Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

[NikAmi]

Keep in mind that the Miracast options on these Android boxes are limited and anything requiring content protection such as Netflix, HBO Go, etc. well not work AFAIK. They did not work for me.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[no_spam_for_me]

Amazon Fire TV => plug and play*
NUC => nearly plug and play
S802 => plug and pray

* but if Amazon automatically update your system, you maybe loos your 'individuals' (like xbmc) ...

[TMx]

S802 => plug and pray

[JustMe]

NUC + openelec is way better than any of these boxes If you are after XBMC....No matter Celeron, i3 or i5...

+1

S802 => plug and pray

JustMe

[madweegie]

Amazon Fire TV => plug and play*
NUC => nearly plug and play
S802 => plug and pray

* but if Amazon automatically update your system, you maybe loos your 'individuals' (like xbmc) ...

[xlux]

What do you guys think?Thanks

If you get a NUC you can run any OS of your liking including Android. The architecture of an Intel Chip is light years ahead of any arm processor. There really isn't a fair comparison to be exact. The advantage of any arm processor is its low power consumption and being 100% fanless. Video wise, Intel chipsets will render better video than any Android competitors. You will pay a lot more to get the the barebone NUC kit to perform the way you want but the biggest difference here is that a year from now the NUC will be kicking while the Android competitors will have already put out two replacement units of the original. The NUC will be good for several years.

[1337techie]

If you get a NUC you can run any OS of your liking including Android. The architecture of an Intel Chip is light years ahead of any arm processor. There really isn't a fair comparison to be exact. The advantage of any arm processor is its low power consumption and being 100% fanless. Video wise, Intel chipsets will render better video than any Android competitors. You will pay a lot more to get the the barebone NUC kit to perform the way you want but the biggest difference here is that a year from now the NUC will be kicking while the Android competitors will have already put out two replacement units of the original. The NUC will be good for several years.

True. But I am only going to want to change my media-player when I buy a new higher-resolution TV and that's not happening for another 2 years.

So, right now, all I need is smooth playback of 1080p, 720p, 1080i, 720i, 480p, 480i videos and ability to handle most kinds of codecs. Which current gen of media-players can do easily.

In addition to that, I want: miracast, airplay, airplay mirroring, DLNA, AllCast

And in addition to that, I want: smooth, fast user-interface.

I am now leaning towards Amazon Fire TV because:
1. supports all kinds of codecs, XBMC
2. lot of reviews talk about super-fast/smooth user interface
3. can play NetFlix, Hulu etc. in HD
4. Has support for Airplay (using some app) and Miracast, DLNA, AllCast etc
5. it has been rooted and now it supports external USB-connected hard-drive
6. Amazon is pushing out quality updates every now and then. You can disable auto-updates so there is no risk that Amazon will push out an update that will break your 'root'. If Amazon pushes out an update that re-locks it, just don't download that update until a new 'rooting' strategy has been discovered
7. and is only $99. If it lasts me even 18 months, it'd be fine.

On the other hand, NUC 2820 + OpenElec is not out of race either.
2820 will cost me $200 with everything but I may be able to run Plex-server too in the background.

Between X8-H and (rooted) Fire TV - I think FireTV wins. But between 2820 with OpenElec and FireTV, I am not so sure.

[bluechris]

True. But I am only going to want to change my media-player when I buy a new higher-resolution TV and that's not happening for another 2 years.

So, right now, all I need is smooth playback of 1080p, 720p, 1080i, 720i, 480p, 480i videos and ability to handle most kinds of codecs. Which current gen of media-players can do easily.

In addition to that, I want: miracast, airplay, airplay mirroring, DLNA, AllCast

And in addition to that, I want: smooth, fast user-interface.

I am now leaning towards Amazon Fire TV because:
1. supports all kinds of codecs, XBMC
2. lot of reviews talk about super-fast/smooth user interface
3. can play NetFlix, Hulu etc. in HD
4. Has support for Airplay (using some app) and Miracast, DLNA, AllCast etc
5. it has been rooted and now it supports external USB-connected hard-drive
6. Amazon is pushing out quality updates every now and then. You can disable auto-updates so there is no risk that Amazon will push out an update that will break your 'root'. If Amazon pushes out an update that re-locks it, just don't download that update until a new 'rooting' strategy has been discovered
7. and is only $99. If it lasts me even 18 months, it'd be fine.

On the other hand, NUC 2820 + OpenElec is not out of race either.
2820 will cost me $200 with everything but I may be able to run Plex-server too in the background.

Between X8-H and (rooted) Fire TV - I think FireTV wins. But between 2820 with OpenElec and FireTV, I am not so sure.

Because i have a FTV a X8H a S89H and a PC i can tell you this

1. FTV
Is nice and is working fine except if you have in your Library VC1 movies that cannot decode because it misses the decoder and with software decode is melting. Also if you have a HDHomerun or any other TV Tuner IP device that uses MPEG2 compresion FTV is melting again in XBMC because again is missing this Decompression simple because Amazon doesnt care for this as all its movies are h264. Also there are reports that DIVX movies have problems in decompression. The internal memory in FTV is too little and with all this bunch of things that Amazon has put it in it has in the end 3-4 giga left which for me is too little if you have a big media library and you also install many XBMC addons like me.

2. X8H or S89H (i have them together because they are totally same boxes in my eyes and tests)
They are pretty fast and good mashines. I havent spoted serius problems yet except that i have a 4K tv (LG 55UB850v) and there isnt yet a XBMC for it and all movies plays in top left quarter of the screen. Firmware 4k Player plays 4K movies fine. In both i had tried my Harmony 900 and also a Mele F10 Pro with no problems. As for android mashines both rock.. you have playstore... and if you are with android phone all apps that you have with your account work great in them... i have a Note 3 and everything works fine. Also android games play fine.
A small problem with this mashines is that if you want to alter something in xbmc or anywhere and offcourse you must be rooted then you mess with SSH and Sftp clients etc.. its not biggy but needs knowledge.

3. PC.. no matter which.. Nuc or anything.
Here the situation is simple and crystal clear.... you simply have it all. I use windows... i never got any kind of problem as matter .. xbmc... PVR... Digital Audio outputs or anything. Offcourse games in this mashine is out of the question.

I cannot guide noone to what to do.... but im dead stay with my PC... imagine that the pc i use its a joke as matter CPU power.. its a Asus EB1033 with nvidia 610m 4GB ram and 120GBssd but its rock solid.. it has windows.. it is 24/7 open.. dloads my torrents... has my home camera security software .. it has 4 tuners(3xDVB-T and 1 DVB-S2) with argus tv and 3 x 3Tera USB3 disks. The reason i bought all the 3 androids was to choose the best as the media player to my TV and leave the PC as it is and be the Backend of the tuners.. but small problems ... sometimes some xbmc addons.. sometimes craches with no reasons in all 3 android boxes... forced me to forget them and i allready sold the FTV and the S89H and i have only kept the X8H.

[1337techie]

Because i have a FTV a X8H a S89H and a PC i can tell you this

1. FTV
Is nice and is working fine except if you have in your Library VC1 movies that cannot decode because it misses the decoder and with software decode is melting. Also if you have a HDHomerun or any other TV Tuner IP device that uses MPEG2 compresion FTV is melting again in XBMC because again is missing this Decompression simple because Amazon doesnt care for this as all its movies are h264. Also there are reports that DIVX movies have problems in decompression. The internal memory in FTV is too little and with all this bunch of things that Amazon has put it in it has in the end 3-4 giga left which for me is too little if you have a big media library and you also install many XBMC addons like me.

2. X8H or S89H (i have them together because they are totally same boxes in my eyes and tests)
They are pretty fast and good mashines. I havent spoted serius problems yet except that i have a 4K tv (LG 55UB850v) and there isnt yet a XBMC for it and all movies plays in top left quarter of the screen. Firmware 4k Player plays 4K movies fine. In both i had tried my Harmony 900 and also a Mele F10 Pro with no problems. As for android mashines both rock.. you have playstore... and if you are with android phone all apps that you have with your account work great in them... i have a Note 3 and everything works fine. Also android games play fine.
A small problem with this mashines is that if you want to alter something in xbmc or anywhere and offcourse you must be rooted then you mess with SSH and Sftp clients etc.. its not biggy but needs knowledge.

3. PC.. no matter which.. Nuc or anything.
Here the situation is simple and crystal clear.... you simply have it all. I use windows... i never got any kind of problem as matter .. xbmc... PVR... Digital Audio outputs or anything. Offcourse games in this mashine is out of the question.

I cannot guide noone to what to do.... but im dead stay with my PC... imagine that the pc i use its a joke as matter CPU power.. its a Asus EB1033 with nvidia 610m 4GB ram and 120GBssd but its rock solid.. it has windows.. it is 24/7 open.. dloads my torrents... has my home camera security software .. it has 4 tuners(3xDVB-T and 1 DVB-S2) with argus tv and 3 x 3Tera USB3 disks. The reason i bought all the 3 androids was to choose the best as the media player to my TV and leave the PC as it is and be the Backend of the tuners.. but small problems ... sometimes some xbmc addons.. sometimes craches with no reasons in all 3 android boxes... forced me to forget them and i allready sold the FTV and the S89H and i have only kept the X8H.

Thank you very much for detailed reply. I am now leaning towards X8-H - with more updates, X8-H will only get better. And it sounds like it is already pretty smooth out of the box.

[titooo7]

I just received today my NUC N2820.
Is there anything someone want me to test to compare it with the X8-H?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Batfink32]

Re: Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

I just received today my NUC N2820.
Is there anything someone want me to test to compare it with the X8-H?

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

What do you think of it? Bit of a difference from an X8 isn't it?

[titooo7]

Re: Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

What do you think of it? Bit of a difference from an X8 isn't it?

The OS you can install is different so yeah there are lot of differences and different posibilite with each device. So far I saw some results that I didn't expect (disappointed?)

My NUC N2820 has 4GB ram and 320gb hdd and for now I just installed Linux Mint 17 Mate:
-One of the 4K Sintel clips is played with huge lag no matter if I use the default player, VLC and XBMC. The same clip is played with some artifacts but smoothly in the Minix X8-H with XBMC and the 4K Player app.
-Using Chrome YouTube videos at 1080p have a lot of dropped frames. That must be due to html5 because if I download the video it's played perfectly.

Later I will open a thread to post some comparison between the x8-, the NUC and my 2 years old Core i3 laptop.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Batfink32]

Re: Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

The OS you can install is different so yeah there are lot of differences and different posibilite with each device. So far I saw some results that I didn't expect (disappointed?)

My NUC N2820 has 4GB ram and 320gb hdd and for now I just installed Linux Mint 17 Mate:
-One of the 4K Sintel clips is played with huge lag no matter if I use the default player, VLC and XBMC. The same clip is played with some artifacts but smoothly in the Minix X8-H with XBMC and the 4K Player app.
-Using Chrome YouTube videos at 1080p have a lot of dropped frames. That must be due to html5 because if I download the video it's played perfectly.

Later I will open a thread to post some comparison between the x8-, the NUC and my 2 years old Core i3 laptop.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

I don't think its 4k compatible in fact I'm fairly certain its not. Chrome does lag with the YouTube site but thats a know Chrome problem with the NUC. I have Win 8.1 and use IE which is fine.

[titooo7]

Re: Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

I don't think its 4k compatible in fact I'm fairly certain its not. Chrome does lag with the YouTube site but thats a know Chrome problem with the NUC. I have Win 8.1 and use IE which is fine.

Thanks mate. I will install windows 8.1 now and test with IE
About 4K I really don't care because my tv is 1080p but I was surprised to see the X8-H doing a good job there

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[Batfink32]

Re: Is x8-h better than Intel NUC 2820?

Thanks mate. I will install windows 8.1 now and test with IE
About 4K I really don't care because my tv is 1080p but I was surprised to see the X8-H doing a good job there

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Yeah, Amlogic have said it can handle 4k whereas Intel said the 2820 is only 1080p. Funny thing is I managed to install the Android X86 version (very buggy)on the NUC and run Antutu and got 25000, the X8 gets 24000 . Windows 8.1 should make a difference its a nice OS on your TV.