Acer revo 3700 help

tippgod

Hi
I bought a second hand 3700 and I'm having a few teething problems setting it up. It is working fine but on films with Dolby sound it will not play sound. is this just some option that I have not selected. I'm a noob to xbmc so still finding my way. The setup is the sound over hdmi and straight into the telly

Thanks

Wcool

Are you on Linux?

Anyway, try Settings -> System -> Audio. Select Analog and mess around with the Audo Passthru

tippgod

It is Linux
I tried messing with the audio options but no joy. Also noticed that when streaming some tv shows there is no sound. I presume they are Dolby too.

Any other ideas?

Wcool

Try opening a terminal and type this command:
alsamixer

Sometimes channnels are muted or switched off, see if the channels there are looking ok.

I think you can make your changes permanent with alsactl store <card number, usually zero>

Wcool

I am just rethinking this: if only dolby sound is not working, it is unlikey it is alsamixer.

If you play the same video file with another mediaplayer, do you have the same problem? If so, maybe you miss some codec. Try for instance VLC?

It is reproducable on more than 1 file yes?

Wcool

OK one more: I googled a bit and found this post on XBMC forums.

forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=126445

This guy noticed that pulseaudio was interfering with alsa. He removed pulseaudio.

This might not be something you want to do if you are running a normal Ubuntu desktop though

tippgod

Sorry now but I'm a complete beginner to Linux. I can't find pulse audio in the settings. How do I go about opening a terminal.

As I said I'm a complete noob. I bought the system second hand with openelec 3.0.2 installed with frodo 12.2 running.

It's all movies and streams that run Dolby digital

Sorry for being a dunce

If you are using OpenElec then just go into System > Audio Output and untick the option for Dolby Digital (AC3). Untick all the other codecs (DTS, AAC, multichannel PCM) while you are at it. For plugging into a TV you simply want a stereo PCM audio output.

Wcool

Sorry I did not know you are a newbie to Linux. Well, I have no experience with Open Elec, but is build upon XBMC I think. I hope I kill you Scum's tip will work.

On command line access in Linux, it is less frightning than you think:

Just press ALT + CTRL + F2 and you will see a login screen, use username xbmc and password xbmc to log in (might vary for Open Elec) and you can type in commands as described in the links and above

exit follow by enter will bring you back I believe

OpenElec doesnt have a terminal, it presents itself to the user as an XBMC appliance. You have to SSH into it to use terminal.

But hopefully the GUI audio output options will sort it. The previous owner likely had a different a/v setup, you can't just swap it over and expect it to work.

tippgod

cheers wcool and kill you scu for the help. i got it up and working. Only got a chance to try it this morning

i am having a bit of a bother setting up the wifi.
i have it connected to the routher via a cable and have set this up on the network 1 tab in the settings but i can not get the wifi to hook in. Any ideas on how to get it up and working

thanks again for all the help

tippgod

i got every thing up and running so now i need to change it :P

i want the unit to run off windows 7 but have a xd card that will boot open elec.

i got a copy of widows 7 bootable usb version off the IT guys in work. Even though the unit has 4 gigs of ram, they advised me to run the 32 bit version. Is this wise?. i really only want windows for sky go and the internet and maybe Microsoft office from time to time

Secondly i want to install openelec/xbmc on a memory card. Does anyone have a simple guide to doing this. I have a 2g card. Will that be big enough or should i get bigger. I know i could partion the drive but would prefernot too if the family are using xbmc that it would just boot straight in. Don't want the kids messing with it.


thanks

Wcool

Sorry only see this now.

Yes, you can install Windows 7 from a USB key and install it to your Revo. It will wipe the boot loader of your linux though, it would be a fresh install.

There is not much difference between 32 bit and 64 bit on speed, it's just that you can't use a small bit of your 4Gb for Windows on 32 bit, I would not worry about it though, it is not important for what you will use it for.
So yes, go ahead, 32 bit no prob.

When you have installed Windows from the USB key, you could use it for XBMC. I did that myself and removed the HD in the Revo. It will be slow to start up though (1 min +) I never shutdown but suspend.

Very good guides on the XBMC website, see Live download.

One word of warning: Windows on a Revo is not the fastest, but it will do for small tasks. Don't understand how you are going to edit documents from the telly

Kur4mA

I have a Revo R3700 myself which I'll be selling in about a week. I found Linux was too much of a hindrance in having to constantly stay on top of it whenever there were updates so I changed to Windows 7. It runs Windows 7 & XBMC perfectly with 4GB of ram. It's not super quick but I only use it for XBMC and then backend stuff like torrents and nzb downloads plus couchpotato/sick beard / mylar etc.

It does the job perfectly.

My advice, if you want to make use of the 4GB of ram you have installed, you WILL HAVE TO install the 64bit version of Windows 7.

battlefd2

what nzb sites are you using? seems all of the ones i have used keep disapearing. i was recently using nzb-matrix.eu but it is now down, i found this oznzb.com one has anyone used it? i'm not sure about donating to more of these indexes

Kur4mA

Not discussing NZB websites or indexes on boards. It's not appropriate.

battlefd2

roger that, are we discussing them elsewhere?