HTPC for XBMC, Hulu and Netflix?
#1
Is there a cheaper option than a MacMini that can reliably run XBMC(1080p) Hulu HD with Hulu Desktop and Netflix streams? It seems the only bad thing about the Mini is the price. It's small, quiet and efficient and plays all of the above beautifully.

We currently run one in the living room but are looking to upgrade the bedroom. Should I just bite the bullit or will one of the Ion nettops work. It seems that Hulu can really be hit or miss on most of them.
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#2
If you are willing to stick with Windows 7 I think this would be fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as..._-83114087

In fact, if you have a 120hz TV I would prefer the Windows box because I don't think OSX can automatically switch to 24p....

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#3
Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out.
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#4
poofyhairguy Wrote:If you are willing to stick with Windows 7 I think this would be fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as..._-83114087

Thanks for this poofyhairguy, just what I was looking for. To be clear, would a box like this be capable of handling Netflix HD, since everything I've read leads me to believe that it won't be able to take advantage of the GPU as much as, say, XBMC or Flash (Hulu).

Thanks!

EDIT: After reading some of your other posts I'm led to believe you'd suggest something faster than a single 1.7GHz core (I think that's single core) to play "everything you can throw at it"?

I was going to buy a Lenovo Q150 Atom/ION box until a friend pointed me over here and I read about all the problems people we having with Netflix [HD] on Atom boxes. I'd love something in the same form factor hopefully at or below the $500 mark that can do all the things the original poster wanted (XBMC, Hulu, Netflix HD). Extra points for easy (e.g. [mostly?] pre-assembled).
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#5
darkness Wrote:After reading some of your other posts I'm led to believe you'd suggest something faster than a single 1.7GHz core (I think that's single core) to play "everything you can throw at it"?

Let me be clear.

The only thing I don't like the ION for currently is 1080p streaming content in Windows 7. Even though GPU decoding works, I feel it is not as efficient CPU wise as we have come to expect from XBMC and (in my experience with doing it) I feel that if you want to watch 1080p Flash (which is rare, but I like to stay at least one step of content) this Neo CPU is better that a Hyperthreaded Atom (even a dual core one). I mean, it aces a single core 1.6ghz which is all a single thread gets:

http://www.liliputing.com/2010/07/acer-a...more-23814

Netflix uses Silverlight which is even more dependent on single thread performance. But I think this box can do the job. I don't have a AMD Neo (yet) but based apon benchmarks and performance from my overclocked single core Atom I think it is a safe play for the price.

With that said, this box WILL NOT have enough power to CPU decode content. The exact line where you can easily decode 1080p on the CPU is around a 2.4 GHZ Core2Duo. Anything less won't cut it. For that reason I will say that the best CPU on the market for THAT task the i3 due to high power and low energy use.

For that in a small space, I say either get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856158015

Or get a last gen Mac Mini:

http://www.refurbishedmacbookdeals.com/a.../FC238LL/A

Both will play anything, like stuff DXVA doesn't support.

With that said, I have to add one more thing:

I personally think that the Netflix HD that Netflix allows over the internet is of a lower quality than given to set top boxes. I have tons of power to through at the problem (one of my HTPCs is a quad) but I can tell that my Samsung Blu Ray player (or my PS3) gets access to a higher quality stream than PCs can even get at. I guess they figure "if you are gonna watch it on a TV, they probably not gonna use a PC." Maybe Boxee will change that, or maybe TVs that stream Netflix will (because who has that much bandwidth?).

But no matter what my personal opinion is I would rather have an ION Box and my Samsung Blu Ray player than any HTPC that costs how much they cost combined because I know I get Netflix's best, but I can still play all my local content with ease in a wife friendly way (aka each box has a easy task and no mice and keyboards).

The game changer is Hulu, which is still mostly PC only. I think the box above can play Hulu better than ION and it is cheaper than a Mac Mini, while still being able to play the streams available from Netflix currently.

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#6
poofyhairguy Wrote:Netflix uses Silverlight which is even more dependent on single thread performance. But I think this box can do the job. I don't have a AMD Neo (yet) but based apon benchmarks and performance from my overclocked single core Atom I think it is a safe play for the price.

With that said, this box WILL NOT have enough power to CPU decode content. The exact line where you can easily decode 1080p on the CPU is around a 2.4 GHZ Core2Duo. Anything less won't cut it. For that reason I will say that the best CPU on the market for THAT task the i3 due to high power and low energy use.

For that in a small space, I say either get one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856158015

Or get a last gen Mac Mini:

http://www.refurbishedmacbookdeals.com/a.../FC238LL/A

Both will play anything, like stuff DXVA doesn't support.

With that said, I have to add one more thing:

I personally think that the Netflix HD that Netflix allows over the internet is of a lower quality than given to set top boxes. I have tons of power to through at the problem (one of my HTPCs is a quad) but I can tell that my Samsung Blu Ray player (or my PS3) gets access to a higher quality stream than PCs can even get at. I guess they figure "if you are gonna watch it on a TV, they probably not gonna use a PC." Maybe Boxee will change that, or maybe TVs that stream Netflix will (because who has that much bandwidth?).

Wow, that would be very irritating if true. I wonder if this could be observed by transfer rate over your Internet connection, comparing the PC rate to the set-top box with a sufficiently large sample. Interesting observation in any case.

Quote:But no matter what my personal opinion is I would rather have an ION Box and my Samsung Blu Ray player than any HTPC that costs how much they cost combined because I know I get Netflix's best, but I can still play all my local content with ease in a wife friendly way (aka each box has a easy task and no mice and keyboards).

The game changer is Hulu, which is still mostly PC only. I think the box above can play Hulu better than ION and it is cheaper than a Mac Mini, while still being able to play the streams available from Netflix currently.

I've seen you comment on the ION+Samsung Blu-ray combination. Interesting idea; will have to see if I can sell the significant other on it.

Thanks very much for the information and especially your recommendations. This is exactly what I was looking for.
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HTPC for XBMC, Hulu and Netflix?0