Kodi Community Forum

Hi,

I've been using an acer box with the old Nvidia Ion GPU for several years with open elec. Its run awesome but its now beginning to choke on atypical encodings and openelec is going to stop supporting it soon. So I'm looking for a replacement.

How I use it
1) Primarily I stream movies and TV off a NAS (robust gigabit wired network). Many of these are my blu rays I've burned as .ISO. No 3D. Movies are played via HDMI to a Denon reciever which handles the audio (so pass through audio will work fine). The denon switches the source to a projector.
2) Some ad-on use- mostly video streamers, trailers etc. Also run some basic home automation with the ISY add on
3) This is a home theater box being used for a projection system controlled solely by a MCE remote and the whole thing is in a cabinet.
4) Occasionally play some music with visualizations

What I want
1) Fast interface with responsive support of all skins
2) Need seamless playback of all formats. It must be able to do blu-ray .ISO and ideally be able to handle the menu system
3) Some future proofing with 4k
4) Play well with the MCE remote or ideally its own built in remote reciver
5) Suspend or hibernate without issue (this was a big pain in my Asus that took awhile to lock down)
6) small form factor (I love my current form factor)
7) Run cool and quiet. The room is really quiet and even in a cabinet I can hear the Asus fan sometimes. So ideally fanless,but.. the cabinet can heat up. I have an arctic box that runs silent and cool so I know it can be done
8) I'd like to keep it around $200 but I'd be willing to go up quite a bit for the right device

Thanks
M

buy a Haswell Celeron based setup now (ChromeBox, HP G260, etc) and upgrade to something 4K capable later on once the dust settles. Nothing you buy today meets all of your requirements and will handle 4K at 60Hz, save for possibly the Nvidia Shield TV, but that's still immature and has its own issues. A Haswell Celeron setup running OpenELEC will be rock solid for everything you need, up to/including 4Kp30 h264 content.

Matt. Thanks for the quick reply.

Will the interface run smoothly with some of the different skins (I currently use ACE but was planning on exploring some of the options)? When I did my own research before I posted I got the impression that that is a chromebox weak spot

M

(2015-08-19, 23:08)mcoto Wrote: [ -> ]Matt. Thanks for the quick reply.

Will the interface run smoothly with some of the different skins (I currently use ACE but was planning on exploring some of the options)? When I did my own research before I posted I got the impression that that is a chromebox weak spot

M

I'm not aware of any skins which don't run perfectly smoothly on a ChromeBox -- GUI performance has always been an area which the Haswell Celeron has excelled compared to ARM-based and BayTrail Atom/Celeron-based setups.

I use 4 haswell based boxes in my house running combinations of openelec and windows.. All can handle any skin including the very heavy aeon nox skins like the madnox and silvo Mod versions. Which I think are the hardest to run.

awesome. thanks. Any particular chromebox better/cheaper than the others?

M

(2015-08-20, 00:49)mcoto Wrote: [ -> ]awesome. thanks. Any particular chromebox better/cheaper than the others?

M

depends on your location. My preference is for the Asus, since it's the quietest, and in most cases, the cheapest.

Also, sending you a PM

Thanks

M