I have always wondered why specific high end chips aka sigma, ESSabre or the like are not found nor integrated in PC environments....I'm definitely not an expert so maybe what I'm saying is complete BS but I do believe that bringin computers to high-end home cinema/hifi is what we have seen in the last years....why has nobody tried the other way around ie take a high end home cinema/hifi hardware and build it on an open or more or less full user programmable OS.
There is a company called Zappiti Media Center that had Dune HD modify it for a high end with XLR outputs.
http://www.zappiti.com/zappiti_player_muse_edition.html Zappiti has great Gui interface for the Dune.
Dune HD has released a new version based off a Sigma Designs Chip called Solo 4K. Sigma Designs has full bluray menu's,3D, and 4k. Supporting most digital audio and video formats, including the most modern HEVC video codec with the support for 1 billion of colors (10-bit color encoding), all modern 3D video standards such as MVC, SBS and TnB, audiophile HD audio with high resolution up to 24-bit /192 KHz, Dune HD Solo 4K sets an entirely new standard. Dune HD Solo 4K is equipped with two USB ports, an internal 2.5” SATA HDD bay, 1Gbit Ethernet, 802.11ac Dual Band 2T2R Wi-Fi.
JRiver needs to make software Gui interface for this new Dune Solo to replace Intel Nuc.