[Temujin]

Confusing title I know, but as much as I LOVE my HTPC running XBMC for the last year, I've also been looking for that 'easy' one stop shop setup for relatives that aren't tech savvy.
We all get that "Holy shit what is that?" when you have people over that have never seen an XBMC setup and movie wall right?
I wanna share that and help them dig what I've been digging the last couple years.

There are so many new small all-in-one boxes now like the Ouya, raspbi boxes, the new NUC, ZBox, the Android Pivos and other similar boxes, but they all lack one thing or are too complex for novice users.
My big thing is that a lot of them don't do HD audio. Maybe I'm misreading all the threads but a basic 5.1 setup with hdmi and decent receiver should handle at least DTS audio if not the higher quality DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and the like.

I keep looking at a solution for say my parents where I could either piece together an actual PC from my office and p;lace a tower in their livingroom and have it like a full blown HTPC, tweak it so Windows loads right into XBMC and then be done with. I'd install Teamviewer so I can troubleshoot from home and not have to drive across town

But then I see these new small boxes coming out like the Ouya, NUCs, Android boxes et al and think, what a great compromise, but I know nothing of OpeneElec or Linux and then also see that either the processors can't handle or stutter with high bitrate material or can't do HD audio.

We have threads upon threads of people asking "Which is the best box?" I'm not looking for the best, this is all totally opnion and for what needs the box needs to meet.

If I wanted to have a low-maintenance box running XBMC and my comfortability and knowledgebase is in the Windows world, would it still just be the best option to build an actual PC, maybe grab a small form factor case and a middle of the road nVidia video card that'll let me handle the dts-hd and true-hd audio goodies?

Thanks for reading (if you did) and any suggestions or clarifications if some of my assumptions are incorrect would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

[calev]

Have you tried openelec? Once its installed its the easiest way to run xbmc. There are plenty of boxes that support hd audio in openelec, there just expensive.

[noggin]

Have you tried openelec? Once its installed its the easiest way to run xbmc. There are plenty of boxes that support hd audio in openelec, there just expensive.

And if you keep your eyes open for deals, not so expensive!

My Revo RL80 which was UK GBP£139 has no problem with Dolby True HD or DTS HD MA or HR, came with 2GB RAM, 500GB HD, WiFi inc 5GHz, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, HDMI and DVI-I ports etc. Was able to add an onboard CIR module to allow remote power on and power off and MCE remote control. Runs recent OpenElec with VAAPI decoding and s/w YADIF de-interlacing very well indeed. IvyBridge Celeron 1007U CPU - so not perfect at 23.976Hz refriesh - but I can put up with that at the price... (Ebuyer no longer have the offer last time I checked - but these things often come round again)

[Temujin]

Interesting, thanks guys.Will read up on OpenElec a little more, maybe it's an option.
Some of the options don't seem cost effective.
The D54250WYK1 NUC w/ Core i5-4250U is already $400 without an ssd or ram...I might as well build a bigger htpc with a mini-itx form factor and put a decent video card in it for the same price.
The search continues

[Dougie Fresh]

How about a small box that's a full blown PC? http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=184848

You don't need a tower. Towers are bad for you.

[00b5]

I don't think any of these other boxes work for your example for a simple reason, they don't have any/enough internal storage.

I think for you to spread the XBMC love to someone who isn't capable of running their own network/NAS you need to build someone with room for at least a 2.5" hdd/ssd inside (mSATA could work).

That leaves a lot of the cheaper options out, but what still sounds doable to me is the latest baytrail NUC. Cheap, add 2gb ram, add an internal 1TB 2.5" hdd, and load that puppy up with movies/etc and done.

And run OE on it, since its a great solution for people that don't need other features, like web browsers, retro gaming, or netflix

Just my .02 regarding trying to set your "parents" up with XBMC

[nickr]

The other consideration is tha6 your parents will still expect to go down the road and hire/buy a dvd/bluray. That requires an optical drive.