[Milhouse]

What os are you using for pi? Raspbmc or open elec?

OpenELEC.

My experience. I have used pi, pivos, 5 year old computer, and ouya. Ouya has been best. Pi was slow. Pivos a little faster, but still slow. Ouya just right. This is the first I am hearing of pi being smooth in the menues.

Maybe you're not looking in the right places (see video in first post).

[calev]

If your buying a usb 3.0 stick to run a raspberry pi, and then dont have cec(my 4 year old tv does not) then you need an ir receiver and then a usb hub (because everybody plays a usb movie at least once in a while.) That absolutely puts you at the Ouya/pivos price point. The price really adds up. To each his own, but I cant recommend someone spend 100$ on a PI build when 200$ can get you a celeron build thats much more than twice as powerful. Its really the sweet spot for price/performance.

[xbs08]

You can use your phone as remote or GPIO IR.
You can optionally have storage partition on USB (doesn't need to be 3.0) or only use SD Card.
That would leave all two USB free or at least one.

[magister]

Maybe you're not looking in the right places (see video in first post).

I watched that video. It does look much more responsive than it used to, but the very fact that he is using Amber as his skin lets me know there are speed problems. I used Amber on the pivos for months. Great lightweight skin for boxes that struggle with speed. I still say the Ouya is easier to deal with and faster. I am using stock skin. No Amber. The more intense skins are actually useable on the Ouya.

[miappa]

For me, video quality and refresh rate is the most important thing.
Does Ouya and/or Pivos support 24p or refresh rate switching? If not, I wouldn´t even accept it even if I got it for free.
What about CEC?

I got 2 Pi´s, running Raspbmc and Gotham test builds, and I am very happy.
I am not a big fan of the heavy skins with millions of options and clutter, so sticking to light weight skins is not a problem for me. A matter of taste of course.

There have been even more improvements since Dom´s video, but to get quite a responsive GUI some overclocking is required.
Today it is not necessary to have a USB install, but it can still give a boost depending on speeds etc.
My SD install is actually slightly faster than my USB install (which also have a higher overclock), but I believe that the USB stick is on its last breath.

[awp0]

If your buying a usb 3.0 stick to run a raspberry pi, and then dont have cec(my 4 year old tv does not) then you need an ir receiver and then a usb hub (because everybody plays a usb movie at least once in a while.) That absolutely puts you at the Ouya/pivos price point. The price really adds up. To each his own, but I cant recommend someone spend 100$ on a PI build when 200$ can get you a celeron build thats much more than twice as powerful. Its really the sweet spot for price/performance.

Hah, I think you forgot to include the fact that the Ouya would need the same IR Receiver and USB hub in order to have the same abilities that you're assuming above. Oh, and let's not forget about that noisy Ouya fan that will need replacing.

[mayoman]

*sigh*
I really hate how these threads seem to always descend into Raspberry Pi is brilliant/crap arguments. I love my Pi but it's suitability really depends on you and what you want it for - Horses for courses and all that. As a side note, and as someone who has had a Pi from the early days, I don't think anyone who has not used a Pi with recent software is qualified to advise on its speed & performance as it's light years better than it used to be.

*Back on topic
Relevent snippets from the OP's original post below. I think that on balance it points to Ouya as best choice.

I'm very new to XBMC
Streaming live games that I don't get on my local channels. Most likely will have to connect to the internet wirelessly.
Playing media from home is not needed at all.
I'm very illiterate when it comes to computers
I'd really like it to be pretty fast when switching menus, apps and all that. Delays and waiting while going through menus is something I can't stand.

[Lyme™]

Thank you for all the input everyone.

Thinking of spending a little more extra cash and getting either the quad core Cubix ($150?) or one of these NUC boxes (not sure how much these go for).

I been told that OpenELEC is something I should look into so I'm hoping that either of those two machines can use it. Not even sure what it is yet but I'm searching it through google right now.

[awp0]

*sigh*
I really hate how these threads seem to always descend into Raspberry Pi is brilliant/crap arguments. I love my Pi but it's suitability really depends on you and what you want it for - Horses for courses and all that. As a side note, and as someone who has had a Pi from the early days, I don't think anyone who has not used a Pi with recent software is qualified to advise on its speed & performance as it's light years better than it used to be.

*Back on topic
Relevent snippets from the OP's original post below. I think that on balance it points to Ouya as best choice.

I'm very new to XBMC
Streaming live games that I don't get on my local channels. Most likely will have to connect to the internet wirelessly.
Playing media from home is not needed at all.
I'm very illiterate when it comes to computers
I'd really like it to be pretty fast when switching menus, apps and all that. Delays and waiting while going through menus is something I can't stand.

I personally find these debates to be fun. But upon reviewing the OP's requirements I will admit that something like an Ouya might be a better fit.

[mayoman]

I personally find these debates to be fun.

But not particularly enlightening to the person asking the question

[magister]

I personally find these debates to be fun.

Off topic:

Video time. Someone want to make an Ouya vs pi? Twould be fun.

[00b5]

I got 2 Pi´s, running Raspbmc and Gotham test builds, and I am very happy.
I am not a big fan of the heavy skins with millions of options and clutter, so sticking to light weight skins is not a problem for me. A matter of taste of course.

There have been even more improvements since Dom´s video, but to get quite a responsive GUI some overclocking is required.
Today it is not necessary to have a USB install, but it can still give a boost depending on speeds etc.
My SD install is actually slightly faster than my USB install (which also have a higher overclock), but I believe that the USB stick is on its last breath.

I'm looking at moving from my atv2s (which were great at first, and now are getting slower and slower, and seem to be getting long in the tooth)

So, as a followup to some of your statements:

1. Seems using a fast flash drive to run XBMC has been the preferred method (this still requires an SD card for the OS right?) Is it now good enough to just use something like a class 10 SD card, and skip the extra USB drive?
2. Do you have to use Gotham to see the real benefits, has Frodo been tweaked at all yet? (I have 4 XBMC instances, and am using a sql db for them, so to go to the latest Gotham test build, I need a different/upgraded DB. That leaves me with a fragmented setup. I might upgrade everything once into beta/RC, but not ready to do so yet.)

I should just buy a few PIs and commit to using them, I'd probably at least find it fun and something interesting/new to do.

[calev]

Thank you for all the input everyone.

Thinking of spending a little more extra cash and getting either the quad core Cubix ($150?) or one of these NUC boxes (not sure how much these go for).

I been told that OpenELEC is something I should look into so I'm hoping that either of those two machines can use it. Not even sure what it is yet but I'm searching it through google right now.

The nuc would definitly be the way to go for openelec. This is going to be my next build. Celeron NUC 2014. It sells for 140$ .You just have to by a stick of ram and then install openelec to a usb drive. You can get a hard drive later if you want so you should come out right at 200$. Cubox looks good but you would effectively be a beta tester. It might be a while before it runs really well. Even then this celeron will run better than the quad core cubox at around the same price.

[miappa]

@00b5
1. Well, it seems like a fast USB will always be superior, but since the SD corruption due to overclock has been fixed the benefit is not as great as it used to.
2. Gotham is better, but many things (maaany) has actually been backported. This will give you an idea. So Frodo is quite good on Pi as well.
Automatic update of db might be supported, at least it is from different Gotham builds. I actually don´t know if this is the case Frodo->Gotham, look it up.

And, I actually came from ATV2. Got my first Pi over a year ago, the ATV2 was still a bit faster by then.
In April I just got another Pi as it was much faster and better at everything. My ATV2 is gathering dust now.
Today I almost only see cons with ATV2 except WiFi and proper Airplay (with mirroring).

[00b5]

@00b5
1. Well, it seems like a fast USB will always be superior, but since the SD corruption due to overclock has been fixed the benefit is not as great as it used to.
2. Gotham is better, but many things (maaany) has actually been backported. This will give you an idea. So Frodo is quite good on Pi as well.
Automatic update of db might be supported, at least it is from different Gotham builds. I actually don´t know if this is the case Frodo->Gotham, look it up.

And, I actually came from ATV2. Got my first Pi over a year ago, the ATV2 was still a bit faster by then.
In April I just got another Pi as it was much faster and better at everything. My ATV2 is gathering dust now.
Today I almost only see cons with ATV2 except WiFi and proper Airplay (with mirroring).

Awesome, thanks for the extra info.

I agree about the ATV2, i'll only "recycle" it to properly support airplay/etc with my ios7 devices.