# CuBox-i replacing Raspberry Pi for my media



## jimbodude (Jul 26, 2011)

Following up from a very old thread on using XBMC on RPi: http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/computers-htpc-media-servers/62902-raspberry-pi-xbmc.html

The RPi solution had a few major problems:

Playback on high bitrate video (uncompressed BluRay quality) stutters badly
No support for decoding lossless audio codecs
Significant and frequent stutters when doing passthrough on lossless audio codecs
Metadata loading is terribly slow
Menus are sluggish at best
The form factor of the RPi isn't conducive to putting in your AV cabinet
No built in IR, requires extra knowledge and significant time to make work

I've been able to address almost all of these by upgrading the hardware to a CuBox-i4Pro. I'm sure the less expensive ones could also be used successfully, maybe with some performance tradeoffs.

http://www.solid-run.com/products/cubox-i-mini-computer/cubox-i-specifications/

The only major problem with the CuBox is that it outputs RGB full range (0-255) over HDMI, where most components expect to be seeing the RGB limited range (16-235). The result of sending full range to a device that is expecting limited range is a loss of clarity in the dark and bright areas. Effectively the picture looks too dark (can't see details in shadows) or blown out (no detail in bright areas). The effect of sending limited range to something that is expecting full range is an overly bright image (seeing light where there should be black). So it is pretty important to match them.

I have not been able to find a solution to the RGB range problem, so I have to set my projector to full range when I use that device, and back to limited when I'm done.

I also sometimes have some very brief stuttering when using passthrough on lossless audio codecs. I don't know what the cause is yet, so I've been using the normal lossy audio for now.

Other than that, it works really well. I dropped in a version of OpenELEC, set my harmony remote to use the Microsoft Media Center codes, and everything worked pretty much out of the box after some on-screen configuration.

Installation info: http://www.solid-run.com/wiki/OpenELEC I used the manual install method. The OpenELEC forms have more information. http://openelec.tv/forum/125-solidrun-cubox-i


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