Hub mark ii or Enthusiast series

Getting ready to dump my hub after just over a years use and I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on a replacement unit. Unfortunately, outside of building my own HTPC there are no other options.

What I’ve found is that the extreme low-end of the market is utterly saturated with media streamers and there are a number of choices in the upper low-end / low-end midrange. Anything outside of this is homebrew.

I like the Hub and I think the concept is sound, but the physical limitations of the device are becoming too much to bear.

So… if you had a hand in green lighting features for a higher end version of the Hub - what would you include or change?

My short list:

Hardware

  1. Faster processor that can actually support a gigabit data copy and play a movie at the same time

  2. Additional USB ports & USB 3.0 support

  3. Removal of the included HDD in exchange for 2 hot swap SATA bays

Software

  1. Redesign of the Media Library database – the database should be stored locally on internal storage and not polling external devices continually

  2. Caching of all content on local storage, device should not need write access to remote resources.

You likely would have been better off with the SMP.  That said, some of us here have a hunch there is a replacement for the current SMP coming soon, because of lack of sellers for the current one (most are out of stock).  Hopefully, this will happen soon, and some of your requests will be answered, e.g. true gigabit/faster processor, USB 3, and dual-band wireless to name a few.

have you looked at either

the dune players

http://duneplayer.com/shop/

or popcorn hour

http://www.cloudmedia.com/products/popcornhour/store-c-300

but then if you’re going to spend that much on a media player

the HTPC option suddently looks very appealing

Ho, anybody got some money to burn?  Bang-for-buck doesn’t appear to be there for either, although the idea of a blu-ray/media player is cool – but not at this price.

Next idea for WD:  make a combo blu-ray and media player that we feel like spending money on because of the bang-for-buck feature!

Yes, I looked at both the Dune and Popcorn hour, neither are appealing.

Price points on both are too high for what they are and there is issue with support as well. I was watching walk throughs of the Dune on youtube and there is no real media library, simply a file list. No real distribution channels in the US either. I was researching Popcorn as an alternative, but from what I was reading from the disgruntled user base is there hasn’t been a firmware update in almost a year and there are alot of playback issues. And, at that price for something with only an 800mhz processor…

For S’n’G you can put together a high end ITX HTPC with XBMC for around $300 that blows anything on the market out of the water.

Frankly, I would pay upwards of 350-400 for something if it was engineered well. A smallish appliance I could just plug in and walk away. Nothing out there, but now that Im commited to this new path I have the added bonus of being able to have it run Steam and other games as well.