[wally_666]

I am really thinking about going with the Asus Chromebox as my next XBMC box: http://www.amazon.com/Asus-CHROMEBOX-M00...B00IT1WJZQ

My main use will be to stream movies and TV shows over WiFI. My wireless router is not very far away (20 feet) but a wired connection is not really an option with how my basement suite is set up. I have been using an OUYA for almost a year now and while it works fine for the most part, there is a whole lot of room for improvement.

My biggest question would be how many Chromebox users recommend this box? Also, what type of remote would be best to pair with this box? I have a wireless keyboard but I feel like that is too bulky to leave laying around on the coffee table...

Thanks!

I'm new to XBMC and the Chrombox, but have a lot of Linux experience, although OpenELEC is far more minimal that I've grown accustomed to. My out of the box experience was very good following Matt's clear instructions and running his script to set up OpenELEC with his custom Coreboot firmware. I had to buy a USB keyboard to set developer mode as the Logitech kr400 wireless USB keyboard wouldn't work on the recovery screen but after that it was clear sailing. I had a few minor confusions, but Matt's quick answers set me straight.

As to the "issues" the hardware acceleration seems to apply to anything with Intel graphics. I couldn't find the SW-filter setting for the workaround initially, and ran with software decoding. Playing BD rips both cpu usage ran 70-80%, DVD rips and Hauppauge HD-PVR 1920x1080 *.M2TS files were a bit less, but the user interface (default skin) was still responsive. After enabling the SW-filter workaround BD cpu usage dropped to 10-20% each.

For low definition files I recommend setting the scaling to Optimised Spline 36 Point, De-interlace to auto, and enabling Crop black bars. I find all my old crap clips still watch able on our 83" Mitsubishi DLP HDTV.

I haven't tried using the Chrombox as a streaming source (server). Never really looked into streaming as even NetFlix seems pretty marginal over WiFi in my experience. If you can give me some quick clues as to how I setup XBMC to source streams and how to use a Nook HD+ (Android 4.2) as the client I can give it a try (Asus RT-AC56U dual band 802.11AC router), but I'm not motivated to do the google legwork needed to set it up. I believe the Chrombox has a lessor WiFi chip than my Router so it should be the rate limiter (or the Nook HD+ I try as the client)

My last remaining Chrombox specific problem is I can't boot Chromium. I only would need to do this if I should need to update Matt's firmware, but the first Chromium I dowloaded locked up at the logo screen, the second, downloaded yesterday, seg faulted in the kernel during boot. I've used two different USB sticks. I'd like to have this ready in case I need it somewhere down the road.

Our HDTV appears to have no way to turn off overscan. ChromeOS had adjustments to compensate (was really hard to use ChromOS until I did as too many "essentials" were off screen and thus not clickable. XBMC/OpenELEC seems to have laid things out so I can still get at everything even if I can't see it all. The right side "slider" menus are by far the most problematic -- can click the options but the labels are really hard to figure out.

Except for the fact I've not tried your required streaming, I'd highly recommend the ASUS Chromebox. Solve the YouTube plugin login and VEVO playback issues and its doing everything we need and more. Boots faster and is far more responsive than the old Viewsonic VMP-60 media player box it replaces.

No comment on wireless remotes. Need another remote like another hole in the head. My wife can use a keyboard just fine, but with the remotes she constantly has trouble with what remote controls which box and which buttons do what functions and ends up calling on me to tell her