[Kodi Download 16.1 Windows 7
Tilo Chopin
At any rate, I have tested three versions of a Kodi installation, using the same movies on the same home theater setup, and I'm finding that KodiBuntu seems to be the "best" solution so far for me. For every setup, I'm using 2-cores, 2GB RAM (for OE/Kodibuntu) and 8GB RAM (Windows), an Nvidia GT720, fed in to a Marantz SR5009, going to a Panasonic VT50 plasma, and "set refresh rate of TV to match" is enabled in Kodi. Video playback is perfect on all my setups - low CPU usage and buttery smooth.
OpenElec is a great starter, and it is very stable during use. It's super easy to set up. The built-in template is decent, and JohnOdons writeup on how to do a proper installation is better. ( -technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=44683.0). The built in template is a little bit behind the regular release, and I find that the latest release reduces a lot of these issues, but doesn't entirely eliminate them.
Kodi under Windows 7 feels like ridiculous overkill. I had to waste 25-30GB of an SSD setting up Windows7 with ServicePack1 (no DXVA2 without SP1). It works, and I don't have a ton of complaints, but I'm not setting up 4 Windows installations just to run Kodi.
KodiBuntu is interesting, and it feels like a nice compromise right between the first two. I set up an Ubuntu VM and used the official "KodiBuntu" release from Kodi.com as the installation OS, and I gave the VM an 8GB drive. Installation was pretty straightforward, except I ran mine through VNC at the beginning. Once installation finished, I added my video card to the VM, and let it boot up to my TV and got an error screen saying "there is no OpenGL card installed". SSH is enabled by default, so I was able to quickly install the latest Nvidia drivers and reboot it once more. From there, I had a working Kodi v14. A couple of quick PPA updates later, and I had the latest Ubuntu release and the latest Kodi v16 release.
Other thoughts: I'm not sure exactly why OE and KodiBuntu are noticeably different, but I assume it is because with KodiBuntu, I'm able to use the latest release of all the underlying components (Ubuntu, Kodi, Nvidia), and Ubuntu is totally ready to use in a VM environment. They take up the same resources, run the same, and install with about the same amount of work.
I had to do a slight advancesettings.xml tweak to increase the buffer size on OE, but it seems to fix the slow SMB performance. I am using AMD cards, so that may be the a slight performance difference.
Some users may not care, but I do. After the first audio drop I stop enjoying the movie as much and find I am listening /waiting for the next one... I didn't spend over $2k on a surround setup to not have the audio BluRay perfect ....
I have also noticed that both versions of OE crash if left running but not connected to HDMI for several days... It seems to pin the Vcpu for extended times until I force reboot the VM or connect the HDMI and it reboots on its own...
Yeah, go for it. The install was really not that bad. Set up a stock Ubuntu VM in Unraid, with 2GB of RAM and a new 8GB vdisk. Use the 2GB of RAM for the install process - I think it makes it go a little quicker.
I'm pretty sure if you do the install with VNC (instead of a graphics card), the moment you reboot with a graphics card added in, it will error out, telling you to install the card. From there, just follow the basic command line instructions for installing Nvidia drivers:
Before unRAID (last summer) I was trying to setup some Kodi VMs using KVM within Ubuntu, but there was a problem which prevented Dolby True HD and DTS-MA from working correctly with ATI/AMD cards if you had the "change video refresh rate to match source" setting in Kodi enabled. Are you saying that you have this working? I would love to be able to use my AMD 5450, but I need to have the lossless audio codecs working along with having the TV refresh rate switch to match the source.
After the install, I add the graphics card in, replacing VNC. During that next boot up, the VM will stop and give you an error about not having a card. thats when you SSH in to install the drivers. After that reboot, the VM will boot up each time to the standard Ubuntu boot menu, which has a 10-second timer, and auto-boots in to KodiBuntu.
Yup, and using the Limetech OpenELEC image. I confirmed the video/audio stream using my HDMI switch (shows 24 fps, and HBR audio) and receiver (shows DTS-HD Master Audio). I did not apply anything special in 6.1.9. Granted, I'm using ancient ATI branded 5450s for this. The one in question is an XFX 5450 1GB card. The other Guest/equipment room OE VM I doesn't have DTS support on the TV so it down mixes all audio.
If I use Q35 (newest) instead of i440FX (newest) my keyboard I have attached for install doesn't work at all, works fine under 440fx, and my basic Windows remote receiver doesn't seem to work regardless (may not be "eHome", but could tinker with at another point).
I think it is retarded that the KodiBuntu image (even though Ubuntu has a 5 year support cycle) isn't updated, and requires an old Helix install as a base to get this going! Plus then like 300 updates when running the sudo apt-get update command.
First off - the total resources needed for a Kodibuntu install is 3.5G. I put mine on an 8G drive, running with 2-cores, and 1G of RAM. It's definitely smaller than Windows, and when its this small, I say its competitive with OE.
You are close on your install. This is the video I was trying to link in my first post - but it just wont show up for some reason. Go to Youtube and search this video: "16qSdmtxPdQ". Its called "Update Kodibuntu and Upgrade Kodi---Step Two"
Shut it down, add your video card and sound card in to the VM definition, remove VNC and start it up. That's literally all I had to do. Once inside, you can check System Info in Kodi to see the version you are running (16), and the Nvidia driver version (361 at the time of this writing).
As to this "Again the OpenGL error occurs on first boot while still in VNC mode" that's the thing, it happens when installing this with the GT720 passed through also.. I did the install as I was planning on using it (no VNC, just GT720)..
i run Openelec on a standalone HTPC box. It works a treat but the one thing I had to do was go into the Openelec settings and set it to wait on starting kodi until the network was up. The box and kodi was starting up so fast that the network had not grabbed a DHCP address quick enough and the connection to the mysql database would almost always fail.
I've tried everything I can think of and never get video with ANY of my 3 nvidia cards when using Seabios. The only place I haven't looked is in the system BIOS. snocrash and I have the same exact MB and Seabios works for him. I'm stumped.
I am looking for something. I don't have experience with Linux. So, knowing the commands for doing various updates may be an issue. I installed Mint and then Kodi, and that all worked ok, but when I rebooted, the Rii i8+ did not connect. So, no keyboard/mouse. It was enough to put me off of that route.
I have a very beefy HTPC. It's the latest Intel NUC, 16 GB RAM, SSD (don't ask why it's so beefy...I know it's not quite needed for this purpose). So, resources is not really an issue. I'm just tired of dealing with Windows for the HTPC. Mainly because I want to solve a playback issue I have with an addon, and I think switching over to a Linux base would do it (it fixes on Windows if I close and re-open Kodi).
It'd be terrible job to scan my whole library - especially there is a lot of kids movies which cannot be automatically identified by scanner. Also from my side - there is a huge amount of TV-series which are important (which episodes are watched and which are not).
Do that in windows, and when you next scan in libreelec (or any kodi) you'll get back exactly what you exported.
The only niggle with that is you might not want all those extras in your media folders, in which case you'll need to clean them afterwards.
I use a media manager, which means I have all the info sat next to my files anyway.