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Telly MC2100, a Linux-based PVR/Media Center
An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices has published an article about the Telly MC1200, a new convergent PVR/mediaplayer made by Interact-TV. The Linux-based device supports up to three internal hard drives on which it can store and manage libraries of digital music, photos, and DVDs/video. It can also burn CDs and save DVDs to local mpeg (DivX?) files, and it can pause and record live TV in TiVO-like fashion. The device is based on a 1.2GHz VIA C3 processor and has 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM memory, expandable to 1GB."
For that much money, I'd rather build one myself.
+210$ for 250GB instead of 80GB
+76$ for WiFi
+60$ for a CD burner
ouch!
But obviously for someone who already assembles their own mini-ITX systems the price point isn't going to perk much interest. /. would be more likely to be interested in good prices on mini-ATX boards.
Naturally not everyone puts together their own systems, but a hell of a lot of those who don't know someone who will do so for a bong hit, a few beers or a bat of the eyelash or whatever.
So it's cool to see people out there trying and saying it's time for this kind of device, but I bet most people on
Where's the source code for public download then? (or at least, some parts of it)
That blows. Considering the fact that this thing will be on 24/7, it should be absolutely silent rather than 'quiet'. Can I use the software on this machine, instead?
Is it just me or is this device is lacking in CPU horse power? Is anything under 2GHz going to cut it as far is encoding/decoding? It's in the right direction as far as capability although not in price.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
What's most interesting to me is the single PCI expansion slot and open source OS. Means this thing is open to some serious customization. For instance, I could potentially hook this up to my wifi network.
Huh? I do this regularly on my Mac using DiskCopy (part of the OS) or Toast. Now I'm not the type of Mac user that thinks this can ONLY be done on a Mac, so, well, I guess I logically assume it can be done on other OS's with no problem.
--Jim (me)
Yeah, but the obvious alternative is wired, which is going to be a messy pain in the ass in the family room. Maybe there is an RF alternative, but that would most likely be more expensive and not worth the added cost.
...for home-theater buffs. No component video; while S-video is a step up from composite, anyone with (or wanting) an HD monitor wants component. No support for 1080i -- which means that even my little $800 samsung TV can't be used at its full resolution, let alone my brother-in-law's fancy 40-in LCD. Nor can you play DVDs at their full resolution and rectangular format.
Although it claims 5.1 audio out, there's no telling what the audio quality is like, compared to a decent receiver. And none of the sound-processing options of a receiver, or Dolby or THx movie encodings, etc. And no hi-end audio inputs, so it can't be used as a receiver, to switch between and record from other audio sources.
Compared to DirecTivo, it has only a single tuner, not two, so it can't record two simultaneous shows while playing back a recording, or record one while watching another. It doesn't have the season pass -- seek out and record every, or every new, episode of a series regardless of schedule changes -- or wish lists -- find and record every program whose title matches a search string. It has a "favorites" feature but does it auto-record "suggestions" based on your viewing patterns?
Compared to Tivo media management, there's no indication it will work with OS X, and definitely no connection to iPhoto or iTunes libraries. If you've already got gigabytes of music a/o photos stored in those (or other) apps, you don't want to either move them all to a new media management solution, or duplicate them in two unrelated and uncoordinated systems.