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Definitely an interesting read, but I'm a bit annoyed by the way they talk about the boot times. Reading it you'd think it's impossible to get boot times that low with anything but their stuff. My Revo 3610 running off an SSD boots Windows 7 in 10-15 seconds as well, so it's comparative to OpenELEC.
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Have they announced a target price for this box?
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375 USD without a DVD ROM, 420 USD with one included.
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I always wonder about measuring in boot times, as how many people actually shut down their XBMC machines, and don't just use standby = 1 or 2 seconds until up and running?
Presumably you can't wake a machine from cold with a remote, which is a bit of a pain? If you can, I'm interested!
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2011-04-13, 16:41
(This post was last modified: 2011-04-13, 16:44 by newphreak.)
You can awake allot of machines from cold, which makes it so good. So i don't use sleep.
Edit: windows booting that fast, i have never ever seen that, and i own lots of hardware with ssd and so on. And specially prebuilt windows boxes comes filled with bloatware. OpenELEC is aimed for the people with little computer skills, so it needs little work to be optimal for the end user. Windows/Ubuntu needs tweaking and cleaning to be optimal. At least from my experience.
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You can start machines with a remote, but there is no OS that boots up in 1 second with a mechanical HDD, sleep does, even in OpenELEC.
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h.udo
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I has more interested in your opinions about the equipment. We all know the ION platform but what are the opinions about the design, features, price, etc?
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Unless I missed a thread somewhere, I would think this would get more attention. Maybe because it isn't embedded. Maybe it might get more attention if/when it gets released. I also thought it would get more attention because XBMC is backing the remote, so they might also back this HTPC.
I first looked at the price. $375 + $45 DVD + $38 Remote (They've discounted the remote $22 if you buy it together). I thought this was a little high at first for something that's crossing over the line into "XBMC Appliance", but alas, it isn't. It's still billed as an HTPC and a similarly spec'ed mini-PC would come out to about the same price.
Whatever premium you think you might be paying, you can maybe think you're also buying into their dedicated support. Pulse-Eight is now pressured to be responsible for coming up with resolutions for everything that might go wrong with it. They picked out all the hardware and software. With every other mini-PC manufacturer (Acer Revo, for example), we can't go to them with our XBMC issues and expect them to fix it in a timely manner, especially when they have to worry about Windows XP/Vista/7, everything else that might not work with it, and people being responsible for providing their own hardware. With the OpenELEC HTPC, Pulse-Eight knows exactly what hardware and software they have to support, which should allow them to provide better customer service.
As an aside, I have a Zotac ZBOX. I remember back then when they designed these with XBMC in mind. So Zotac's support for XBMC is apparent, even in their forum, but they still have to worry about other OSs and hardware. Their complete mini-PCs with HDD/RAM doesn't have XBMC as they know their customers aren't necessarily using them as XBMC boxes.
As far as the design, I personally don't care for it as I have all my equipment hidden. But if I had to comment on it, it's not bad. I like the sleek glossy black finish. It reminds me of Western Digital's Elements hard drive line. There's no picture of the bottom, but it looks screwless. Since this wasn't meant to be a modder's box, there shouldn't be any need to open it up. Let's hope Pulse-Eight really gives us no reason to have to open it up.
That angled corner looks inspired by the Acer Revo. I always felt it was unattractive, but it's only a minor point. My ZBOX pales in comparison. Some mini-PCs really look designed for the component cabinet. Some don't. This OpenELEC HTPC comes close but isn't quite there. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe throw in some minimal branding. Parts of it look retro and other parts scream "modern", especially what seems to be a slot-loading optical drive. I'm actually surprised they were able to fit an optical drive in there. I'm guessing/hoping there won't be a slot there if you opt out of the optical drive. Or I suppose they'll just keep it open as an air vent..?
Speaking of cooling, it's unfortunate that they had to include fans in this. It's not surprising though as it's still packing real PC hardware. What I don't see is sufficient venting. I don't see any on the top. I see three long horizontal slits on the rear. One must be for the SD card reader? The other 2 must be for venting. Perhaps there will be vents on the bottom, which isn't the best design. The surface it's sitting on will obviously block that air flow.
I like the design of the rear I/O panel. It has the same feel as the rear of the Apple TV 2. I do have certain criticisms though. From the looks of it, there's going to be some sort of power brick. I always disliked those things as they're inconvenient to replace. If they really wanted this to be more of an appliance, I'd rather pay a little more to have the device be a little larger and accommodate a standard power interface where the power cords are a dime-a-dozen at any thrift store.
I'm a little surprised as to the ports the decided to include. I'd throw out the Firewire, Mini-DisplayPort, microphone, and maybe speaker. I'd replace these with DVI and/or component video/RCA audio, as these A/V outputs would have been more commonly used. At least one of the USB ports should be in the front. Maybe one USB port should have the remote RF receiver built-in. They should have made it internal WiFi if they wanted to include WiFi at all. I never found WiFi reliable for 1080p streaming.
I think Pulse-Eight is definitely on the right track here. We already have a plethora of this form factor. The case just needs some minor tweaks and we need appropriate outputs if we want to get this into as many living rooms as possible. This has the makings for the first real XBMC box (well, 2nd if we're including the box that start it all - Xbox). There actually are other manufacturers selling XBMC HTPCs, but they don't come in this form factor. Correct me if I'm wrong. If we can't get an appropriate mini-PC, we might have to wait for embedded after all.
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The overall design looks nice and modern, but the power button is ugly. A smaller more discrete one would have been better.
I`m also curious why they don`t offer a no-HDD option, since Open ELEC can run from a CF card or USB thumb, that can be integrated into the chassis, and would reduce the cost of the machine.
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Seems a tad expensive. Otherwise it is a capable OpenELEC machine.
