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I am getting ready to buy my next HTPC. Thinking about getting a NUC. Below a list of the few things that I desperately need, which are nice to have, and which I do not care about:
Must-have
* HDMI and an optical digital out
* 1080p
* Super-snappy display of XBMC (with complex skins)
* Dead-silent
* Decent looking remote control
* Ethernet
Nice-to-have
* I have an old 2.5" SSD and some old notebook ram, would be nice to keep using both rather than buying new stuff
* Prefer to run windows on it and have a spare license
Do not need
* HD-Audio, DTS is more than enough for me
* Wifi
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Any of the current NUC models will meet most of those needs, except for the fact that they do not have an optical digital out. You can get a cheap external USB soundcard to do your optical output. What are you using for your sound?
Note that the NUC does not come with a remote, but the Baytrail and Haswell NUC models have IR receivers and work well with standard MCE remotes. You can also use a universal remote and program it to the MCE remote code and it should work. Personally, I use a Logitech Harmony.
If you get a Haswell NUC, make sure you get an "H" model NUC if you want to use your 2.5" drive. The Baytrail NUC chassis supports 2.5" drives by default.
Regarding the RAM, if you get an NUC, it has to be 1.35 V RAM, or it won't work. I'm guessing you likely have 1.5 V RAM, so you'll need to buy new RAM if you go with an NUC.
The Baytrail NUC comes with Wifi, while the Haswell models do not.
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Looks like the biggest constraint is that it lacks the optical out. Issue is that I have an ancient, but really cool B&O television that only has DVI and digital coaxial audio input.
So, I would need one of the following to get sound:
1) Digital coaxial out (that would be ideal, but no HTPC has this)
2) Digital optical out (via an active converter box)
3) HDMI (not sure whether possible to extract the audio and convert to digital coaxial?)
Thanks again!!!
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nickr
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Or as stated above, a USB soundcard with spdif out.
If I have helped you or increased your knowledge, click the 'thumbs up' button to give thanks :) (People with less than 20 posts won't see the "thumbs up" button.)
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Why not get a raspberry pi? Low cost! Low power! runs XBMC like a champ! And you can save that windows license for something else!
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Thanks nickr, this is helpful. Not sure whether I am too eager to get an external USB audio card. Even this would only get me to digital optical and I would then need another "box" to convert to digital coaxial.
Are you aware of any solution to convert HDMI to digital coaxial and DVI?
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(2014-06-15, 08:42)steve1977 Wrote: Thanks nickr, this is helpful. Not sure whether I am too eager to get an external USB audio card. Even this would only get me to digital optical and I would then need another "box" to convert to digital coaxial.
Are you aware of any solution to convert HDMI to digital coaxial and DVI?
You can get coax USB sound cards. You can even solder a coax connection onto the optical ones, if you're handy with a soldering iron. The electrical signal is literally driven to the optical version with just one extra pin for light.
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What you are linking to is brilliant and exactly what I am looking for. Only issue is now to find this magic box outside the US...
Buying a computer with SPDIF-out is an option, but I would still need a fairly pricey "box" to convert the signal to digital coaxial. And this would not be future-proof. For example, if I decide to later on buy an PS4 or so, I would still need to find something that disaggregates HDMI to DVI+audio. So, your box would be perfect.
Any other ideas? Maybe best to solve around a potential PS4 issue to come to a solution?
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dx.com will ship anywhere in the world for 0.01$.
3 * Nvidia Shield + Synology NAS DS218+ LG 77CX6LA + Genelec + RasPi/rAudio + Adam T5V + T7V + T10S - ArcoLinux
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Wow, I have just sent an email asking exactly this question.
Am I missing anything or would this "box" from dx.com indeed solves all of my issues. I could attach both a NUC, a PS4 or about anything else you can imagine to my "old" television with coaxial in and DVI. And even all devices at the same time.
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2014-06-24, 01:47
(This post was last modified: 2014-06-24, 01:50 by joazito.)
Maybe a Cubox-i. I bought one and it kinda ticks all (the must-have, at least) those boxes. Fair warning everything is in beta or worse at the moment, but works and it's pretty snappy.
