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Fanless Media Center Box
An anonymous reader writes "I didn't know that Hush Technologies made Media Center PCs, but they do. Here's a review of one of those beautiful fanless machines running media center 2005. Could this be the perfect media center box?" It's certainly perfectly expensive.
= 3,389.61 USD
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
PCworld just did a review on 9 MCE machines, they might help you find a cheaper MCE machine if you are in the market for one.
PCworld.com review
I have 2 MCE machines, 1 in the bedroom (Antec Overture case), and one in the living room (the CyberPower model listed in the PCworld review), and while they aren't really that quiet, it doesn't bother anyone once the TV has been turned on.
Current wireless tech does not have the bandwidth to play DVDs (unless you DivX them first or something).
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
The question for me is
1) Can it be a MythTV backend (doing the capturing)
2) More importantly, can it be MythTV frontend?
Myth is client server out of the box... put the backend (with the many hard disks, tuner cards, etc) in a closet somewhere. Then buy a nice cheap box to just serve video to the TV. Sometime silent. :)
Agile Artisans
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/7828089409e015360 4f3cc8ce82c9189/index.html
Apple has made tons of silent machines in its history, take a look at... well, most iMac models (I don't know about the current one) and the eMac, as well as the G4 Cubes, if you don't mind a used computer.
Comment of the year
I have used a VIA epia-m as a media center for a while now, has more than enough processing power to handle video decoding, has on board tv-out and sound and doesn't have any fans. Do you really need to use a processor that doubles as a heater to decode video or is that just to run windows. =o)
Why not run this
with mythtv or freevo?
Not that I've done it myself yet.
One reason to stay with a faster processor is the ability to grow beyond the codecs supported by your dedicated decoder. HighDef Window Media 9 springs to mind. I'd generally rather spend the money on generic CPU silicon than a dedicated MPEG decoder.
From the article: Hush must have started with solid billets of aluminium of almost five and a half centimetres thick to create the side panels. Oh dear, seems like people know more and more about digital and software, but when it comes to old fashioned manufacturing, it becomes lah-lah-land.
These "side panels", cooling ribs would be a better term, are not created by cutting it out of a solid piece of aluminum. That would be horribly expensive, no, this is created by extruding the aluminum. In layman's terms, it's like that thing (in dutch it is called a "slagroomspuit" but my online dictionary doesn't know the translation) you use to put nice shaped whipped cream on a birthday cake. But in this case, you keep the nozzle steady, make the opening a kind of comb shape and of you go. Meters and meters of a profile that just needs cutting to get these cooling ribs.
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
well if you go with a wired network, a hauppauge mediamvp makes for a neat network based media "client"
people have bridged mediamvp's over a wifi networks, fwiw.
GBPVR integrates nicely with mediamvp and its own backend PVR/scheduling/htpc-esque functions and is free as in beer.
ymmv,
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I think it's ugly and overpriced. Doesn't match anything else in the living room, might as well put a beige box in there since it'd match just as well. With the vents on top you couldn't even put anything on top of it for risk of over-heating.
Want to see what a beautiful media PC case looks like? Try the Overture Quiet Media Desktop Case, or perhaps the Silverstone Aluminum Home Entertainment Computer Case in Black or maybe the SilverStone LC10M Home Theater PC Case /w front VFD (Black). If you're on a budget the Antec MINUET Piano Black Slimline PC Case looks really nice for only $60 with Antec quality but you'll need a Micro ATX board.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
it depends upon which kind of paint that you use. If the heatsink-to-paint interface has high thermal conductivity and the paint-to-air interface has hight thermal conductivity, than painting is more thermal efficient.
Keeping
Hah, those car manufacturers sure are a bunch of assholes! They put heaters on the INSIDE of the windshield to try and melt the ice on the OUTSIDE! Ha ha ha ha ha! Losers! You should write and tell them.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Thermodynamics 101: the case mostly looses it's heat by radiating it into the surrounding atmosphere. For maximum effect you want the inside nice and polished, and the outside matt black.