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I am torn between 3 boxes.

1. Pivos XIOS-DS
2. G-BOX MX2
3. ATV1200


I love Pivos and their products as well as support on their forums, however I am not wanting to buy something that will become outdated (Due to a new box on newer MX/M6 chipset coming out) and be stuck with a slower single core procesor.

I also love the price and features (Dual core MX chip) of the GBOX MX2 but worried it may not get a Linux port/firmware for XBMC, and it seems to be hit or miss on quality and working of XBMC on it.

Then there is the ATV1200, great price and nice looking box. Plus it has the added extra of j1nx working on a Linux firmware/XBMC port (See his youtube video to see it up and working) but it isn't available anywhere in the US and best place to get it is aliexpress (Shudder).


Any opinions, or thoughts? Help push me in a direction lol.

Do the two non pivos options seem to do XBMC well on andriod so I can "tough it out" until a linux port comes? Do you think one or the other will not get a port? Has anyone in the US ordered a ATV1200 from somewhere and not get raped on the price/shipping? Currently you can get it for $120 DHL shipped... it is tempting.
I would wait.
The state of Android & XBMC is still in flux and still in alpha.

And, horsepower-wise, the shipping Android kits are just *about* at the point where you can play uncompressed 1080P. I'm hopeful Ouya will be capable of this, but not certain. I'll test it when I get mine in a couple weeks. (Note that Ouya currently doesn't handle multi-channel audio very well).

But ... 6 months from now, you'll have Tegra4 / Arm A15 hardware that will play any 1080P stream known to man. You'll also have 22nm Intel Atom processors that will make an equivalent HTPC that will also play anything and sip on power.

So, I'd recommend waiting as well.
HAAHHA, play uncompressed 1080P, do you have any idea what the bandwidth requirements are for that. I'm sure you really mean software decode instead of uncompressed Smile
Clarification: raw 1080P rips. i.e. ~30Mbps

But, glad to be amusing. Wink
(2013-06-12, 02:46)davilla Wrote: [ -> ]I would wait.

I don't want to wait more than say a month... I do really need a media player as I am using PLEX right now and it is great but my LG TV doesn't work with a lot of my content and of course NONE of my ISO's (I have ripped about 400 of my DVD's to my NAS)

And yes I know android XBMC doesn't play ISO's currently. (One of the reasons I would like it to be Linux)
(2013-06-12, 02:46)davilla Wrote: [ -> ]I would wait.

Until October/November? That seems such a long way off.
Someone else said October/November, I never gave a date Smile
so davilla, what are we "waiting" for, quite interested in hearing what's up your sleeve if anything, hehe.
not a chance, don't want to tip off the cloners Smile But rest assured, Pivos is not idling . The mancave is full of interesting toys right now.
(2013-06-14, 04:54)mockingbirdblue Wrote: [ -> ]so davilla, what are we "waiting" for, quite interested in hearing what's up your sleeve if anything, hehe.
I have no specific inside information, but the upcoming generation of Android boxes should begin featuring processors in the ARM A15 class.

These would be Tegra 4, Exynos-octa, or equivalent.

We might even see some with Intel Atom processors.

So, yeah, we're at the tail end of the Tegra 3 generation. In a couple of months you should start seeing the next-gen stuff start rolling.
(2013-06-14, 06:56)Alchete Wrote: [ -> ]
(2013-06-14, 04:54)mockingbirdblue Wrote: [ -> ]so davilla, what are we "waiting" for, quite interested in hearing what's up your sleeve if anything, hehe.
I have no specific inside information, but the upcoming generation of Android boxes should begin featuring processors in the ARM A15 class.

These would be Tegra 4, Exynos-octa, or equivalent.

We might even see some with Intel Atom processors.

So, yeah, we're at the tail end of the Tegra 3 generation. In a couple of months you should start seeing the next-gen stuff start rolling.

Given that Pivos/Davilla has put a lot of work into Amlogic I would guess that Amlogic's next series are what's in line.

A lot of those other chips are not designed for set top box usage, they are meant specifically for tablets/phones and may be missing hardware decoding support for some codecs and lack support for ethernet or other little things.

Of course that wont stop some companies from throwing out Android TV boxes out there but without someone familiar with XBMC working on the product like Pivos do, I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.
Gbox is fine with J1NX linux build, but if you want Android then the ATV1200 is great when set up properly. Cant Comment on the PIVOS as don't own one.
(2013-06-14, 12:08)Starstream Wrote: [ -> ]Given that Pivos/Davilla has put a lot of work into Amlogic I would guess that Amlogic's next series are what's in line.

A lot of those other chips are not designed for set top box usage, they are meant specifically for tablets/phones and may be missing hardware decoding support for some codecs and lack support for ethernet or other little things.

Of course that wont stop some companies from throwing out Android TV boxes out there but without someone familiar with XBMC working on the product like Pivos do, I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.
Tegra 3 had all those features you mentioned. There's no reason to suspect Tegra 4 doesn't. [I'm too lazy to look it up]

But, for cost and integration reasons you're probably right that it'll be Amlogic's next-gen chip -- A15 or equivalent.

And, if all of these strike out, for a few hundred more there's always Intel's NUC, which also gives you an i3/i5 class computer. And, their new Haswell versions should launch sometime in Q3.
I ended up getting both a Pivos Xios(for a clean Linux build), and a ATV1200(For android playing and eventually a Linux build thanks to J1nx!! =D).


The Pivos does pretty damned good for what it costs I must say.
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