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The HTPC is the caviar solution. I messed around with "dedicated units" such as an ASUS O!play (highly recommended if you just need to stream media in your net

The HTPC is the caviar solution. I messed around with "dedicated units" such as an ASUS O!play (highly recommended if you just need to stream media in your network). Also tried streaming media with the Blu-ray drive that came free with my TV. Even tried the pre-built Dell Zino HD with it's tiny atom like intel processor. In the end, an HTPC is what _I_ needed (wanted). I can stream from netflix, play a blu-ray, watch youtube without a wonky interface (like the blu-ray players/tv have), stream media from my WHS (Windows Home Server), etc. It plays everything I throw at it. Is it perfect? No way. Too complicated for my wife/family/mere mortals to run and it has the downsides of a full Winders stack (constant updates, etc). But, at this point I don't see a true alternative. Codecs are king. I can download (almost) any software/codec combo and play the media. I run and i3 and find it to be a perfect combination of speed/power consumption for an almost silent media pc. Btw, the little Dell handles everything fine. The major complaint is that the tiny fan spins up when watching blu-ray/high-def/flash content. That's one of the major downsides to a prebuilt PC. Usually one area sucks. I love the tiny Dell form factor but the whine of the fan is a negative.

pragmatic 16y ago
With proper sleep/hibernate, the power useage issue would be (mostly) moot. However, just when I get my sleep/hybrid sleep/hibernate working correctly, MSFT patches Windows and I'm suddenly back to square one. I'd love to see a version of Windows where sleep "just works". From my research though, this appears to be as much a hardware + driver issue as an OS issue. Apparently that's why Mac's sleep so well. Hardware/OS all under one company's control.
- barrkel 16y ago
  That's interesting - the only machine I've had which couldn't sleep under Windows is my Mac Air, whose drivers are supplied by Apple. The Mac Air Windows drivers also don't provide a way of turning off the wifi on flights, amongst other things.
leviathant 16y ago
How long have you had the Dell? I bought a Zino HD intending to use it as an HTPC, only to have it choke playing Netflix or Hulu at 1080p on my 32" LCD TV via HDMI. I swapped it for one with an upgraded processor and video card, and it's burned up two hard drives since. After the second, I did some Googlging that I should have done in the first place, and it seemed pretty clear that there was a heat issue (and I give the device plenty of room for ventilation), so I gave up on it. I'll call Dell out to replace the drive again, and unless I can somehow convince them to swap in an SSD, I'll toss it on Craigslist or eBay.

pragmatic 16y ago

With proper sleep/hibernate, the power useage issue would be (mostly) moot. However, just when I get my sleep/hybrid sleep/hibernate working correctly, MSFT patches Windows and I'm suddenly back to square one. I'd love to see a version of Windows where sleep "just works". From my research though, this appears to be as much a hardware + driver issue as an OS issue. Apparently that's why Mac's sleep so well. Hardware/OS all under one company's control.

barrkel 16y ago
That's interesting - the only machine I've had which couldn't sleep under Windows is my Mac Air, whose drivers are supplied by Apple. The Mac Air Windows drivers also don't provide a way of turning off the wifi on flights, amongst other things.

leviathant 16y ago

How long have you had the Dell? I bought a Zino HD intending to use it as an HTPC, only to have it choke playing Netflix or Hulu at 1080p on my 32" LCD TV via HDMI. I swapped it for one with an upgraded processor and video card, and it's burned up two hard drives since. After the second, I did some Googlging that I should have done in the first place, and it seemed pretty clear that there was a heat issue (and I give the device plenty of room for ventilation), so I gave up on it. I'll call Dell out to replace the drive again, and unless I can somehow convince them to swap in an SSD, I'll toss it on Craigslist or eBay.