[pfjborg]

Hi all,

I've been trawling through the XBMC forums and other sources reading (a lot) about the capabilities of various hardware platforms.

Given a requirement of faultless 1080p deinterlaced playback at 23.97 with digital audio passthrough it seems that none of the sub 300€ prebuilt small form factor boxes are capable of this.

I've taken a long look at what's available (Atom/Giada/Midnight/Boxtop/Android/NUC etc.) and in every case I come across feedback on this site citing problems with either video playback or audio difficulties for every piece of kit out there.

So, before I run out and build my own I just wanted to make a final check: anyone know of any fanless pre-built small form factor box at sub 300€ that is capable of faultless 1080p/23.97 playback with audio passthrough?

P.

[joelbaby]

I've taken a long look at what's available (Atom/Giada/Midnight/Boxtop/Android/NUC etc.) and in every case I come across feedback on this site citing problems with either video playback or audio difficulties for every piece of kit out there.

You are mixing up problems with the hardware, with problems with the software. It is hardly surprising when someone buys a box which has been available for 1 week, and they want OpenElec on it, and the build doesn't work exactly right, or they can't figure out how to make the remote control work.

I think the DN2820FYK meets your requirements - but needs 2 things put inside it - RAM and SSD.

People will always have problems - it is the nature of the site. There are videos even an i7 will have difficulty playing.

[pfjborg]

You are mixing up problems with the hardware, with problems with the software. It is hardly surprising when someone buys a box which has been available for 1 week, and they want OpenElec on it, and the build doesn't work exactly right, or they can't figure out how to make the remote control work.

Yup, I understand the nature of the software and hardware platforms. I have XBMC running on 4 different machines (2 different hardware platforms, 3 different OS platforms) with a central SQL server (SuperMicro rackmount server with (currently) 9TB array), all home built with the exception of the jailbroken ATV2.

Clearly, the answer needs to take into account both software and hardware. A given hardware platform may be capable from a technical perspective but if the software doesn't currently support the platform then it's useless. This forms part of my observations - xyz piece of kit could do it but underlying OS / driver / XBMC on that platform won't handle some part of it.

So to clarify the question is there a prefab piece of sub-300 kit along the lines of GIADA/Pivos/Midnight/various Android/NUC/etc. barebones (i.e. mobo+cpu) or fully loaded that, once installed with whatever OS and XBMC version is currently available and appropriate for said box, will perform as described?

I think the DN2820FYK meets your requirements - but needs 2 things put inside it - RAM and SSD.

I´ve noticed that one though an off-the-shelf fanless version isn't currently available even though it's on the cards, plus a search quickly throws up posts showing people having a variety of issues with it.

People will always have problems - it is the nature of the site. There are videos even an i7 will have difficulty playing.

Again, understood, and I can live with having to re-rip the odd file here and there (though truthfully I seldom have to do this now even with an old 2 core pentium with an nvidia card in it).

[bossanova808]

This to me looks like a likely prospect, but I don't know on final street price:

http://www.asus.com/EeeBox_PCs/EB1037/

Baytrail CPU and *nvidia* gpu - so likely excellent video/audio support through through the nvidia, and decent UI performance via the CPU, whilst being fanless.

Spiritual successor to the XS35-GT from Shuttle maybe.

[usemy]

The Asus vivo pc has a small wd blue drive, but it'd performance is excellent and you can easily add usb3 or nas to it and the price isn't bad, handily it runs win8 as well.

[toddhutch]

I've been looking for the box you describe as well, are you aware of these?

http://cubox-i.com/

This is looking like a fit for what I've been looking for and you're looking for the CuBox-i4Pro, $144.99 including shipping, and it runs XMBC. They have a single core that is $75 shipped that might work, but I haven't done the reading on that one yet.


CuBox-i4Pro is top of the range with all the bells and whistles, including Quad Core, 2GB of memory size and many enhanced features.


Feature

CuBox-i4Pro

Chipset i.MX6 Quad
Core Count 4 @ 1 GHz
Memory Size 2GByte DDR3
Memory Config 64 bit @ 1066Mbps
3D GPU GC2000
3D GPU Type OpenGL|ES 1.1/2.0,OpenCL 1.1E
HW Video Dec/Enc Multi Format
HDMI 1080p 1.4, 3D support
Ethernet 10/100/1000 Mbps (*)
WiFi 11n/BlueTooth 
Micro SD Interface 
eSata II 3Gbps 
RTC With Backup Battery 
Optical SPDI/F Audio Out 
Micro USB to RS-232 
InfraRed for Remote Control Receiver & Transmitter



(*) 1000Mbps link is limited to 470Mbps actual bandwidth due to internal chip busses limitation


I've been reading up more on this device, and I think it won't pass one of the requirements perhaps, here is the wiki with the hardware information

http://imx.solid-run.com/wiki/index.php?..._TrueHD.3F

[bossanova808]

There's a long thread about it I think. I think there's two major issues - no HD audio and no 24p playback. But might be wrong, I have not looked in much detail yet. I think those are general Adnroid issues, not so specific to that box, but I am hopeful a really good fanless, hd audio, 24p/1080 box for a reasonable price comes along!!