[noggin]

To be fair the Chromebox isn't really a PC. It's similar in size to the Core and boots directly into OpenElec. No Windows, no Ubuntu. To me there is zero difference in 'experience' terms between a Chromebox running OpenElec and a Core running OpenElec, other than the Chromebox rendering the UI more fluidly.

Understand that they are trickier to get in Europe. The HP 260G1 is very similar (needs a DP->HDMI £5 adaptor) and was available for <£100 at one point in the UK, but I think that was to get rid of excess stock. There is a Zotac based around the 2957U too.

The Core is a great box - though there's probably a reason I always end up switching back to my Pi 3 or my Chromebox, and not using my Core. (It's probably the DVD MPEG2 issue - as I have a lot of concert DVDs that the Core won't play).

Only thing available here is HP 260G1 and its around 300€, 3 times the Core. Is the GUI 3 times more fluid, i don't think so
Market here isn't so oriented on that kind of solutions (Chromebox....etc). Most of the time people in shops look at me like im crazy for wanting something like that.
If your only grudge with Core is with mpeg2 playback and i don't have any mpeg2-s, would you recommend it then?
Also, did you try just ripping those DVDs to mkv and store them to NAS or whatever you have?

Noggin has very particular requirements with his DVD's and I'm guessing a pretty extensive library.

Not THAT particular. I just want DVDs I've bought to play! Just so happens that I don't just buy movies on DVD, I buy concerts as well (opera, pop, rock etc.) and TV shows (70s and 80s TV shows in the UK were shot interlaced in the studio) Same will be true of most Sport DVDs (apart from those shot on film)

As an example, the 25fps mpeg2 movie ISO DVD's Rips I have play fine on the Core. These are not interlaced.

25p movie DVDs will be fine. If that is all people watch - they will be very happy with the Core. If they want to watch the stuff I watch - they won't. Which is why my Core doesn't get a lot of screen time. Until the VOB issue is fixed it can't be my main player.

mpeg2 plays back just fine when viewing mpeg2 Interlaced broadcast TV it just the mpeg2 Interlaced files in .vob containers from certain DVD iso rips have playback issues. For me its not a big deal, everyone is different.

Yep that's what is infuriating. The Core can obviously play MPEG2 fine as it handles Live and Recorded native interlaced TV fine and deinterlaces MPEG2 well in hardware. Yet it can't handle (any?) native interlaced DVD content properly (can't comment on US 60i 3:2 DVDs as we replaced our Region 1 60i DVDs with Blu-ray or Region 2 50i ones a while back)

What's even more infuriating is that it hasn't been fixed yet... (You can pretty much bet that if this had happened on the Pi it would have been...)