pogoplug died, what should replace it?

[dougunder]

Hi,

I had a pogoplug V2 running alarm as my download box. It had Sabnzbd, sickbeard, couch potato and deluge running.
It exported the completed directory via NFS, playback was typically on my wdtv which runs wdlxtv.

Couple of weeks ago it stopped working, i've determined it to be hardware failure so am consequently looking for a replacement.

In addition to downloading, i would like to install xbmc and asterisks on the new device, and move the wdtv to another room.

I download on average 6-12 shows a week, and call volume won't be crazy will have no trans-coding.

So, what would be recommended to replace it? Since it will be my PBX, stability and longevity are paramount, something the pogo was lacking.

I've narrowed it down to the following:

1. Wanda board quad; pluses= gigabit, spifd, sata, speed neg=no case included, price, no ir
2. cuBox; pluses=Nice package, irda,spifd, gigabit esata neg=single core 800mhz
3. Mele A1000; pluses=set top case, irda, spifd, sata, price neg=cedar/mali, china QC

Anything I've missed? Suggestions to help narrow it down?

[WarheadsSE]

Well, you would want a platform with working X11 accel in some way to get good xbmc output. I don't know that any of them have accelerated FB drivers. The Pi doesn't count because all they did was hook to the OMX stuff. The fbdev interface when not playing videos still sucks.

[dougunder]

Thanks

I hadn't quite realized what a state video drivers are for these arm boards.

After much investigation I've decided to go with the wandboard quad. The performance for headless stuff should be more then good enough, with headroom if I decide to take some of my web hosting in-house.

On the XBMC side, I saw this blog post and similar stuff such as this hint x11 support is coming along, or at least being worked on in the light of day.

I think I'll setup a Yocto development environment on my (arch) work station, as that seems to be where the i.MX6 development is going on.

I'm always up for learning something new.

[WarheadsSE]

They are actively working with Wayland for using the GPU in the backend, which is not necessarily 2D accell of X11.

[dougunder]

For my current use, graphic wise accelerated xbmc is all i need which seems to be doable, in an alphaish state though.

I would be interested in a arm desktop as a future project, hopefully by then XFCE moves to gtk3/wayland, or another light DE is wayland compatible. Right now you could probably cobble something together, wouldn't be cohesive though.

In a way is good to see progress on what is coming, I would tend to agree with the notion that xorg doesn't belong on integrated devices. Moore's law being what it is it may not matter in a few years time, ATM however there are not really the resources for a full X Server.

Random thought, but is acceleration really that important for a simple DE?