what is the minimum hardware spec for boxee?

[tikkiew]

i understand that ati card older than ati x1600 mobile don't work for boxee.
Will this mean older graphic cards never be supported?
Or are you working on this?
i have a ati 9800 xt graphic card.
i can't go passed the begin screen :whats is new
and change the country,city location.
it this hardware related?

Also what will be in general hardware minimum spec?

[marcel]

tikkiew

sorry :( but we will not be supporting ati card older than ati x1600 mobile.

These are the hardware requirements we have tested please note that other hardware configurations might work ...stayed tuned to the forum for feedback from other users..

gpu
nvidia 6150le igp, go7300 mobile, 8600m gt mobile and 7,8 series desktop gpus
intel 945*, 965, X3000, X3100 igp
ati x1600 mobile gpu

* see known issues below

cpu
current intel and amd processors

audio
intel hda

[tsella]

hi,

actually, the x1600 is what we tested with, not the minimum.

the 9600XT has opengl 2.0 (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_ATI_graphics_process ing_units&section=15#Radeon_R300_.289xxx.2C_X10xx.29_series) support, is a decent card, and i think it should work.

please try running xbmc ppas, and see if those run with the the 9600XT - http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?p=185738

[dave]

I'm re-purposing one of my old Shuttle small form factor machines with an AMD XP 3000+ to be a quiet box for the living room. I upgraded my old 5700 NVidia card with another fanless ASUS 7600GS with DVI out, better acceleration and GL2.0 support, and currently have it hooked up to my 24" LCD, in full 1920X1200 resolution. As soon as I load boxee, I get a black screen and it drops back to the desktop. I guess boxee can't do super-HD on this platform... So before I down-res, here's my crash log:

11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 NOTICE: Mapping drive Z to /tmp/boxee
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 NOTICE: Mapping drive Q to /usr/boxee
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 NOTICE: Mapping drive U to /home/dave/.boxee
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 NOTICE: Mapping drive T to /home/dave/.boxee/UserData
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 WARNING: CopyFile, cant open file </usr/boxee/UserData/RssFeeds.xml>. trying to use lowercase </usr/boxee/userdata/rssfeeds.xml>
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 ERROR: CopyFile - cant open source file </usr/boxee/UserData/RssFeeds.xml>
11:05:01 T:3056175072 M:215162880 NOTICE: Mapping drive H to /home/dave
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: Starting XBMC, Platform: GNU/Linux. Built on Jul 22 2008 (SVN:2492)
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: Q is mapped to: /usr/boxee
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: The executeable running is: /usr/boxee/Boxee
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: Log File is located:
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:215089152 NOTICE: Setup SDL
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Available videomodes:
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1920x1200
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1680x1050
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1600x1200
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1600x1024
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1440x900
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1400x1050
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1280x1024
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1280x960
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1280x800
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1280x768
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1152x864
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 1024x768
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 960x600
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 840x525
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 832x624
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 800x600
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 800x512
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213614592 INFO: Found mode: 720x450
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213573632 INFO: Drives are mapped
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213573632 NOTICE: load settings...
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213573632 NOTICE: Mapping drive P to /home/dave/.boxee/UserData/
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213573632 NOTICE: loading /home/dave/.boxee/UserData/guisettings.xml
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 NOTICE: Getting hardware information now...
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 INFO: Using analog output
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 INFO: AC3 pass through is enabled
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 INFO: DTS pass through is enabled
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 NOTICE: Checking resolution 12
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 NOTICE: Per AV pack settings are off
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 NOTICE: /home/dave/.boxee/UserData/sources.xml
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 ERROR: Load Error loading /home/dave/.boxee/UserData/sources.xml: Line 0, Failed to open file
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:213463040 INFO: Checking skinpath existance, and existence of keymap.xml:Q:\skin...
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:195399680 INFO: GLX Info: NOT Using destination window
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:195399680 INFO: GLX Info: Using parent window
11:05:02 T:3056175072 M:195399680 INFO: GLX Info: Creating unshared context
11:05:03 T:3056175072 M:212135936 ERROR: (pthread_mutex_destroy(&m_mutex)): [XCriticalSection.cpp:86] 16

Time to down-res to something more like an HDTV.

[tsella]

try removing the local user profile, and start boxee again:

rm -rf ~/.boxee

[dave]

It works in 720p or 768 mode. I'll try it on a 1080p set tomorrow and see what happens. I question its ability to play back HDTV, on the old AMD CPU, but we shall see!

[dave]

Ok, I am sitting in front of a killer Sharp Aquos 60" LCD from my buddies at DL.TV and was able to do some testing with my AMD 3000+ CPU powered Shuttle running Ubuntu 8.04 with the boxee alpha. This small form factor PC has no on-board video, just an AGP 8X slot, so I had to do some searching for a silent video card to see how hard I can push the box with HDTV content. Oh, since the Shuttle has optical output, I can run this into my DTS receiver for AC3 surround too, right off the motherboard.

First, I started with the original card I put in when I built the system for Windows a few years ago, an Asus FX5200 based 128MB video card that does 720p, and 1080i over DVI. 720 or 768 is the resolution to stick with on a 1080p LCD as the fonts look terrible with interpolation at 1080i. There is not enough memory to do 1080p on this one. The video card has no fan, nor power required, so it's a nice quiet unit for the living room. I'm sure it's end of life, but if you need only 720p for your flat panel, you can probably find one of these 5200 chipset based cards. It supports OpenGL 1.4, which boxee uses, although it's not as nice as the cards with GL2.0 Here's the product link for the Y9520-X Asus AGP video card: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=7&l3=9&model=273&modelmenu=1

The Asus N7600GS is my new silent AGP card, which has a huge heat sink, gets very hot, and requires a 5V power connection. This one does 1080p with OpenGL 2.0 and the boxee UI looks great. This card is found here http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=271&l4=0&model=1479&modelmenu=1 I bought it in the summer of 2008 for $99 with shipping, not bad, but I hate that "old school" AGP is more expensive than PCI-Express! :-(

Time to watch a move in HD. Oh! One last thing, since this is part of my how to build a "cheap boxee box" story, I needed a small hard drive, just to boot Ubuntu off of, then attach the machine via network to my Terabyte NAS server. Naturally, I used my original Xbox 8GB drive, which was removed and placed in a closet YEARS ago when I started running XBMC and put a 100GB drive in that XBox to hold media. What comes around, goes around! Where is YOUR old 8GB Xbox HDD??

Dave

[beeboy]

This is great info as I have an old Aopen XCube SFF machine that I was thinking of re purposing to test the Linux version.

I was checking here for advice on a suitable GPU and now I've found an FX5200 on ebay for £10. Thanks for the tip.

My old box only has an AMD 2400+ CPU though, so I'll post back with the results. Actually viewing HD is not an issue in the living room where I plan to use the Linux version, but I'd like to view the files from my main server without having to transcode.



Old xbox HDD? You may of seen this clip already, but it always amuses me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5C9iPm2UuE

[Gamester17]

You need at least an AMD X2 5600+ or Intel Core2 Duo 2.4Ghz to play all 1080p H.264 videos, ...it doesn't matter what your output resolution is, if the video is native 1080p H.264 encoded video then Boxee/XBMC will have to decode it onthe CPU and it takes just as much processing power even if 1080p is downscaled to 720p.

H.264 is a very processor intensive codec.

[beeboy]

Yes, cool, I understand that the file has to be decoded no matter what the output/display is, I just don't want to have to re encode anything. I wouldn't even bother trying any 1080 stuff :eek: I really only have 720 material ATM, so I have my fingers crossed after reading Dave's results.

I was amazed at managing to squeeze 720 from my trusty old Xbox. I'm sure you know that it's not really viable for the majority of files, but bearing in mind the specs of the machine it's a testament to the XBMC and Mplayer coders.

I'm loving the Mac port and looking forward to my Linux experiment, but I will always have a place in my heart for my original Xbox/XBMC set up.

[tsella]

I'm loving the Mac port and looking forward to my Linux experiment, but I will always have a place in my heart for my original Xbox/XBMC set up.

we all do :)