[spartan711]

Hi everyone,

I've been on this website for a while, educating myself about XBMC. I am wondering if I should make one now, or later, as there are many exciting devices coming to the market.

Option 1:

Boxee Box. Runs on tegra2 platform, which can "play 1080p with a bitrate from 10-20. This seems ideal. However, I want to be able to run the aeon skin, which requires 3-D capable graphics. I am wondering if the boxee box will be capable.

Option 2:

The ION 2 is coming soon (Q1), but apparently it is not a chipset, and just a video card. I am very interested in minimal power, minimal noise combo, and in my thinking, having the ION would be better than having a super video card.

Option 3:

The new Intel motherboards (Pine Trail). Now a valid build could include one of these, with a broadcom hd decoder. However, my question is, will the onboard graphics leave enough oomph for the Aeon skin?

Option 4:

Don't buy new - buy old cheap! Currently, I am considering building an ION chipset w/ dual core Atom 1.6 Ghz, WITH a broadcom hd decoder. In my thinking, this will allow the ION chipset to focus on the graphics, so there is no lag even for the future, and the broadcom hd decoder to focus on the video.


Also, I am planning on booting from flash drive, and accessing files from a server connected with gigabit ethernet. Is this viable? As is will the Aeon skin still be smooth and responsive, with no lag? This is to reduce moving parts inside the box, and energy/heat.

Overall, I am just looking for an opinion on what I should do, with so many choices. I also apologize if I have a mistake in my knowledge - just trying to learn!

[succo]

ahem... i'd have a little question on option 4
do you plan to be using video acceleration and opengl intensive tasks at the same time? i mean, do you plan to be playing an hd video while playing with menus on aeon? if not, if you'll be running only one task at a time (hd video or opengl) then ion alone is more than enough
if you're looking for the future, there is no way you can judge it now... it's true, you can run accelerated hd video on some 5 years old hardware if you've got the right stuff (vdpau card), but what you want from us is just a bet

[Kali]

4, crystalhd is useless with ion chipset, consider also the atom 230

PineTrail didn't support HDMI

for futur-proof take a look of coming mini-itx with intel H55 chipset, which support bitstreaming hd audio

[althekiller]

Buy a crystal ball.

[spartan711]

Thanks guys! Actually, bitstreaming isn't too big a deal for me, because for blu-ray playback I have a ps3. And until they start broadcasting tv with hd audio, which will probably take a while, I should be fine with playback of DD or DTS.

http://www.pureoverclock.com/story.php?id=4295

is this what you were talking about Kali? I must admit, it seems great. I see it says Open GL 2.1, however. Will this be enough to run the Aeon, or any future skin decently? And with this mobo it seems I wouldn't even need a broadcom decoder, as it's built in hardware would decode x264. Can anyone elaborate on this?