Hi, I'v been using ms media center with win7 running on Zotac Ion-ITX-A Aton N330 and never enjoyed it.
Last week I purchased a Raspberry pi and became familiar with XBMC.
I need your advice about hardware and software:
Option 1 - Zotac Ion-ITX-A Aton N330 + Win7 + XBMC
Option 2 - Zotac Ion-ITX-A Aton N330 + OpenELEC XBMC for ION 3.0.1
Option 3 - Raspbery Pi + OpenElec or Xbian or Rasbmc
I was testing Raspbery Pi + OpenElec and Xbian - both run "out of the box", movie run nice but the menu was little slow.
I also tested the Aton N330 + OpenELEC - and have two main problen - no internet (checked only wifi) and no CEC on my TVremote.
Please advice which combination is recomanded.
Looking forward for your advice.
Thanks,
Daniel
Welcome.
Option 2 all the way for you or even XBMCbuntu instead of Openelec. Though personally Im more of a Linux hands on and prefer to use minimal Ubuntu + XBMC. I have a ION 330 too.
uNi
Hi uNi, thanks for a quick reply.
I'll test your recomendation this weekend.
1. Does your TV remote is working CEC with your xbmc?
2. Do you use it as PVR allso? if yes, what TV-tuner do you have?
Daniel
1- Dont have cec (you need a adapter for ION on Rpi its not needed) but should work in xbmcbuntu for ION if you have the cec adapter.
2- Dont have PVR but again it should work as well.
uN
hi yall. sorry for the necromancy (bringing back a thread 2yrs old) but this is still a top hit on google & i'm probably not the only one feeling like their htpc is on its last legs. now that we have rpi2, NUCs, android sticks and boxes, and dedicated devices like weTek and Vero... i need a little help selecting the right hardware.
Quote:I need your advice about hardware and software:
Option 1 - Zotac Ion-ITX-A Aton N330 + Win7/8/10 + XBMC
Option 2 - Zotac Ion-ITX-A Aton N330 + OpenELEC 6.0.1 legacy (ion build) XBMC for ION 3.0.1
Option 3 - Raspbery Pi + OpenElec / osmc / kodiBuntu or Xbian or Rasbmc
NEW:
Option 4 - Raspberry Pi 2 + OpenElec
Option 5 - the plethora of generic andoird tv boxes
Option 6 - dedicated device like Vero and weTek
firstly, opt.1 should just be stricken. a
desktopOS has no place in the living room... we need an appliance. also i'm comfortable with linux & quite satisfied with openElec's performance and boot time.
my current situation & decision factors:
- NAS: 20TB raid | ubuntu LTS | NFS shares | mySQL-db ...
- livingRoom: zotac mag (atom/ion) | optoma hd26 | sony homeTheater 5.1 spdif
our atom/ion feels like its dying... so i figure the cheapest route is opt.4 (rpi2 -i already have) and something like an hdmi to spdif audio extractor (
40$ @amazon)
is it worth it to spend more (2-5x) on options opt.5 or 6 ?
(2016-02-01, 08:34)zosky Wrote: [ -> ]and something like an hdmi to spdif audio extractor (40$ @amazon)
ouch ! ... i paid $21.99 for an HDMI Audio Extractor for Alliexpress and it works perfectly (no power required either [optional if you need it, which i dont] )
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-ship...57632.html
also, buy a HDMI Male-to-Male Adapter ($3) to connect the audio extractor to the RPi2
thats great. 30$ for me ... so 10 less then what i was looking at but i really like that it has no power.
( stupid weak canadian dollar ... we may as well start using peanuts if it keeps falling )
oh and i guess that also means you're on-board with the pi2 solution
You can also buy the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage, as has been mentioned in the forum before:
Turtle Beach Audio Advantage
The problem with HDMI Audio Extractors is that they are in the middle of the HDMI chain. Depending on your combination of TV, Amp and Media Player it can work all right, not at all or something in between.
I have the three platforms you mention (ION, Pi 2 and Wetek Play). I would find it difficult to have to choose among them. Right now I am using more the Wetek because of the Sat Tuners I bought with it.
(2016-02-01, 09:20)visiondiez Wrote: [ -> ]You can also buy the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage, as has been mentioned in the forum before:
That doesn't have SPDIF (Or Optical Audio / TOSLINK) for 5.1 Channels ... from the specs it's 3.5mm 2.0 Stereo bleh!
(2016-02-01, 09:20)visiondiez Wrote: [ -> ]The problem with HDMI Audio Extractors is that they are in the middle of the HDMI chain. Depending on your combination of TV, Amp and Media Player it can work all right, not at all or something in between.
Mine works 100% fine .... HDMI out to the TV, Optical Out to the AMP, easy peasy
There are turtle beach spdif adaptors that work fine.
Anyway another option is
Chromebox (wiki) - I love them.
(2016-02-01, 09:47)SeVreN2013 Wrote: [ -> ]That doesn't have SPDIF (Or Optical Audio / TOSLINK) for 5.1 Channels ... from the specs it's 3.5mm 2.0 Stereo bleh!
You are absolutely right, it's the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II model that I wanted to link, that comes with the right optical SPDIF adapter:
http://www.turtlebeach.com/product-detai...icro-ii/31
But it seems difficult to find it at a good price nowadays.