[jsn.crdnl]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a good performing XBMC device for not to much money. I'd don't want to spend over 150€ to watch my movies...

My requirements (which maybe are a little above the price I'm ready to spend) are :
- Fluid (as much as possible) menu browsing
- Fluit (as much as possible) movie navigation (through jukebox, moviewall, etc.) (for a library with more than 1.000 movies)
- Stable (no crashes, freezes, etc)
- 720p HD videos
- HDMI AND RCA (or AV) (for support of older TV) video and audio outputs
- Linux based XBMC (Android version seems still not stable enough)
- Good WiFi

I've already had a look at some devices but as I didn't actually test them it's hard to make a good choice.
Raspberry Pi : cheap but raise up to ~80€ with a case, wires, wifi dongle, etc ... for a basic (I think) configuration
Hackberry and Gooseberry : Similar to Rasperry but with slightly better hardware configuration (Gooseberry misses RCA output, I think), but what about XBMC software running on it ?
Mele a1000(G) : Seems good but is 500Mb memory enough (1Gb for 'g' version which is more expensive) and how does XBMC run on it (with both Android and Linux Ubuntu)
OvalElephant's Smart TV box : Site seems really inaccessible these days (Don't know how serious that website is)

Do you know any other good but still cheap device ?
What about all of these ?
Which is best for my requirement ?
(Especially old TV output and fluid navigation knowing there's a huge movie library behind)

Thank you in advance !
Jsn.

[heemid17]

I think your only real choice is AppleTV1 with Crystal HD

[jsn.crdnl]

I think your only real choice is AppleTV1 with Crystal HD

Still a bit to expensive for me (especially when it's Apple)...
(And seems a little old to me)

What about the products I mentioned ? Isn't there anything else ? (As long as it correspond to some of my criteria s)

By the way, thank you for the answer ! ^^

[Nu7s]

Raspberry PI, if you look around you won't spend €80.

[jsn.crdnl]

Raspberry PI, if you look around you won't spend €80.

By configuring it with a reseller in my country, it gets to 87,78 € with a case, an audio rca cable, a wifi dongle, a usb power cable + power connector and sd card so here we are over the 80€ limit which is the price of some other devices which presents all of that hardware stuff but a bit more powerful...
So it's a bit complicated.
At that point, I think performance with huge library, stability and strong community (updates, support, ...) would help making a decision.

What about other development chips like Hackberry, Gooseberry, etc with better hardware ?

[Vertigo]

I dont think its realistic to look for something thats both cheaper and better than a raspberry pi.
The Pi also has a huge benefit in that its a standard platform and incredibly popular, and therefore you will find a lot of support (I know of at least 3 dedicated XBMC distributions for the Pi). I would very much prefer that over a gazillion different chinese android sticks with buggy android builds running a still buggy android xbmc; even if their specs are better.

If you want to shave a few euro of the price tag, build your own case, or dont use one. Look on ebay for a cheaper cable, wifi stick or memory card. You probably also dont need a power adapter, chances are you can power the Pi from your TV's USB port.

[jsn.crdnl]

I dont think its realistic to look for something thats both cheaper and better than a raspberry pi.
The Pi also has a huge benefit in that its a standard platform and incredibly popular, and therefore you will find a lot of support (I know of at least 3 dedicated XBMC distributions for the Pi). I would very much prefer that over a gazillion different chinese android sticks with buggy android builds running a still buggy android xbmc; even if their specs are better.

If you want to shave a few euro of the price tag, build your own case, or dont use one. Look on ebay for a cheaper cable, wifi stick or memory card. You probably also dont need a power adapter, chances are you can power the Pi from your TV's USB port.

I agree a cheaper and better solution than the Pi is a little to optimistic.
And I didn't rush on chinese Android sticks because I also think they aren't mature enough and because they often don't have the RCA output (for AV video) that is, for me, a real requirement for older TV support.

I know that Pi has a huge community and specialized distro, what I'm afraid of is buying a device that doesn't make much changes with the one I'm using.
I'm actually owner of a Xtreamer Prodigy Silver which isn't really making me happy with it's features, community, addons, "hacks" and even performances (it takes 30 - 60 secs to load the movie wall for my movie lib), and the devices may take up to 3 - 5 minutes to boot up ...

How do you think a raspberry Pi will manage a library of more than 1000 movies ?
You're telling me than Android based chinese products aren't worth a good raspberry pi, but what about boxes like "Mele a1000(g)", "ovalElephant's Smart TV Box" and "g-box midnight" whose have all requided hardware (RCA/AV out, WiFi, ...) and that are hackable to a linux ubuntu distro ? Are they still not stable enough ?

UPDATE : I forgot to count a remote controller for the rapberry pi, so it'd be 100€ ...

[Nu7s]

A UK made Raspberry PI (512mb) + Clear case + Power adapter + Wireless Wifi adaptor + 4GB SD-card = €67 from Newit.co.uk (excluding shipping) Great seller BTW, bought 2 PI's from them.

- If you have a smartphone or tablet, you can control it with an app. Yatse is great.
- The PI's power consumption is so low, I leave it on 24/24. NO boottime.
- Full hardware video support. MPEG2 can be bought seperatly.
- Great community
- I don't think the size of your library matters, since it only reads it once to add to the database.

Menu navigation is smooth but don't expect same performance from a €400 HTPC build. Because it doesn't cost €400...

[PobjoySpecial]

...

[Vertigo]

I agree a cheaper and better solution than the Pi is a little to optimistic.
And I didn't rush on chinese Android sticks because I also think they aren't mature enough and because they often don't have the RCA output (for AV video) that is, for me, a real requirement for older TV support.

I think Nu7s already wrote what I wanted to write. I will let you know how the Pi handles large libraries when mine arrives, but I dont expect that to be a problem. Its not like its ever displaying more than a dozen items or so at once.

As for the remote, Im also using Yatse on my android phone, and strongly recommend it. If you want a dedicated remote with physical buttons, the possibilities are plentiful and ~10 euro on ebay.

As for the android boxes you mention; Ive looked in to some of them, but decided against them as from user accounts, they dont seem to be mature enough, and I fear they may never get there as these vendors are changing platforms as often as I change socks. I dont have that fear with the Pi. I wouldnt mind a faster dual core SoC, but only if the platform is widespread enough to guarantee proper support. Maybe the next Pi?

A few more points; the pi wont do DTS or AC3 decoding. If you have a HDMI capable AVR with decoder, then it doesnt matter (passthrough over HDMI works), but if you dont, and you have AC3 video's, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, Im not a wifi fan. streaming high bit rate 1080p video over wifi is something Id rather avoid. save a few dollars for the wifi dongle and lay down some ethernet cables, regardless of what platform you end up with, or move your NAS/USB drive/whatever closer to your tv.

my 2 cents.

PS: if the pi doesnt work out for you, you will have no trouble selling it on ebay for nearly as much as you paid for it.

[Nu7s]

6) I've heard of 24 hour days, but never 24 day weeks. Belgium must be a wild place!

We are very hard workers...

[jsn.crdnl]

Ok, thank you for all of your answers, it's now clearer to me.
I'm not far from buying one ! ^^

What do you think about Android boxes hacked to ubuntu or such distro ?
Concerning wifi, it would essentially be for streaming live tv / tv replay (not necessary with HD quality), would it make it or would it again be sluggish?
With the movie library browsing, I assume it would be "fluid" except it may take some time (when switching from movie to movie) to load movie posters, background images, etc ?

---

A UK made Raspberry PI (512mb) + Clear case + Power adapter + Wireless Wifi adaptor + 4GB SD-card = €67 from Newit.co.uk (excluding shipping) Great seller BTW, bought 2 PI's from them.

How quick are they sending it to Belgium in your experience ?

[Nu7s]

Just to be clear: There is currently no hardware video acceleration for android devices using any other than AmLogic hardware. So no Rockchip, Allwinner will play 720p/1080p video files. This is because the drivers are not open-source. Concerning Allwinner you can view this thread:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=126995

[PobjoySpecial]

...

[jsn.crdnl]

I use "list view" with the ReFocus skin on RaspBMC, which only shows high resolution movie posters. Browsing is instantaneous. Adding high resolution background images to the equation may introduce a slight, but perceptible lag.
OpenELEC uses low resolution fanart, so the performance should be even better... albeit uglier.

Sounds good / more than enough to me ! ^^
I'm not a 1028p addict ; normal res or 720p are more than enough to my current requirements.

Concerning the "New it" uk seller, how serious / quick (to belgium) is it ?