[hammerhead69]

Wulf - I'm new here too - 3 days -
All i can add is that i've had a boxee box since xmas day, it's been a nightmare for me, others are getting on well but i've had lots of bugs, like if you pause a film for 5 minutes, it won't re-start, the box freezes and needs re-boot........
library of films scrapes imdb on every start up so if you have a large film collection this can take a while,
myself and a number of others have not been able to hook up two external hard drives at the same time.....it will only read one or the other
hulu vudu netflix (whatever they are?) dont work in uk, not an issue for me i dont know what they are but lots of people in the forum were complaining about it, oh and utube has just been pulled also
music and photo playback was like going back to the days of a zx81
so my advise is to keep on looking past the boxee box

[javaman]

Anyway, it looks like the combo is over (links are dead). For reference, it was the Jetway Mini-Top Atom Dual-Core 525 NVIDIA ION2 with WiFi /Remote Control Mini Barebone and the other item in the combo was either a large or small SSD.

I have been searching the forums and there seems to be lots of info on OS choices for this particular box. I was wondering if anyone had a best all around distro choice:

(1) Sound works
(2) XBMC only on top of minimal linux (no windows)
(3) must be wife-proof like my old xbox 1 with softmod (no command line things and such)
(4) included remote works

There is a jetway thread with lots of info http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=78722 (thanks to all contributors on there) highlights include:
(*) xbmcfreak
(*) base linux ubuntu install (around page 10+)
(*) for CDless USB install: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
(*) One of these?: http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/live/
(*) info on settings to optimize and prolong SSD life

but I was hoping poofyhairguy had one particular direction in mind.

[akelley]

Yeah, I jumped on the Newegg deal with the 16GB Kington SSD and it's still sitting in my office while I figure out what is the best Live distro go with. Like JavaMan, I'm looking for the barebones, appliance like setup - definitely wife/kids friendly. Since my days using unix have long since passed, I might as well be a complete noob to the various linux distros out there. And yes, seeing as each distro can address specific hardware configurations, if someone could point out which one works specifically for the Jetway with the 4 items Javaman lists above, that would be great!

Also, as a side, anyone know of a simple remote like the boxee box has (minus the keyboard) that works in XBMC? These MCE remotes have way too many buttons on them that don't do anything in XBMC, and worse, in Windows can trigger Windows Media Center to load, which really kills the movie watching experience.

[Beer40oz]

Yeah, I jumped on the Newegg deal with the 16GB Kington SSD and it's still sitting in my office while I figure out what is the best Live distro go with. Like JavaMan, I'm looking for the barebones, appliance like setup - definitely wife/kids friendly. Since my days using unix have long since passed, I might as well be a complete noob to the various linux distros out there. And yes, seeing as each distro can address specific hardware configurations, if someone could point out which one works specifically for the Jetway with the 4 items Javaman lists above, that would be great!

Also, as a side, anyone know of a simple remote like the boxee box has (minus the keyboard) that works in XBMC? These MCE remotes have way too many buttons on them that don't do anything in XBMC, and worse, in Windows can trigger Windows Media Center to load, which really kills the movie watching experience.

This is how to disable windows media center. I also disabled windows media player (I hate it , it changes my folder art in my music that I fixed already) anyways hope this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoAsaAIf3T8

[tboooe]

Sorry for this noob question..

I have stayed up learning all of this new knowledge tonight, and I'm so intrigued by it all. Right now I'm using my Radeon 5770 HD on my PC to output HDMI to my HDTV I bought 4 months ago.

and now I'm finding out you can do this WIRELESSLY?? With a NAS and an HTPC?? It's insane to me.. and I'm in love. I was looking before at things like PopBox and Boxee Box..

Was I in the wrong direction then? haha

So basically you use something like this Jetway to run XBMC on.. and this thing will wirelessly grab and populate XBMC from a NAS? like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822155009

Do I even need something like that or will an internal Hard Drive work if it's shared?

I have bought and returned the WDTV Live, Popbox, and Boxee. I now have an Acer Aspire Revo 3700 running Win7 accessing my NAS which stores my music, pictures, family videos, and movies. Though there is more setup required, I enjoy the fact that I can customize so many different things to suit my family's needs. Needless to say the performance is much better too! My advice would be to get a bare bones HTPC, load XBMC and have fun! I would love to try running XBMC Live but its been many moons since I have played around with Unix. I hear XBMC Live is more responsive.

Regarding your last question, there are many advantages to an NAS (backup, always available, less power, etc) but if you already have a PC that is on all the time then a cheaper solution would be to just get an external HDD.

[Beer40oz]

It still needs RAM right?

IMO the ZOTAC HDND01 would be a better deal in regard to bang for the buck. $239 Free Shipping Includes 160GB hard drive and 2GB DDR2 memory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856173001

It's $280 now..... This one sounds pretty good too. Wonder how good it is.

[FishOil]

It's $280 now..... This one sounds pretty good too. Wonder how good it is.

Arrived and all setup. Because I now have 2 of them its kinda nice to make a cloned backup and be able to use it on either one.

The first one has been excellent for almost a year now with just XBMC on it.

Suspend and resume from remote work with a bit of tweaking. Wireless was replaced with an tiny external USB (ZOTAC wireless sucks). Plays ANYTHING I give it. ANYTHING!

I didnt bother setting up navigation sounds on this one because to tell you the truth it just gets on my nerves after a while with all the ping, pong, swish, woot. Also Navigation volume does not track Movie volume(XBMC bug IMO).

[sabre364]

Arrived and all setup. Because I now have 2 of them its kinda nice to make a cloned backup and be able to use it on either one.

The first one has been excellent for almost a year now with just XBMC on it.

Suspend and resume from remote work with a bit of tweaking. Wireless was replaced with an tiny external USB (ZOTAC wireless sucks). Plays ANYTHING I give it. ANYTHING!

I didnt bother setting up navigation sounds on this one because to tell you the truth it just gets on my nerves after a while with all the ping, pong, swish, woot. Also Navigation volume does not track Movie volume(XBMC bug IMO).

I am about to pull the trigger on a zotac mag and plan on running a minimal ubuntu/xmbc install with (initially an external mybook drive followed by a synology nas).

Could you elaborate on suspend and resume issues? What remotes/wireless keyboard mouse did you purchase? I figure I will need both a remote and a keyboard/mouse combo.