[Sniffer77]

Hi all
What's your thought on this for xbmc rather than nuc i5?
I know possibly the cost is a draw back but other than that what's your thoughts ?
Looking at 8gb 1tb version at a reduced costs.
Can It do everything a nuc would , picture quality , sound etc.
Want my movies on the large harddrive and other boxes in house to view the content etc.
My choice of a new box from nuc dn2820 is changing all the time but I'm after one to future proof for a few years in terms of quality and improved formats etc
Thanks

[wrxtasy]

Firstly you have got your Apple Hardware mixed up:

Its either an 21.5" i5 iMac (Late 2013), the one with the integrated display or a i5 Mac Mini (2014) - the same size as a Intel NUC.

Both will play anything a NUC does. However, Apple does not provide support for HD-audio passthrough in their audio API, CoreAudio.
This is not a XBMC or Kodi limitation, but an OS X one.
You can bypass these limitation if you run Openelec on the Mac, which can also be setup in a dual boot configuration:
http://openelec.tv/forum/66-multiboot/69...-mini-2012

Both also have Haswell Intel HD 5000 graphics so you get perfectly synced 24p video playback.
A very good GPU for Kodi video this Haswell one !

The CPU/GPU combo is far more powerful in the Mac Mini than the DN2820.

I would in fact not recommend either if you want to future proof as full Hardware decoding of H265 video is just around the corner when Intel release their Skylake microarchitecture likely late in 2015.
The quad core iMac will be able to decode low bitrate H265, the dual core Mac Mini will probably struggle.

Unless you really need a NUC or Mac I recommend a cheaper Intel Haswell GPU equipped Chromebox running Openelec 5.0 - Kodi. It will handle virtually any video you want to throw at it (minus H265), does 4K@24/30fps video and does not have the HD Audio limitations of the Macs.
Buy a Intel Skylake Mac Mini when they are released, anything before this will be obsolete quickly.

http://kodi.wiki/view/ASUS_Chromebox

[Sniffer77]

Hi sorry yeah it was the mini I was looking at .
Looks like it's a bit limited to use then.

Reason I'm looking at a nuc is I like the dn2820 the fact it has ir built in and can install internal hardrive easy enough.
I only want to upgrade so sd picture looks better and to build up my movie library on it.

Will have a look at the asus but not sure about hdd upgrades and ir on it.
Cheers

[noggin]

The N2820 has very limited quality upscaling if you are watching SD. You are better off with a Chromebox as the Haswell GPU is more powerful so can do a decent Lanczos 3 scale of SD content to HD (the N2820 can't do that and is stuck with Bilinear I think). You can pair a Chromebox with a PS3 Blu-ray remote which uses Bluetooth if you don't like IR dongles.

[wrxtasy]

I think you might be better looking at a device that is a combo of the Chromebox and a NUC.
(I would not be basing my decision just because a device has IR or such built in, USB dongles are cheap for IR and Bluetooth.)

Its the Zotac BI320, with the Haswell GPU and Internals of the Chromebox but with extras like Optical out and the ability to mount a 2.5" Internal HDD. You can even get the cheap Bare bones version (on sale sometimes for $80 from Newegg) and just put a 2.5" HDD in it and run Openelec and you are good to go. That would tie you over till Intel Skylake and h265 becomes mainstream.

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=...pid1871938