[daanodinot]

I know there is an endless offering of boxes that allow you to playback your average H.264 10-15 Mbps / DTS 5.1 MKV file. I want to aim a bit higher than that.

I'm a long-time owner of the Xtreamer MK1 which, if you're familiar with it, isn't too fancy in terms of its GUI but does an excellent job at decoding the aforementionted type of video and is quick and reliable to use for navigating to your videos.

Now, I'm considering buying an XBMC capable box, but on the condition that no quick- and smooth- and stableness is sacrificed with respect to my current situation. I have the feeling that those considerations steer me towards an Intel NUC instead of a Amazon Fire TV or Raspberry Pi, but I might be wrong.

To be more specific: I'd like to smoothly run a skin like Aeon MQ (in any view) and not be limited in the add-ons that I want to add. Also, I don't need anything other than XBMC on the device (no games or Netflix), so OpenELEC as a OS is probably fine. Finally, I'm not really in DIY mood at the moment, so an off the shelf solution is probably what I'm looking for.

As for budget: obviously there are limits, but what I'm mainly looking for with this thread is the 'minimum type of hardware' (and budget) that is needed to run XBMC stable and smoothly. So I'd like to look at the options first before thinking about my budget.

If you could offer me some options, that would greatly appreciated. If I missed out on any info, please let me know. Thanks!

[Smobbo]

A chromebox would fit the bill, but a nuc will do fine aswell I assume.

[Topken]

Yeah either a HP or ASUS Chromebox running a 2955 celeron would do fine. AKA these

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebox-CB1-0...+chromebox

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=...MYG3&psc=1

[YellowDog]

Yeah either a HP or ASUS Chromebox running a 2955 celeron would do fine. AKA these

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebox-CB1-0...+chromebox

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=...MYG3&psc=1

* YellowDog agrees

[voip-ninja]

Yeah either a HP or ASUS Chromebox running a 2955 celeron would do fine. AKA these

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Chromebox-CB1-0...+chromebox

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IT1WJZQ/ref=...MYG3&psc=1

* YellowDog agrees

So in the ChromeBox thread you indicate you are having problems with the Chrome Box freezing during playback, and then you give the wink to someone getting it for "smooth hassle free playback".

That's a head scratcher.

A better idea for the OP would be, get a NUC and run the latest version of OE, it should be pretty damn solid, you also get integrated IR support, including power up/down which AFAIK you don't get on the Chrome Box.

[Matt Devo]

So in the ChromeBox thread you indicate you are having problems with the Chrome Box freezing during playback, and then you give the wink to someone getting it for "smooth hassle free playback".

That's a head scratcher.

A better idea for the OP would be, get a NUC and run the latest version of OE, it should be pretty damn solid, you also get integrated IR support, including power up/down which AFAIK you don't get on the Chrome Box.

The playback issues with the ChromeBox are due to an Intel driver bug, and are mitigated by disabling HW acceleration (at the cost of higher CPU usage).

While it doesn't have an integrated IR receiver, resume from suspend does work correctly with WOL. Resume via IR is broken in current Linux kernels due to changes in sleep/resume handling for USB3 (xhci) controllers, so it's only a ChromeBox issue in that it doesn't have any USB2 ports to fall back on. I'd be shocked if the USB3-only NUC or Brix systems don't suffer from the same issue

[Wolly]

If you can wait some days, VidOn Box can meet your needs, because VidOn Box will roll out within a few days.