marcelveldt 736 Posted September 1, 2014 Author Share Posted September 1, 2014 (edited) I used to use Mediaportal & loved Titan but after I stopped using TV-Server, I went back to XBMC/Plex server but this port has prompted me to try mediabrowser. I am currently running it single seat on a HP N40L which isn't exactly a power house but I don't recall Titan (Mepo) being sluggish on the same hardware, is this considered a heavy skin on XBMC, maybe I'm too used to Amber which is a really lightweight skin? The skin is way heavier than Amber because it makes use of a lot of artwork but I've got feedback from users that it is running great also on low power platforms like the Raspberry Pi. Off course it depends on what you do with the skin. If you enable all kinds of rotating artwork and live tiles I can image it slows thing down altough I test the skin myself on both high power and low power systems and is running smoothly all the time, as I spent a lot of time in optimizing things. In fact, I own a N40L myself as my TV/Mediabrowser backend server and have XBMC installed on it for testing purposes. I didn't notice any performance issues other than the videocard of this (server) device isn't very high power. So, speaking about that... an HP MicroServer is intended to be a server device, the hardware isn't meant to be capable of using as an HTTPC. Forgive if if i'm wrong but as I recall the videocard isn't even capable of hardware accelerated H264 decode etc. etc. It is my intention to get my skin as compatible as possible, so a good user experience on all sorts of devices, so maybe I can assist you in this matter. Can you explain me what you experience as sluggish ? What screen, dialog or function ? Also, are you using regular XBMC libaries or the MediaBrowser libraries ? Thanks for your feedback. Edited September 1, 2014 by marcelveldt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigjohn 655 Posted September 1, 2014 Share Posted September 1, 2014 For all that are waiting for the latest version to be available on the repo: Currently there seems to be a problem with the changes from the repo being replicated to the download locations. This is under investigation and will be fixed as soon as possible. Downloads should be available now, sorry for the delay! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW 30 Posted September 5, 2014 Share Posted September 5, 2014 I have been using MBT for about 6 months now with no complaints but thought I would try out XBMC with the MB server and Titan skin while MBT is in development. This is pretty awesome. Thank you for all of your work. I would like to add some streaming capability for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube and Pandora. I tried installing that netiflixbmc plugin. I downloaded Bluecop's repository. There was a lot of amazon and HULU stuff there, nothing about netflix. It all shows as incompatible anyway so I just dumped it. With MBT I used the Program Launcher to set up Chrome links to the sites I want.I came across an Advanced Launcher which looks like it may do the same thing. I'll need to play with it a bit to see what I can do. I tried the Playon channel which was pretty much a bust for me. I could get a Netflix video to start one out of ten times, and Amazon never plays. It was mentioned in one of these threads that you can play video through MBS and music through XBMC. Can anyone give me an idea how to do that. Right now music only plays a song at a time, unless I'm missing something. Thanks again for all your work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 5, 2014 Author Share Posted September 5, 2014 I have been using MBT for about 6 months now with no complaints but thought I would try out XBMC with the MB server and Titan skin while MBT is in development. This is pretty awesome. Thank you for all of your work. I would like to add some streaming capability for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube and Pandora. I tried installing that netiflixbmc plugin. I downloaded Bluecop's repository. There was a lot of amazon and HULU stuff there, nothing about netflix. It all shows as incompatible anyway so I just dumped it. With MBT I used the Program Launcher to set up Chrome links to the sites I want.I came across an Advanced Launcher which looks like it may do the same thing. I'll need to play with it a bit to see what I can do. I tried the Playon channel which was pretty much a bust for me. I could get a Netflix video to start one out of ten times, and Amazon never plays. It was mentioned in one of these threads that you can play video through MBS and music through XBMC. Can anyone give me an idea how to do that. Right now music only plays a song at a time, unless I'm missing something. Thanks again for all your work. Thanks for your feedback, The bext netflix plugin for XBMC is NetfliXBMC, it's maybe some hassle to sert it up the first time but after that it's really great and completely integrated with remote control support etc. etc. Take a look at the forum for the installation instructions here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=178693 If you want to use MediaBrowser for Movies and TV-shows but not for music, go into the skin settings, skin Mode. There you can select for which libraries you want the MB3 integration enabled, so in your case disable Music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW 30 Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Thanks for your feedback, The bext netflix plugin for XBMC is NetfliXBMC, it's maybe some hassle to sert it up the first time but after that it's really great and completely integrated with remote control support etc. etc. Take a look at the forum for the installation instructions here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=178693 I found the repository for this addon. It took a little searching. I found the link in a Lifehacker article. I've got it installed and working. This is great. I can watch netflix from my main menu without using a keyboard. THANK YOU!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010 1 Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 The skin is way heavier than Amber because it makes use of a lot of artwork but I've got feedback from users that it is running great also on low power platforms like the Raspberry Pi. Off course it depends on what you do with the skin. If you enable all kinds of rotating artwork and live tiles I can image it slows thing down altough I test the skin myself on both high power and low power systems and is running smoothly all the time, as I spent a lot of time in optimizing things. In fact, I own a N40L myself as my TV/Mediabrowser backend server and have XBMC installed on it for testing purposes. I didn't notice any performance issues other than the videocard of this (server) device isn't very high power. So, speaking about that... an HP MicroServer is intended to be a server device, the hardware isn't meant to be capable of using as an HTTPC. Forgive if if i'm wrong but as I recall the videocard isn't even capable of hardware accelerated H264 decode etc. etc. It is my intention to get my skin as compatible as possible, so a good user experience on all sorts of devices, so maybe I can assist you in this matter. Can you explain me what you experience as sluggish ? What screen, dialog or function ? Also, are you using regular XBMC libaries or the MediaBrowser libraries ? Thanks for your feedback. Apologies for the slow reply, I've been abroad for six months and last week was my first week back at work so I've been feeling 'flat'. Yeah, the N40L's onboard video isn't ideal but I installed a GT610 which is fine for HTPC use. Titan actually feels fine while navigating but when I select a (Mediabrowser) library, the loading animation spins for several seconds before the content is loaded & likewise when I choose a show. I tried it with XBMC libraries & everything loaded instantly so obviously the problem lies with the Mediabrowser/XBMB3C server, any suggestion how this can be improved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 7, 2014 Author Share Posted September 7, 2014 (edited) Apologies for the slow reply, I've been abroad for six months and last week was my first week back at work so I've been feeling 'flat'. Yeah, the N40L's onboard video isn't ideal but I installed a GT610 which is fine for HTPC use. Titan actually feels fine while navigating but when I select a (Mediabrowser) library, the loading animation spins for several seconds before the content is loaded & likewise when I choose a show. I tried it with XBMC libraries & everything loaded instantly so obviously the problem lies with the Mediabrowser/XBMB3C server, any suggestion how this can be improved? Well, the XBMB3C is considered some slower than regular libraries but there's an update coming up of the plugin with huge speed improvements. I am currently testing with it and in my case loading has gone from seconds to milliseconds. I'm not really sure when this update will be available but I expect any day soon while things must be polished up and tested well... One thing you can do allready to speed things up a bit; go into the settings of the XBMB3C plugin and disable "include people" while the titan skin uses a different approach to get that data (for more speed). Edited September 7, 2014 by marcelveldt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Can you post about this in the dev thread please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW 30 Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 (edited) What size of image is recommended for the tiles? I want to use my own images on several customized tiles I made for Pandora and Amazon Prime. Also I have two users set up on my MBS. Is there a way to activate a login screen in Titan so I can choose the user without having to go into the xbmb3c addon and manually changing it there? Thanks. Edited September 8, 2014 by BillW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillW 30 Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 I have made my own tiles as well. Per Marcel, it is 623 for the width and 271 for the height. Those are the settings I am using in my image creator (Paint.net) and it's working well for me. -Jason Thanks Jason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonmcroy 315 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 What size of image is recommended for the tiles? I want to use my own images on several customized tiles I made for Pandora and Amazon Prime. I have made my own tiles as well. Per Marcel, it is 623 for the width and 271 for the height. Those are the settings I am using in my image creator (Paint.net) and it's working well for me. -Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010 1 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Well, the XBMB3C is considered some slower than regular libraries but there's an update coming up of the plugin with huge speed improvements. I am currently testing with it and in my case loading has gone from seconds to milliseconds. I'm not really sure when this update will be available but I expect any day soon while things must be polished up and tested well... One thing you can do allready to speed things up a bit; go into the settings of the XBMB3C plugin and disable "include people" while the titan skin uses a different approach to get that data (for more speed). Thanks for the suggestion, disabling 'include people' may have improved things slightly but tbh with the current lagginess, it's actually a deal breaker for me. Maybe I'll return & try mediabrowser when the plugin update has been released. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
im85288 1493 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Thanks for the suggestion, disabling 'include people' may have improved things slightly but tbh with the current lagginess, it's actually a deal breaker for me. Maybe I'll return & try mediabrowser when the plugin update has been released. A new version is in the repo, version 0.9.533 as of last night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2010 1 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 A new version is in the repo, version 0.9.533 as of last night. Thanks but this version hasn't improved my situation, hopefully the update Marcelveldt mentioned has yet to pushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 (edited) I still have no idea what he is referencing Edited September 9, 2014 by xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnappo 1593 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Oh, yeah the TV is much better, but if you have a relatively slow computer or network and 1000 or so movies, it is still a bit slow. A lot slow on the Pi. @@2010, you should also turn off 'Overview/Plot' as it is not needed with this skin either. You never have said WHAT you felt was sluggish and how big your collection is... xnappo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 (edited) I meant update that is now available with the speed improvements like with the tv shows. If speed is still an issue than there's maybe some other problem? Edited September 9, 2014 by marcelveldt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 17, 2014 Author Share Posted September 17, 2014 (edited) Could you please post some details about your setup ? Like the server hardware you're using, network connection, size of your collection etc. If you prefer you can send me these details by PM. The speed should be fine if you use xbmc libraries as it's database is local. Using the xbmb3c plugin can be slow but it depends on so many factors. You have to keep in mind that the xbmb3c add-on is still a work in progress which can be improved based on feedback by users. For the developers it's simply impossible to replicate every single scenario. For example, I don't own a raspPi myself so I have to rely on feedback from users if my skin is smooth on that platform. If you provide us with some details of your setup maybe we can discover (with your help) things to improve the speed of the add-on. Edited September 17, 2014 by marcelveldt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 New version of the skin now available in the XBMB3C repo: version 2.0.11 improvements in this version: - fixed fontcolors in classic theme- changed homemenu reorder in skin settings- added shortcuts to skin settings- added profiles in settings- added highres backgrounds for tile selection- new now playing panel in modern theme- new osd panel in modern theme- several bugs fixed reported by users As I did quite some work on some parts of the skin (mainly the osd panels and tile reordering in skin settings) all feedback is welcome! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonmcroy 315 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Is there any chance that you will adapt this skin for Kodi Helix? I know the skin itself will most likely work, but my understanding is that the Live TV part would not work without some changes. -Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 24, 2014 Author Share Posted September 24, 2014 Is there any chance that you will adapt this skin for Kodi Helix? I know the skin itself will most likely work, but my understanding is that the Live TV part would not work without some changes. -Jason I'm currently adjusting the skin for Helix compatibility :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonmcroy 315 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 I'm currently adjusting the skin for Helix compatibility :-)Awesome! I tested the Helix version last week and I have to say I see some differences in the PVR area that I do like. It seems to connect better. Once you have it ready I will switch over since your skin is the only one I use. :-) -Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcelveldt 736 Posted September 24, 2014 Author Share Posted September 24, 2014 Glad to hear that I'm currently fixing the latest bits of the new home widgets and than I'll put in the code for the Helix support. Will be available within a few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonmcroy 315 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Sweet! Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salphonso 4 Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 I have XBMB3C installed on a NUC over OpenELEC. Everything is working perfect except I can't get it to install the Titan Skin. It starts the download briefly and then stops. I have attached the log files although I do not see anything in their pointing to what could be causing this issue. The NUC is wired ethernet and downloads other skins and addons without a hitch. Any thoughts on what could be causing this? log-2014-09-24-21.37.14.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts