Page 1 of HummingBoard – An Alternative to the Raspberry Pi Now Available

HummingBoard – An Alternative to the Raspberry Pi Now Available

http://www.eteknix.com/hummingboard-an-alternative-to-the-raspberry-pi-now-available/

I never got round to getting a Raspberry, Pi, if I had I think it would just be gathering dust, as my PC is now hooked up to TV in the lounge, but some of you may be interested in the HummingBoard

Quote:
admars says...
"I never got round to getting a Raspberry, Pi, if I had I think it would just be gathering dust"
I was bought one - and it is gathering dust. Never decided on what I was going to do with it. Was thinking of a HTPC, but don't need it now. Might use it as a water heating solar panel controller, but that's a much bigger project that I'm bound never to do... It's a bit like saying I'm going to build a car because someone gave me a wing mirror...

My Pi sat unused since I got it, until I moved house and then it became my NAS. :)

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@admars
                    TBH I have been using the Pi for about two to three years now and have been and am currently extremely pleased with the performance of it. I have XBMC installed ATM, for simplicity, and with the usual Video Add-ons such as Iplayer ITV Player, 5 OD 4 On Demand (Faulty at moment but hopefully Mossy will have a fix soon) they fulfil all my TV needs. On the video side of it, the Hummingboard certainly appears a superior model but considerably dearer . My set up cost £27 IIRC for the Model B Pi, £4 for a case and I used a spare SD card for the OS side of things and power the device from a USB on the telly. So Less than the cost of the basic model of HB and the bonus of thousands of add-ons created by Mossy and others. Not sure about HB add-ons so my Pi still seems the better option ATM. The Pi has played everything I can throw at it video wise flawlessly and the Music side add-ons such as Apple Icast ? station and others again perform as well.
Both the Pi and the HB (Apparently) need external sources for video/ audio such as a USB HDD so the cost would be the same either way .
I use mine every day for catch up tv or watching movies backed up from my collection so three odd years without a hitch would appear good value and reliability . We always take it on holiday with us and plug it into the tv in our hotel and again watch movies with my grand-daughter every night with it.
Get yourself a Pi and hopefully you will love it as much as we do in the Choagy household

Anywhoo, just my opinion

Choagy FFCUIK the SPL

...my main issue with the Pi is that you can't use it for Lovefilm (or Netflix) streaming. Once this is sorted (if ever) I might go back to the HTPC idea.

Out of interest, how does using XBMC on a Pi compare with using built in apps on smart TVs and Blu-ray players?

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Rob
      We have a Sony Bravia 32" smart TV in our bedroom and the main difference appears to be volume of apps available on the Pi . The apps on our TV, are quite restricted. Possibly down to the deals that manufacturers sign with broadcasters. 4OD seems to be available on Samsung or LG and not Sony where 5OD is available on the Sony. That in essence is the difference I see, from a non-techy anywhoo. I can get/ download a load of different apps for the Pi which are not available on the Sony or other sets. The real loss as mentioned earlier is that Netflix/ Lovefilm are missing on the Pi. There must be some techy OS reason for that but as I never have nor ever will use these services they are not a loss to me. I love my wee Pi to bits and have even bought our daughter one (XBMC installed) for her to use in the grand-daughters room and again on holiday. Blow that dust off and get using it

Choagy FFCUK The SPL

I think the reason Netflix/Lovefilm aren't available is because they use Microsoft Silverlight for streaming and the Pi being Linux based isn't able to run it/not licensed for it. This may never change. For me unfortunately this is a big no no.

A while ago I got one of those Now TV boxes from Sky for £10. It's basically a bottom of the range Roku box that you can use as a smart tv box for free if you don't sign up to Sky. Plenty of hacks are available to do things like stream video from your computer (Netflix & Lovefilm still won't work, however)

Quote:
Choagy says...
"Blow that dust off and get using it "
I am! It's my NAS server and also secondary DNS server, but I can't see using it beyond that really.

Both my Freeview HD box and Blu-ray player both play back avi/mkv/mp4 from USB, and my Blu-ray has iPlayer and YouTube, I'm not sure what else I'd use it for.


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Streaming Raspberry Pi music player anyone?
http://www.pimusicbox.com/


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