Performance of OSMC on USB stick vs Crystalbuntu on internal HDD?

Help and Support Apple TV
1

Hi Sam,

first of all thank you very much for making a compatible version of OSMC for ATV.

I have an Apple Tv running with crystalbuntu 2 (with a crystal HD) still running and I’ve downloaded ths OSMC and installed it into an USB pendrive.

It works with my Apple tv but after recognise all my library wich is located into a WD my Cloud that i access via SMB.
It takes about two hours to recognice the complete library (it’s very large), but after that it seems to be slower than with the crystalbuntu 2 installed in the hard drive of my apple tv.

am I doing anything wrong? wich test should I do to check if I’ve made something wrong?

thank you very much in advance.

2

I guess running from USB makes it slower. TBH I don’t notice much difference in speed between OSMC and CB2. Actually CB2 plays more fileformats than OSMC.

3

I Think one issue is the skin. Using, for example, the Quartz the speed is comparable to CB2, maybe a little bit better.

4

I’m using the two skins that comes with OSMC, confluence and the default skin.

And I read other people that said that it’s apple tv is running better than ever, even better than with the crystalbuntu 2.

So I don’t want to try to install in my hdd OSMC overwriting the crystalbuntu 2 until I don’t manage to make it run at least as fast as it goes with my CB2.

Can anybody help me?

5

Thank you pameijer,

I know that it would be better with the hdd install but it’s really much slower now with the usb stick.

And it’s not an skin issue, I’m usin the confluence skin so it is suposed to have a good performace.

Any other ideas?

6

The skin has nothing to do with it.
Running off the USB stick is slow. It was also slow running CB2 off a USB stick.

Even if you have a modern fast USB stick, the connection is still USB 2.0, and the result will be a MUCH slower system.

Of course it’s slower on the a USB stick.
Comparing speed of a USB stick connected via USB 2.0 port VS a SATA HDD drive is like comparing a bicycle to a motorcycle.

FWIW: Personally I’ve never seen the point of the USB version except for basic testing.

7

As for if you should upgrade from CB2…

CB2 is discontinued and since the average user won’t be able to update it run newer kodi versions, it will eventually stop working with new addons.
OSMC works fine for my needs, and I personally wouldn’t want to give up the ability to easily run newer versions of kodi.

8

Thank you very much.

I’ll try and I’ll tell you!
KR

9

Hi Spinner,

as you said the performance once I’ve installed OSMC is better than the USB one, but I still have some issues:

  • I’ve installed the January new version on my ATV1 HDD, I’ve made a fresh new install.
  • All my movies and tv shows are on a huge library on a network NAS and I added them all via SMB.
  • My ATV1 has a broadcom Crystal HD BCM70015

I’ve tried a bunch of skins and I think that the Smoother one is the Aeon nox, but it’s still not smooth at all.

Do you know anything I can try to improve the performance of the menu’s of my ATV? If you or anyone knows something I can try it will be very helpfull.

If you need more information just say it.

KR.

10

A change in the February Update to Jarvis should improve it for you.

The default setting for Settings->Video->Render Method is now “advanced shaders”

Using that setting should also help if you are running Isengard

Any fresh February installs will have that setting, but existing installations that are upgraded would need that setting changed manually.

11

Can I update it manually or should I wait until the instaler will be availiable?

And thank you very much as always for your help.

If I can help you on anything just say it

12

To switch render mode, you just select it in the Kodi “Settings”.

There is no need to update to the February Update which includes Kodi Jarvis, to simply change to the Advanced Shader render mode

BUT… If you want to update to Jarvis, simple do an update with MyOSMC.

Keep in mind that since Jarvis is so new, some addons, and skins, which are made by other developers, are not yet compatible, or need to be updated also)
Depending on how much you have customized your system, this can cause all sorts of problems that are not due to OSMC.

If you are using a custom skin, I’d recommend that you switch it to the “OSMC” or “Confluence” skin before you update, then switch it back once the update is complete.

13

Thank you Spinner.

I have updated to Jarvis and as you said the menus in aeon nox skin goes so much smooth, but I not see any difference activatin shaders aceleration than letting it autodetect.

I will try with osmc skin and with confluence as you said but I can’t install any other skin there is an error that said that dependencies with xbmc.gui 5.9.0 could not be resolved. Can I install any package to solve that?

I think that something is not up to date because I have the same message even trying to update the kodi repository addon

14
15

It’s solved after update the kodi repository.
System->addons->install from repository and long press on menu button on appke tv remote to show the menu that says update.