5 ms·

Somebody please pack this all together and sell it for $50. This is how Apple do business. Sell hardware and software together.

DonaldDerek 13y ago
Ahh would love to... and make it open!
ern 13y ago
Somebody please pack this all together and sell it for $50. This is how Apple do business. Sell hardware and software together. It's a very cool project for the technically savvy, but if you sell it to consumers, you'd have to provide support, something that could be time consuming. Or make it foolproof (Apple's strength). I have a Raspbmc setup, and I get a fair amount of interest from visitors who are impressed, and want their own cheap media centers. I dissuade them, unless I am sure they can troubleshoot computer issues, SSH/SFTP, image an SD card, and know basic SQL.
- DonaldDerek 13y ago
  That's true, but with some serious development things can be possible, after all you need a community to cover your back to compete with the big names, and our community is RaspberryPi, Linux, and the open Web...
buster 13y ago
Just buy a raspberry pi + case for that amount of money and install openelec/raspbmc. I did that last week, it's a fantastic combination!
- pyre 13y ago
  I remember (maybe a year ago) people complaining about XMBC on RaspberryPI. Things like the menus being sluggish / having slight delays, maybe some issues with 1080p videos streaming over a network, etc. Have those been resolved?
  - buster 13y ago
    I can play FullHD DTS movies (rips of my own blurays kept at best quality possible) over Wifi without any hickup at all. That's fine. The UI sometimes could be faster/smoother, but it's good enough. Moving between menu items sometimes drops a frame or two. So that's in FullHD, maybe that's better at a lower resolution. What i learned from my previous media center (a Boxee, so basically a commercial XBMC fork): To stream FullHD over Wifi use NFS, not SMB, it is a difference. Atleast in my setup movies wouldn't play without buffering every few seconds over SMB. Edit: also, from my experience openelec seems to be a little bit faster. Maybe because it's not booting the whole Debian userspace but only a minimal Linux. Also: You can overclock your rPi without losing warranty (within limits). I overclocked mine to the maximum (700MHz -> 1000MHz) and it's still running without any cooling! :)
Pxtl 13y ago
There are a million Chinese companies making little ARM devices running Android 4 and selling them for about $50. Basically everybody's waiting for Google and bigger manufacturers to sit up and take notice and start supporting the platform (poor wake-on-USB behavior is a huge problem). Dell is supposedly going to be the first one on the scene with a real brand-named "mini-PC" device.
epochwolf 13y ago
Buy a roku or Apple TV for $99?

DonaldDerek 13y ago

Ahh would love to... and make it open!

ern 13y ago

Somebody please pack this all together and sell it for $50. This is how Apple do business. Sell hardware and software together. It's a very cool project for the technically savvy, but if you sell it to consumers, you'd have to provide support, something that could be time consuming. Or make it foolproof (Apple's strength). I have a Raspbmc setup, and I get a fair amount of interest from visitors who are impressed, and want their own cheap media centers. I dissuade them, unless I am sure they can troubleshoot computer issues, SSH/SFTP, image an SD card, and know basic SQL.

DonaldDerek 13y ago
That's true, but with some serious development things can be possible, after all you need a community to cover your back to compete with the big names, and our community is RaspberryPi, Linux, and the open Web...

buster 13y ago

Just buy a raspberry pi + case for that amount of money and install openelec/raspbmc. I did that last week, it's a fantastic combination!

pyre 13y ago
I remember (maybe a year ago) people complaining about XMBC on RaspberryPI. Things like the menus being sluggish / having slight delays, maybe some issues with 1080p videos streaming over a network, etc. Have those been resolved?
- buster 13y ago
  I can play FullHD DTS movies (rips of my own blurays kept at best quality possible) over Wifi without any hickup at all. That's fine. The UI sometimes could be faster/smoother, but it's good enough. Moving between menu items sometimes drops a frame or two. So that's in FullHD, maybe that's better at a lower resolution. What i learned from my previous media center (a Boxee, so basically a commercial XBMC fork): To stream FullHD over Wifi use NFS, not SMB, it is a difference. Atleast in my setup movies wouldn't play without buffering every few seconds over SMB. Edit: also, from my experience openelec seems to be a little bit faster. Maybe because it's not booting the whole Debian userspace but only a minimal Linux. Also: You can overclock your rPi without losing warranty (within limits). I overclocked mine to the maximum (700MHz -> 1000MHz) and it's still running without any cooling! :)

Pxtl 13y ago

There are a million Chinese companies making little ARM devices running Android 4 and selling them for about $50. Basically everybody's waiting for Google and bigger manufacturers to sit up and take notice and start supporting the platform (poor wake-on-USB behavior is a huge problem). Dell is supposedly going to be the first one on the scene with a real brand-named "mini-PC" device.

epochwolf 13y ago

Buy a roku or Apple TV for $99?