diff -Naur xbmc-frodo-5ea1d22/xbmc/interfaces/python/XBPython.cpp xbmc-frodo-5ea1d22.patch/xbmc/interfaces/python/XBPython.cpp
--- xbmc-frodo-5ea1d22/xbmc/interfaces/python/XBPython.cpp	2012-09-05 13:28:20.000000000 +0200
+++ xbmc-frodo-5ea1d22.patch/xbmc/interfaces/python/XBPython.cpp	2012-09-05 15:50:42.642317031 +0200
@@ -525,11 +525,10 @@
       // at http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#environment-variables
 
 #if !defined(_WIN32) && !defined(TARGET_ANDROID)
-      /* PYTHONOPTIMIZE is set off intentionally when using external Python.
-         Reason for this is because we cannot be sure what version of Python
-         was used to compile the various Python object files (i.e. .pyo,
-         .pyc, etc.). */
-        // check if we are running as real xbmc.app or just binary
+      // Required for python to find optimized code (pyo) files
+      setenv("PYTHONOPTIMIZE", "1", 1);
+
+      // check if we are running as real xbmc.app or just binary
       if (!CUtil::GetFrameworksPath(true).IsEmpty())
       {
         // using external python, it's build looking for xxx/lib/python2.6
