Chromebox As HTPC

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saikatbiswas82

saikatbiswas82

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Dear All,

What are your views on Asus Chromebox as HTPC?

Specs can be found here:
Asus Chromebox Specifications

I've been reading few reviews on this device. I found that the system with lowest config i.e. with Celeron 2955U (1.4GHz) 64 bit Dual core processor and 2 GB RAM, can run Full HD (i.e. 1080p) content and can bitstream audio. This can support upto DTS-HD MA.
In order to convert it to a HTPC, stock RAM needs to be flashed with Openelec.
Kodi/Plex would work just fine. I have checked a couple of videos in YouTube as well.

Few ways to flash stock Chromium OS with Openelec/Ubuntu:
ChromeBox Kodi E-Z Setup Script (LibreELEC/Linux+Kodi) [2016/07/19]
ASUS CHROMEBOX INSTALLING OPENELEC (STANDALONE SETUP NO CHROME-OS)
Upgrade an ASUS Chromebox - more RAM, bigger SSD, and Ubuntu - Roger Stringer

I'm not sure whether Asus will honour its warranty after stock ROM flash.

This pc can run all media files (2D/3D movie files like .mkv etc)
The only downside I found is - this PC may not be able to play Blu-Ray ISO files. Not sure though. Need to check this out.

I am a fan of Raspberry Pi. But when it comes to HTPC, I thought more horsepower might be needed.

Please note that I don't have any association with any of the sites/manufacturers.
 
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Chromebox is not worth the hassle considering it is not available locally at good prices.
The RPi3 with Kodi/OE makes for a great media player for cheap - Everything is fairly snappy as well... All you need is the RPi and a 250 INR IR receiver off ebay...and you are all set for 3K INR (presuming that like most ppl, you'll have a spare phone Power supply, HDMI cable and SD card lying unused)

If you need a little bit extra horse power, get a Braswell NUC - The currently available celeron NUC uses a later gen celeron chip (n3050) than that chromebox (n2955) link you posted and is a lot cheaper locally .. Or get the n3700 Braswell Pentium NUC which costs only marginally more
 
regeHA said:
The RPi3 handles 1080p very well. Check this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2z5UHCeu6o.

I'm not sure if it can be sourced locally, but the Beebox is an excellent media player for the money. It even outperformed the Nvidia Shield and the Roku 4 and has hardware decoding for all the latest formats.
Click to expand...

RPI3 could be an good option for Videos. But honestly, I prefer RPI for handling all Audio business.
Furthermore, RPI 2 or 3 doesn't support bitstreaming. So DTS-MA will be missed.

Beebox is a bit more costly. Now priories matter. If someone needs 4k, Beebox could be an ideal solution for him/her.

superczar said:
Chromebox is not worth the hassle considering it is not available locally at good prices.
The RPi3 with Kodi/OE makes for a great media player for cheap - Everything is fairly snappy as well... All you need is the RPi and a 250 INR IR receiver off ebay...and you are all set for 3K INR (presuming that like most ppl, you'll have a spare phone Power supply, HDMI cable and SD card lying unused)
Click to expand...

As I've said earlier, RPI doesn't support bitstream.
Question is - Whether I need it or not?
My answer would be - It would be nice to have.
So I won't be considering RPI as HTPC replacement.

superczar said:
If you need a little bit extra horse power, get a Braswell NUC - The currently available celeron NUC uses a later gen celeron chip (n3050) than that chromebox (n2955) link you posted and is a lot cheaper locally .. Or get the n3700 Braswell Pentium NUC which costs only marginally more
Click to expand...

NUC is very very costly even in used market.

IMHO, Chromebox (celeron variant and not i3 or i7 variant) fits the bill. No essencial feature is missed where Audio/Video is concerned. Its available for $154 new or approx $90 used.

Last but not the least - I'd prefer Intel processors over any Qualcomm, AMD processors at any given point of time.
 
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saikatbiswas82 said:
NUC is very very costly even in used market.

IMHO, Chromebox (celeron variant and not i3 or i7 variant) fits the bill. No essencial feature is missed where Audio/Video is concerned. Its available for $154 new or approx $90 used.

Last but not the least - I'd prefer Intel processors over any Qualcomm, AMD processors at any given point of time.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? The celeron NUC (n3050) is less than 9K on amazon and probably cheaper on ebay, the pentium nuc is just a bit over 12K

Most of us tend to have A spare RAM stick and an old laptop drive - even if you buy new, that will be no more than 3-3.5K on top - so even if you have to buy all, the n3050 NUC will only be marginally over the $154 you quoted and you get a better processor /more RAM upfront
 
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Before going ahead with the purchase, I would highly recommend that you check hardware decoding is supported for both the latest audio and video formats. With a regular PC/HTPC you can always upgrade to the latest GPU and be done with it, however not exactly an option with an Intel NUC, SBC/SOC, etc. type of devices.

For the budget, an Android TV box will serve you very well, typically priced between $60-$150, will decode all the latest formats including HEVC/H.265.
 
superczar said:
What are you talking about? The celeron NUC (n3050) is less than 9K on amazon and probably cheaper on ebay, the pentium nuc is just a bit over 12K

Most of us tend to have A spare RAM stick and an old laptop drive - even if you buy new, that will be no more than 3-3.5K on top - so even if you have to buy all, the n3050 NUC will only be marginally over the $154 you quoted and you get a better processor /more RAM upfront
Click to expand...

With a 12k price point NUC celeron should be a good option. BTW, a few days back I've checked chromebox was being sold @ $127 in amazon us. :)

regeHA said:
Before going ahead with the purchase, I would highly recommend that you check hardware decoding is supported for both the latest audio and video formats. With a regular PC/HTPC you can always upgrade to the latest GPU and be done with it, however not exactly an option with an Intel NUC, SBC/SOC, etc. type of devices.
Click to expand...

I always love intel based fully custom built PCs over any NUC or Chromebox or anything like that. But the cost and the form factor are on the higher side.
I already have an intel based HTPC with Nvidia GPU where I have the option for numerous future upgrades.

A couple of days back, I've received a chromebox from office for Chrome apps/Chromium OS testing. As soon as I held the device with my bare hands, I just felt in love with it. I felt a strong urge to get one for myself as well.
It feels solidly built and looks nice too.

As this device belongs to office, I couldn't play around with it much. Forget about flashing default ROM.

regeHA said:
For the budget, an Android TV box will serve you very well, typically priced between $60-$150, will decode all the latest formats including HEVC/H.265.
Click to expand...

AFAIK, no android box supports DTS-MA as of now.


For chromebox, just found this article. It says that with Kodi support, it supports pretty much everything a HTPC should.

Chromebox - Official Kodi Wiki

Let me quote few lines from the original article:
Capability wise, the Haswell ChromeBoxes fully support hardware accelerated H.264/MPEG-2/VC-1 video playback at up to 2160p24/p30 (4K), proper 24p output, and full 7.1/HD audio bitstream output. 3D playback is supported (HSBS/HTAB), though the decoding of MVC streams (as used in 3D Blu-ray ISOs) is not supported under Linux at this time; the hardware itself is capable. Hi-10P (H.264) playback is software decoded, but works well with few exceptions. 4K (2160p) output is limited to 30Hz via both the DisplayPort and HDMI 1.4a outputs. H.265/HEVC is software (CPU) decoded, so playback is limited to 1080p max and low/moderate bit-rates. From a purely Kodi/media playback standpoint, there's no advantage to the Core i3/i7 models over the Celeron model (outside of non-GPU decoded formats, like Hi-10P and HEVC); dual channel memory (2 identical capacity modules) can provide a decent performance boost in some situations but certainly not needed for a standard OpenELEC/LibreELEC/Kodi setup.
Click to expand...
 
superczar said:
Most of us tend to have A spare RAM stick and an old laptop drive - even if you buy new, that will be no more than 3-3.5K on top - so even if you have to buy all, the n3050 NUC will only be marginally over the $154 you quoted and you get a better processor /more RAM upfront
Click to expand...

Spare usual Laptop ram will not work with NUC, NUC needs low voltage DDR3L RAM which has to be purchased separately
 
saikatbiswas82 said:
AFAIK, no android box supports DTS-MA as of now.
Click to expand...

Most mid to high end Android box support DTS MA and THD Bitstreaming, like Himedia Q5, Q10, H8 ... etc. Also in case you did not know..... agreed, Rpi2 and 3 cannot passthrough HD Audio, but Rpi3 can decode it and output it as upto 8 channel PCM. So if you are ok ur Rpi 3 to decoded and your AVR display it at PCM, (and not DTA MA or THD) you are all set, coz its still 5.1/7.1 audio
 
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sam9s said:
Most mid to high end Android box support DTS MA and THD Bitstreaming, like Himedia Q5, Q10, H8 ... etc. Also in case you did not know..... agreed, Rpi2 and 3 cannot passthrough HD Audio, but Rpi3 can decode it and output it as upto 8 channel PCM. So if you are ok ur Rpi 3 to decoded and your AVR display it at PCM, (and not DTA MA or THD) you are all set, coz its still 5.1/7.1 audio
Click to expand...

I am not very much sold to the idea (as of now) of TV boxes or Android boxes. The only reason is - I won't be able to play around much with different OS in those systems. I am not sure whether some of the android boxes support ROM flashing or not.

Anyway, I've just checked Himedia Q10 specs. Looks impressive. FM rdksrk2013 purchased it at a discounted price of $185 (Thread link: http://www.hifivision.com/hot-deals...ess-android-media-player-himedia-q10-pro.html). It does everything really. However, it wont be having a PC kind of feel which I was talking about.

Preferences/Priorities should be taken into consideration :)

Disclaimer: Maybe going forward I might buy a tv box for myself just to make life a little hassle free. :)
 
neoonwheels said:
Yes, AMD Athlon and Asus board
Click to expand...
I don't like AMD at all. To me it's waste of money.
I'm an Intel fan and will always be until my point of view changes.
I have a custom built HTPC already.

Purchased a Chromebox for power savings and for fun ofcourse.

Sent from a handheld device. Some typos might creep in.
 
^^ that "is" kinda narrow approach if you ask me, even I am an Intel Guy, not a fan as such but I just like Intel, Another reason is since right from mid nineties I have assembled only Intel based hardware so my utmost knowledge is also on Intel, hence another reason I don't go or suggest AMD. BUT .....That does not also mean, I hate AMD, or that AMD is a waste of money, you are the first and the only one I have seen saying AMD "waste" of money, thats kind of preposterous (No offence :) ) ...whereas AMD actually is super VFM when it comes to price-performance ratio. ..........Somewhere down in year 2005 I shifted to Radeon based GPU (after using nVidia for around 8-10 years.) and till date around 2 years back stuck to AMD GPUs, ...reason, it gave me better performance for the price compared to nVidia. But in recent times (2-3 years) when it came to 3D vision and better Bluray ISO playback with CUDA core architecture and better audio passthrough capabilities, nVidia trumped and I switched back to nvidia some two-three years back when I constructed my HTPC and subsequently my Home Theater and wanted better BD playback, 3D gaming and passthrough. (even though the same level card was cheaper in AMD)

neo's configuration if it actually does what all he claims it to be..... is a pretty decent configuration for around 12K, with new hardware. I can build the same for <10K but that would be a used one.

So I'd say dont be rigid just for because you don't like the brand, we are techies :), you certainly seem to be, so we should be open to all options when it comes to technology .... :) : ) .. Hope you didn't mind me saying all this .... :)
 
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sam9s said:
^^ that "is" kinda narrow approach if you ask me, even I am an Intel Guy, not a fan as such but I just like Intel, Another reason is since right from mid nineties I have assembled only Intel based hardware so my utmost knowledge is also on Intel, hence another reason I don't go or suggest AMD. BUT .....That does not also mean, I hate AMD, or that AMD is a waste of money, you are the first and the only one I have seen saying AMD "waste" of money, thats kind of preposterous (No offence :) ) ...whereas AMD actually is super VFM when it comes to price-performance ratio. ..........Somewhere down in year 2005 I shifted to Radeon based GPU (after using nVidia for around 8-10 years.) and till date around 2 years back stuck to AMD GPUs, ...reason, it gave me better performance for the price compared to nVidia. But in recent times (2-3 years) when it came to 3D vision and better Bluray ISO playback with CUDA core architecture and better audio passthrough capabilities, nVidia trumped and I switched back to nvidia some two-three years back when I constructed my HTPC and subsequently my Home Theater and wanted better BD playback, 3D gaming and passthrough. (even though the same level card was cheaper in AMD)

neo's configuration if it actually does what all he claims it to be..... is a pretty decent configuration for around 12K, with new hardware. I can build the same for <10K but that would be a used one.

So I'd say dont be rigid just for because you don't like the brand, we are techies :), you certainly seem to be, so we should be open to all options when it comes to technology .... :) : ) .. Hope you didn't mind me saying all this .... :)
Click to expand...

I didn't mind at all. I was just wondering when the debate will start actually. :)

And please remember, when I said it's 'waste of money', I also said 'To me'.
Its my opinion only. :)

So what eventually didn't float my boat should be fine with others maybe.

After wasting (read investing) money on two AMD systems, I realized the truth in the hard way. BTW, I've also assembled quite a few PCs as well. No Intel based system gave me a single issue so far.

Maybe AMD have evolved during last decade and came up with some VFM products. But still its just a personal preference. So I am not yet ready to join the AMD league anytime soon.

BTW, I am not getting any money from Intel by saying good things about them. :D
 
^^ No AMD has seriously evolved exponentially .... I have assembled couple of AMD systems as well, like for my sister who wanted an absolute inexpensive system, hence AMD and its still working good, for my little brother as well, his first system that I assembled was AMD which worked perfectly until recently he sold it off to upgrade to a much more beefy Intel system

If something went wrong with the AMD system you built that's an exception rather than a rule ... :) ..
 
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sam9s said:
If something went wrong with the AMD system you built that's an exception rather than a rule ... :) ..
Click to expand...

True that.

I'm not making any rules nor expecting anyone to follow them.

But I don't want to spend my hard earned money anymore on those systems to prove my point or change my mind.

Anyway, I think we are deviating from the original discussion. [emoji4]

Sent from a handheld device. Some typos might creep in.
 
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To each his own I would say !

I am not AMD fan nor their marketting officer but I am using AMD based systems since 2004 and never ever faced any issues. :licklips:

Sam can advice you on the Intel based HTPC around your budget as he has a lot of knowledge on Intel systems.
 
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