Alternatives to Raspberry Pi

[keith_correa]

Apologies if I seem stupid, but, :

Does the CuBox seem to be the answer to my dreams?

USB host - to run music off a USB drive
Use a inexpensive tablet as the head
To be used for 90% music and rest - movies
Brilliant audio & vdo performance
Wi-fi to accept files streamed from other devices
Reasonably priced
...
...

What???

 

[Santy]

Can I use my USB to SPDIF converter with this.
The downloads section of this device mentions something about Linux drivers and has the following link:

https://github.com/panicking/snd-usb-asyncaudio/wiki

Will it work on Cubox?

 

[jsmithe]

You can import directly from SolidRun. I didn't get billed any customs duty.

Looking to get one too. Which shipping option helped you get by without customs, Airmail or EMS ?

 

[gobble]

Apologies if I seem stupid, but, :

Does the CuBox seem to be the answer to my dreams?

USB host - to run music off a USB drive
Use a inexpensive tablet as the head
To be used for 90% music and rest - movies
Brilliant audio & vdo performance
Wi-fi to accept files streamed from other devices
Reasonably priced
...
...

What???

Its the answer to my dream of never having to purchase a $2500 player by being just a little ingenious.

Can I use my USB to SPDIF converter with this.
The downloads section of this device mentions something about Linux drivers and has the following link:

https://github.com/panicking/snd-usb-asyncaudio/wiki

Will it work on Cubox?

Its already part of mainstream Linux. I use a USB/spdif convertor without any additional drivers.

 

[gobble]

Looking to get one too. Which shipping option helped you get by without customs, Airmail or EMS ?

EMS will come by air. At around 150 USD its not dutiable.

 

[keith_correa]

Its the answer to my dream of never having to purchase a $2500 player by being just a little ingenious.

That too. But $2500? Hell, I'd not pay $500 for a player. But that's just me.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Yeah, I am using 2 Cubox-i4Pro's.
1st: LMS + Squeezelite over Volumio ( not using the default MPD)
2nd: XBMC (Geexbox) to Sony LED.

XBMC is able to deliver 1080p + 3D flawlessly! Loving it

What about DTS HD -MA and Dolby True Hd ?

 

[asliarun]

MINIX offers the Neo series - and is very very similar to the cubox, in terms of features, price, and performance.

MINIX NEO X8-H - MINIX

I also recently posted a $200 x86 alternative.

http://www.hifivision.com/home-theater-pc-htpc-media-pc/53703-zotac-pico-200-silent-htpc.html

 

[gobble]

That too. But $2500? Hell, I'd not pay $500 for a player. But that's just me.

I meant to say this has prevented me from lusting for a high end device as an imaginary solution for audio nirvana. I just don't care about all those products out there anymore. I am content with the out of box performance of the cubox - of course I have a costly DAC but with the low noise floor I am now confident of pairing it with a cheaper DAC to still get very satisfying results.

 

[captrajesh]

How does it compare to Zotac Zbox

I browsed their website and got confused as to which one is what!!

 

[asliarun]

How does it compare to Zotac Zbox

I browsed their website and got confused as to which one is what!!

Captain, I recently posted about this device. Please see my link in my earlier reply. The really nice thing about the zbox pico is that it is fully built up, not bare bones like most other zotac models, is a full featured Intel x86 PC with windows 8.1, for $200. Releasing next month.

X86 and windows means that it would run any software you want it to run, including xbmc, foobar, jriver, etc. And would support just about any USB based DAC.

Raspberry is still unbeatable at its price point and so are the other android mini PCs but you also have to live with their limitations or get very very involved in trying to make them work for you as a audio server or media server.

 

[keith_correa]

The MINIX seems good too. Choices, choices!

 

[gobble]

How does it compare to Zotac Zbox

I browsed their website and got confused as to which one is what!!

There is another zotac launching with a slide in slot for 2.5" hdd. I am waiting for that one for a non audio project [emoji41]

Intel graphics don't cut it though - it may not be able to play 1080p stutter free.

 

[sam9s]

MINIX offers the Neo series - and is very very similar to the cubox, in terms of features, price, and performance.

MINIX NEO X8-H - MINIX

I also recently posted a $200 x86 alternative.

http://www.hifivision.com/home-theater-pc-htpc-media-pc/53703-zotac-pico-200-silent-htpc.html

I also was wondering how is Cubox i4 pro better/not better than MINIX with minix just 10 USD more ...???

Personally I have Rasp PI and CubieBoardV2 with me. and I have tried every variant of XBMC on Rasp Pi, and even thought the navigation was just a TAD slow, all videos 1080p 20GB+ worked flawlessly ..... and given the fact its just 35USD, I would not complain if one has to have the cheapest XBMC solution.

HOwever I personally have been using RaspPi as an LMS, for a pretty long time almost a 2 years, when very recently I think, a week back I opted to try Subsonic - Media Server, which is like LMS but its a bit more easy to comprehend and the Android player is also one stop solution, unlike LMS ........... and I seriously am very impressed by its performance specially by the transcoding. It also supports transcoding for Video on the fly (apart from Audio ofcourse)..... plus few other advantages....

Was thinking to create a new thread for this .........may be I will with more details ...... mean time try


sam9s music online

does it works ... .. The above is Subsonic running on Rasp Pi

 

[asliarun]

There is another zotac launching with a slide in slot for 2.5" hdd. I am waiting for that one for a non audio project [emoji41]

Intel graphics don't cut it though - it may not be able to play 1080p stutter free.

I was digging around for other alternatives, and found ECS Liva. It is very similar to the ZBox Pico - similar form factor, similar features, fanless design, but has a dual core Celeron (Intel Silvermont) instead of a quadcore, but you also get USB3 and gigabit ethernet in exchange. Price: $180.

Anandtech (a site that I hugely respect) also did a fairly comprehensively review of the ECS Liva, including its graphics subsystem (which is almost exactly the same as the one on Zotac Pico - and probably any other Intel Silvermont based mini-PC in this price category). They also evaluated its HTPC performance.

I am not a HTPC guy at all (was really looking for a simple audio server, but have now got caught up in HTPC a bit as well).

Perhaps, some of the HTPC experts here can look at this review and weigh in on this VS the other options/devices they have used??

 

[gobble]

Lots of fanless zotac options here: http://www.zotac.com/products/mini-pcs/product/mini-pcs.html. Including the one with hdd slot. Now to find it in India.

For Linux users I would skip the nameless chipset or Intel products with 12V psu and recommend anything with a cortex-A15 ARM processor that supports PAE and virtualization. These can also run off 5V usb power banks for Audio and portable applications.

All freshly launched in computer this Jun - I think the days of buying desktop mobos and expensive cabinets and parts for HTPCs are over.

G

 

[haisaikat]

with a cortex-A15 ARM processor
.
.
.
I think the days of buying desktop mobos and expensive cabinets and parts for HTPCs are over.

unless you intend to do gaming by adding discreet GPU or want to double it up as DVR or if you want to add Region Free BD playback capability keeping aligned to windows or if you intend to run madvr for up scaling SD content. So dedicated HTPC is still the most flexible and upgradable option.

 

[gobble]

Does region free require cpu/gpu horsepower? An ARM cortex combined with a mali-400 or tegra k1 may be able to do the rest.

G

 

[haisaikat]

Does region free require cpu/gpu horsepower? An ARM cortex combined with a mali-400 or tegra k1 may be able to do the rest.

G

Sorry I did not mean that. I was trying to say that if you have a BD collection and there are region coded BDs for whjich you need your BD drive of HTPC to be region free then I am not aware if there is any software on non-windows platform which can do the job usually done by AnyDVD HD. Also is general Blu-Ray playback (not iso) completely piece-of-cake on linux? May be not and hence it boils down to running windows on the ARM 15 which as far as I know is planned for Windows 8 on ARM platform (when will MS finally launch that is another question) but not sure if that will be able to run all desktop edition softwares (although MS claims that it will).

 

[gobble]

Sorry I did not mean that. I was trying to say that if you have a BD collection and there are region coded BDs for whjich you need your BD drive of HTPC to be region free then I am not aware if there is any software on non-windows platform which can do the job usually done by AnyDVD HD. Also is general Blu-Ray playback (not iso) completely piece-of-cake on linux? May be not and hence it boils down to running windows on the ARM 15 which as far as I know is planned for Windows 8 on ARM platform (when will MS finally launch that is another question) but not sure if that will be able to run all desktop edition softwares (although MS claims that it will).

Yes I see that playing BD will be a problem on a tiny box with no BD drives. Windows support for arm is now dropped so this is good for Linux only. Also thinking again, 3D games on mali or tegra may be good for small screens only, although some of these 7" or 8" screens do run 2K screens which is higher than 1080p.

G