[aeropriest]

Thank RockerC

I think I could have chosen the subject for this better, ZOTAC looks good, it seems to have similar dimensions as EzeeCube (140x140x45mm) and it almost same price as EzeeCube (without the 1TB hard disk). We will have actual photos of the box in few of weeks and will post them here.

As I mentioned earlier, EzeeCube comes with 'Device Development Kit' (talented hardware engineers could use this DDK to build their own add-ons for EzeeCube e.g. home automation module, game console etc.).

Building hardware for a start-up is hard. We tried to work with wandboard but neither costs or hardware interface was making it viable option. The motivation to build our own box was to simplify the user experience, something that moms and grand-moms can setup and hope they can operate EzeeCube like their VCR or TV.

To further improve the user experience, we are greatly focus on extending XBMC, EzeeCube would come with all photos, videos etc source already setup, web server on to automatically connect with phones/tables (yet to see what Lenovo has done). We also are working on a new skin for XBMC that would make navigation easier, will post screenshot/video of skin soon in the skins thread. Please find some feature details posted here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=182563

Appreciate all the input from XBMC community, please let us know more so we could make this open-source, open-standard box easier for home users.

[aeropriest]

Further to my last post, please refer to below thread for EzeeCube skin screenshots.

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=183706

As some of you asked before, we have the board working and EzeeCube case done, please find below photos of the PCB. Front has an IR receiver and rear has
-2USB inputs
-1HDMI out
-1Optical audio out
-in-built power supply
-NIC input
-Power button



and below is the design of the case, some of features you may notice
-aluminium exterior
-top surface is Qi enabled to charge Qi enabled phones
-'pocket' on the top allows to secure additional accessories (Lego accessories mentioned before)
-transparent portion that glows when phone syncs/charges

[nickr]

I hope you can turn the 'glow' off. Most people don't want that on a htpc.

[Hedda]

For similar types of questions and answers also see these other threads for ongoing discussions
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=170704
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=183989
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184033

[aeropriest]

Hedda

Thank you very much for those posts, they are interesting projects and i have left them a note if we can use their boxes instead (given a choice, I would never build hardware, I am developer and would like to do what i do best). I hope some of them reply and I am hoping for

1. Either i provide them drawings, prototype and specs of hardware i have built and they go production
2. Or they build STB 'Lego' unit for EzeeCube that I can build and produce cheaper

I am based in Hong Kong and have applied to http://haxlr8r.com accelerator program, got good response from them and hoping next batch we will be in.

Though seems like some of those threads are cooling down a bit, last week I went back to my cave and coded non stop 90hours and managed to finished beta of EzeeSync app, please check out below thread, Would love to hear features you guys would like

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184114

[nickr]

You have heard plenty about features that are wanted, but stony silence in response from you.

[aeropriest]

We are working hard on the hardware features you guys suggested and should have most of them incorporated soon. As of now, following is being tested

- Qi module for wireless phone charging
- Boot XBMC from SD-Card
- 100mbps NIC
- WiFi and Bluetooth
- Pogo based 'Lego' connection with accessories

In my last post, I referred to features for remote app on iPhone/Andriod, below are the links to beta of the app

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVa1LpTgWn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4k6n5q3TBs

Working on finishing the new XBMC skin for EzeeCube, would post the link to demo video soon.

[joelbaby]

- Pre-sales will start mid of Feb at http://www.ezeecube.com and would be taking it on Kickstarter mid of March
- Quad core+1TB (1.2ghz) version would be at USD249 (hopefully) while we still working with Freescale for better pricing of dual core (1ghz)

For this price, why wouldn't I just get a Utilite Pro?

[nickr]

We are working hard on the hardware features you guys suggested and should have most of them incorporated soon. As of now, following is being tested

- Qi module for wireless phone charging
- Boot XBMC from SD-Card
- 100mbps NIC
- WiFi and Bluetooth
- Pogo based 'Lego' connection with accessories

In my last post, I referred to features for remote app on iPhone/Andriod, below are the links to beta of the app

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVa1LpTgWn4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4k6n5q3TBs

Working on finishing the new XBMC skin for EzeeCube, would post the link to demo video soon.

Come on, what about

audio passthrough up to hdaudio
24Hz (actually 23.976) perfect playback
deinterlacing


And how is the sync software different to something like owncloud?

---

One more thing, almost no one who uses xbmc seriously uses a mouse. Why is your mouse pointer so prominent?

Show us the remote!

---

Oh yeah I keep meaning to ask, where are the specs of this "lego" interface? Is there any commitment from other manufacturers to support it?

[Hedda]

- Boot XBMC from SD-Card

Warning! You should absolutely not boot XBMC from a SD-card by default as standard! You should only have that as an option for developers.

SD-cards and SD-card readers are slow compared to onboard NAND memory, and worse is that SD-card have limited writes and the file system can become corrupted if misused.

Too much logging, caching, memory paging/swapping, I/O errors on power-loss/shutdown or startup, in-memory issues, and other read/write issues can all destroy or damage any type of flash-memory or corrupt the file-system, but SD-cards are especially vulnerable, and embedded systems without battery backup are in highest risk for this.

[aeropriest]

For this price, why wouldn't I just get a Utilite Pro?

Utilite is great box, I am techy user and probably would do better with wandboard and get more value for money

EzeeCube is targeting home users who would like to backup the photos, videos and contacts from their phones

Goal is make it easier for home users, EzeeCube has 1TB drive and with all this price is same for Utilitie or Wandbard (add power supply, SD card etc). I had long discussion with CompuLab (Utilite parent company) to get the board from them, but did not work out.

For this price, why wouldn't I just get a Utilite Pro?

Utilite is great box, I am techy user and probably would do better with wandboard and get more value for money

EzeeCube is targeting home users who would like to backup the photos, videos and contacts from their phones

Goal is make it easier for home users, EzeeCube has 1TB drive and with all this price is same for Utilitie or Wandbard (add power supply, SD card etc). I had long discussion with CompuLab (Utilite parent company) to get the board from them, but did not work out.

Come on, what about

audio passthrough up to hdaudio
24Hz (actually 23.976) perfect playback
deinterlacing

This should be in EzeeCube, no doubt. Checking the chip and licensing requirements, should have update next week.

And how is the sync software different to something like owncloud?

Home users have some serious amount of photos and cloud isn't free either. EzeeCube is different because

We have finished integrating database and JSON support and now working on content management features such as

- Organize photos/videos based on locations, events, dates, tags and albums
- Organize photos/videos based on contacts faces
- Find and recommend users to remove duplicate/similar photos
- Find and recommend users to remove random photos received via whasapp, email etc.
- Slide show with music, pan-and-zoom and other image effects


We are targeting home users and to make the user experience simpler, we are integrating above with all the features of XBMC into a under $250 hardware linux (yocto) box (details available here). The box will only run XBMC and would come preinstalled with all sources, skin and libraries setup out of the box.

Users would need to install the 'EzeeSync' app on their smart phone or tablets that would automatically find the XBMC on EzeeCube and start syncing content. More information and screenshots of Skin and app as well as progress of the project is available on Facebook page here

One more thing, almost no one who uses xbmc seriously uses a mouse. Why is your mouse pointer so prominent?

That is the phone app called EzeeSync,

Main features of this app include

- Auto discovery of XBMC running on EzeeCube
- Auto sync of photos, videos and contents from smart devices
- Browse XBMC content + photos, videos and contents.
- An easily accessible slide down remote control window for XBMC from anywhere in the app
- Landscape view for easy browsing through big media libraries
- One touch return to home screen
- Display media content into groups e.g. photos are organised into Albums, Dates, Locations, Tags
- UPnP playback (next version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VRM9HOfo_k is the XBMC skin we developed for EzeeCube

Show us the remote!

---

Oh yeah I keep meaning to ask, where are the specs of this "lego" interface? Is there any commitment from other manufacturers to support it?

'lego' DDK would come with PCB for attaching other hardware e.g. camera, sensors through USB interface on board. This PCB could interface with main EzeeCube through pogo pins exposed at the bottom. We will be posting specs and details on our website in few weeks.

We are not working on IR remote for EzeeCube yet, we counting on CEC and remote app on EzeeSync,

Warning! You should absolutely not boot XBMC from a SD-card by default as standard! You should only have that as an option for developers.

Thanks Hedda, point very well noted.

Please also let me know your opinion and thoughts on EzeeSync app (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4k6n5q3TBs) and EzeeCube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VRM9HOfo_k) skin

[Hedda]

And how is the sync software different to something like owncloud?

Home users have some serious amount of photos and cloud isn't free either.

ownCloud http://owncloud.org is free and open source software so you could too use that as a base on EzeeCube

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OwnCloud and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fr..._computing

[aeropriest]

Thanks for sharing Hedda, this would be great. We were looking at amazon glacier but this one is even better. How nice it would be if users somehow break their cube, we ship users new one with all their data as it was.

Now I am taking a break from coding and trying find ways to socialise the idea with crowd for kickstarter campaign, we are looking specially at

- moms and other home users
- existing XBMC users
- people who have jail broken their appleTV

Would love to hear if you guys have any advise about best way to do this.

Posting on XBMC Facebook page would help?

[joelbaby]

I am really confused why you would put a 1TB hard disk in this device.
Why not just put in a small (32GB) SATA SSD.

Then ... make a special boot SD card (because i.mx6 must boot from SD).

Boot from SD, but then run XBMC from the SSD. Will be much faster.
You could even make the SD multi-boot and have more operating systems on the SSD.

For media files, user can simply attach a USB hard disk. USB2.0 (on i.mx6) is fine for watching movies.

[aeropriest]

- Boot XBMC from SD-Card

Warning! You should absolutely not boot XBMC from a SD-card by default as standard! You should only have that as an option for developers.

SD-cards and SD-card readers are slow compared to onboard NAND memory, and worse is that SD-card have limited writes and the file system can become corrupted if misused.