Best Fusion platform (wait for next generation, will blu-ray work on fusion)?

[lostiniceland]

Hi

After some initial research I decided to build an Openelec HTPC. In other posts I was able to clear my questions about dual tuner support and DVB-S hardware.

Now I am stuck which platform is best for me. I decided to go for a Fusion system but there are still unresolved questions.
Since the E35M1-I DELUXE Board is listed as supported I am tempted to go for this solution but I am not sure if it supports all my requirements...which are:

• Blu-Ray Playback!
  
• Play MKV files which are H.264 encoded! (Hardware decoding)
  
• Silence. The HTPC must be quiet since it is used in the living room
  
• Power comsumption. Not that important but it would be nice to save some energy
  

How about Llano-cores?

I read that VDPAU is best for playing Blu-ray but this is not used by AMD. Is there anything similar in Fusion that works in Openelec?

And last but not least, would it make sense to wait for the next Fusion-Generation? Or is, for example the E35M1-I DELUXE completly sufficient at the moment.

Thanks

EDIT: I just found a blog about Bobcat cores which says that 1080p60 is not supported but 1080i60 is.

[therio]

Hi

After some initial research I decided to build an Openelec HTPC. In other posts I was able to clear my questions about dual tuner support and DVB-S hardware.

Now I am stuck which platform is best for me. I decided to go for a Fusion system but there are still unresolved questions.
Since the E35M1-I DELUXE Board is listed as supported I am tempted to go for this solution but I am not sure if it supports all my requirements...which are:

• Blu-Ray Playback!
  
• Play MKV files which are H.264 encoded! (Hardware decoding)
  
• Silence. The HTPC must be quiet since it is used in the living room
  
• Power comsumption. Not that important but it would be nice to save some energy
  

How about Llano-cores?

I read that VDPAU is best for playing Blu-ray but this is not used by AMD. Is there anything similar in Fusion that works in Openelec?

And last but not least, would it make sense to wait for the next Fusion-Generation? Or is, for example the E35M1-I DELUXE completly sufficient at the moment.

Thanks

EDIT: I just found a blog about Bobcat cores which says that 1080p60 is not supported but 1080i60 is.

Blu-ray has limited support, official blu-ray discs will mostly not play on XBMC nor Openelec
H.264 is possible, but there are some files on Fusion that can really be a pain in the ass. We're currently working on them, but this will take some time.

The safest option is an ION2 platform, which is most reliable, energy-saver and plays the most files without any problem (files that are supported). These can also be found in a system without fans like the Shuttle XS35GT v1 and v2. When building it yourself, check for possibilities on the motherboard to get a heatpipe construction for low or no fan noise.

[lostiniceland]

I am willing to wait for a working fusion platform, if it will offer the better experience in the end.
I found a site that says that even Ion2 has problems decoding HD content and an external HD-decoder is recommendet. Furthermore it says that HDMI is not supported on Ion...which I also need.
Maybe Bluray is something that is not that important for my parent...for whom I want to built the system :-)

Or should I even wait for a sandy/ivy-bridge built?

[Gujs]

HDMI is supported by both ION and ION2.

[therio]

ION and ION2 can play perfect HD content, I have played large Full-HD files on an ION2 and never had any problems displaying them over HDMI. So I really wouldn't know why that site had placed that article. Only thing you should always check is the size of memory for the GPU. This should be 512mb or higher.

[lostiniceland]

Thanks again. I was almost about to buy a ion2 (zotac ionitx) but then i realized that the mini-itx boards dont have a pci-slot which I need for dvb-s tuners (SkyStar HD2).

The E35M1-I has a PCIe slot which would work with a bridge. Anyhow, I couldnt find Ion2-boards with PCI nor PCIe? Should I go for ATX instead of Mini-ITX?

I also decided to drop Bluray and just go for DVD...this is why I am still considering a Fusion.

Sorry for all those different questions, but I have to start building the system within the next week and I dont have much time for research (after my Desktop crashed and also has to get repaired).

[wocis]

i have "splitted" setup.
ion boxes all over the house (living room, kitchen, child room) and central storage at the basement (celeron, with 4x500GB swraid5, 2x dualtuner dvb-s2 pciexpress, oscam with irdeto card, tvheadend and samba server on it).
Central server is little bit noisy, but i dont care if it is not in my sight (and dont hear it in living room :-).
Central server suspending to ram when no "client" is connected and wake up when "client" starts.
In every room i have at least 2ethernet plugs, all things connected via gigabit eth and for notebooks and cells there is wifi.
Boxes boots from usb flash or sata/ide DOM (disk on module) - netboot is not acceptable, because central server sometime sleeping. No DVD/Bluray drive at all - when i buy dvd, i rip them, send to central server. If the movie worth it - then make mkv rip of them (1.4GB approx).
With lot of mistakes and experimenting i finished with this "ultimate" setup because everything else was halfway solution.
I'm looking forward to raspberypi "tiny things", because they will (hope so) be capable to run openelec/xbmc. If so, i will hide whole thing inside tvscreen housings...
Last thing (pain in the ass) is i dont have enough space at server last 1GB and harddrives are so f...ing expensive right now