[arch-general] x86 hardware suggestion for home movie theater setup (kodi)
Dear list, right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to go. In particular, here is what I aim for: - standard boot process. No uboot. - standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community - a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated intel graphics - low power consumption - some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be ok. - usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi. Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic. Thanks and have a nice week.
Original Message From: Wolfgang Mader Sent: Sunday, 10 January 2016 14:09 To: arch-general@archlinux.org Reply To: General Discussion about Arch Linux Subject: [arch-general] x86 hardware suggestion for home movie theater setup (kodi) Dear list, right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to go. In particular, here is what I aim for: - standard boot process. No uboot. - standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community - a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated intel graphics - low power consumption - some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be ok. - usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi. Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic. Thanks and have a nice week. If you want a small, 'all-in-one-box' you might consider taking a look at the Intel NUC devices, lots of similar devices are available from other vendors. If you want to build a 'box' on your own take a look at uATX mainboards with 'integrated' CPU; i've built a pfsense router with a Celeron J1900 based mainboard and it has a surprisingly low energy consumption (~12W(?) quadcore CPU) and has PCIe slots, fullsize RAM slots, the whole shebang. ----------------------------- PGP key ID: 62A58DE5 www.blockdevice.net/contact.html
On 10-01-16 14:09, Wolfgang Mader wrote:
Dear list,
right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to go. In particular, here is what I aim for:
- standard boot process. No uboot. - standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community - a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated intel graphics - low power consumption - some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be ok. - usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard
Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi.
Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic.
Thanks and have a nice week.
Be carefull, not all Intel Atom chips are supported by the open source drivers, some use a PowerVR graphics engine. I have an Intel NUC running Arch & Kodi. Very compact and still powerfull. Mine even has an IR port which I can use to power it on with a Logitech remote. regards, Dirk
On 10 January 2016 at 15:11, Dirk
Be carefull, not all Intel Atom chips are supported by the open source drivers, some use a PowerVR graphics engine.
I have an Intel NUC running Arch & Kodi. Very compact and still powerfull. Mine even has an IR port which I can use to power it on with a Logitech remote.
regards, Dirk
Something I really like about (amongst others) the Raspberry Pi is that it supports HDMI-CEC, so you can use the TV remote without any additional hardware and without switching the remote to a different mode. Sadly and quite unforgivably normal graphics cards don't support HDMI-CEC (afaik this goes for Intel integrated graphics too). For me that is enough reason to stick with a Raspberry Pi for my TV. There are USB HDMI-CEC adapters though that should work with linux. There's even an adapter for the Intel NUC specifically [1]. So, if you want CEC support, make sure that it's possible with the hardware you're buying. I would expect a USB CEC adapter to work with all hardware, but I never used it, and there could always be driver issues. -- Maarten [1] https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/154/intel-nuc-hdmi-cec-adapter
On 10-01-2016 13:09, Wolfgang Mader wrote:
Dear list,
right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to go. In particular, here is what I aim for:
- standard boot process. No uboot. - standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community - a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated intel graphics - low power consumption - some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be ok. - usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard
Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi.
Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic.
Thanks and have a nice week.
You may want to have a look at the intel compute sticks. If you can wait a little they will release an update soon[1] which seems interesting, although it will be quite expensive. The downside is that these don't have an ethernet port. You should also be able to find similar devices from other manufacturers. [1] http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/intels-new-atom-and-core-m-compute-st... -- Mauro Santos
On Sunday, January 10, 2016 3:11:48 PM CET Dirk wrote:
On 10-01-16 14:09, Wolfgang Mader wrote:
Dear list,
right now, I run a home movie theater setup under arch linux on an arm device. While I really appreciate the low power consumption and the small form factors of arm (developer) boards, for me, arm also comes with a much larger maintenance burden than standard x86 hardware. Thus, I search for a platform which is x86 and well suited for a home theater setup. While browsing the internet, I go the feeling, that the Intel Atom series might be a good way to go. In particular, here is what I aim for:
- standard boot process. No uboot. - standard cpu such that I can relay on standard arch repos and community - a graphics chip for which drivers are officially available, such as integrated intel graphics - low power consumption - some sort of internet connectivity, preferable cabled, but wifi would also be ok. - usb, but nothing fancy, only for keyboard
Software wise, the hardware should be able to allow for browsing the internet and to deliver video and audio fluently. The interface I am targeting is kodi.
Since I have no experience with low-powered x86 hardware such as the Intel Atom chips, I kindly ask for your experience and opinions on the topic.
Thanks and have a nice week.
Be carefull, not all Intel Atom chips are supported by the open source drivers, some use a PowerVR graphics engine.
I have an Intel NUC running Arch & Kodi. Very compact and still powerfull. Mine even has an IR port which I can use to power it on with a Logitech remote.
regards, Dirk
Thanks for all your helpful replies. Best, Wolfgang
participants (6)
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Dirk
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Frank Schaffhaeuser
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Maarten de Vries
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Mauro Santos
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Wolfgang Mader
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wolfgang_mader＠brain-frog.de