[javaman]

I have 3 xboxes in my house all used for XBMC. I use them to play ISOs from a central NAS (8TB). Being that used Xboxes are becoming more rare at Gamestops (or just crap is left), I am looking into the more COTS hardware solutions. I want something around $200ish and things I would like are: a remote control, live distro (no windows oddities), HD capability (blue ray iso? perhaps). I have seen some discussion in here on zotac boxes, acer boxes, apple tv, etc.

Does anyone have an suggestions and specific model numbers on which unit offers the most bang for the buck?

[poofyhairguy]

Yeah, the current "best" set top boxes are made of the ION platform, but a fully functional one is more like $300 than $200 (even though if you build your own mini ITX style you maybe can shave off a few bucks). The most popular of these is the Acer Revo.

Zotac also has an ION box that is probably second most popular:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6856173001

All ION boxes work great in Linux, and mine personally can playback the biggest Blu Ray m2ts file I have (Avatar).

You want cheaper?

Well the AppleTV IS an option, but a poor one in my opinion. I just got one and added a broadcom to it as a second XBMC frontend, and it has major trouble with a good chunk of my x264 library that the ION cuts right through. I will end up giving it to my sister with a hard drive filled with media I tested to work- just playing a random thing from my collection is a no-go.

Any other options? A cheap Micro ATX computer of course.