[arch-general] x86 hardware suggestion for home movie theater setup (kodi)

[Maarten de Vries]

On 10 January 2016 at 15:11, Dirk <lowph at lotje.com> wrote:

>
> 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​