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Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

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Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#61

Post by karmapolice »

jsmeaton wrote: post #22

What I'm after is something that can run Kodi (xbmc) which links to a NAS for its media. Running Netflix is a nice to have. What devices are out there that I can use for this purpose? At the moment I have a fairly heavy htpc running Windows, but I have more tvs that I would like to use for similar purposes. Edit: Bonus if it can do 4k video, but 1080p minimum is a must.

I'd say Vero but it is out of stock: https://osmc.tv/product/vero/

I don't know if it wasn't successful or they are just making another version.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#62

Post by annnnd »

A few ideas how to make it better:

  - include a small screen so I can still do stuff even if I don't have TV at hand
  - use touch screen so I can use it without mouse / keyboard too
  - use Android instead of Chrome OS so I can play games with it
  - while you are at it, can this thing make phone calls too?
In other words, why not just make it simple to plug an Android smartphone to peripherals (screen, mouse, keyboard)? That would be much more valuable to me.

Also, why is there just one USB port? If I were to use such a stick the first thing I would add to it is a separate USB hub just so I can use it... why do I need to carry two pieces of HW around?

EDIT: reformatting.

EDIT2: can someone explain the downvotes? My point is that I don't see a niche that couldn't be better served by a smartphone, especially if you could plug in the peripherals.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#63

Post by nitrogen »

xpose2000 wrote: post #34
nitrogen wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's the CuBoxTV ( http://cuboxtv.com/ ).

I'm shocked how expensive that is. Cool find though. Didn't know it existed.

Yeah, it's hard to find that much I/O, full Linux support, and a decent case on anything cheaper, though (let me know if you are aware of something I'm missing).

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#64

Post by snerbles »

qq66 wrote: post #51
monochromatic wrote: post #9

I'm trying to figure out what in the world people are going to use these for. Single-app kiosk? Sure, but that's gotta be a tiny market. TV streaming box? Maybe, but it's not clear to me that it really offers anything I care about that isn't already done by Chromecast/Roku. I dunno. It's kind of a cool idea, but it feels like a solution in search of a problem.

Digital signage could be a big market. Right now, the TV screens in an airport or rail station are massively expensive to wire up and maintain because their video feeds are all computed centrally and distributed over wires. This could let LaGuardia just slap a bunch of consumer TVs together and build a web app to deliver the content over a dedicated WiFi network.

Groupon wrote the Greenscreen[1] app for Chromecast for precisely this application.

[1] https://github.com/groupon/greenscreen

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#65

Post by papaf »

skMed wrote: post #57
avinassh wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raspberry Pi is not really good as a media player. It struggles for high quality high bit rate 1080p videos and it is limited with USB 2 and does not have gigabit ethernet.

I use an older Pi with Raspbmc (osmc) and I can stream 1080P movies just fine. The key is to 1.) Avoid streaming off a slow disk e.g. NAS, 2.) Ensure you have the necessary bandwidth to stream (no slow wifi), and 3.) Pass DTS audio to your receiver for decoding so your PI isn't doing double duty for audio/video.

It is also worth looking at NFS if you use a NAS. I have been able to stream movies over terrible Wifi by switching from Samba to NFS. This wasn't with a Pi though.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#66

Post by mrmondo »

jsmeaton wrote: post #22

What I'm after is something that can run Kodi (xbmc) which links to a NAS for its media. Running Netflix is a nice to have. What devices are out there that I can use for this purpose? At the moment I have a fairly heavy htpc running Windows, but I have more tvs that I would like to use for similar purposes. Edit: Bonus if it can do 4k video, but 1080p minimum is a must.

If you haven't tried Plex I'd suggest at least giving it a go, I made the switch from XBMC early this year and haven't looked back once. It absolutely left XBMC in the dust for me - the UI, Transcoding, Performance and the option to have it run as a server/client model are all fantastic and pretty much work flawlessly.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#67

Post by theshrike79 »

avinassh wrote: post #42
peterhadlaw wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raspberry PI has pretty much what you're looking for. I one set up exactly for this purpose.

Raspberry Pi is not really good as a media player. It struggles for high quality high bit rate 1080p videos and it is limited with USB 2 and does not have gigabit ethernet.

It streams 1080p h264 just fine, haven't had a single issue yet.

The only movie so far I've had problems with was a raw Blu-Ray rip of Pixar's Up that I streamed from my NAS. It has some crazy high bitrates and just refused to play smoothly even with all caches turned up to 11.

But that's the only one from hundreds of movies I've tested.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#68

Post by hyperpallium »

More specs at anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/9797/asus-launches-the-chromeb...

Its Mali T764 GPU seems more powerful than an xbox360: the T760 has 326 GFLOPS; xbox360 xenos GPU has about 240 GFLOPS. Not sure what difference the 4 in 764 makes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_(GPU) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenos_(graphics_chip)

These PC sticks have been around for years... I wonder if the killer app will be 4K streaming? 4K TV's look great, but no TV programming available; no media (4K blu-rays are not out yet); downloading 40GB takes too long; whereas streaming is popular.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#69

Post by jsmeaton »

mrmondo wrote: post #66
jsmeaton wrote: post #22

What I'm after is something that can run Kodi (xbmc) which links to a NAS for its media. Running Netflix is a nice to have. What devices are out there that I can use for this purpose? At the moment I have a fairly heavy htpc running Windows, but I have more tvs that I would like to use for similar purposes. Edit: Bonus if it can do 4k video, but 1080p minimum is a must.

If you haven't tried Plex I'd suggest at least giving it a go, I made the switch from XBMC early this year and haven't looked back once. It absolutely left XBMC in the dust for me - the UI, Transcoding, Performance and the option to have it run as a server/client model are all fantastic and pretty much work flawlessly.

That's not a bad idea actually, I'll have a better look at it. Turns out my NAS supports running plex server, and my main samsung TV has a plex client app. I'm loading in all of my library and will give it a go. Cheers.

Re: Google and ASUS Launch the $85 Chromebit, a Chrome OS Desktop on an HDMI Stick

#70

Post by msh »

hyperpallium wrote: post #68

More specs at anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/show/9797/asus-launches-the-chromeb... Its Mali T764 GPU seems more powerful than an xbox360: the T760 has 326 GFLOPS; xbox360 xenos GPU has about 240 GFLOPS. Not sure what difference the 4 in 764 makes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_(GPU) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenos_(graphics_chip) These PC sticks have been around for years... I wonder if the killer a…

Dont all 4K TV's have a 4K capable netflix app build in?
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