[SeriousH8]

I usually use whole windows PCs for XBMC but am now looking for a small, cheap solution that has a remote.

I've narrowed it down to these two, unless there is a clear competitor that does it "all in one". The TLBB remote is pretty cool, but Pivos seems to be a more officially sanctioned box, so does anyone have any clear experience or knowledge on the central differences between the two?

Additionally, I will be loading all media from a windows share on a wireless network, so it has to support that. I was thinking of getting the Geniatech ATV520 but couldn't find any confirmed information as to whether it supports windows shares

Thanks.

[SeriousH8]

Actually, I'm also seeing that the minix neo x5 is also good, much faster processor apparently. So I'm looking for a box that comes with a remote, linux preferred but not necessary, needs to be able to access media from a windows 7 share, and budget is about $150, would prefer $100

Best recommendations would be great.

[Ned Scott]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

As for others, not sure what is currently winning on the best price-per-performance category. OUYA, mini x, atv520 all sound to be fairly decent for their cost. Hardware video decoding is working on a lot of chipsets now, so there are lots of options. Windows sharing should work on all of them.

[SeriousH8]

ATV520 seems to be the cheapest option, but I read on a forum that someone had trouble accessing windows shares with it. That is necessary for me.

But the Ouya, Minix and atv are all "new" generation boxes then?

[Packetcrypt]

ATV520 seems to be the cheapest option, but I read on a forum that someone had trouble accessing windows shares with it. That is necessary for me.

But the Ouya, Minix and atv are all "new" generation boxes then?

I have set up many ATV520's and SMB shares has worked fine on every one. Just need to make sure you enable the folder you want to share on your PC and the ATV520 finds it very easily.

[SeriousH8]

Hey, thanks for that info. I couldn't find confirmation anywhere.

Do you recommend that ATV520?

[skare]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

What's the argument for not getting any of the two above devices?

Is the hardware to outdated, something better around the corner or better for the price?

[SeriousH8]

Gone with the ATV520 - seems to be a lot of users of it, dual core meaning best cpu right now, and bought a Astone R3 remote - about $120 all up.

ATV1200 was $25 more, but don't think I need the additional video and audio outputs.

[RaggSokk3n]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

What's the argument for not getting any of the two above devices?

Is the hardware to outdated, something better around the corner or better for the price?

The main argument is that none of them are close to a 5year old midrange PC performance wise. Add the fact that all android boxes have a long list of issues.
The safest way to go is checking what xbmc users with 500+ posts are running, they usually know what they're doing

[skare]

[/quote]

The main argument is that none of them are close to a 5year old midrange PC performance wise. Add the fact that all android boxes have a long list of issues.
The safest way to go is checking what xbmc users with 500+ posts are running, they usually know what they're doing
[/quote]

Thanks for the answer. On paper they looked as good solutions considering price, power consumption and size compared to a PC.
Have not played around with XBMC for Android a lot so wasn't aware of any major issues, but seems a good reason not going down the Android road yet for XBMC in the living-room.

Running a fanless PC already with OpenELEC and fully satisfied with it.

Just wondering about these Android boxes runnning XBMC as you see them popping up everywhere on the web
Could have been nice as a small bedroom setup.

[evangelion]

Just to add my personal twopennorth.

Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC, cost= RPi (£29.95) Power supply (£2.34) Transcend Jetflash 700 USB3 stick (£9.99) ModMyPi Case (£5.95) Total = £48.23 ($77.59) Already had, (and you probably will have too) HDMI cable, SD card, Ethernet cable.

Runs flawlessly, boot time is a tad over 30 secs, plays everything I throw at it, scrolls through Movies, TV etc very very fast.

But the absolute clincher for me is the inbuilt CEC control, so with a bit of judicious editing to the remote keymap, the Sammy TV's remote controls both the TV and the RPi, perfectly.

[IhuckleberryI]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

As for others, not sure what is currently winning on the best price-per-performance category. OUYA, mini x, atv520 all sound to be fairly decent for their cost. Hardware video decoding is working on a lot of chipsets now, so there are lots of options. Windows sharing should work on all of them.

perhaps we could address the new elephant in the room around amlogic based players and pivos. They all rely on xios for support since davilla is the only one experienced to developed for it. What about long term support for amlogic based box's after Tofu becomes lets say their standardize version of xbmc?

Since its their direction toward thwarting clones capitalizing on xios's endeavours in xbmc. Wouldn't that mean no more linux xbmc support for amlogic beyond Frodo as vaguely hinted towards at in the pivos forum.

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3963

Again its not clear but when questions like which is better or "vs" are asked maybe the tofu discussion should be included. So if tofu becomes the standard for pivos does that mean no more amlogic based xbmc frodo? or for android? but now only tofu. Logically to continue things as it is, would kinda be like shooting themselves in the foot. So should their be some concern buying "clone like boxes" based on amlogic ?

So are existing xios owner's going to be able to run a tofu app or will they stop support altogether after frodo(which doesn't offer a stable release yet)? Wouldn't that trickle over to any other amlogic based chipset as bad investments right now for future support?

Or Is tofu potentially going the way of boxee? does make one stop and think about the similarity anyway.Regardless if its just an app with or without a box.

[IhuckleberryI]

Just to add my personal twopennorth.

Raspberry Pi running OpenELEC, cost= RPi (£29.95) Power supply (£2.34) Transcend Jetflash 700 USB3 stick (£9.99) ModMyPi Case (£5.95) Total = £48.23 ($77.59) Already had, (and you probably will have too) HDMI cable, SD card, Ethernet cable.

Runs flawlessly, boot time is a tad over 30 secs, plays everything I throw at it, scrolls through Movies, TV etc very very fast.

But the absolute clincher for me is the inbuilt CEC control, so with a bit of judicious editing to the remote keymap, the Sammy TV's remote controls both the TV and the RPi, perfectly.

god that raspberry pi community is so impressive. The whole non profit, doing more with older hardware and growing exponentially into basically one huge community definitly embodies the spirit of xbmc. I hope its relationship with xbmc lives a long as the original xbox and atv 1 has enjoyed. It sure looks like the only other around that could!

[Ned Scott]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

As for others, not sure what is currently winning on the best price-per-performance category. OUYA, mini x, atv520 all sound to be fairly decent for their cost. Hardware video decoding is working on a lot of chipsets now, so there are lots of options. Windows sharing should work on all of them.

perhaps we could address the new elephant in the room around amlogic based players and pivos. They all rely on xios for support since davilla is the only one experienced to developed for it. What about long term support for amlogic based box's after Tofu becomes lets say their standardize version of xbmc?

Since its their direction toward thwarting clones capitalizing on xios's endeavours in xbmc. Wouldn't that mean no more linux xbmc support for amlogic beyond Frodo as vaguely hinted towards at in the pivos forum.

http://www.pivosforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3963

Again its not clear but when questions like which is better or "vs" are asked maybe the tofu discussion should be included. So if tofu becomes the standard for pivos does that mean no more amlogic based xbmc frodo? or for android? but now only tofu. Logically to continue things as it is, would kinda be like shooting themselves in the foot. So should their be some concern buying "clone like boxes" based on amlogic ?

So are existing xios owner's going to be able to run a tofu app or will they stop support altogether after frodo(which doesn't offer a stable release yet)? Wouldn't that trickle over to any other amlogic based chipset as bad investments right now for future support?

Or Is tofu potentially going the way of boxee? does make one stop and think about the similarity anyway.Regardless if its just an app with or without a box.

"Tofu" is their way of protecting themselves for various legal reasons, plus potential benefits from carving out their own brand. It has very little to do with stopping people from using their code and putting out clones. They're still using open source code that legally requires that they share their improvements with everyone else.

Will Pivos XIOS users be able to install Gotham XBMC? Yes. Same with other future Pivos ARM/Android based products. Can other AMLogic boxes run ToFu? It's open source, so it should be more than possible.

Other people are making AMLogic builds using that code. I'm told that the only real reason we don't see better/easier availability of AMLogic-based builds is because of AMLogic requires various tweaks depending on the exact chipset and some other factors. That just means that right now it is hard to make some kind of single build for all AMLogic devices.

Does it make AMLogic a pain in the ass for getting builds easily? Yes, but that has nothing to do with Pivos. It's a pain in the ass for them too, even with the XIOS (two slightly different chipsets are used in the XIOS, which means they sometimes have to provide two builds).

[Ned Scott]

I wouldn't get either Pivos XIOS or LBB right now. Not unless they're under $50. They're pretty much the same, hardware wise.

What's the argument for not getting any of the two above devices?

Is the hardware to outdated, something better around the corner or better for the price?

There are better boxes for the same price right now. The hardware isn't bad at all, but for $100 one can buy a more powerful device, like an OUYA or a MiniX. Or even a Google TV device that has similar specs, but also has HDMI in, making it easier to have a cable box in the mix (and I love that Vizio GTV remote!).

XIOS and TLBB are great, but wait for the sale price if you want one of them.

Plus, Pivos on their forums have been hinting at a new box for the upcoming holiday season.