[majorheadache]

I am happy to have a fat and powerful HTPC running XBMC on the main family room PC, when it comes to bedrooms, it seems that 'lighter' hardware with a small footprint and low power consumption would be desirable. (OK, it would be nice in the family room too.)

Initially, I was pondering whether any of the existing HD media streamer STBs like the istar or popcorn hour could be hacked to run XBMC, then I came across the fiirestations. These are custom PCs, I guess, running LinuxMCE in a nice form factor at a decent price. I think they're running Kubunto 7.04 or 7.10.

http://www.fiire.com/fiire-station.php

So, could that be used to run XBMC? Or is there a better roll-your-own solution that has a similar form factor and power usage? (They claim 15 watts for the bigger two, 5 watts for the small expensive one.)

[rodalpho]

From quick googling, their binary driver doesn't support opengl2.0 as of december 2007 so no, it will not work. Also the 1.5Ghz VIA CPU probably wouldn't have enough oomph for 720p.

If you really want small form factor, my advice is to grab a 2Ghz mac mini. It'll cost more, but it's certainly sexy. The "roll your own" small form factor solutions are even more expensive because you need to purchase a laptop CPU.

[BLKMGK]

Neat looking boxes but I can find no technical information on their pages. Without knowing what's in it it's hard to say. For small footprint and low power take a look at what's going on with the Mac Mini and AppleTV guys. The OSX port is apparently doing well and there's some interesting work going on with getting Linux working on the AppleTV. Since we now have dual core decoding the Mini is apparently doing well, the aTV on the other hand looks like it might be getting some hardware acceleration. Either of those boxes would fit the bill, personally I'm hoping that the aTV makes a good candidate.

Edit: Kewl Rodalpho found more info than I did. VIA cpu?! Ouch!

[rodalpho]

Yeah and a VIA "openchrome 2" integrated GPU. Pretty low end stuff.

I wouldn't count on the appletv ever becoming a great XBMC solution, unless we get a developer really interested in doing it. Mac mini yes, appletv no.

[BLKMGK]

Yeah and a VIA "openchrome 2" integrated GPU. Pretty low end stuff.

I wouldn't count on the appletv ever becoming a great XBMC solution, unless we get a developer really interested in doing it. Mac mini yes, appletv no.

Well, check out the Linux developer's forum The first step is getting Linux on it easy enough to install. They have got <drumroll> 1080i video running on it now supposedly although not in XBMC yet. Honestly I'm okay with the Mini too although I'd really like to get some use out of my aTV too!

[majorheadache]

Ah, I see, that's pretty low powered hardware. I just saw that they claimed to do HD so I assumed they somehow had the "right stuff" inside. I'll keep an eye on the mac mini situation.

[Gamester17]

XBMC will probably work on that Fiire-station (for standard-definition playback) as it sounds like it's just a standard VIA EPIA embedded motheboard in it with integrated uniChrome graphics, ...however a Mac mini from Apple would be much better value, but if you are looking for performance in the same form-factor then you should take a look at the AOpen MiniPC barebone (more expensive than the Mac mini but better a chipset and better upgrade potential if you got the cash).

the 1.5Ghz VIA CPU probably wouldn't have enough oomph for 720p

that is my guess as well, ...for smooth playback of native 720p H.264 encoded video you need at least single-core 2.8Ghz or a 1.8Ghz dual-core.

[topfs2]

A bit of warning is that the unichrome graphic driver seems to be a major PITA to get to work with linux, but I don't own one. Just something I've heard around