[Mick1152]

But hey, here in EU you can find many boxes with a much better hardware for 1/4 of the price... (and the difference is not all due to taxes and shipping... )

This means we are paying for XBMC develping, which was supposed to be free (or at least donationware).

I'd have to disagree with this. As far as I'm aware, the Pivos was the same price, long before they decided to support XBMC. It's not like their price increased once they brought on the XBMC developers and started building in support for it.

[lagledavid]

Remember that all the other Pivos clones are simply trying use the Pivos written source code, they do not understand it nor care to actually fix any issues or improve the software. They pray that Pivos might do it for them so they can profit.

You have a point and many of us are well happy to support Pivos.

But hey, here in EU you can find many boxes with a much better hardware for 1/4 of the price... (and the difference is not all due to taxes and shipping... )

This means we are paying for XBMC develping, which was supposed to be free (or at least donationware).

Dude who are you, what youve posted 4 times and your making staements like this. Its hard to tell if your not just the competition cryng

[davilla]

This means we are paying for XBMC develping, which was supposed to be free (or at least donationware).

Humm, I guess the Pivos should just stop developing and should have never started ?

[ciquta]

No you are wrong... Personally I'm a big big supporter of opensource developing, and I'm not the only one here.

For the same reason I don't use non-open software, I try not to buy hardware coming with no support to the community.

BUT at the same time I think you can't blame Fremar who is not willing to pay 190USD for a Pivos. when much better hardware is available below 50$ (shipping included); not even tell us the difference it's due to taxes.

[PatrickVogeli]

Differences are that Pivos, probably, have a serious company behind it!!

It doesn't matter if XBMC, Android, or whatever, but development, if done right, is costly. Support (which of course you won't get with those cheap rip-off boxes) is costly, a decent website and sales channel is costly. They've also told you that they do pay DTS/Dolby Digital fees, which also cost something. And of course, they want to have some benefits also!

All in all, it's pretty easy to understand why Pivos is more expensive than some chinese "company" who just puts some buggy firmware on a no-name box, has no website (or a very bad one), only sells through ebay and, if lucky, will answer your emails with google-translator english dialect.

[talvins]

No you are wrong... Personally I'm a big big supporter of opensource developing, and I'm not the only one here.

For the same reason I don't use non-open software, I try not to buy hardware coming with no support to the community.

BUT at the same time I think you can't blame Fremar who is not willing to pay 190USD for a Pivos. when much better hardware is available below 50$ (shipping included); not even tell us the difference it's due to taxes.

Hi,

I have the same problem : order on pivos-europe.com or nanomaze.com for 143€ (114€ + 29€ (!!!) of shipping). It's not a joke, it's an insult. So, I'm searching for another solution and I've never seen anything good below 150€ (I already have a rasberry pi v2 : not fast enough, no passthrough for all audio stream). What (better) hardware are you talking about, less than 50€?

I just want to use XBMC under linux or android with all kind of audio stream passtrough and fluid 1080p (alse a sftp server and a bittorrent client). On a passive box. Not so easy to find under 150€ (shipping included)...

[Adamanth]

Hello!
Just want to chime in and give my 2 cents on the matter. I registered recently (actually I registered several years ago in the old forum back in the days of XBMP and my user got lost in time...), but I'm a long time lurker/user.

I received my Xios 2 weeks ago and could not be happier. Of course the product is not perfet and there are a few quirks, but I think you could not expect more for the price.

I can understand that due the economic situation, it might be difficult to cough up almost 150 Euros for a box. It was tough for me. Anyway, I saved up and opted to give my money to Pivos. Why?
It is one of the few (if not the only) company who is selling a XBMC box while supporting the development of XBMC code for a reasonable price.

It might sound futile, but I know it can make a difference for XBMC. I am not able to write code and do not have the hardware nor the time to become a tester, I can only afford to donate some money or to buy a box. After being a user for years I wanted to donate and decided to give my hard owned money to a company that contributes to the development of XBMC. As it is said: 2 birds with one stone.

Anyway, I can understand not everyone here in Europe can afford to buy a box, but I'd appreciate if those people would try not to bash pivos in a thread dedicated to one of their products in a Forum that it is not their own. If you feel the need to complain about the pricing, why don't you simply head over to their forum and talk to them?

Just my 2 cents no hard feelings

[j1nx]

Anyway, I can understand not everyone here in Europe can afford to buy a box, but I'd appreciate if those people would try not to bash pivos in a thread dedicated to one of their products in a Forum that it is not their own. If you feel the need to complain about the pricing, why don't you simply head over to their forum and talk to them?

Hmm, wise words ...... +1

[talvins]

Anyway, I can understand not everyone here in Europe can afford to buy a box, but I'd appreciate if those people would try not to bash pivos in a thread dedicated to one of their products in a Forum that it is not their own. If you feel the need to complain about the pricing, why don't you simply head over to their forum and talk to them?

Just my 2 cents no hard feelings

Nobody bash Pivos. EU resellers, yes.

Does anyone know where I could find a cheap Xios M3, anywhere in the world ? Thanks.

[Adamanth]

Nobody bash Pivos. EU resellers, yes.

Got my xios from Pivos Europe the official distributor for Europe. The prices are simply the same throught any european resellers or distributors at the moment.
Maybe I wasn't clear, l'm sorry, english is not my native language.
Allow me to express myself better:
If you have troubles with a company or with the distribution of their products it is more efficient to talk to the company directly.
Also, as Davilla stated a few posts ago, it would be better to keep this thread about the product itself (both pro and cons) and leave other topics out of this one.

[j1nx]

No resellers involved, but distributors!
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_di...istributor

Take note at the last sentence;

They usually also provide a range of services (such as product information, estimates, technical support, after-sales services, credit) to their customers.

[talvins]

Ok, so it's a really stupid marketing strategy because in Europe, with real $<->€ conversion, you can have passive box with :

- DVB-T tuner !
- 4in1 card reader
- USB3
- S/PDIF
- IR receiver
- HDMI 1.4a
- 2GB DDR3
- Radeon HD 5430
- 2,5'' HD 1To
- wifi b/g/n
- DVD-RW 24x

Faaaaaar away from XIOS for just 50€ more.

Only problem : no passthrough (like XIOS ?) for DTS-HD on linux.

So, for 100€, I take an XIOS, for 150€, surely not.

[zebraitis]

Ok, so it's a really stupid marketing strategy because in Europe, with real $<->€ conversion, you can have passive box with :

- DVB-T tuner !
- 4in1 card reader
- USB3
- S/PDIF
- IR receiver
- HDMI 1.4a
- 2GB DDR3
- Radeon HD 5430
- 2,5'' HD 1To
- wifi b/g/n
- DVD-RW 24x

Faaaaaar away from XIOS for just 50€ more.

Only problem : no passthrough (like XIOS ?) for DTS-HD on linux.

So, for 100€, I take an XIOS, for 150€, surely not.

Just to be fair...

You DO see that you are comparing the SALE price of 199€, and not what was the REGULAR price of 399€ ... right?

And the reason that they are doing this "while stock lasts"... is because they may be eliminating stock..


Still... this is not an "Apple" vs. "PC" type of forum. This is all about XBMC.


If you wish, buy the other, no one will be offended or think you wrong. It looks like a dandy little box. (albeit a LARGE dandy little box.)

So, by all means, vote with your Dollars, Euro, Yen, or Litas... You will STILL have an XBMC system!


... and I am sure that you will get great support in the dedicated Arctic XBMC support forum... http://www.arctic.ac/en/support/support.htm ... except it doesn't seem to list the MC001-XBMC as a product under their entertainment center section.

But I'm sure you will get your answers, somewhere.

[CruNcher]

RK 3066 could be a solution in the future here prices should be much lower you can get sticks already for low as 50$ and support for XBMC should be implemented in no time actually it just needs bug fixing
It could be that native Performance could also be highered by RockChip Engineers in the future, we'll see
Linux is also Running and VPU support is ongoing as well with RockChips official support

Also overall the RK 3066 is more powerfull in other Scenarios (Web Browsing, Gaming) though im not sure about Advanced things like Optical out and DTS out support ect which also would require extra Licensing and higher the cost again.
The Firmware Ecosystem is also very stable and the coming Quadcore RK 3188 should be even better suited for extreme High Complexity Bitstreams (60 FPS)

Im sure there will be plenty of options in the future to Build XBMC Boxes Amlogic wont stay the only one

Im currently working on my Tablet with it and i can definitely say it rocks from the stability and Performance/Price/Experience point of view

[zebraitis]

RK 3066 could be a solution...

Still, this is a thread to discuss the Pivos Xios DS.

One that I am listing to, right now... playing my music, via MySQL-managed brilliance, in Party Mode.

MMMmmmm...