Re: XBMC & Media Hubs
"The Pi with XBMC does actually make a genuinely good "media box"" - Yes. To a point. I received a Pi last year as a present. At first I used it with XBMC to play .TS files from my PVR and video from my NAS, both in another room. It did an okay job, however the lack of proper FF/REW on some file types and the fact that when playing a file the UI was like wading through treacle meant that I moved it on to other things.
So it was then put into service as see whether it was good enough to use as an emulation games machine (Amiga/ST/MAME). It wasn't. It's simply not powerful enough.
It's now running CUPS and acting as an AirPrint server for my 15 year old laserjet printer.
At first I thought of the Pi as a solution looking for a problem. It's clearly found a niche for low power (both electrical and processing) projects, though I'm still not convinced it's the best option for the task it was originally marketed for - the revival of the bedroom coder and getting school kids into programming. A significantly more powerful version (quad core, more memory) would open up a whole load more opportunities.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
