Ouya or i3 nuc?

johnybean

Hi guys.
I got an amazon voucher for xmas and I wanted top ask you guys a quick question as to how I should spend it. I have the option of either this i3 nuc or an ouya. All I want to do is play files from my microserver which is running windows 7 and flexraid. Most of the files are 3-7GB mkv or mp4 files with dts audio. I dont have a receiver at the moment so I need something which can downsample the dts audio to output through the tv speakers (For now)
I know the nook would be a bit more but I was planning on running openelec from a usb key and getting an mSata drive later on and sticking in 2 or 4 gig of RAM that I have lying around. I dont have any other needs for the box (Netflix would be nice to have but not mandatory)
Does anyone on here have one or both of these machines or even experience with them? Which would I be better off getting?
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

wibbleman

Out of interest, what did you buy in the end ?

johnybean

Well, after sifting through the pages and pages of responses, I compiled several pie charts/excel sheets and powerpoint presentations I finally settled on the Ouya
If you solely need an xbmc box for streaming from a NAS then the Ouya is perfect considering the price. I have also played around with some of the ROMs and emulators and was really happy to find that I could play Street Fighter 2 Alpha (PSP) no problems, was disappointed to find that I could not play either of the GOd of War games though. All snes/N64.mega Drive etc ROMs seemed to work perfect.
I have the ouya set up to boot straight into spmc as most of my files are Ac3 audio or 5.1 so I couldnt get audio with the official xbmc 12.2 build and couldn't get samba shares working with Gotham nightlies so just sticking with spmc w/ Aeon Nox skin.
Happy enough with the final result, only have the odd sporadic crash which only requires you to relaunch spmc.
One thing I would notew is that the fan does run most of the time when playing video files and it is audible from approx 10 feet away, not as bad as my old laptop, but still audible. I am going to get an aftermarket fan whenever I get a chance and see doers that help. A factor in this may be that I have the Ouya in an area that has quite poor air circulation so it may be heating up a bit quicker than other cases but thats the only place I can put it and other then fan noise, It is not effecting performance.
If your needs are the same as mine (No streaming services, playing local files from a NAS and playing the odd ROm) then I think the Ouya is one of the best options at the moment considering the price.

If you have any other questions let me know and I will do my best to answer.

ufc pro

johnybean wrote: »

Well, after sifting through the pages and pages of responses, I compiled several pie charts/excel sheets and powerpoint presentations I finally settled on the Ouya
If you solely need an xbmc box for streaming from a NAS then the Ouya is perfect considering the price. I have also played around with some of the ROMs and emulators and was really happy to find that I could play Street Fighter 2 Alpha (PSP) no problems, was disappointed to find that I could not play either of the GOd of War games though. All snes/N64.mega Drive etc ROMs seemed to work perfect.
I have the ouya set up to boot straight into spmc as most of my files are Ac3 audio or 5.1 so I couldnt get audio with the official xbmc 12.2 build and couldn't get samba shares working with Gotham nightlies so just sticking with spmc w/ Aeon Nox skin.
Happy enough with the final result, only have the odd sporadic crash which only requires you to relaunch spmc.
One thing I would notew is that the fan does run most of the time when playing video files and it is audible from approx 10 feet away, not as bad as my old laptop, but still audible. I am going to get an aftermarket fan whenever I get a chance and see doers that help. A factor in this may be that I have the Ouya in an area that has quite poor air circulation so it may be heating up a bit quicker than other cases but thats the only place I can put it and other then fan noise, It is not effecting performance.
If your needs are the same as mine (No streaming services, playing local files from a NAS and playing the odd ROm) then I think the Ouya is one of the best options at the moment considering the price.

If you have any other questions let me know and I will do my best to answer.

im running this too, how is the aeon nox skin running does it slow it down at all, i never tried it because i thought the ouya could not handle it!

johnybean

ufc pro wrote: »

im running this too, how is the aeon nox skin running does it slow it down at all, i never tried it because i thought the ouya could not handle it!

Aoen nox runs fine, takes a couple of seconds to go from home menu into movies section but browsing through movies works perfectly once everything has been cached initially

ufc pro

johnybean wrote: »

Aoen nox runs fine, takes a couple of seconds to go from home menu into movies section but browsing through movies works perfectly once everything has been cached initially

excellent ill try that today, i wonder how it will be with istream, that skin looks excellent!!
thanks

ufc pro

also sorry, how is playback is it ok, does i compromise playback?

johnybean

Only saw your reply there now. Playback is perfect (to my eyes) I am playing 5-10GB mkv's with 5.1 DTS or AAC and everything plays perfectly. I can fast forward/rewind/skip without any issue. I am using SPMC which is a fork of xbmc which is required if you want to play AAC audio encoded files as there were some licencing issues with the official version of xbmc. every now and again the ouya will lock up while in xbmc but I only have to double tap the ouya button on the controller, exit the app and re-enter the app again. this happens very rarely and I think it may be sorted when final version of Gotham gets released.

Kur4mA

I've been using the Ouya for quite a while now and it'll play anything up to 1080p with no problems at all. However, I'm about to move from my Ouya to an Intel NUC because I much prefer OpenElec and I want something non-Android that is dedicated solely to playing media.

Don't get me wrong, the Ouya is a great piece of kit and is a wee beast for the price, but it is still primarily a sucky games console with a fantastic media app (XBMC) running on top of the crappy Ouya platform which can get tedious.

Trust me, those crashes you're talking about which happen the odd time start to get tedious when you've been working all day and want nothing more than to catch up on your telly shows. The other thing which I've gotten sick of is having to go find the bloody Ouya controller whenever XBMC has issues, especially when the controller runs out of batteries! Nobody has figured out a way to control the Ouya with a remote yet to my knowledge and that silly little thing has become a deal breaker for me.

johnybean

I see where you are coming fro, down the line I hope to get an i3 Nuc when they drop in price and use it as a one stop shop for xbmc/plex/Netflix and any other streaming services I care to use as well as a proper emulator.
With regards to the controller, I am hoping to get flirc working with a nowtv remote and map the ouya button to one of the remote buttons so I can double tap it to go back to the home screen in the case of a lock up. Don't know if it will work but no harm trying till I can gather the funds (and brownie points!) for a fully loaded Nuc