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Wolly
Senior Member
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Can you give us a more detailed description of your demands?
It's hard to recommend a "Best Media Box".
Do you need HD Audio? Blu-ray Menu? 3D? Online Streaming content?
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2014-12-04, 07:15
(This post was last modified: 2014-12-04, 07:16 by JuggZaPoppiN.)
Sorry. What I will be using it for is streaming hd movies, tv shows, music, possibly 4k movies, online tv, etc. Blue ray menu? Not exactly sure what that is, but it sounds awesome. Looking to install xmbc and have it look good with all the features, addons etc. Streaming hd is a must.
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2014-12-04, 11:16
(This post was last modified: 2014-12-04, 11:39 by wrxtasy.)
All XBMC install capable....
- Cheap and very capable of perfect video (no 4K) (overclocking recommended) = Raspberry Pi with a proper power supply.
- Cheap but without perfect video (24p syncing + de-interlacing problems) but with Extras (Netflix, Hulu, Games etc) = Android (insert device name of choice)
- Very couch friendly and family friendly, with remote included = Amazon Fire TV
- Most popular here on forum with perfect video playback (3D + 4K as well) + best bang for the buck = Chromebox running various versions of linux.
- Spend more $$$ than you need to just for XBMC playback, although full 3D plays perfect = i3 or greater NUC
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Thanks for the clarification. Such a shame, from my point of view, that Chromebox/Linux XBMC doesn't support 3D MVC.
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Maybe Intel will release a low cost CPU sometime in the future to Hardware decode H265 and MVC codecs.
Here's hoping !
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Wow...... Thank you wrxtasy. That is alot of information to take in. Honestly you list me on most of the decoding stuff as I am new to all this and never dabbled in it before. But if I understand you correct, if I get the chromebox the M075U for instance then I can watch anything including 3d and 4k? Also is it recommended to install Linux on it? Thank you.
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That article reads that it doesn't support the decoding of MVC streams. Does that mean I couldn't watch 3D movies via streaming? is there any other box that you would recommend over the chromebox? Just want to make sure what I get does everything I want it to do.
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2014-12-04, 17:39
(This post was last modified: 2014-12-04, 17:40 by wrxtasy.)
Are you going to be streaming high bitrate 3D (typically 35 - 45GB) Blu-Ray ISO image rips. ie 1 for 1 copies of a Blu-Ray disc encoded with the MVC codec ?
If yes then get a i3 NUC and run Windows 8.1 on it. Windows BluRay player software will then be needed to play these ISO's.
Most releases you find on the interwebs are 3D Half-SBS and they play fine on the Chromebox and also the cheap RPi.
The Chromebox Wiki needs a bit of editing with further expanded info me-thinks.
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Honestly I'm not sure what type of 3d it Will be. I saw on a video add-on called Phoenix that there was 3d movies to stream. I'm assuming the chromebox will work for that. I was also looking at downloading 3d movies and playing them off an external hd. It's that possible as well?
Sorry if all these questions get annoying. Just trying to wrap my head around all this.
Thank you again for your time on this. I really appreciate it.
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No idea about the add-on you mentioned and not particularly interested either.
If its an add-on to facilitate showing of pirate material it cannot be discussed here. Any further discussion will result in this thread being deleted as it is against XBMC / Kodi forum rules.
I will leave it at that.
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Gotcha. Any other suggestions I should look at over the chromebox. Fire instance, the mini neo x8h
