HTPC / XBMC edition

[srv1973]

I'm very impressed with the low power requirements of the fit-pc2 and I'd love to use it as a media center / small home server in my living room. But I have a few problems with the current specs though:

• fit-pc2 doesn't have digital audio out, so not good for a
• fit-pc2i doesn't have the IR receiver built in
• Poulsbo is badly supported on linux, HD video playback is only supported with a special mplayer version (but not with generic ffmpeg-based applications, specifically XBMC)

So I'd just love to see a version of the fit-pc targetted specifically at media center applications, with:

• 1 free mini-PCIe slot for a broadcom chrystalHD card (which is supported by XBMC on linux for hardware accelerated video decoding, apparently using <2w under load).
• wifi + ethernet
• harddisk 250G or so
• IR receiver
• Bunch of USB/eSATA ports
• DVI/HDMI
• S/PDIF
• slim DVD or BD drive
• 2GB RAM (since I want to run a couple of small server apps on this)

This would likely require a case that is a bit larger than the current fit-pc2, which I wouldn't mind at all as the current case is just tiny. Power consumption would probably also be a little higher than the current fit-pc, but it would still be lower than almost any other "nettop" PC (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettop).

[irads]

But how much are you willing to pay for that?

[srv1973]

Hi Irads

Well, as I see it, this wishlist configuration could be seen as the fit-pc2i with the following extras:

• IR receiver
• That broadcom thingie
• DVD/Bluray drive

and minus:

• 1 Gigabit ethernet port
• Serial port

I assume that the IR receiver instead of the Serial port doesn't add any net cost. As I understood from an earlier post from you, each Gigabit ethernet port takes up a mini-PCIe slot, so I assume that there's 1 mini-PCIe ethernet card less in such a system. Not sure how much that would reduce the cost.

That Broadcom card is sold for around $69 retail, wholesale would be lower of course (apparently they go "as new" on eBay for around $20).

A slim internal DVD burner seems to go for around $50 retail. I can't find any quote for a bluray right now

The case will have to be bigger, so that adds cost. I understand that there's no eSATA in poulsbo, so drop that. Replacing the second ethernet port with extra USB ports would be nice.

Adding all that up (assuming a DVD drive):
fit-pc2i + $50 DVD drive + $20 Broadcom + $10(?) case

If I'm way off here, feel free to correct me though!

ps. some people might suggest using the ION platform, but it seems that platform has significantly higher power consumption than the fit-pc...

[ypnos]

I think it is always good to look at competition to see what the customer is willing to pay.

I also bought the FIT-PC for HTPC use and I compared with Dune HD players. Their current revision without a BD drive is in the same price range as the FIT-PC2. With BluRay drive included, it is $100 more.

Advantages of FIT-PC:
* Hard drive included
* Wifi included (but no 802.11.n)
* Fully controllable desktop system
* Way smaller
* (Probably) less power consumption

Advantages of Dune:
* Better audio output, and lots of
* Designed and trimmed for best media playback experience
* Sigma chip is known as state-of-the-art in media decoding/playback

Because of my hacker attitude, I went for the FIT-PC, while being not sure about Poulsbo's real world performance in HD playback. Including the Broadcom chip would fix this (btw. perhaps here you can implement a smarter solution than using it via mini-pcie?). Audio connectivity would still be an issue for many.

I still think that a special HTPC version of FIT-PC could find a market. If you throw out wifi (replace with Broadcom) and the hard drive in the first place, it seems you could reach the price tag of Dune HD Base, but *including* a BluRay drive.

[srv1973]

Hi Ypnos,

Just curious, but can you describe your software setup of that HTPC configuration?

Also, you complain about the audio configuration: I assume you refer to the lack of S/PDIF output, right? The configuration I propose does include that, so that should close the gap with the DuneHD that you compare against at least in that area.