Arctic Introduces OpenELEC-based MC001-XBMC HTPC
by Ganesh T S on February 5, 2013 9:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Atom
- HTPC
- XBMC
- OpenELEC
Arctic announced the availability of their MC001-XBMC passive HTPC today. Based on the Intel Atom D525 and the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5430, the unit comes with OpenELEC pre-installed. The hardware platform supports HD audio bitstreaming and TV tuner / PVR capabilities.
The specifications of the unit are provided below:
One of the interesting aspects of the unit is the availability of a 1 TB HDD in the system for media storage and a DVB-T / ATSC TV tuner for PVR purposes. It is a bit unfortunate that OpenELEC doesn't officially seem to have ATSC tuner support for PVR purposes or HD audio bitstreaming enabled yet in the shipping version. Hopefully, a future OpenELEC update should resolve it (though one can use experimental builds / PVR version to get those features). That said, Arctic does have some interesting apps and features such as the Arctic Audio Relay which allows the unit to be used as a centralized jukebox when coupled with some accessories. The rest of the features such as a memory card reader, in-built Wi-Fi etc. are par for the course.
The MC001-XBMC is shipping now for 199 Euros / USD 229. Hit the source link for more information.
Source: Arctic
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Peanutsrevenge - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Fair enough. It did take me a couple weeks to rip all my CDs years ago, then lost the lot in a drive death and still haven't redone them all.Stop being such a lazy ass and get it sorted, you're letting the side down with all this talk of optical drives :p
ganeshts - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
I am not so confident about the included mobility Radeon GPU. It is two generations old and not even as capable as the 5450. I think 1080p60 will not play back properly with this set up. There is a reason it is cheap :) Suggest you wait for someone else to take the risk or some review to pop up before committing your money to purchase.I still recommend i3-3225 based system if cost is not too much of a concern.
HisDivineOrder - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
Sorry. $99 Ouya's with a version of XBMC incoming make this mostly irrelevant and overpriced.zilexa - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
The MC001 can run the full XBMC, either on linux or windows. Also it supports 1080p60 (according to testers). XBMC for Android is not fully developed yet and I dont think it can support 1080p60 on the Ouya. You should compare the Ouya with Raspberry Pi. Normaily a htpc like this mc001 is in a different price class.Col.Mayhem - Wednesday, February 6, 2013 - link
...and it's not OpenELEC's fault. AMD has yet to release open source support for this. That is why I never consider AMD solutions for linux based HTPCs if I'm also wanting HD audio. If I'm building an HTPC with an AMD solution and need HD audio, I build it on Windows.If I'm buiding with an Intel IGP or NVIDIA, I'll base the build on OpenELEC.
This may change with the new 8000 series as they are first to receive AMD open source support.