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Another networked player contains popular HTPC software Boxee. NUU player demonstrated at CES 2010, is based on Atom CPU and probably Intel graphics. It sports 160GB HDD, HDMI, DVI, a few USB and one Ethernet ports. There is no info about WiFi adaptor but the player includes Bluetooth module. So, the wireless headset can be attached there.

Except Boxee, the NUU player offers XBMC and Skype applications. That’s really interesting cause you may no only watch video from sofa but make also Skype calls using Bluetooth headset without standing up.

The price of the NUU player is a bit more expensive then upcoming D-Link Boxee Box – $300 (Boxee Box is just $200). The date of availability is not set yet. The demo video after jump.
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It seems that nVidia Ion has a serious competitor – Broadcom with its Crystal HD Hardware Decoder. The biggest advantage of Broadcom is a common API for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and possibility to add it to the old boxes without upgrade graphical adapter. One of the first who added support of Broadcom was XBMC. Currently you can checkout XBMC with Broadcom from SVN repository and build it from the sources. Of course, you need Broadcom Hardware Decoder to test it. For example, that $69.00 PCIe Mini Card. That gives you possibility to decode mpeg2, h.264 and VC1 video content up to 1080p using Broadcom card. So, weak CPU won’t be a problem for HD video playback. Happy testing and Happy New Year!

After releasing of XBMC 9.11 “Camelot” and skin Transparency! it’s time for Xperience Beta1. I posted the amazing demo video of that XBMC skin. Know you can grab it here and try it on your HTPC. There is an Xperience Release Thread on the XBMC forum where you can watch the progress, leave your comments or ask help. Enjoy Xperience!

Xperience Trailer 2 from Team Blackbolt on Vimeo.

Amazing skin for XBMC is developing by Team Blackbolt. It’s named Xperience and it’s really really cool! See the demo video above to make sure it’s true.

While Boxee’s talking about its own device XBMC developers announced Alpha2 of version 9.11 Camelot. 103 issues were fixed since Alpha1. So, if you’re testing XBMC 9.10, please, upgrade your system.

The new users can get XBMC 9.10 Alpha2 for desire operation system on the download page, right below a stable version Babylon. All found bugs can be reported via XBMC Issue Tracking System. Happy testing!