[pcgirl]

OK, I have read a lot on here and it seems that a NUC has a lot to offer for running XBMC and being small and quiet. I just don't know which one is better. Can someone give me a complete list of which NUC is the best to go with and everything else I would need to stream wirelessly through my network?

[skooby]

OK, I have read a lot on here and it seems that a NUC has a lot to offer for running XBMC and being small and quiet. I just don't know which one is better. Can someone give me a complete list of which NUC is the best to go with and everything else I would need to stream wirelessly through my network?

You need to say what you are going to use it for. If its just for streaming movies then any nuc will work perfectly.

[kelavine]

OK, I have read a lot on here and it seems that a NUC has a lot to offer for running XBMC and being small and quiet. I just don't know which one is better. Can someone give me a complete list of which NUC is the best to go with and everything else I would need to stream wirelessly through my network?

I just purchased a Intel I3 (D34010WYKH) kit, which has room for the 2.5 drive to use for streaming and it is working fine so far.

[pcgirl]

Well I would for sure like to use for streaming over the internet and also for streaming from my HTPC server. But, could this sort of unit also be used as a HT server? Also, how does it do with wireless streaming?

[wileecoyote]

I have three of these NUC's...

NUC DCCP847DYE

They work perfect for everything I have thrown at them (i.e Live TV, Movies, YouTube, etc...)

The only downside is they don't have built in IR

Note: If you should get this one, VC1 decoding is not automatically 'on' in the XBMC settings for OpenELEC. I rebuilt the first one I had three times before setting the Settings to 'Expert' and finding the problem...

[pcgirl]

Hey Kelavine and Wileecoyote, how do you find these at streaming over wifi?

[voip-ninja]

pcgirl you aren't providing detailed information about what kind of files you want to stream.

If it's compressed H264 stuff, it should work well over wi-fi and honestly, unless you want to use really heavy skins the NUC is potentially overkill (but certainly a really nice solution).

If you are wanting to stream full BD rips, wifi won't cut it.... you will want to do a power line (over AC) or hard wired ethernet connection to get reliable streaming of full bit-rate BD movies that you've ripped to MKV or other container.

I have just got the newer i3 Haswell NUC with integrated IR running in my setup and am quite impressed with it. It is 1/10 the size of the "mini" PC it replaced, it is almost totally quiet, the IR works superbly and it can handle pretty much anything you throw at it as far as performance of playback of large files go. I do use it on wired gigabit ethernet connection.

There is one headache area with Intel solution and that is around setup of black levels and color gamut for some AVRs and TVs but frankly most people aren't picky enough to notice the problems and have to work on getting it fully functional.

---

I have three of these NUC's...

NUC DCCP847DYE

They work perfect for everything I have thrown at them (i.e Live TV, Movies, YouTube, etc...)

The only downside is they don't have built in IR

Note: If you should get this one, VC1 decoding is not automatically 'on' in the XBMC settings for OpenELEC. I rebuilt the first one I had three times before setting the Settings to 'Expert' and finding the problem...

The reason that VC1 is currently not automatically turned "on" for hardware decoding is that there are bugs with the current FFMPEG used in XBMC and trying to play back VC1 using hardware decoding, so software decoding is preferred and that's why it's set up that way.

This is supposed to be fixed in the next FFMPEG version which I think OE currently has in beta.

[pcgirl]

I would like to be able to stream 1080p across my network. If I use this NUC as the server I am wondering if it would have the capability to be able to handle streaming to multiple other boxes in the house over wireless. I am also streaming Netflix, and stuff from various XBMC addons in HD. Is this NUC going to be able to do this?

[wileecoyote]

Hey Kelavine and Wileecoyote, how do you find these at streaming over wifi?

I don't have a wifi card in any of mine, they are all hard wired... Sorry

[warlion]

i had the D3410wyk1 the i3 version i just love it with a mce remote you can have all you need
pros
ready to windows 8 , linux, openelec
usb 3.0
ir

con
the fuc*** Fan i hate the fan

im saving to buy a akasa tesla h a fanless case
i dont had any problem streaming 1080p movies over wifi

i recommend if you planing to get a nuc get the blkd34010wyb just the motherboard and get a fanless case like the akasa h serie i like the tesla cuz they had a bay for a second 2.5" hdd

you need a ddr3L memory remember the L for 1.35volts ***important*****
with just 2 modules of 2gb 4gb total you can do anything

a msata of 32gb you had plenty even for windows 8 and xbmc

i know the i3 is more expensive that the celeron ones but just get it you will be happy more years with a i3
im telling you cuz even when mine (i3) works perfect i want a i5

if you still think is expensive to get the fanless case and the nuc you can get the H version of the nuc D3410wykH1 that comes with the space for a secondary hdd with the same motherboard ,

i really hate the oem fan is garbage so noisy sometimes, a little dust on the fan and the noise is unbearable

[voip-ninja]

I would like to be able to stream 1080p across my network. If I use this NUC as the server I am wondering if it would have the capability to be able to handle streaming to multiple other boxes in the house over wireless. I am also streaming Netflix, and stuff from various XBMC addons in HD. Is this NUC going to be able to do this?

Box is a server reliably streaming multiple 1080p streams over wireless? That's not going to happen. You also say 1080p but that is not descriptive. A crappy 1080p encode can be as low as 5-6 Mbps where as a full BD rip can peg 50+ Mbps which is very hard for wifi to handle.

[black_eagle]

Wifi streaming is such a gamble because everyone's experience will be different. This is because there are so many factors that can affect it, including other wifi networks, thickness of interior walls, interference from anything electrical that can radiate a signal etc etc

A person living in a house with stoothing walls (timber frame with plasterboard & plaster) and little interference from other wifi networks will get a much better experience than one living in a house with 4" brick walls and surrounded by 20+ wifi networks.

Bottom line is, while wifi is easy and convenient, its also unreliable as a permanent connection if you need that connection to be 100% rock solid. Power line adaptors are a solution if you can't run cables to your end points but they can be subject to interference too. Chances are though, they will be fast enough for it to not make a difference to your experience. Best method will always be a physical cable.

As voip-ninja pointed out, it's not the resolution of the stream it's the bandwidth it takes up that matters. If you have three movies in 1080p but they are fairly highly compressed and you need 7-8Mbps for each one, then a decent wifi signal should handle that OK, but if you need 40Mbps for each, then I think you'd struggle.

Ultimately, wifi will always be a 'suck it and see' scenario. Only you will know if it suits your purpose, but unless you can borrow some kit to test with, you'll only know after you have bought it. There are work-arounds though with powerline adaptors should it be necessary.

[pcgirl]

Thanks for the info. So basically wifi might be out but will a NUC run as a server that is running Ubuntu. The reason I say Ubuntu is that I could setup MySQL database and have all the other XMBC's in sync. Will this work for that? Would it be able to handle this load?

[voip-ninja]

Thanks for the info. So basically wifi might be out but will a NUC run as a server that is running Ubuntu. The reason I say Ubuntu is that I could setup MySQL database and have all the other XMBC's in sync. Will this work for that? Would it be able to handle this load?

When playing a full BD rip under a heavy XBMC skin I rarely see the NUC using more than 30% CPU on a single core.... so yeah, a small XBMC database that gets shared to other devices, should not be a problem.

Now if you are saying you want to use the NUC as the actual file server in addition to using it as a media player AND the SQL backend, I have no idea how much load that would take up or if it would cause occasional hiccups.

My personal recommendation is that you get a small NAS for the job of SQL back-end and file sharing. Synology makes some very good ones that won't break the bank.

[pcgirl]

Hmm! This is another good idea. What sort of hard drives would be recommended for this?