Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Second Generation Homebrew PVR Devices

Posted by michael on from the got-to-do-things-the-hard-way dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like the second generation of homebrew PVRs is on its way. Asus recently released their Digimatrix barebones PC which combines a lot of features in a very slim and stylish box. DVD/CD-R, WiFi, HDTV tuner, FM Tuner, memory card reader etc. All for ~$400. The reviews look good, except that the software that comes with it doesn't look all that great... of course this may not be a problem because there has already been significant effort in getting linux to run on it and most features are working. Combine MythTV with this device and you have an almost perfect PVR? I wonder what other hardware companies have in store for the homebrew PVR market?"

3 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder how much power it draws by brokeninside · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With a Pentium IV and a fast system bus, I would expect this thing to draw a lot of power. When I went from an Athlon based system to an iMac, my power bill dropped by almost ten bucks a month. I'd hate to see it spike from a set top appliance.

    1. Re:I wonder how much power it draws by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      $10/month ??? What the hell do you pay for power?

      Here we pay $0.06 US/KwH. Lets say I had a regular barebones athlon system:
      Motherboard
      Athlon 2400+
      geforce4mx video card
      1 hard drive 7200rpm
      1 cd-rom or dvd-rom
      1 512MB ddr chip

      This is going to pull about 200W max and more likely 150W continuous

      An IMac takes 130W continuous:
      http://www.talktothemac.com.au/Apple_ Folders/imac/ specs.html

      200W * 24 * 30 = 144kwh = $8.64 US
      130 * 24 * 30 = 93.6kwh = $5.52 US

      A savings of $3.02 US/month.

      And yeah, I have built the above little cheapie box and actually measured the continuous power.

      Either your numbers or off or you are bullshitting...

  2. I like this whole idea by www.fuckingdie.com · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It would be a refreshing change from the everyday norm to have all of our "Comsumer Electronics" built on an open platform. If someone built a computer that was the size of a slim DVD player, and could be operated using any operating system I wanted, I would jump on it.

    But for now at least we still have to put up with either a rather large Media PC, one that doesn't quite fit in with the other components of your home theater I mean, or whatever PoS companies like Sony want to jam down our throats this model year.

    So to make a long story short I would like to see a Computer that looks, and feels, like a super slim DVD player, and Runs Linux. Not too much to ask I think, and then I would be able to do as I please with it.

    Disclaimer: If something like this actually exists please let me know about it. I have, after all, been living in the middle of nowhere northern BC for about 19 years.

    --
    That really is my homepage, no kidding.