[kortina]

First up a HUGE thankyou to Matt Devo for all of his work with the Chromebox. The Wiki instructions and the script are amazing.

About 5 years ago I built an ITX based system for my lounge room. It was a Celeron 440 based system with nVidia 9300 gfx, this setup is almost identical to the original ION based systems.

The system worked well, but as time passes the hardware has aged and I am now getting some random lockups.
I think that these are heat related, probably due to the 1080i de-interlacing that is needed for my recorded free-to-air TV that I playback.


To give you a bit of context, my requirement is for a dedicated media centre. No web-browser, no live-tv, no on-device storage, no netflix.
I have a NAS with all of the content, and a mySQL setup for a shared library/watched status.


So is the Chromebox any good? and how does it compare as a replacement to the old ITX setup?
Yes it is VERY good, almost the perfect media centre!


Things that make the Chromebox great:

1) Price
For around the $250 (AU) mark, you can get the device to your doorstep. This is not "cheap" like many Android devices, but it also won't break the bank. You can expect that this device will last 5 years.

2) Playback
You will get glorious 23.976, 25, 30, 50, 60Hz goodness. No video sampling required.
Bonus that you get a CPU fast enough to also do de-interlacing. For all of that 576i content (Recorded Free-to-air)

3) Sound*
Unconfirmed, but you should get all of the HD-Audio. No re-sampling.

4) Speed
This thing is FAST. It boots in around 5 seconds which is shockingly fast. Most systems don't even POST this fast. The ITX system this is replacing took 24 seconds which was about 15 seconds of POST. (old school BIOS).
Libraries look amazing and fluid. The included 16GB SSD is great.

5) Noise
Chomebox is quiet. NOT SILENT, but very quiet.
I cannot hear the device when playing content. I cannot hear the device when my TV is on (the Plasma has a louder fan!).
You CAN hear this device if it is the ONLY thing turned on in the room and nothing is playing. This is not an issue for me.
I think that this is a very acceptable level.

6) Looks
So the box looks OK. It is not ugly.


Things that no so good:
1) Remote control
OK so the device doesnt have a remote included, I HIGHLY recommend that you get yourself a MCE dongle and remote there are plenty of the HP branded ones on eBay for less than $20 delivered. These are plug and play.
If you are super fussy, you can then replace the remote with a fancy logitec (yuck), but you still want the USB reciever and to use the default "MCE/RC6" combo. There seems to be two outstanding bugs (not show stoppers).
a) resuming from sleep. It works but will not connect to mySQL backend, even when "wait for network" is turned on
b) turn on from "OFF" state. I cant seem to turn the device on from scratch.

2) Opening the device
The device is difficult to open. You will need something to open the case as it is an extremly tight fit. I used the tools from a mobile phone repair kit. This made it much easier.
Opening the device is easy, but may turn some users off... mainly because it will void your warranty and some people dont like doing this.

3) No SPDIF
There is no optical out for the device. This is only an issue if you have an old AMP. (which I do).
I purchased an external USB soundcard with SPDIF, but it looks like it might not have full support in OpenELEC yet.
Stereo works fine, but when I try and pass Dolby Digital and DTS to my amp I get some weird squawking noises.

Conclusion:
So I am happy with the replacement, there are just a few minor bugs with the remote/spdif/wakeup that need to be ironed out. I will help to chase these down.

Would I recommend this box: Yes
I don't think you can do better for the money, in fact I am not sure you could do better at all!

[Matt Devo]

First up a HUGE thankyou to Matt Devo for all of his work with the Chromebox. The Wiki instructions and the script are amazing.

gracias!

Things that no so good:
1) Remote control
OK so the device doesnt have a remote included, I HIGHLY recommend that you get yourself a MCE dongle and remote there are plenty of the HP branded ones on eBay for less than $20 delivered. These are plug and play.
If you are super fussy, you can then replace the remote with a fancy logitec (yuck), but you still want the USB reciever and to use the default "MCE/RC6" combo. There seems to be two outstanding bugs (not show stoppers).
a) resuming from sleep. It works but will not connect to mySQL backend, even when "wait for network" is turned on
b) turn on from "OFF" state. I cant seem to turn the device on from scratch.

Most MCE remotes work perfectly out of the box, but a few do not (as noted on the wiki). A BT remote (eg, PS3) is an option as well.

I have no issues with the ChromeBox connecting to my external MySQL server, either on a cold start or resume from suspend, and haven't heard of others having issues either. If it's not respecting the 'wait for network' setting on resume, I believe there's a way to force it via a custom suspend/resume script.

Turning on from a fully-powered off state, whether from IR or WOL, is not currently (nor planned to be) supported. I leave my main (non-dev) ChromeBox on 24/7 though.

3) No SPDIF
There is no optical out for the device. This is only an issue if you have an old AMP. (which I do).
I purchased an external USB soundcard with SPDIF, but it looks like it might not have full support in OpenELEC yet.
Stereo works fine, but when I try and pass Dolby Digital and DTS to my amp I get some weird squawking noises.

The Turtle Beach one I use / have linked in the wiki passes DD/DTS fine OOTB. I have an amp w/o HDMI as well.

[Dougie Fresh]

I so wish the Haswell 29xx CPUs were available in a mini-ITX motherboard.

[kortina]

I have no issues with the ChromeBox connecting to my external MySQL server, either on a cold start or resume from suspend, and haven't heard of others having issues either. If it's not respecting the 'wait for network' setting on resume, I believe there's a way to force it via a custom suspend/resume script.

I had issues with MySQL, using the 'wait for network' added about 3 seconds to the boot time, but gives the library from cold boot.
When I resume, it doesn't seem to wait.

Matt: Do you use a static IP? maybe the DHCP process is taking to long. Might try hard coding and see if it makes a difference.

Turning on from a fully-powered off state, whether from IR or WOL, is not currently (nor planned to be) supported. I leave my main (non-dev) ChromeBox on 24/7 though

If I fix the library from resume issue, then the WoL and power from OFF issue will disappear. I will just Suspend all the time. While I investigate this further I will just leave the box on.


Thinking that I might just move the AMP to my rumpus room and upgrade to a HDMI based AMP. Probably better to 'invest' $400 in a new amp instead of $35 on another USB-DAC.

The power consumption of the Chromebox is much lower too. using 0w when turned off and 14w on the home screen. This is a marked improvement over the ITX system that I have which was 7w turned off and 40w during playback.

[noggin]

2) Playback
You will get glorious 23.976, 25, 30, 50, 60Hz goodness. No video sampling required.
Bonus that you get a CPU fast enough to also do de-interlacing. For all of that 576i content (Recorded Free-to-air)

If you're feeling adventurous - you can try the experimental builds of OpenElec with VAAPI Motion Compensated De-interlacing. These do an excellent job of de-interlacing 1080i with very low CPU levels compared to the internal YADIF 2x de-interlacing. You can also get Lanczos 3 scaling for SD content with the 2955U in the Chromebox (not sure the neutered GPU in the Baytrail Celerons can do this as a consequence of 4 vs 10 EUs in the GPU)

3) Sound*
Unconfirmed, but you should get all of the HD-Audio. No re-sampling.

HD Audio bitstreams fine. I've watched a lot of DTS HD MA stuff bitstreamed over HDMI to my Onkyo AVR.

Things that no so good:
1) Remote control
OK so the device doesnt have a remote included, I HIGHLY recommend that you get yourself a MCE dongle and remote there are plenty of the HP branded ones on eBay for less than $20 delivered. These are plug and play.
If you are super fussy, you can then replace the remote with a fancy logitec (yuck), but you still want the USB reciever and to use the default "MCE/RC6" combo. There seems to be two outstanding bugs (not show stoppers).
a) resuming from sleep. It works but will not connect to mySQL backend, even when "wait for network" is turned on
b) turn on from "OFF" state. I cant seem to turn the device on from scratch.

If you can cope with manually switching the box on and off then a PS3 Bluetooth BD remote works very well with the internal Bluetooth functionality, and removes the need for an external dongle.

I've got both an RC6 MCE IR remote/USB dongle and a Bluetooth PS3 one and actually prefer the PS3 remote for day-to-day use.

[kortina]

small update...

Upgraded to Openelec 4.2 last night, the previous bug of not reconnecting to mySQL after turning on from suspend mode seems to be resolved!

Raised a thread in the openelec forum to try and resolve my audio issue:
http://openelec.tv/forum/68-audio/73088-...ger-uca202

It is not a show stopper, still get stereo. Miss my 5.1 audio, and not ready to buy a new AMP just yet.

Any suggestions on what to try next to give more detail on what could be wrong?

Got another donation on the way for both Kodi and Openelec for their work, I use the OS and software for about 20+ hours/week. It is an amazing community effort and just keeps getting better.

[Matt Devo]

honestly, that recommended hardware list is several years / several OE/XBMC versions old. I'd recommend you just spend $20 or and buy a known working part, like the one I list in the ChromeBox wiki, unless you have a lot of time to spend making this one work.

[kortina]

Purchasing a Pioneer VSX 524 today (AMP) $279AU. Seems like a better investment than the USB->SPDIF dongle that will cost me $45AU+

I was that Australia had more access to Amazon and Newegg, and the US based pricing/postage.


EG:
Pioneer VSX 524 retail in Australia: $529
Pioneer VSX 524 Amazon in US: $280 (free postage to US)

Chromebox online AU retailer $279
Chromebox Amazon in US $182 (free postage to US)

[Sunflux]

Hmm. I've been running an AOpen MiniPc MP945-VXR from 2006 (seriously) with a Core2Duo T7400 2.16ghz & 945GM video... which was incapable of handling 1080p via Windows XP MCE, but did magically work in XBMC v12 (on XP). Well, mostly worked - anything involving more demanding encoding stutters and skips. Funnily enough, 1080p downscaled to 720p does worse than 1080p played at 1080p. :-)

Anyways, that was back when it was running at 1080i, which was only really 1920x540 @ 60hz. Bought a new 4k TV that supports progressive, and now it's trying to run at 1920x1080 60hz... and frankly 1080p playback has, if anything, gotten worse.

I have a very nice 1st generation NUC in another room that works great with XBMC that was SUPPOSED to replace the AOpen system 18 months ago, but I got to like using it with my main home theater a little too much... and so the AOpen has hung around, chugging away. I've decided to wait for the next generation NUC systems before building my next NUC, but the AOpen is becoming increasingly frustrating to use due to its severe lack of horsepower.

Any idea what the power of the HP Chromebox would be running OpenElec vs. that old T7400? The HP in ugly white is available on sale for $130 delivered in Canada, which seems like a good deal, but I do want at minimum trouble-free 1080p playback.

Also, is it possible to do custom keymaps / modify Confluence menus in OpenElec? (I have a custom home menu that links up to my security cam video streams.)

EDIT

Hmm... interesting.

According to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php the 2955U scores 1523, my **EIGHT YEAR OLD** T7400 scores 1249, and the N2930 (low-end NUC) scores 1010. That's... surprising. Granted the GMA945 sucks... is the HD 4400 going to make the difference??

[Stereodude]

According to https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php the 2955U scores 1523, my **EIGHT YEAR OLD** T7400 scores 1249, and the N2930 (low-end NUC) scores 1010. That's... surprising. Granted the GMA945 sucks... is the HD 4400 going to make the difference??

Yes, the HD4400 / Quick Sync HW in the 2955U will make the difference. It can hardware decode almost any common video format (except for HEVC/H.265) up to UHD resolution. Also, the low-end NUC has a 2820, not a 2930.

[Sunflux]

Sorry, that was actually a typo - I meant N2830 (the spec I posted of 1010 was correct - the N2930 actually gets 1749). Supposedly there was an in-place change earlier this year from the N2820 to the N2830 with Quick Sync, although none of the documentation/official specs were updated. Lots of articles on this from April timeframe.

[Stereodude]

Sorry, that was actually a typo - I meant N2830 (the spec I posted of 1010 was correct - the N2930 actually gets 1749). Supposedly there was an in-place change earlier this year from the N2820 to the N2830 with Quick Sync, although none of the documentation/official specs were updated. Lots of articles on this from April timeframe.

If you look closer you'll find that the N2820 variant is still shipping and the N2830 version has yet to ship. Intel is using up the N2820 chips before they ship the N2830.

[Sunflux]

Geez - considering the announcement timeframe, I would have expected old stock to be depleted by early summer at latest! Regardless, learning that the N28x0 CPU is less powerful than the one I have (even if graphics are significantly more powerful) has tempered my enthusiasm for going that route. At least the CPU in the Chromebox is marginally more powerful. Now if only HP or Asus had put in an IR receiver like Intel learned to do, then it would have been perfect.

[Matt Devo]

Geez - considering the announcement timeframe, I would have expected old stock to be depleted by early summer at latest! Regardless, learning that the N28x0 CPU is less powerful than the one I have (even if graphics are significantly more powerful) has tempered my enthusiasm for going that route. At least the CPU in the Chromebox is marginally more powerful. Now if only HP or Asus had put in an IR receiver like Intel learned to do, then it would have been perfect.

if you read the NUC threads, lots of people are having issues with the built-in CIR. BIOS updates fix it for some people and break it for others. The ChromeBox with an external IR receiver (or BT remote) is a lot less problematic IMO. Only downside is lack of ability to power on when the box is completely off.

[Sunflux]

Yeah, I have that lack-of-power-on thing with my current NUC (model without CIR). I've been using a Rosewill true MCE receiver, the little one that plugs in a front USB jack (no cables), and it does at least turn on the NUC from sleep state. I have a spare and am hoping it would work similarly with the Chromebox... but despite the Rosewill being a kind of ideal solution for these mini systems, it's never made it to any hardware lists.