Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Review

[steve10574]

it has digital out mate - S/PDIF out

ya i read that but the picture tells a different story

Spoiler:

am i going mad as i cant see the port for it?

[lloydi]

yeah i see ya point mate, whats them 2 things on top of the unit on the 2nd pic though? could be i spose but yeah deffo not there.

[Sanj[UK]]

SPDIF is on the back..just under the 2 usbs

[steve10574]

i think its Coaxial S/PDIF Out and then its port at bottom of second picture :-(

[ant3b]

I'm a bit short on time to be honest so don't have the time to do that Seems to be running ok with the live sd card so gona use that till Win 7 comes out

Im sure if you really wanted you could make time...take a monitor from work and sit at your kitchen table and set it all up.

Or your just plain lazy or dare I say it don't have the technical skills buahahahah

[liveseytowers]

{{909}}
I noticed on that XBMC movie the demo shows it playing the Earth scene with the millions of birds, that is a proper stress test for any HD system and it doesnt seem to have any issues at all, presuming that's being played at 1080p.

It will do if you are running Ubuntu with XBMC installed on the drive.

ant3b
Im sure if you really wanted you could make time...take a monitor from work and sit at your kitchen table and set it all up.

Or your just plain lazy or dare I say it don't have the technical skills buahahahah

Yes I could do that I just DONT HAVE THE TIME! I could set it up on the TV upstairs but I don't want to lose my functionality I get from Windowz. I've tried Ubuntu before and it was OK but couldn't be arsed having to spend hours googling a simple problem.

This is my main PC in the house remember and not just a media centre. If you want it just for the media centre then you would obviously go down the Ubuntu route.

[Q-Ball]

livesey - did you manage to get the sound sorted from booting from the sd card? i want to get this working booting from my hard disk - can't be bothered with a partitioned drive!

[liveseytowers]

livesey - did you manage to get the sound sorted from booting from the sd card? i want to get this working booting from my hard disk - can't be bothered with a partitioned drive!

Yep I got it working fine. I just changed the settings in XBMC centre audio settings and it started working. Fook knows why as i'm sure that i'd tried these settings before.

The next thing I can't get working is an internet connection (needed for coverflow) using live and its still dropping frame rates but its still more than watchable IMO. Like I said before, if its just going to be a media centre then you should install to your hard drive. Live from a SD card is to tide me over till I put Win 7 on it.

Ideally xbmc will work using Windows 7 as shutting down the Revo and booting to xbmc is a bit pointless for me as its quicker to whip out the USB cable and plug it into my TV and play mkv's on that.

[tombott]

It will do if you are running Ubuntu with XBMC installed on the drive.



Yes I could do that I just DONT HAVE THE TIME! I could set it up on the TV upstairs but I don't want to lose my functionality I get from Windowz. I've tried Ubuntu before and it was OK but couldn't be arsed having to spend hours googling a simple problem.

This is my main PC in the house remember and not just a media centre. If you want it just for the media centre then you would obviously go down the Ubuntu route.

What do you want to use the PC for?
From what I read Ubuntu 9.04 will install with minimal fuss.
You can install all codecs in about 5mins by enabling Mutliverse repo's
XBMC will install from Synaptic or via an apt-get.
Hardly taxing or time consuming stuff so far.

[liveseytowers]

What do you want to use the PC for?
From what I read Ubuntu 9.04 will install with minimal fuss.
You can install all codecs in about 5mins by enabling Mutliverse repo's
XBMC will install from Synaptic or via an apt-get.
Hardly taxing or time consuming stuff so far.

This is true tombott however I just prefer Windows to be honest. I have tried Ubuntu and i got on OK with it with a little bit of help from yourself. Once i've got my Windows 7 disk it still doesn't run well i might give Ubuntu another go but I like how easy Windows is to sort things out. If I have a problem I can pretty much sort it out. If i have a Ubuntu problem that I can't sort out I need to wait for you to fix it for me

I current'y use gratit to download NZB's, audioconvertor to convert DTS Audio to DD5.1 (this is the most important thing), Chrome to browse and watch youtube etc. That's pretty much it really.

[steve10574]

SPDIF is on the back..just under the 2 usbs

i hope your being funny and know thats the network port lol

[lloydi]

i hope your being funny and know thats the network port lol

buhaha

[liveseytowers]

Right boys and girls this should help you out a bit i reckon and simplify the process, found this here:

http://www.xbmc.org/forum/showthread...ight=jackalope

XBMScript is a all-in-one solution for installing XBMC on your linux machine! Just install the Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Minimal CD, download the script and you are all set!

Features:
* A complete solution for installing XBMC on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04)
* Installs all necessary Nvidia drivers for silky smooth playback using VDPAU
* SVN XBMC packages for bleeding edge features
* Sets up and configures FTP and Samba (Windows File Sharing) at your givens paths
* Automatically install/update skins such as Auriga/Hitched/Showmix/Temmi2000/Alaska
* Configures your Asrock ION 330 for HDMI sound
* One-click installation of the Xbox DVD and Generic Infrared Remote
* Easily update the entire system and/or XBMScript
* Log errors and instantly upload them to pastebin.com
* Sony Bluetooth Remote support (Unique!)
* Easy to use menu

Still to be done:
* ATI GPU support
* Plus a lot more!

If you think you can help me out, contact me here or offer help in this thread.
It should work on the Zotac ION and Acer AspireRevo as well. However, I don't have these machines. Please inform me of the results.

Download here

You are free to modify this code in any way you like, as long as you give credit where due.
Do you like XBMScript? Buy me a beer!

Instructions:

Install the Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Minimal CD and download XBMScript manually from above or use the following command on your linux box:
Code:
wget http://flx.me/script; chmod +x xbmscript.sh; sudo ./xbmscript.sh
XBMScript has only been tested under the user “xbmc”. Using a other username might cause some breakage! Please let me know if this is the case.

Changes:
Code:
10-02-2009:
- PS3 Bluetooth Remote support! A very special thanks to walmis (blueman developer)
- Fixed minor bugs and redesigned the questions asked on installation
Code:
09-22-2009:
- Implemented logging support, writes logfiles in home dir
- Added option to automatically send logs to pastebin for easy examination
- Reworked Remote Installation menu, added Generic Infrared Remote support
Code:
09-16-2009:
- Added an interactive skin prompt for choosing skins
- Added Alaska and Aeon Temmi as choices
Code:
09-11-2009:
- First public release!
- Asrock ION 330 HDMI support
- FTP & Samba installation support
- Fixed Xbox DVD Remote installation
I would like to give a special shout out to:
walmis: for the ps3_pair program. Without him the ps3 remote pairing would be a lot more difficult! Be sure to check out http://blueman-project.org for the best bluetooth applet on GNOME!
XBMC Community Forum - View Profile: kubax: for all the brainstorming and bluez headaches we shared together
XBMC Community Forum - View Profile: ruff: ps3 remote powersaving and keymapping patches
XBMC Community Forum - View Profile: cyberpark
XBMC Community Forum - View Profile: patkhoo, I hope you didnt mind that I took some parts from this

Bit of a late quote but the Mrs is out tonight so i'm downloading the latest Ubuntu and then will run this script and see how I get on. If it configures the drivers and hdmi audio like it says then i'll be happy.

OT but if I want to go back to Windows 7 when it arrives will I be able to do a fresh install using my upgrade dvd?

[steve10574]

i thought the windows 7 "upgrades" where full installs anyway ? or has that changed with the "pick your browser" update?

[steve10574]

hows this going with windows 7 now buddy?

[liveseytowers]

The PC runs fine with Windows 7. Got 1080p mkvs playing fine using Media Player Classic (not the MS one) which lets you select external codecs and gpu acceleration and it works really well. Using coreavc codec pack at the moment. I still cant get 5.1 audio on it but I've been doing some googling and it's possible with some more tweeks.

XBMC won't work because the windows version doesn't support hardware acceleration so I've given up with it for now. Tombotts looking into how I can convert audio using Ubuntu and once I know it's possible I'll partition my C drive and give that a whirl. I've still not given up on xbmclive either as that worked ok apart from the dropped frames.

[cybollox]

Livesey, ive just got one of these, how did you get windows 7 on it, usb or ext dvd drive, ive tried to get it installed of a external hard drive but keeps hanging when it reboots after first install finishes.
thanks

[Goldberg]

I used a USB DVD drive when I installed a mates... Don't remember it hanging

[liveseytowers]

I borrowed a USB DVD drive from work and it just installed didn't take long at all. Only needed the nvidia and audio drivers downloading.

Maybe it's a dodgy burn? I'd try burn it again and give it another go

[liveseytowers]

Another update on this as I seem to change my mind ever other day.

I've just been messing with the XBMClive i've installed on a SD card. I was having issues with the video juttering and the internet wouldn't work so I couldn't download the fan art.

The video issue is sorted, i've turned off the 100hz settings on my TV and video playback is silky smooth as is the 5.1 audio.

The internet issue is because when I made the live SD card at work its installed the DNS settings from my PC at work which is stopping it working on my internet at home. I can't change these for some reason so i'm going to make it again at work tomorrow which should solve all my issues

No need to get rid of my Windows 7 install now and if I want to watch a film i'll reboot the Revo and pop the SD card in and away I go. I can use my iPhone to control XBMC as well

All is good in Revo land