[saudagar]

Hello,
Can someone share their NUC 3217BY invoice? I lost my receipt and Intel asks me for receipt for support request. If someone wants to share i'll suggest to blackout your cc info (though most invoice dont have it)

Goto Amazon. View an invoice. Save it to your PC. Edit it with notepad, change the date/price and description. Save it and email them that.

Actually i was able to get my invoice from Amazon. I had bought various NUC's from different sites.- Amazon was one of them.

---

I tried a different cable - same thing.

I have hooked up the NUC direct to the TV and its OK, no noises.

I think I'm going to have to hook the NUC to the TV and run an optical cable to the receiver. No big deal I guess although I don't know if it will mean I'll lose sound options - Digital?


Another new thing this morning is that I think I have buffering issues. Yesterday I ripped two blurays, Watchmen and Transformers. I tried Watchmen yesterday and it was fine. Today, it buffers constantly and is un-watchable.

I also have an issue with music in that the first few seconds of some tracks are broken up.

House is all wired with Cat6, server should be up to the job and the HDs are WD Red 3TB drives with Win7 on a seperate drive (If that helps)

Try switching off all advanced sound options (like DTS pass etc..) and just go with analog 2.0 output and see if it works. I had similar buffering issues with local files and online content and this solved my issue.

[zoom]

Like many people, I'm frustrated trying to find a good, but affordable XBMC appliance. I've tried Apple TV2, which honestly works pretty well by my standards, but it's only 720p and you can't buy those boxes anymore (for a reasonable price). I have two, both hacked. Anyway, I've been searching for a new solution for my home theater (I currently have an ATV1 with CrystalHD, but it's not working well). I want a turn-key XBMC box that will do 1080p and 5.1 audio, and work like a champ every time. That's really about it. I read up on Pivos, TLBB, Ouya, RaspPi... and lately at the Fire TV. (Great list of device here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Devices.) But all of them have gotchas, and at this point, I don't want any gotchas. This has to pass the wife test. I want a solid, turn-key XBMC appliance that Just Works, every time. HTPC seems like the best route for that, and NUC seems to be the best option.

So I'm looking at the $150 DCCP847DYE. I'm trying to find a simple article that has a recent and accurate build-out, complete with list of parts, links to purchase, etc. Amazon has a review of the DCCP847DYE with some info - that's the best I've found. I was hoping to read through this thread... but there are over 2000 posts! Does anyone know of a simple wiki or web site that lists a current, known-good build for DCCP847DYE that's under $200?

My plan is to get the $150 NUC, add 2GB of RAM, and run OpenELEC or XBMCUbuntu from a flash drive. I have a FLIRC that I can use for remote control (with my Logitech Smart Remote/Hub).

Sorry to whine... I'm just really frustrated. As popular as XBMC is, and as prevalent as mini PCs have become, I can't believe there appears to be no rock solid, minimal hassle solution under $100. This NUC box seems like it might do it for under $200, though.

[z31fanatic]

I can't believe there appears to be no rock solid, minimal hassle solution under $100.

Have you see the thread about the $99 Amazon Fire TV?

[zoom]

Yes, and I listed that in my post as the most recent box I've looked at. Looks like they've got some kinks to work out. But like Apple TV and other platforms, Amazon can change their platform at any time to mess things up - prevent side loading of apps, block access to APIs, whatever. If they were to openly allow third party apps, and XBMC put their app on Google Play, then I'd feel more safe.

So, like ATV2, I have the choice: do I spend $100 and do some hacking to get XBMC, with some bugs and kinks, and know that it may eventually fail, and know that only certain codecs are supported... or do I spent $200 for a system that I fully control, that supports all the codecs I would ever need, plenty of power, has a solid support community, and Just Works.

Honestly, despite how I phrased that, I've come down on both sides of that fence. I have ATV2's with XBMC for two of my TVs and I'll probably keep them. But for my home theater with a projector, I'm going to try something different.

I don't want to derail this thread, so if anyone wants to have this discussion, I'll fork a new one - but I'm just getting really frustrated about the fractured market. NetFlix is the only box-agnostic service out there. Amazon is limited to Fire TV and Roku (and some game consoles), and I wonder if support for boxes other than Fire/Kindle will dry up now. iTunes is ATV only. Hulu, I guess, is on multiple boxes. But I want one damn box that has access to all the services. I don't want one set top box per service. If I had one STB to rule them all, I would be more willing to spend $200-300 a pop. We need Apple TV and Fire TV to move to open platforms for third party apps, like Android and iOS phones are today. (And then we need an official XBMC app on iTunes and Google Play.)

And then there's the problem of live TV, which is a completely other can of worms (R.I.P. Sage TV).

BTW, why is there a Plex app, but not an XBMC app? Plex is a nice idea, but I strongly prefer XBMC since it just needs a dumb SMB file server (I use unRAID) that doesn't require processing power (re-encoding, etc). Maybe I'm wrong and it exists, and I've just somehow missed it.

[nickr]

What do you mean an xbmc app? You mean like xbmc for android and ios?

[zoom]

Yes, that's what I mean. It looks like there is on for Android, though I don't think you can legitimately install it on Fire TV, right? You have to side load it. Why is that?

And Apple TV doesn't support third party apps, at least not yet. I see a few XBMC-related apps on iTunes Store for iOS, but none of them looks like an official XBMC app. You need to have a jailbroken device. Again, why? Is Apple rejecting the app? Have they not submitted it?

Again, I don't want to hijack this thread. For the purposes of this thread, my main question is about finding a known-good, proven, already-vetted NUC build out for under $200.

[maddog808]

If I had one STB to rule them all, I would be more willing to spend $200-300 a pop.
And then there's the problem of live TV, which is a completely other can of worms (R.I.P. Sage TV).

FYI, there are plenty of ways to build a HTPC that "rules them all". Here's what I built for my living room a couple years ago, paired with a 60" plasma & Yamaha receiver with 5.1 surround sound:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=114896

If you really are willing to spend $200-$300, you can build a box that does everything you listed. If you are only willing to spend $100-$150, then there will be limits. The old saying still rings true-you get what you pay for in life...(except for Usenet+SABNZBD+CouchPotato+Sickbeard; in that case, you get a whole lot for $11/month)

Good luck. Remember, try to have fun with this HTPC/XBMC stuff. It's just a hobby, after all.

[gjwAudio]

My plan is to get the $150 NUC, add 2GB of RAM, and run OpenELEC or XBMCUbuntu from a flash drive. I have a FLIRC that I can use for remote control (with my Logitech Smart Remote/Hub).

Hi zoom (shouldn't that be "z-o-o-m" )

I have a Celeron 847 running OpenELEC... great little rig. I would caution you on using a flash drive for your OS -> see here.

Sure wish my NUC was $150 when I bought it !
Cheers.

[MrCrispy]

I've given up the dream of the 'one box that rules them all'. There are too many content sources with too many parties not interested in playing with each other. And even if you could share the content, you can't get the UI - e.g. I like the new Netflix UI shown in native players, which won't be possible if I somehow got it to show under XBMC.

[zoom]

I read the article you pointed to... but I'm not sure I got the message. Is he saying that any USB drive will crap out like his did? Isn't it possible that he just had a bad drive? I guess I hadn't thought about speed, though. I could definitely see how an SSD would be way faster. I haven't seen people complaining about speed using a USB boot drive, but maybe that's because most people go the SSD route. What's the cheapest SSD I could get (retail, new, decent quality)? I wouldn't need a very big one. I see some 32GB drives for $40-45.

[nickr]

For openelec 8G is sufficient.

[gjwAudio]

I read the article you pointed to... but I'm not sure I got the message. Is he saying that any USB drive will crap out like his did? Isn't it possible that he just had a bad drive? I guess I hadn't thought about speed, though. I could definitely see how an SSD would be way faster. I haven't seen people complaining about speed using a USB boot drive, but maybe that's because most people go the SSD route. What's the cheapest SSD I could get (retail, new, decent quality)? I wouldn't need a very big one. I see some 32GB drives for $40-45.

Heh-heh... "he" is me

My point is that any OS is performing way more read/write cycles than you get in the case of just playing media files. You're going to use up the finite number of cycles available on a USB stick - any stick, cheap or best quality - much faster if you use it for your OS.

My experience suggests SSD for long term satisfaction. It responds noticeably faster, and I didn't like having to build all over again, due to catastrophic failure.

While 8GB is sufficient for OpenELEC (as nickr says), I'm very happy I was "forced" into buying my 30GB drive (smallest available at the time). It permits me to load up a few choice items locally (MCH-music, music documentary films), and take the little NUC on the road for a viewing party. I love to share this kind of stuff with an appreciative audience.

HTH.

[charliebrown]

as a sidenote, just installed openelec 4 ( xbmc 13 ) and the temps have dropped! now it idles at around 50C used to idle at 60C and the temps overall in operation have dropped alot. Really liking the openelec 4 / xbmc 13!
(i3 redtop modell)

[saudagar]

I upgraded to openelec 4.0. I havent looked at the temperatures before, but with OE4 when XBMC starts for confluence skin i see CPU and GPU temperatures to be around 140-150F. This is just after starting the system.
I am using kingston msata and 2 X 2GB RAM on 3217IYE

Is this a typical temperature?

[fritsch]

That's unbelievably high for just starting up after idle.

sensors | pastebinit