ultrabrutal Wrote:CPU decoding even if the speed catches up is never good compared to a dedicated chip like the sigma. Power consumption must be a factor also, because this makes a hit on heat and noise also.
XBMC hardware box should be silent and low power. Only noise should come from the mechanical 2.5" harddrive that one might use until SSD's are cheap enough. Media on a NAS elsewhere
I'm afraid I have to live with my Tvix 6500 for a good long time
Couldn't disagree more. The very reason I am building my own box is because of the problems with my Tvix. Hangs for no apparent reason playing DVDs. This is a problem that has been known for more than a year and no fix from the manufacturer. No VFR support. Apparently no further firmware development. USB loses connectivity regularly. FTP server crashes all the time.
There is nothing I can do about fixing it. Yes, it is a pretty cool little box. However, somewhere else I have outlined the box I intend to build, close to as quiet as the Tvix, micro ATX case, yes a little bigger than the Tvix but still set top size. I can apply the latest software maintenance. I am not locked down by a chip which can do x things. A 40-50 dollar CPU can do anything that is necessary and do anything that may come along in the future. If not, I'll pop in a bigger CPU and don't have to buy a whole new box.
I can do my own firmware upgrades, heck, build from SVN if necessary.
I can run a reliable FTP server. I can pop in a hard drive any size, not just 1TB as in the Tvix.
Mind you, I am not terribly disappointed by that box but when I found out it doesn't support h.264 VFR I decided to give up on it. I opened a problem with them and it took four months to get an answer.
Thanks, but no thanks.