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Hi,
I am looking for a new Openelec/XBMC device for my living room.
I already have a raspberry Pi, running the latest version of Openelec, and although I absolutely love it, it just seems slightly a little bit too laggy to be used as my main box.
I was wondering whether there are any other recommended, more powerful, devices that would give me a fast experience.
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I recommend a small regular computer.
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I went from ATV1 (with crystalbuntu) to RaspBMC on a Pi and just recently got both of the most talked about devices for XBMC, the DN2820FYKH NUC and the Amazon Fire TV. Both of those are worlds faster and more responsive than either ATV1 or the Pi. Since you mention that you want to use Openelec, it probably means you do not mind its drawbacks (lack of the ability to run other services), in which case I would just get the NUC and install Openelec on it. It'll run circles around what you currently have and can be used as a regular desktop when needed. It is a bit more expensive than a Pi, but then again, not much.
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Does that NUC play well with Openelec?
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Yes NUC is perfect with OpenElec. But NUC also costs more than FireTv. For the $150-$200 budget, which is what NUC will cost, consider the Asus Chromebox also, which is newer/faster than NUC but lacks built-in IR.
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As others have said an Intel NUC.
But if you want to limit it specifically to Arm chips like the R-Pi then the SolidRun CuBox-i series is the best option, it has Openelec, GeeXbox already available for it though they are in an alpha state. The i4 hardware is a fast quad core CPU and good GPU, feels as good as XBMC running on a PC. Comes with IR, ethernet, wireless, optical, HDMI, USB and SD slot all built in.
However just to re-iterate the CuBox-i isn't as mature as the R-Pi software wise or the x86 NUC, so your jumping into cutting edge stuff.
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2014-06-03, 17:32
(This post was last modified: 2014-06-03, 17:35 by Starstream.)
@ bogolisk yes HDMI-CEC is supported and works with libCEC.
@ elsmandino they do sell/ship to the UK (unless they are out of stock), all you need is a regular 2 to 3 pin adapter for the euro power cord.
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un1versal
Out of Memory (1939–2016)
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(2014-06-02, 14:55)elsmandino Wrote: Hi,
I am looking for a new Openelec/XBMC device for my living room.
I already have a raspberry Pi, running the latest version of Openelec, and although I absolutely love it, it just seems slightly a little bit too laggy to be used as my main box.
I was wondering whether there are any other recommended, more powerful, devices that would give me a fast experience.
I hear Amazon firetv is a decent platform, but I wouldn't buy android and I wouldn't run android + xbmc (just a preference really) for myself or a PI solely on intent to run xbmc, for me thers no real x86 alternative if you want performance.
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Having done a little more research, I am starting to think that the Chromebox might be the best choice for me at the moment - latest generation processor and the SSD/RAM both included.
However, one of the most interesting things for me is that it appears that you can dual-boot between Chrome OS and Openelec.
Am I correct in thinking that you can run Netflix off Chrome OS as an app? This would be great for me as I was thinking that I would have to buy a separate device just to keep on watching Netflix - I did try getting Netflix up and running on XBMCbuntu but it just wasn't usable.
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un1versal
Out of Memory (1939–2016)
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2014-06-04, 17:58
(This post was last modified: 2014-06-04, 18:08 by un1versal.)
Please dont buy some hardware assuming XBMC supports it, Especially Linux + Netflix + Openelec or Some other Linux + XBMC, I am not familiar with Chrome OS, idk if XBMC runs on it for e.g.
I have heard that, there is an alternative to silverlight (which netfix requires) but again, you should confirm with openelec or with Chrome OS they actually support Netfilx, because Openelec is Linux based, So go check.. Or that you can get Netflix working under Linux before you make some commitment to some hardware expecting all your other non xbmc things to work.