What's the Best Way To Get Web Content To My TV? 304
An anonymous reader writes "It seems like there are a lot of options for getting web content onto our TVs, but which one is the best way to go? Being able to stream videos (especially through sites like Hulu), check out social networking sites, and read news would be awesome to do from my couch. Currently, I hook up my laptop to the TV, which works, but it's annoying, especially if I want to use my laptop while I am watching some videos. Some things that are important to me are: connecting to my HDTV, allowing me view anything I could in a web browser as if I were on my computer, and being easily controlled from the couch. What setups do you guys use, or what would you like to use?"
Top three recently introduced (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Top three recently introduced (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Top three recently introduced (Score:4, Informative)
Playon works pretty well with my ps3
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I use a PC with PlayOn [playon.tv] to stream to my PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, and an XBOX with XBMC. It will actually stream to any device that is DLNA [dlna.org] compliant. There is an active plugin [playonplugins.com] group where you can request or submit plugins for different sites. Since I am seeing many of the newer Blu-Ray players come with DLNA baked in I would look for one of those if a gaming console isn't what you have or want.
Mac Mini (Score:2)
Tried various solution, this one just fits, full PC, small, built in BT works nice with Logitech BT keyboards. You also have option of installing XBMC or Boxee
Disclaimer: I am no Mac fanboy, this is the only mac I have in the house :)
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Products, schmoducks, he has everything he needs except a wireless mouse and keyboard. If plugging the laptop into the TV is a PITA, he should simply get a desktop PC with HDMI or S-Video, depending on his TV's inputs.
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nVidia ION nettop (Score:5, Informative)
I've been testing these things for work, and I'm very impressed.
Dual core atom w/ hyperthreading actually makes the system very responsive, so it's easier to forget that it's not a "real" CPU, unlike my single-core eeePC that does stutter occasionally.
Also has a decent nVidia 9400 GPU with dedicated RAM, so it actually will give you decent 3D desktop effects (useful for monitoring multiple pieces of content simultaneously), decoding acceleration, etc. under both Windows and Linux.
The price point is pretty good too... many are under $300 if you can provide your own storage... e.g. if you find a usb pendrive linux-based media center that streams everything.
That takes care of pretty flexible hardware... I don't actually have a TV, though, so I haven't really bothered to find media software I liked. But going with a full nettop means it should be pretty straightforward to run all XBMC, Boxee, MythTV, Miro, etc. from one device. Though I guess you'd need to go with Windows to get crappy DRM'd content like Hulu and Netflix (which I've simply just been doing without).
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Not enough oomph for Adobe Flash, unless you get lucky and the GPU-accelerated alpha of 10.1 actually accelerates for you.
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If there's a flash movie I care about, I'll usually pause the browser player and run /tmp/Flash* ...to open it up fullscreen in VideoLAN with VPDAU hardware acceleration, post-processing, vertical-sync, etc. (stuff they can't even get working nicely on Flash for Windows)
vlc
But yeah, intensive flash games like Fantastic Contraption wouldn't be so hot. If it wasn't for that and the hope from the somewhat decent http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/ [adobe.com] blog, I wouldn't bother with flash at all. (I already use Fl
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Were I to build an Atom box for the TV, I would personally go with a D510 board [newegg.com] dual core model and a Broadcom PCIe 2d video decoder BCM70012 [broadcom.com]found on Ebay for cheap. This will use very little power, be very quiet, and just as good and just as good at playing (non-3D) video as the super-hot (temperature-wise) nVidia ion systems. This is, of course, you are not using the mini PCIe slot for wireless networking. Ethernet or USB wireless ftw.
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Not really sure what else to say, highly recommended, it makes a great media PC. You should be able to find the 2GB RAM model for somewhere in the $300 range.
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Home Theatre PC. (Score:4, Informative)
I use an HP "Media Center" PC, running Ubuntu with MythTV and accessed with a Microsoft Remote Keyboard. Two analog tuners for cable, and an HDHomerun hooked to a powered antenna for over the air HD content.
MythTV runs on virtual desktop one, and a web browser on virtual desktop two.
--saint
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All in all, it was a completely painless setup, the only negative is that I don't have a way to get HD o
Re:Home Theatre PC. (Score:5, Informative)
http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/
Re:Home Theatre PC. (Score:5, Informative)
Just be aware that not all the STB's have firewire turned on, with Comcast they were disabled on my first STB, so I had to call and ask for one. If they give you any issues, it's rule 76.640.
http://louise.hallikainen.org/FCC/FccRules/2005/76/640/ [hallikainen.org]
(4) Cable operators shall:
(i) Effective April 1, 2004, upon request of a customer, replace any leased
high definition set-top box, which does not include a functional IEEE 1394
interface, with one that includes a functional IEEE 1394 interface or
upgrade the customer's set-top box by download or other means to ensure that
the IEEE 1394 interface is functional.
Acer Revo (Score:5, Interesting)
I replaced my eeebox with an Acer Revo this year. For $200 US you get a small but fully fledged computer that runs Ubuntu just fine. It's a perfect box for xbmc. Firefox works just fine for web to your TV.
Best thing about it is the Nvidia Ion chipset, so you can do full 1080p playback. Biggest disadvantage is the lack of wireless. I added a USB wireless adapter.
For controls, you can use a wireless keyboard. For the XBMC you can use a Microsoft Media Center remote, or there's a decent remote for the iPhone/iPod touch.
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Second this, my next media player (to supersede Xbox running XBMC) will be Aspire Revo running Debian and XBMC. 1GB RAM upgradeable to 4GB and 160GB disk for $199? Yes. And with VDPAU support, VGA, and HDMI outputs. Perfecto. Not to mention that the power consumption is super-low...
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Third this, though I'm leaning towards the $320 one with dual core Atom, extra RAM & Win7, since it looks like Win7 is a better choice for recording OTA HD right now. Lots of people seem to be running Win7 on the $200 one too, but I'm not a student so I don't have a cheap copy on hand. Check out revohtpc.com for basic setup info.
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There's a mini PCIe slot in it as well. In an effort to make it as clean looking as possible (it's in a somewhat exposed location and WAF must be taken into account), I added an internal wireless card and antennas. There is also a VESA mount available for it to allow it to be nicely mounted to a wall/ceiling/monitor.
XBMC itself is extremely configurable and very easy to use. I have it set up to stream movies and TV shows from the home file server, and the whole system is very quiet and responsive. It's one
Er, a PS3 (Score:2)
Does all that. Plays Blurays too. And games.
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The hack no longer works, as the PS3's Flash implementation is Flash 9, and Hulu now requires Flash 10.
However:
rtmpdump 2.2 (From the mplayer-hosted site, not the original author's site which was in the USA and got DMCAed)+ ffmpeg (for lossless transcoding from FLV to MP4) + MediaTomb will sort-of get you Hulu on your PS3.
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Boxee (Score:3, Interesting)
I pulled out an out dated PC, stuck an ATI all-in-wonder card in it and plugged it into the TV. I've been running Boxee on it for a while now. I like that it has such a variety of "apps" that aggregate videos from Hulu, Netflix, the major networks, as well as plays my DVDs and ripped movies*.
Honestly though, Boxee is still a little rough. The interface is excellent, but it feels a bit laggy at times (although this is an older PC), and their double buffering interface leaves a bit to be desired. I'm sure they'll continue to improve it, but some times I just drop out of Boxee and go to the source site directly.
-Rick
*Legally ripped movies that is. Teething toddlers will chew on anything, even your limited run collectors edition of the LoTR trilogy.
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Boxee (Score:2, Informative)
Nettop + wireless keyboard and mouse (Score:2)
The subject pretty much says it all.
Boxee or Plex (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using XBMC since.... well, since it first came out for the original XBox. It didn't stream web content though, and to this day it's still a PITA to stream through the modern XBMC, even in Windows.
If you've got a spare Mac (which would be pretty rare), I would highly recommend Plex. Using the Apple remote works beautifully, and it handles Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and anything else you could throw at it. It also does Pandora, which is awesome, since the system is already hooked up to the stereo.
If you're using Linux or Windows, I would go with Boxee. It does all of the Hulu/Netflix/Pandora/ESPN360/etc. content, and has finally become genuinely stable enough for everyday use, even for my mildly non-technical wife, who has to keep TV rolling for 2 kids on demand.
I keep the actual box that does the streaming in the basement to avoid any sort of fan noise, and just run an HDMI cable and a digital audio cable(I use SPDIF, simply because it was the simplest to run and I had stacks of long RCA cables) coming up through the floor and hooked to the flat screen in the living room.
If you also run a long USB cable, you can hook up all kinds of stuff, especially joysticks for emulation :]
Let's see any of the hardware HTPC options out there run ColecoVision :]
Drawback of emulation: dumping your carts (Score:2)
If you also run a long USB cable, you can hook up all kinds of stuff, especially joysticks for emulation
An emulator on an HTPC with an optical drive works fine for PlayStation game discs. But emulating classic cartridge-based consoles has one drawback: figuring out how to copy your game cartridges into the PC. Easily available dumpers like the Retrode [retrode.org] don't support the ColecoVision yet.
careful with this advice (Score:2)
Actually, Netflix does not work at all under linux, including via Boxee. That's a function of Netflix's choice of Sliverlight as its DRM lock-in. Moonlight still isn't there....
Hulu has been a major cat-and-mouse game with Boxee, and on L
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I've been using XBMC since.... well, since it first came out for the original XBox. It didn't stream web content though, and to this day it's still a PITA to stream through the modern XBMC, even in Windows.
There are XBMC scripts for various kinds of streaming. I've not bothered with them very much, but in my brief attempts, it seemed to do a decent job of YouTube and BBC 'listen again' streaming (can't remember whether it did iPlayer video).
I use XBMC on the original Xbox a lot, streaming AVI files etc. from my Mac over SMB. It works beautifully. It's not got the grunt for 720p, but I'm not particularly bothered by that.
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XBMC on Ubuntu (Score:5, Informative)
Plex and MythTV on a Mac (Score:5, Informative)
I use Plex and MythTV (+HDHomeRun tuner) on a Mac Mini. It's been very reliable, and I'm happy with everything I can do, including videoconferencing. My only wish is that I could play MythTV recordings from within Plex, but really the latest version of Myth is pretty nice to use. Oh, and that Myth on OSX would do AC3 sound passthrough.
It's worth noting that I almost never browse the web using this setup any more, because most of the websites with interesting content (Hulu, YouTube, Comedy Central) have already been integrated with Plex.
You can see my setup log here: http://public.boonstra.org/MacMiniHTPCSetup.html [boonstra.org]
Easy. (Score:3, Interesting)
Mac mini, Apple remote, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. A bit pricey but it pretty much does everything, out of the box, with very little fiddling needed. Just need a few things, like Perian, HandBrake and/or RipIt, Hulu Desktop, Plex if you want, etc.
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Mac mini, Apple remote, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
Maybe after a Mac mini gets HDMI output. It sucks the way Apple is dragging their feet on getting this standard onto the mini. It's as if there is some ego driven "visionary" in charge.
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Just get a DVI to HDMI cable.
DVI does not carry the audio signals of HDMI. Using a separate optical audio cable is still not as good because then you have two cables and much lower audio bandwidth than HDMI.
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't get why people get so hung up on the number of cables. One? Two? What's the big deal? Besides, for many setups, the signal isn't going to the same place anyway--video goes to the TV (up on the wall), sound goes to the amp (under the Mac.) And I'm not aware of anything audio-related that HDMI can do that optical digital audio (which the Mac mini has) can't. If you have references or specifics, please reply.
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Mac mini, Apple remote, and Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
I use exactly this setup, it works great. I also have DVDPedia [bruji.com] with the plug-in for Front Row so I can pull up all my ripped DVD's with the Apple remote, very handy.
I have a box that takes DVI and Toslink and converts it into HDMI, but I've never gotten around to hooking it up - the Mac Mini works fine through the VGA port.
Apple TV (Score:2)
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I hacked mine and now I have all of my DVD's on an external HD and can pull them all up at any time through XBMC. XBMC also plays a variety of movie formats that are not Apple Standard. One thing the ATV does not do is 1080p video. Nor does it have any browsing or streaming video. However, as you mentioned, the podcasts are great, it has dozens of streaming radio
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The key ingredient... (Score:2)
isn't the type of PC you connect to the TV, it's your pointing devices. Connect the computer to the PC by wire (HDMI/VGA/DVI...), but you need a wireless pointing device and keyboard whose signal reaches from your couch to the PC. This can be:
- a standard or bluetooth RF keyboard and mouse.
- a bluetooth receiver coupled with a Wiimote, using appropriate software available online.
- a presentation-style pointing device like those used at conferences and so on.
The last two would have the advantage that you wou
Media Mall Playon + Xbox360 (Score:2)
NIntendo Wii, Opera, www.youtube.com/xl (Score:3, Interesting)
and I'm looking forward to the Netflix streaming disk for the Wii:
http://www.netflix.com/NRDInfo/Wii [netflix.com]
William
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The WiFi on my Wii is terrible - not good enough for basic SD YouTube streaming. I gather that's not unusual.
It's not the internet connection or the access point -- other devices connecting the same way do just fine.
Don't waste a computer. (Score:5, Interesting)
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what's this hacked version you mentioned - will it update the codecs? if so i'd like to hear more. i burn avis to disc and watch them on the philips (the one w/out a usb input) but it doesn't play some of the newer content.
- js.
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Slingcatcher (Score:3, Informative)
The Slingcatcher from http://www.slingbox.com/go/slingcatcher [slingbox.com] is pretty good at doing this.
That's easy ... (Score:2)
Sony Bravia (Score:2)
I'm fairly happy with my Sony Bravia — hooked up to my home network (both Ethernet and WiFi are there), it can go to things YouTube or Netflix directly.
It can also play contents off of your computer, although it is, unfortunately, rather picky... The server must comply with DLNA [wikipedia.org]-standard (not merely UPnP MediaServer [wikipedia.org]). The set of supported formats is rather disappointing too, both for movies, and even for JPEG-pictures. For example, Sony's own software (also found in their digital picture frames) rej
MythTV .23 includes web content (Score:2)
The latest release of MythTV [mythtv.org] (.23RC1) contains a new plugin called MythNetVision [mythtv.org] which specifically enables browsing of online videos.
It's still a little rough yet, but is under active development.
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It's still a little rough yet, but is under active development.
Hah, like everything about Myth...
I use my wii (Score:3, Interesting)
Put the homebrew channel and a media player on a wii. You can watch media files from your network or off a usb drive; you can view web pages, including flash video, using the available web browser; and of course, you can also play games. The price is pretty good, too. The down side is that it's only 480p at best.
Jailfix coming? (Score:2)
Simple solution (Score:3, Interesting)
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No Hulu. No DVD ISO menu support. Otherwise it's a nice little unit.
Dirt cheep route.. (Score:3)
I did it the easy way..
I got a $99 lease return PC from Tiger and stuffed it in the stereo cabinet.
I already have a wireless router in the cabinet for the PVR so network access was easy..
Toss in a HDMI capable video card (Nvidia 210 for $40) and it's almost done..
Wireless keyboard and mouse sit on the TV cabinet..
PC runs UltraVNC so I can remote control it from my laptop..
We mostly stream Netflx movies on it.. Sometimes the Kids play games on the big TV from the keyboard/mouse..
Plex (Score:2)
I bought a mac mini just to run Plex, it's just that nice.
MAME box (Score:2)
I built a portable MAME box to connect to my TV, finally figured out it's also great for watching videos and DVDs from as well.
It's here [bensolomon.com] if you want to see it.
For networking, I got some of those PowerLine network adapters, that communicate using your home's AC wiring. I couldn't use wireless because it was too far away from my access point, and there was a bathroom in the way (lots of pipes I suppose).
Then I installed VNC on the thing, and now I can just load videos to it, start the video and by the time I
Go here and learn what you need (Score:2)
http://www.hometheaternetwork.com/ [hometheaternetwork.com]
Great content, diagramming, etc...
It is the definitive source for all things related to home theater and home automation.
Mac Mini (Score:2)
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HTPC Needed (Score:2)
The best route for maximum flexiability is a Media PC. Any PC will work, and any flavor of OS. I've used Windows and Mac PC's extensively. I haven't tried a Linux box yet, but I see no reason why those wouldn't serve just as well.
For Windows, nVidia drivers will give you overscan options out of the box. ATI isn't quite as user friendly (or it wasn't the last time I used their drivers, but that may have changed. The ones that do are excellent for clipping off the overscan so you get a nice edge to edge pictu
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Forgot to mention. On a mac, the remote software is built in and enabled on the HTPC in the preferences under Sharing. For windows, you can use MSTSC.EXE which used to be built in, but if I recall the 'server' functionality was stripped out of some home versions starting with Vista.
For keyboards and mice, be sure to go Bluetooth or RF. Make sure the range is acceptable for the room size. Most are VERY short range, where bluetooth and RF tend to be in the 20-50 foot range. Far more suitable for an HTPC.
Popcorn Hour (Score:3, Informative)
Cheap PC (Score:2)
Dell Zino (Score:2)
I have a Dell Zino attached to my television. It's an AMD / ATI system with 3GB of memory. I have zero problems with it, though it did cost a fair amount, and it's a small form factor. Normally I would be interested in something with a slot loading drive but my dogs are often in the same room and their regular filth would be bad news for a slot loading optical drive. I like the tray even though I rarely use it.
It also has lots of USB (front and back) HDMI, eSATA, card reader on the front ... fairly nice lit
I'm waiting for XBMC on ARM to be complete (Score:2)
Here's how I did it: (Score:2)
I just bought a new gaming PC. I took my old PC and hooked it up to my TV.
The TV is a giant projection TV I got from my father-in-law when he upgraded to LCD TVs. It has an HDMI port on it.
I got a cable to convert DVI to HDMI and used that to go from the PC to the TV, and another cable that takes stereo out from my PC and coverts it into left and right RCA for the sound input on the TV.
For Christmas, at the company party, I won a Microsoft wireless keyboard/mouse, and VX3000 Life Cam kit. Unfortunately t
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My Tested Solution: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you want it to act like a computer hooked to (Score:4, Informative)
This works well. DVR, stream videos, etc... all with Windows Media Center. Plus what you can't get through windows media center, you can always fire up a browser, and get what you want.
Re:If you want it to act like a computer hooked to (Score:4, Informative)
I'm about to expand it from all on one system..to breaking it into its client server components and have one big machine in my office out of the way with tons of drive space, and use it to feed smaller boxes by each tv/stereo in the house. I'm looking to maybe get the little Acer Revo [newegg.com] for each front end box. It looks nice and small and quiet, and I think I'm reading if you use VDPAU on it...you can use it to view HD.
I don't have wireless keyboard/mouse yet, but will add those on...wired isn't bothering me right now since I'm running off a HD projector so projector, computer and controls are all near me on the couch so, no wires running around with this setup.
When I set up the front end boxes with flat panel tvs, I'll do wireless then. But that is what I watch tv through...and just alt-tab to do real computer stuff. If I'm in the middle of a live show, I hit pause, do computer...then back, but most of the time with a DVR, I RARELY watch live tv anymore...I just don't like fscking with the commercials.
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Doing it wrong! (Score:2)
If you're gonna stick a regular PC with a desktop OS into your TV cabinet, go with Ubuntu (or whatever Linux distro you like) + VLC + Firefox. Much cheaper, VLC plays everything right off the bat, and the HTPC won't get pwned by a virus or deactivated because a NIC came unseated.
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I'd suggest nixing the wireless keyboard and mouse and just use laptops with VNC. These days, just about everyone has at least a cheap netbook or an iPod touch, so everyone can have their own "remote". Now if I could just use the laptop for all of my TV's other functions I'd be pretty happy.
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Why not both?
Wireless keyboard when you are just watching TV.
Netbook for when you are watching TV and surfing at the same time.
It's not like one makes you unable to do the other.
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Now if I could just use the laptop for all of my TV's other functions I'd be pretty happy.
If you don't mind experimenting, this looks like it might be an interesting way to get a Windows system to control any IR device... but I have not tried it. http://www.usbuirt.com/ [usbuirt.com]
Re:If you want it to act like a computer hooked to (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly this.
My setup is a Mac mini, DVI-HDMI cable, and optical digital audio, with a wireless keyboard and mouse. It works just like a computer, because it's a computer.
The content lives on an Xserve in another room, hardwired gigabit ethernet to the TV computer. The mini has a 1.66 Core Duo, is about 4 years old, and it doesn't have any problem playing 1080p content.
I'm pretty happy with it.
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1. Wireless Keyboards and mice don't reach very far, despite what the name suggests. If you're looking to sit more than 10 feet away from your TV, you'll need a booster or a Blue tooth Mouse/Keyboard combo.
2. Blue tooth combos suck, they constantly lose connection, aren't very responsive, and the mouse can occasionally flip out while trying to use it. In essence, it sucks.
3. No TV box will do everything your browser,hard-drive, ram, video-card,keyboard,mouse, and dvd-rom will do. Make some
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http://www.google.com/products?q=asrock%20330&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wf [google.com]
HDMI out, check
Linux Support, check
Low Power, check
H.264 playback, check
I don't think one needs to even spend $1,000 any more. perhaps comprimise with the blue tooth, but not drop thousand of $.
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Lately I've been watching everything directly on my computer
Which works while you're alone. If you want to watch with visiting friends or family, then as you mentioned, you need the HDMI out to put video on a bigger screen. And if you are visiting someone who has only an SDTV, you may need an even more obscure piece of hardware [pineight.com] to turn VGA signals into composite or S-Video signals.
because I got tired of the broadcast/cable schedule
For sports, broadcast and cable schedules are tied to the schedule of the actual contest: they show the action 15 seconds after it happens. Any later and you're watching "edited for highli
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Buy DVD.
How do I convince the publisher of the work to make it available on DVD? For example, most non-infringing videos on YouTube aren't.
And the original poster mentioned text-based applications like social networking and news. What happens when I want to show visitors a Wikipedia article? On even an SDTV, I could crank up the font size like Internet Channel on Wii does.
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Unless your computer has a 50" screen and 5 speakers, (IMO, at least) you're really missing out for movies...
Also, personally I can't stand watching random TV shows on my computer. Why? Because I tend to want to use my computer while I'm watching them. I may pay 100% attention to a decent movie (which is too painful to watch on a computer for 2 hours anyway), but there are few TV shows these days I feel worth my undivided attention for 30-60 minutes...
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So what you're saying is that you built yourself a Neuros LINK? (That's almost identical hardware)
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As an owner of this breed of TV I caution you that it does not stream any arbitrary content via network. It does not have a web browser for example and doesn't do Hulu (but it will do youtube...really...really....slowly). It is DLNA based, and seems to only work on "authorized" content. The TV has great capabilities, it can play back hi-def matroska videos...but only from a USB key! For some reason if you try to do this via DLNA it won't accept it.I've heard some clever people have figured out how to work a