Cloud Media just announced a new HTPC box, the Open Hour Chameleon. This new device is packed with a Quad Core Cortex-A17 and a Mali-T764, but is this too good to be true?
This new box is going to be loaded with the Rockchip RK3288, a quad core processor along with 1Gbps Ethernet, and the blazing Mali-T764 3D GPU. It has an onboard 8GB of NAND flash, with 2GB DDR3 RAM, and a storage expansion slot. Something neat about the expansion slot is that Cloud Media will be implementing a feature where you can load the OS off of an SD card. This would allow you to swap it out and load of a fresh OS in case there are any issues.
Promising 4K support, an Open OS platform, and native XBMC support, this little box looks too good to be true.
The Open Media team is claiming the following:
Currently, Rockchip the CPU manufacturer and Cloud Media is working directly with XBMC team for a customise XBMC for the Open Hour Chameleon.
– How will this be better than the plethora of Android boxes available these days?
Our main difference is the ability to boot directly from SD card and passive cooling aluminium casing.– Will it support HD audio (DTS-MA, TrueHD)?
Yes, we will be support passthrough.– Will it support 3D ISO’s or MVC MKV’s?
Rock chip will work with XBMC to support this in future.– Will it display proper 23.976 and 24fps for film content?
Yes– Native Kodi or Cloud Media’s own fork?
Currently H.265 hardware support is fork from XBMC. Eventually the RK3288 native playback might merge into Kodi main branch but for faster support, we might release a fork version for users when it is ready.
But, user jjd-uk is a little confused as he’s asked
Strange then that I’m not aware of any such activity, could you provide a name of who you are working with?
There are also some lingering issues with other devices Cloud Media has put out. Their A-300 and A-400 are considered to still be a ‘buggy mess’ when it comes to the firmware. Hopefully they can sort out their issues with this new Open Hour Chameleon.
I’m going to be watching this device when it comes out later this year. The price point right now is $150 USD which if true, would place it nicely as a top competitor in the HTPC market.
Full release information here
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I can’t wait to get my hands on this!
Me too! Hopefully I’ll be able to review this little box.