A lot of people have touted the raspPI as a good device for xbmc, but it has a specific decoder on there for a certain type of encoding. So it can do one type of HD well and struggles on the rest. So what's the best device out there for xbmc that's cheap and small?

Well, not sure you will get two exactly the same answers on this. The rasppi still needs a lot of other real stuff besides the motherboard. You need power, CF cables and such that you might get in a $150 x86.

There have been some few small platforms out there that people use. It may be that we all will be switching to arm in the future.

I'd think the smallest intel/amd type x86 systems would do but you may end up wanting it faster so you pay more for a core i3 or similar amd system with enough ram and hd to use. Then you are near $380.

I just read about some big company making a deal like the raspberry pi that sounded better. Not sure where read that.

If you find that magic match between speed and power and cost, let us know.

Some ideas. http://www.zdnet.com/photos/missed-o...atives/6351193

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/m...ndy-to-market/

The Pandaboard sounds perfect, but I need to confirm with others that it works well with xbmc because of how much it costs compared to the rasPI

raspberry pi: http://www.raspberrypi.org/


i currently have xbmc running on an acer revo 1600.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by a specific decoder. I discovered that XBMC on the Pi prefers MP4 video so I use Transmagedon on my main Linux system to convert from other formats and Handbrake to convert DVDs to MP4 files which I keep on my 2Tb nas device. I stream video to the Pi from there - cat 5 cable, not wireless.

I don't know what you mean by "one type of HD" either. HD to me means "Hard Disk" which in the Pi's case would have to be a USB one, preferably running from alternate power as the Pi and its "phone charger" supply would be struggling to spin up. Thumb drives? Not enough capacity to hold a load of videos.

Cost of the Pi, about £30.00 inc tax/postage
Rii Wireless Mini keyboard/track pad £20.00, Amazon
8Gb SDHC card from Amazon £4.00
HDMI to DVI cable £8.00 Maplin sale lucky-box
HDMI to HDMI cable for when I connect to television, £3.00 Asda/Walmart
ModMyPi case, say £10.00 inc postage
I use my Nokia phone charger for power so no cost.

So I make that about £75.00, half the price of jefro's guesstimate.

Play Bonny!

i already have all my vidoes encoded - I'm not doing that again. So if Pi prefers mp4, I can't use it.

I think it only will decode mpeg4 in video. Think you can use others but it is cpu based and not as fast or even unusable.

right, that was my point. I need a device that works with anything. Penguin Board and CuBox appear to be able to handle it

Like I said, I don't think there is a perfect choice or anyone who could agree.


What I meant was, a $150 x86 box might arrive with all the parts you need for a working system. As to your costs plus shipping and maybe tax and time and warranty is totally up to you to decide. I looked at my costs of a pi and they were not that cheap. I think it was closer to $85 for a still questionable device. I'd prefer more than 8 G. That would rather assume you already had some backend server (more cost).

The 8Gb is just system, XBMC and "play space." To run XBMX through a television I didn't want a lot of bits and pieces hanging off the back of the set, especially USB hard drives, powered USB hubs, Keyboards and mice. My 2Tb nas device is elsewhere on my network but the router is beside the TV so it's cleaner to run it over the network, though I take your point about the extra cost of the nas. However, it (including the videos), is shared with my other systems rather than dedicated to the Pi.

Play Bonny!

I don't know what the guy has. If you like the PI then that is a good start for him. I went with an AMD A6 myself and only power up one system.