QR Code 
| By Nathan Chantrell, on February 27th, 2010 In the last post I described how you can use XBMC Live on the Acer Revo but as well as that works it seemed a waste to restrict the Revo to just XBMC so I’ve since installed the 64 bit version of Xubuntu instead and run XBMC on top of that. I chose Xubuntu as it is a light weight version of Ubuntu using the XFCE window manager instead of the Gnome desktop environment so has the advantage of having all the Ubuntu repositories available without the overhead of running Gnome or KDE (in the case of Kubuntu). I installed the 64-bit version of Xubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) available here. As with XBMC Live I used unetbootin to create a bootable image on a USB flash drive (actually an SD card in this case). Once this is done insert the flash drive or SD card into the Revo and turn it on, pressing F12 during boot and selecting the USB drive or SD as the boot device. I installed it into the unpartitioned space on the Revo drive leaving the factory Linpus install in place. Linpus is added as an option to the Grub boot menu allowing you to choose between it and your new Xubuntu install should you need to (I can’t see why you would). Once you have installed Xubuntu and booted into it you will see a popup within a few minutes prompting you to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers which you will need to use the Revo’s ION GPU for HD playback (you will also need to change the “Render Method” to VDPAU in the XBMC settings later on as with the Live setup). Continue reading Xubuntu on the Acer Aspire Revo By Nathan Chantrell, on February 13th, 2010  XBMC Live on the Acer Revo Earlier this week I bought an Acer Aspire Revo R3610 to replace my original Xbox based XBMC system which has provided sterling service for the last 7 years. I’ve been a big fan of the Xbox version of XBMC and its predecessor Xbox Media Player (it was the only reason I bought my Xbox) but it’s getting a bit limited now due to its 733MHz CPU and paltry 64MB RAM. By contrast the Revo R3610 has a dual core Atom N330 CPU and up to 4GB RAM as well as a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 Ion GPU. As a result XBMC on the Revo is capable of playing full 1080p HD video without problem. It makes a perfect media center; it’s small, low powered and if you have a MCE remote control it will work straight off, just plug the USB receiver in. I’m currently using the XBMC Live release which is a self contained install built on top of a minimal Ubuntu installation. Installing XBMC Live on the Revo is a breeze: - Download the Camelot 9.11 repack version of XBMC Live
- Extract the iso from the zip file
- Use unetbootin to create a bootable image on a USB flash drive
- Insert the flash drive in the Revo and turn it on, pressing F12 during boot and selecting the USB drive as the boot device
- At the menu you can select to run straight from the USB drive (option 1) or you can select “Install XBMCLive to disk”
- Once that is done just reboot and it will boot straight into XBMC
You will then want to go into the settings and change the “Render Method” in the video section to VDPAU. This allows XBMC to use the Revo’s NVIDIA Ion GPU for video processing. If you are using HDMI for your audio output you will also need to go to the audio section and change the output to Custom and enter plug:hdmi It makes a fantastic media center and the Revo R3610 with dual core Atom N330 CPU, 2GB RAM and 250GB HD is currently on offer for £199 at ebuyer which is a great deal. By Nathan Chantrell, on August 26th, 2007 I was recently pointed in the direction of XBMC Fox, a useful Firefox extension that adds a new option to the right click menu in Firefox which will send URLS to XBMC (Xbox Media Center) for on screen playback. Dead handy but it doesn’t work for YouTube though… so I’ve modified it so it does. For YouTube just right click any link of the form http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN7mVCbk6M and select “Send This to XBMC” as normal and it will work Only the firefox extension is required, nothing to install on xbox, just make sure web server is turned on in settings. By Nathan Chantrell, on July 10th, 2004 Xbox Media Center went Gold on June 29th, Version 1.0.0 should be available from all the usual places. Like XMBP before it, XBMC has continually exceeded expectations and is THE killer app for the Xbox in my opinion. Even as someone who doesn’t play computer/console games much if at all I don’t regret buying the Xbox in the slightest and would still do so today. By Nathan Chantrell, on April 16th, 2004 For a while now the Xbox Media Player team have been working on a complete rewrite of XBMP which is intended to replace XBMP in the long term. It is called Xbox Media Center and is now very functional and is, I think ready to replace XBMP for my own use. The web interface is a nice addition as is the ability to remap the remote control or game controller keys. By Nathan Chantrell, on February 2nd, 2003 I’ve added some screenshots of Ed’s Xbox Debian Linux 0.1.0 with KDE3 installed to the Xbox Linux page. It makes a reasonably fast PC with the only drawback being the low resolution available on televisions, connect a monitor up to it and it could be used as a desktop PC with no problems. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet if anything, I would use it to play DivX files etc but the Xbox Media Player already does such a good job of that. It’s an intersting curiosity if nothing else I suppose. By Nathan Chantrell, on February 1st, 2003 I treated myself to an Xbox earlier this week. I’m not much of a games player, save for the odd game of tetris or dopewars on my visor and the very occasional Q3a session and I have never owned a games console before so some may wonder why I bought an Xbox… well there were a couple of reasons driving the decision, namely the Xbox Media Player and Xbox Linux.
I was originally planning on putting together a Mini-ITX box as a mediaplayer/TV terminal but after some tinkering a chipped Xbox gives you a media player and a PC all in a nice, compact unit that fits in with your other set top boxes and it plays Xbox games to boot, and damnit the games are good!
The Xbox Media Player is an excellent native Xbox app that plays DivX, XVID, WMA/WMV/ASF movie formats, MP3 and Ogg audio formats and more. When combined with the Xbox DVD remote the interface is near perfect and the quality of DivX etc playback is much better than I was getting with Xine and the TV output from a Geforce 2. Very impressed.
I’ve put a quick guide to installing Debian Linux for the Xbox up. This parody of Apple’s Switch ad campaign made me laugh (requires Shockwave Flash). I’m installing Linux on my orbiting brain lasers right now! | |
Most Popular