As it often happens when browsing the web, you start out looking for one thing, and invariably you find something else entirely that you have been looking for a few weeks or months ago?
I have been looking for a decent Media Streamer device that can act as the intermediary between the PC/Server and the TV and I have been looking with these ideas (courtesy of "She who must be obeyed" ) in mind:
- Must be white or silver
- Must be quite small (Desktop PC won’t cut it, needs to be more like a DVD player or smaller)
- Must make no noise (or very quiet - this rules out the Xbox360, etc.)
- Ideally HDMI output
- Would very much like it to be able to record TV (Digital Video Recording) in HD
- It must simply work, not bleeding edge device!
So I did have another scout around the web and find things like TViX that really come very close with their M6500a based on what appears to be the latest Sigma 8635 chipset and this is a very neat unit that can also include the optional T430 HD Tuner to add HD recording to the mix - awesome, check out this thread for peoples opinions at The official DVICO TViX M6500A Discussion the only downside for me is that I can’t get one in Silver or White <see above> although I have considered buying one and painting it 
The other thought I did have is to "borrow" a HP T5730 (with WiFi) from work and see if I can’t get a 16Gb USB drive formatted to run XP SP2 with Media Centre (or Media Portal) straight from the USB drive just to see what the performance might be like as it does have a 1Gb of RAM and AMD Semperon +2100 CPU, but the best bit is that the DVI output will support wide screen to something like almost 2056 x 1600 so this might just work?
(Although the sound output with this will not be brilliant, but I could always add the PCI expansion slot and add something else to it?)
And then yesterday I came across this little beauty and I’m starting to wonder if it might be a bit too early to see if it’s possible to pick one up while I’m in Houston in a few weeks time?
Anyway, I’m hoping to have a play with the idea of modding the T5730 next week and then see what happens?
gPC Mini and Mac Mini Battle for the Bookshelf
By Rob Beschizza
February 26, 2008 | 3:45:21 PMCategories: Apple
Apple’s Mac Mini hasn’t had much competition in the last few years. Shuttle and Aopen both make vaguely similar machines, but neither is as small (or as inexpensive) as the six-inch wonder. Enter the forthcoming Everex gPC Mini, a linux-powered lilliputian with similar specifications and displacement.
Lining up the stats makes for an interesting choice: the Mac Mini is still a little bit smaller (84.5 inches cubed to 99.4) and is more powerful, but has less storage. GOS Linux is no OSX, but with the gPC mini, you’re not paying for it either.
Think Mini [Everex]
gPC Mini and Mac Mini Battle for the Bookshelf | Gadget Lab from Wired.com
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