[Timster]

Need to replace my ageing Tvix boxes and started the journey by looking seriously at Medi8er media players.

Touched on xbmc a year or so ago but was put off by the need for keyboards and mice etc.
(and the constant palaver of updating drivers, bios, tweaking etc)

However, the whole NUC thing has perked my interest again. So my first questions are:

A: Will the latest Haswell i3 NUCs be powerful enough for xbmc & 1080p hdmi (prob running under Linux / Openelec)
B: Is the d34010wyk the latest and most current model?
C: Is it worth stepping-up to an i5 to give some processor headroom and longevity (I like to keep my gear for at least 3-4 years if possible, before replacing)
D: I’ll also be wanting to stream HD content over the lan (WiFI NOT important)

Thanks for any advice.

[MrCrispy]

No expert but will attempt to answer.

A. Definitely. Even an older gen Celeron is enough, since all the decoding is offloaded to the gpu and is hw accelerated
B. I believe so (Haswell line). There's a cheaper DN2820FYKH which is a BayTrail Celeron that's also rather popular, will do everything you asked for and is $100 cheaper
C. Depends on what else you are planning to do on the box
D. No problem at all

[Timster]

Many thanks MrCrispy,

That seems to make my choices much easier. Although I thought I read somewhere (on here) that it’s probably better to avoid the BayTrail devices as not quite up to the job. Is it the onchip GPU, maybe ?

[tential]

Many thanks MrCrispy,

That seems to make my choices much easier. Although I thought I read somewhere (on here) that it’s probably better to avoid the BayTrail devices as not quite up to the job. Is it the onchip GPU, maybe ?

Those comments are most likely in reference to using BayTrail for scaling SD content using a different videoplayer than XBMC (You can choose to use another video player other than the one built into XBMC). Unless you are doing things that aren't within the core functions of XBMC (That would need you to know quite a bit about XBMC to accomplish and just about a lot of other programs) then you're fine.

[noggin]

If you are watching 1080p content on a 1080p display, then the Baytrail Celerons are fine.

If you are watching SD content or 1080i interlaced content (i.e. Live HDTV) then a better Celeron (Ivy Bridge 1007U/1037U, Haswell 2955U) is a better bet (but you can't get a NUC with that CPU) This is because whilst the Baytrail GPU is more than up to hardware decoding 1080p H264 and VC-1 (and I believe MPEG2) content with no problems, it doesn't have enough GPU power for high quality scaling algorithms (so you don't get the options of using Lanczos 3 etc.), and its CPU isn't powerful enough for high quality YADIF 2x software de-interlacing (though it will do Bob) of 1080i.

The Haswell Celerons have significantly more powerful CPUs than the Baytrail - so if you need to do stuff in the background they might be a better bet. If you aren't hypersensitive to picture quality you may not notice the different in scaling and de-interlacing quality. If you don't watch native interlaced content then de-interlacing won't be an issue for you. (I have lots of native interlaced DVDs and Blu-rays and watch Live and Recorded TV on my XBMC set-up)

There is a Gigabyte Brix with a 2955U, and that is also what the Asus Chromebox is based on (which is why people are so enthusiastic about it).

The Baytrail and Haswell series apparently both have the 24p bug fixed (older Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge GPUs won't quite output the right refresh rate so will occasionally drop or repeat frames)

If you want full quality 3D (not half-res SBS or TAB) then you need to run Windows an i3 or better I believe. For 2D stuff the Celerons are fine running OpenElec or similar.

I have a couple of set-ups for various functions - in case it's useful :

My main NUC install is a Haswell i5-with a small mSATA SSD and a 1TB 2.5" HD. I dual boot OpenElec and Windows on it. It does more than XBMC for me. (I wanted a CPU with some grunt for media encoding etc., and was considering Hackintoshing it) This has an internal IR receiver as standard and allows for remote power on and power off.
My bedroom install is an Acer Revo RL80 with a Celeron 1007U CPU. It has a 500GB HD. I added the internal IR receiver to connect to the CIR header. This allows for IR power on and off.
My hotel room install (which I travel with) is an Acer Chromebook with a Celeron 2955U CPU, booting from a USB 3.0 stick, and with a little hub to connect an MCE RC6 IR receiver and a DVB-T2 USB TV tuner. The HDMI output is great for feeding to hotel TVs, and with TV Headend I can watch broadcast TV in much better quality than analogue hotel ring mains.

[zxz0O0]

I chose the Intel NUC D34010WYKH, it fits a SATA hd instead of an mSATA. Streaming 1080p from the network is a bit laggy but that could be due to my NAS. I am awaiting stable release of XBMC 13.0 which includes some new options for caching over network and which should hopefully fix the lags. All in all the NUC is awesome, works perfectly with universal remote (even power on/off).

[xbs08]

Play the 1080p file localy and see if it lags I bet the lag on the NAS.

[Timster]

Thanks everyone for all the excellent advice.

I’m so used to dedicated media-players (Sigma & Realtek chipsets), that going the PC route is a complete departure for me.
Am thinking now of the potential of dual-booting etc.

Hmmm, decisions decisions.

[noggin]

I switched from a Sigma-based media player (Popcorn Hour A100 then C200) to XBMC on OpenElec and haven't looked back.

[Timster]

I switched from a Sigma-based media player (Popcorn Hour A100 then C200) to XBMC on OpenElec and haven't looked back.

Thanks for that.
I’ve tried XBMC on OsX (not impressed with video quality*). So I need to do a dummy OE install on a PC before I pull the trigger on a new NUC.

*compared to my old Tvix 6500a.

[noggin]

I switched from a Sigma-based media player (Popcorn Hour A100 then C200) to XBMC on OpenElec and haven't looked back.

Thanks for that.
I’ve tried XBMC on OsX (not impressed with video quality*). So I need to do a dummy OE install on a PC before I pull the trigger on a new NUC.

*compared to my old Tvix 6500a.

If you watch native interlaced content (I do) - then make sure that your de-interlacing is configured correctly. If you are running a recent build of OpenElec then you want VAAPI acceleration and allow SW filters to be enabled (unless you go for just CPU decoding - if that's the case then multithreaded decoding is probably worth trying)

Then when watching a video, go to video settings and ensure that de-interlace is set to Auto (so it only de-interlaces content that is interlaced) and de-interlace mode is "De-interlace". (By default XBMC doesn't de-interlace...)

Similarly if you watch mixed refresh rate content (I do) and have a TV that can cope with different refresh rates (I do) - then make sure that you configure XBMC correctly for that as well.

[zag]

Then when watching a video, go to video settings and ensure that de-interlace is set to Auto (so it only de-interlaces content that is interlaced) and de-interlace mode is "De-interlace". (By default XBMC doesn't de-interlace...)

I found setting the mode to "de-interlace" used too much cpu on the i3.

Changing it to Bob seemed much less resource intensive to me with no noticeable loss of quality.