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Hi.
I've currently got a QNAP TS-209 II and i'm looking to get XBMC is it worth getting one of these pre-configured boxes on eBay? or is it better to get Ouya? I don't want to spend loads just mainly watching *.mkv files and *.avi files.
I'm basically reading some of these forum posts and it's confusing the hell out of me lol so if someone can just give some recommendation i basically have a £150 budget for this.
Cheers
Alex
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negge
yo guysv7may bd latr tomorroe
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I'd recommend getting a cheap PC instead of some pre-built crap from Ebay or an Android device.
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Ah okay - any particular specs, out of curiosity has anyone used a VM to run XBMC?
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I have personal experience bit streaming audio to a receiver with a intel NUC, works great! The issue is that some mkv's from DVD's have an issue with green blocks in the image. The Intel mpeg2 hardware decoder has issues, also verified on a different intel platform(desktop HD4000) So far the Nvidia 610GT works better, and supports LPCM far better than intel.
If you are only playing Blueray MKV's and using your receiver to do the audio decoding, and storing your files external on a usb hard drive or network drive, the intel NUC is great. If you are going to play a large variety of files and use your receiver to decode, and store your files externally, then a intel NUC with a faster processor will allow you to use software decode and play anything you want.
Likely though more costly initially, the solution you will be happy with over the long term would be a real computer. Something like this list using Newegg item numbers:
N82E16813138386 Motherboard 40 bucks
N82E16819116889 CPU 50 bucks
N82E16820148689 Memory 20 bucks
N82E16820211717 SSD for installing OpenELEC 45 bucks
N82E16811144231 HTPC Case with Power Supply 60 bucks
Total, about 210 dollars.
You can substitute for the motherboard and processor item : N82E16813138393 for 70 bucks.
Total with embedded intel Celeron is 195 bucks.
OpenELEC with work fine on a usb thumb drive, BUT how long will it last? Thus the reason for the small sad. And that's kinda the theme with using standard parts, you can swap out as needed. both of those motherboards will take a graphics card, with might be needed when HDMI 2.0 hits retail next year. Ultra High Definition anyone?
I listed specific items for demonstration purposes, anything similar will make a good OpenELEC box. You could shop other places and find some used parts as well to control costs.
If someone sees this, and needs to have XBMC to decode to LPCM with greater than 96k and/or >6 channel audio, then add a Nvidia 610GT graphics card. Intel has certain limitations when it comes to LPCM.
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+1 for NUC. Have a Celeron and an i3 box, both with OpenELEC, and they work great. If I had to do it over, I'd have just done Celeron for both and saved some money.
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