Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

71–80 of 189 posts

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

#71

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…

>Not sure what difference the 4 in 764 It says it is a 4 core device.

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

#72

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.

There are a bunch of atom-based devices for a hundred dollars or so. One of the ones that looks tempting for me is the Kangaroo -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883722... -- $15 more than the chromebit, and you get twice the storage space, two usb ports, one of which is usb 3, and an all in all more interesting device.

That kangaroo looks awesome; I wanted to get three, but it seems NewEgg doesn't ship them to the netherlands?

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

#73

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…

326 GFLOPS is with 16 GPU cores. Most likely it has 4 GPU cores which would be ~82 GFLOPS @ 600 MHz.

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

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a bunch of atom-based devices for a hundred dollars or so. One of the ones that looks tempting for me is the Kangaroo -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883722... -- $15 more than the chromebit, and you get twice the storage space, two usb ports, one of which is usb 3, and an all in all more interesting device.

That looks interesting, but it's out of stock in Australia at t he moment. It does say Intel HD graphics, but does that mean 1080p?

Intel HD graphics is the GPU chipset. I have a tablet with the same Z8500 CPU with a 2560x1440 screen and it's really smooth. Supposedly it can handle 4K out of the HDMI-port but this is not something I have tried yet.

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

#75

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…

The stick only has half the memory bandwidth of the Xbox 360 though.

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

#76
post #70

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?

For the big brand TVs, yes. Most seem to have some set of Amazon and YouTube 4K support as well. My new TV is missing YouTube 4K support, because apparently they use a different codec than Netflix and Amazon.

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

#77

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…

There is Intel's Compute Stick too[1] but I haven't try it yet.

[1] http://www.intel.com/buy/us/en/product/desktop/intel-boxstck...

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

#78

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.

My Raspberry Pi 2 is working great as a media player. I threw OSMC on it (a Linux distribution specifically for Kodi with specific support for Pi's) and it is essentially flawless. It has no problem with high bit rate H264 videos. The lack of gigabit Ethernet isn't an issue. 100Mb Ethernet can easily stream raw Blu-Ray video (not that I've tried that with the Pi 2).

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

#79
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used the cheapest celeron nuc for this. Has built in IR, just add a usb drive / laptop drive and memory. Not much more expensive than a dedicated box here in Aus, and much faster.

It's worth noting the Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC) units only do HDMI 1.4a, which can only do 1080p (not 4K). The newer (4th gen/Haswell, 5th gen/Broadwell, 6th gen/Skylake) units can do 4K output over DisplayPort 1.2. They're also pricier (IIRC, they're kits, and Wi-Fi, SSD/HDD, and OS all have to be purchased separately). At this price point you'd probably be better served by an Intel Compute Stick, although…

Hark! The new Skylake NUCs are out! That must have happened within the last week or two.

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

#80

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 picked up a $50 Nexus Player (Android TV OS) last month for this purpose. It replaced a first generation Raspberry Pi B that was actually pretty decent as a Kodi box (I used the Xbian distro).

So far I'm really happy with the Nexus Player. I like that it gets Android TV apps (like Kodi and Moonlight for game streaming from my desktop) and also supports Google Cast. It also has a usb port that supports things like keyboards, ethernet, external disks, etc with a usb hub.

I also strongly considered the Nvidia Shield TV (also Android TV OS). It's $200 with a lot better hardware, getting good reviews, supports 4k, and apparently can decode H265 in hardware.

Post reply on HN