at a lower bitrate than the native BBC ones. I've changed the default stream bitrate to 800 from 3200 in the iPlayer plugin but it doesn't seem to help the live streams.

BBC TV watch again streams
These play much better in iPlayer than the live streams but some programmes display a message that they are not available in the 800 bitrate and should the player default to 3200. Videos playing at the higher bitrate are choppy and have sync problems.

TVcatchup
Brilliant plugin that plays the TVcatchup streams without the preceding ads shown on the website (although, of course, you still get the ad breaks in programmes so you might join a stream during a commercial break). Performance is usually great but can be variable according to the stream source - just like the web version. The TVcatchcup plugin isn't on the available plugins list in XBMC but you can download it from http://plugins.tvcatchup.com/~xbmc/ and install it from the zip file. It's the second link you need to download - plugin.video.tvcatchup.zip

Youtube
Depending on which video is playing, the official Youtube plugin can be either brilliant or have sync problems. For example OK Go's "White Knuckles" video has video/sound sync problems on the official plugin, even if I change the video quality to SD rather than one of the high quality streams.
Youtube plays much more smoothly through the Navi-X program. The same OK Go video played through Navi-X is smooth and synchronous. Navi-X is available from the "Programs" menu, not add-ons.

Any performance tweaks or plugin recommendations from more experienced XBMC users than myself - a complete noob - will be gratefully soaked up like a sponge.

---EDIT---
The above is now probably out of date. The XBMC iPlayer plugin is now working much better than stated above. I must stress that this thread relates to these services on XBMC and not to spoyser's excellent iPlayer and Youtube apps on the native OS. Nevertheless, tweaks and suggestions are still welcome but mainly with relation to performance on the Joggler. Comments and questions about using the program or problems with addons should be addressed to the XBMC forums or a plugin developer's Google Code page (or similar).

[dwl99]

I would love to be able to get it to "see" my media which resides on a Windows 7 PC running Windows Media Server. For some reason XBMC does not see the upnp server but sees the Windows Workgroup. It will even see the shared folders in the Workgroup but when I try to add any of them as a source it insists on a username & password. My Windows logon details do not work and I have no other passwords set on the PC. No sign of any fixes for this on Google either. Any ideas anyone?

[gegs]

I run Windows XP and marking a folder as "shared" is enough for XBMC to recognise it. I don't have any problems streaming video to XBMC with WinXP; I can't think what the problem is with Windows 7.

[dwl99]

Windows 7 is very fussy about what it will share with. Usually the answer is only other Windows 7 machines in the same Homegroup. Marking the folders as shared hasn't previously helped

[BuZz]

you could try 480kbit for live streams on iplayer but it sounds like network connectivity mostly. I find the live streams on iplayer smooth so long as im not too far from my access point. only hd only stuff should be limited to only 3200kbit, so it might depend which channel you access it from.

tvcatchup is useful yeh - i hope they continue to provide that.. had some involvement in getting it working before - http://forums.tvcatchup.com/showthread. ... g-included) - at the time I got told off by the forum admin for posting a snippet of the encoded python with a fix

there are various things that can make windows 7 not play nice with xbmc. most will be documented at their forum (and probably the best place for help). there was an issue with compatibility with shares after the windows live sign in assistant had been installed but that is fixed now.

[gegs]

you could try 480kbit for live streams on iplayer but it sounds like network connectivity mostly. I find the live streams on iplayer smooth so long as im not too far from my access point.

My Joggler is really close to my router and the connectivity is good.

The live iPlayer streams play really well on O2 native using (using SWF Manager from P'n'P). It's only the live iPlayer streams on XBMC that I have issues with. TVcatchup just plays them so much smoother, so that's what I use. I still use iPlayer for all the "watch again" stuff at 800kbit and it plays brilliantly.

[BuZz]

odd that I haven't had this then. Streams have always been smooth (unless the wireless drops etc). I even use 1500kbit streams for live and ondemand.

[gegs]

I don't know if poor data transfer rate of the USB drive might cause patchy performance at times. It's the thing that is most likely to be different between setups. I'm going to uninstall programs I don't use (like Open Office) and stop as many processes from running at start up as I can (if I don't need them to) to see if that improves things.

It's tinkering for tinkering's sake though. I can get everything I want to run well, just maybe not using one plugin.

[BuZz]

just to rule out wireless, if you are plugged in wired, 1500kbit streams are still jerky ?

[gegs]

I didn't say that 1500kbit streams were jerky in the main, it's just that I play at 800kbit because that is really good enough for the Joggler screen and reduces the risk of buffering issues. I initially used the Auto option for iPlayer data streams until I had problems with live streams watching BBC news (perhaps high demand on the broadband network at peak times is also an issue).

I'll try the wired option some time over the next couple of days and report back but it's not something I would use all the time. I have too many trailing wires in the kitchen at the moment and my wife would go nuts!

[gegs]

I haven't tried the wired option yet but the iPlayer BBC live streams were better at 1500kbit last night. Sound and picture were in sync but there were occasional re-buffering pauses (only every 15 mins or so and only for a couple of seconds). 800kb live streams played very well and the quality was indistinguishable from 1500kbit at any practical viewing distance.

I've stopped a couple of processes running at startup (like update manager) to make the system as lean as I can to run the only two apps I'm really interested in - Squeezeplay and XBMC. This might have made a difference but it could be due to bandwidth restrictions at peak times. Last night I was watching from about 8pm to 9:30pm - the sync problems I mentioned previously were experienced while trying to watch the BBC 6'o'clock news. I'm pretty sure there's a lot more demand around 6'o'clock.

[xoom450]

hi i got the xbmc working but cannot connect to my wifi any suggestions from you guys please help

[BuZz]

hi i got the xbmc working but cannot connect to my wifi any suggestions from you guys please help

Some detail on what exactly isn't working. the step you are taking etc will help

[xoom450]

whats happening is ive got xbmc on usb stick it boots ok but not sure how to get wifi running theres network settings but im no expert. maybe someone will know . i was assuming it would be simple like in jolicloud it asks for wep key etc
thx 4 replying

[BuZz]

which distribution are you running ? i mean as the joggler distribution of jolicloud includes xbmc you could just use that ?

[gegs]

whats happening is ive got xbmc on usb stick it boots ok but not sure how to get wifi running theres network settings but im no expert. maybe someone will know . i was assuming it would be simple like in jolicloud it asks for wep key etc
thx 4 replying

You've got a little work to do, I'm afraid. The default connection for the standalone XBMC uses ethernet by default. You can change this by following Swifty's instructions below:

To switch between WLAN/Wired edit '/etc/network/interfaces' and comment out either 'auto eth0 or auto ra0' depending on which one you _don't_ want to use.

I found the easiest way to do this was to load Ubuntu from a stick, insert the XBMC stick, open a terminal and run 'sudo gedit' - then edit 'etc/network/interfaces' on the XBMC stick according to Swifty's instructions. The next time you load XBMC from the stick you will be able to connect wirelessly (after adding your connection details to the XBMC's system setup).

-----EDIT-----
I almost forgot this bit:

To configure WLAN enter 'wpa_passphrase yourssid yourkey' and copy the results into '/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf' then save the file.

You will need to run 'sudo gedit' or another editor with superuser privileges to edit either the above file or 'etc/network/interfaces'
-----------------------------

Why do you want to run the standalone program from a stick? Is it more stable than running it on top of one of BuZz's excellent distros? If not, it's not worth the hassle. BuZz's distros all have XBMC pre-loaded and all will connect wirelessly without editing config files.

[xoom450]

hi thx for reply today i put linux mint on usb and xbmc is on there but i am still having the same problem cannot connect to my wifi even though linux mint is connected. i will try and do the edit above but just cant understand why if it comes with linux mint it dont just have a path already put there . i installed spotify via wine and that connected etc..
surely someone could edit xbmc to get around this.. i will try askin xbmc site see what they offer. i put xbmc on my pc and it runs smoothly and downloads etc..
come on guys even entering commands in a terminal is a bit outta my league at times lol. but i gotta admit for a novice i brought my joggler back from the dead one time ago. cheers for reply and patience

[BuZz]

If you use ubuntu/linuxmint/jolios, you just use network manager in the task traY (botton right on linux mint, top right on ubuntu/jolios) - to connect to your wireless network. make sure it is all working with a web browser. once it is connected, you can use xbmc normally and it will use your connection.

[xoom450]

ok buzz i will try that one but i was connected to wifi on linux mint and it didnt connect before. thx for the time.
once you click weather it says you need internet connection etc..
cheers guess this is what forums are all about

[xoom450]

i can access wifi and use web browser in linux mint,jollicloud and unbuntu on the joggler but no wifi connection found in xbmc , this is gettin to the giving up point but nah i will plod on ....thx i await any help