[Novalug] Media Center PC Recommendations

Richard Ertel richard.ertel@gmail.com
Mon Mar 9 11:37:30 EDT 2009


A word of caution about Apple TV: from what i've heard on the XBMC
forums, they aren't powerful enough to smoothly play AVC video (h.264)
that is high bitrate / resolution / profile. 720p seems to be spotty,
and 1080p out of the question.

if you're not looking to play that kind of media, then it's an
attractive affordable option

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:26, John Franklin <franklin@elfie.org> wrote:
> The Apple TV.  It has an HDMI output to the TV, runs Boxee / XBMC, and there
> are lots of hacks out there if you want to get inside it.  It is a smaller
> version of the Mini optimized for being a media center.
> The other one I'd suggest is a PS3 + Media Tomb.
>
> jf
> On Mar 8, 2009, at 10:00 PM, Mike Shade wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Does anyone have recommendations for pre-built small form-factor PCs that'd
> perform well as media centers?  I've been scouring the web and just am not
> up to date on the better retailers out there.
>
> Should haves:
>
> Small hard drive / SSD
> 2-4GB RAM
> Decent graphics adapter, nVidia preferred
> Gigabit ethernet
> Enough processing power for 720p media (And full screen flash a-la Hulu.com)
>
> Thanks for any suggestions on retailers or approaches!
>
> -- Mike
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