Raspbmc RC4 is out

[koola2]

RC4 is here. This will be the last evaluative build before release, and should resolve most of the issues users have had now and really prepare us for the final release. This is what’s new as well as what’s fixed:
Thanks 1and1
1and1 brought me a few days of downtime in July, when they decided to stop serving A records for the Raspbmc website. It turns out that 1and1 employees themselves are known to enjoy Raspbmc, and I’d like to thank someone there who credited my account and offered help. Sadly, I wish you didn’t have to release software that they are using to get this kind of treatment, but nonetheless, the gesture was very nice. Thanks again Jared.
Thanks testing team
Without the testing team, this release would have taken longer and most likely have been more problematic. Thanks to everyone involved in testing.
Attacks are still ongoing
Some people just don’t let up. So, if the site experiences issues, give it a little while and see if it resolves itself. SYN flood attacks are still ongoing, but I am confident that headway is being made in mitigating them and strengthening the project’s infrastructure. This is an ongoing effort.
Hard floating point & Raspbian
Previously, Raspbmc relied software emulated floating point calculations. Now by using native hardware to perform this action, we see an incredible increase in performance. Navigating the UI is more fluid than ever, and, as before, playback performance is unrivaled and flawless. This is probably the most significant yet understated feature in this release. It brings the best performance increase of any bug fix or feature introduction yet. I would like to thank s7mx1 for working on getting XBMC to play nice with the toolchain, and Dom @ Raspberry Pi for giving us a workable toolchain.
Raspbmc is now based on Raspbian, which is in turn a derivative of Debian Wheezy. Raspbian has been optimised to run on the Pi as it uses hardware based floating point.
A new kernel and new firmware
An updated kernel and new firmware blobs are now available; bringing new features, stability and bug fixes. USB disconnect issues and freezes upon removal are a thing of the past. SD card compatibility is better than ever before, and it is most likely your card will work with little trouble.
Bug fixes

• There was previously a bug where overscan would not persist on reboots.
• Fixed ‘mounting filesystem’ error
• Fixed scale of font for xbmc-watchdog. Now if you exit XBMC, you can read the text on non-1080p screens
• Fixed NFS library mismatch issues with new nightlies.
• Fixed webserver issues.
• USB drives now mount at boot as well as during uptime.
• CEC does not interfere with Composite playback

WiFi support out of the box
WiFi firmware is now installed in Raspbmc by default, and using a guide on the forum, it is now simple to get up and running. Support is now added for RTL8712U,RTL8192SU,RTL8192CU,RTL8188CU based WiFi adapters.
XBMC performance tweaks
XBMC’s annoyances are no more. There is no more ‘popping’ noise on Analogue audio anymore, and now, plugins that specified DVDPlayer as their player will automatically route through the omxplayer anyway, so you do not need to edit any plugins to get playback to work anymore.
AFP support
AFP support gives OS X users a premium sharing protocol that they can now use to stream content to Raspbmc. Remember SMB has a lot of CPU overhead, so NFS is often a much better bet.
Blu-ray support
The Blu-ray library has been added, meaning that decrypted Blu-ray discs are now playable, however, menus will not be navigatable and you should still realise that the codec limitations of the Raspberry Pi apply.
libCEC support
Raspbmc’s CEC implementation is now based off of libCEC. This brings a greater range of compatibility for devices and a smoother integration with XBMC. Hats off to Pulse-Eight’s Lars Opdenkamp for working with the Foundation to port the library.
Remotes
Support is now in place for a multitude of remotes, including the Xbox and Xbox 360 game controllers! Most remotes should now work out of the box, and support for more will be added shortly. Check the Wiki for more information about what works out of the box.
The first time run configuration tool is back
This means the first time you login to your Pi via SSH or the command line, you’ll be able to configure your keyboard and timezone with ease.
Better logging, and ‘helpme’
Something might go wrong, but now it’s easier than ever to find out what happened as logging is now more widely used. Furthermore, if you wish to give us a log for analysis, it’s now easier than ever. Just login to your Pi either with a keyboard or via SSH and type ‘helpme’. You’ll get a URL which you can post on the forums which contains logs that are useful for diagnosing problems.
Improved time management
When you booted RC3, you could be suffering from a midnight clock and 1st January 1970 date until NTP resolved it. Now, after booting, time is handled much more effectively:

• Initially, time is obtained from the log to give us a rough idea.
• Time is then resolved via httpd time script and the Google webserver
• Then after a couple of minutes, NTP will resolve time from a time server for a more accurate lock.

Windows installer improvements
The Windows installer has been improved significantly. Here’s what new:

• Refreshing will remove devices that are no longer plugged in.
• A bug where one could not restore to a device if it was not the first in the list is fixed.
• SD cards can now be restored to a formattable state for Windows. You may notice if you plugin an SD card with Raspbmc on it that only about 60MB are available for formatting. This is because Windows cannot see the Linux partitions. Now, by restoring it to the original state, the full size becomes available for formatting in Windows.

System installer improvements
The actual installer that runs on the Pi itself and sets everything up is now optimised greatly. It is now extremely small, as it is a Linux distribution (created with Buildroot) built just for the purpose of installing Raspbmc on your device, and shortly, will receive feature enhancements, such as the ability to install to a USB hard drive as well as an SD card and partition the device how you would like.
What’s coming soon?

• Soon you’ll be able to configure WiFi using the Raspbmc Settings utility, which should make it a lot easier for users to setup their network connection.
• USB sound card support is improving, and shortly, you will be able to use one which is rather useful for getting audio out via an SPDIF connector.
• Tidy up of code and tweaking
• More documentation on the Wiki.
• Much more…

from http://www.raspbmc.com/2012/08/release-candidate-4/

[RUDE BOI]

Really been looking forward to this but annoyingly I can't download it, as his site is being DOSed atm!

Edit: Back up now

[supraman54]

Yup all installed and streaming faultlessly.. what a wonderful little device?

[Fear345]

Is it just me or do none of the download links work ?

[beerman]

Just you, I downloaded it from the main link on their site last night.

[Fear345]

Just you, I downloaded it from the main link on their site last night.

But what about now ?

[beerman]

yep, working fine

raspbmc-win32(1).zip

[Fear345]

Ah sorry you just use the installer now without a separate image i should of read it all first

[fanni]

anyone managed to figure out the key mapping on this to get the context menu working with a remote?

[koola2]

Does that happen to be a Sony remote?
There is a bug in Pulse-Eight/libcec module that stops the option key being mapped.

[fanni]

Na it's a cheapy eBay special

Works fine on the revo but not on this

[tombott]

Now I have a decent net connection at home again, I shall give this latest release a whirl. Thanks koola2 for the heads up.

[mysterym]

Bought a perspex case for mine so decided I'd take it out of box again and mess with it. Fired up rc4 fine, added network manager and configured my wifi adapter with no problems. Stuck on the xbmc remote on my iPad, configured rc4 to use a http remote and itl works without problems. It boots up now without a keyboard and can be used remotely without any problems.

Xbmc has definitely been speeded up in this release and divx playback is fine etc. it's a bit juddery when rewinding etc and it definitely won't be replacing my wd live any time soon, but plenty of progress has been made since rc3.

[tronads]

I finaly got round to trying this today....and I am quite impressed...when it works....

Has anyone had any problems with sound but no picture ?
I am pretty much getting this on anything I try to play....I get the sound, but the picture is a blank screen (with the exception of the menu overlays). Occasionaly It will work perfectly, but I can stop the movie and restart it and the picture is gone again.

Any thoughts ?

[RUDE BOI]

I finaly got round to trying this today....and I am quite impressed...when it works....

Has anyone had any problems with sound but no picture ?
I am pretty much getting this on anything I try to play....I get the sound, but the picture is a blank screen (with the exception of the menu overlays). Occasionaly It will work perfectly, but I can stop the movie and restart it and the picture is gone again.

Any thoughts ?

Sounds like you are trying to play MPEG2 files, but you don't have the decoder.

Try playing a mkv file and it should work. If you want to watch mpeg2 (most .avi files) then you need to buy the codec off the pi site for £2.40.

[tronads]

I was playing mkv's. A mixture of 720p and 1080p. Also I was trying to stream from my vu+duo using a Tux connection.
It was very weird, I can't get it to repeat its behaviour. On the whole, it mostly gives me sound only, just occasionally I get a picture - but not consistantly, ie something will work once, but not again.

These are files that xbmc plays fine on my Revo.

[Geko]

So.... The files are being streamed from your Duo and not on a local HD ?

[tronads]

The live tv is coming from my duo...the mkv's are on my proliant microserver, and are coming via Serviio (not transcoded).
But these same files work fine on my other xbmc install, the popcornhour, and both my Samsung bluray players....and "sometimes" on this pi.

I guess next thing is to try to see if it is consistent on playing something off a usb stick.

[fanni]

I've got loads of mkv's that this doesn't play That the popcorn hour and revo play with no problems

I'm not moaning as it is only a £25 computer and is very good for what it is made for just not for me at the moment all I wanted it for was a cheap player for mkv's but having too many problems with films not playing and some films having graphical glitches

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[RUDE BOI]

What does Serviio do? Looked up their website but can't see what it actually does.
I have the same set-up but without this Serviio program.