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Neuros LINK Mixes Quiet, Aesthetics, and Ubuntu

Posted by timothy on from the gone-to-seed-is-before-the-good-stuff-in-this-context dept.

jonniee writes with a link to Dr. Dobb's Journal's look at a rather cool living-room-suitable media-centric computer from Neuros (presented as being suitable mostly for developers and serious hobbyists for now), excerpting: "The Neuros LINK is essentially a quiet x86 PC running Ubuntu Linux with an ATI graphics card delivering video via VGA, DVI, and HDMI output. ... What makes the LINK such a compelling platform for these folks and Linux/open source developers in general is the recognition that a real business entity is stepping forward to spend the money necessary to market and commercialize what tech enthusiasts have been doing for years."

13 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Looks pretty good on features and price by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It looks like it is only $250, not too bad. I could probably use it replace the Roku and AppleTV, which each kind of suck but at least do their one function well.

    I wonder how quiet it is, some of the pictures had fans...

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    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    1. Re:Looks pretty good on features and price by Gorphrim · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The keyboard looks like it might be this Adesso model: http://www.amazon.com/Adesso-Wireless-Keyboard-Optical-Trackball/dp/B000JJM7S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1249910929&sr=8-1 If so, my experience with it is that it is crap. Every time I woke the PC up from a sleep state, I had to re-sync the keyboard with the USB dongle. Typing sporadically dropped keystrokes, and the trackball was jittery. Overall it felt very cheaply made. Just my two cents.

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      Queens of the Stone Age - they rule
  2. ATI? eek! by X0563511 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Using ATI in a linux MPC... that's just asking for trouble.

    I hope they give these things a _good_ testing...

    I see they are using an ATI Radeon HD 3200 - does anyone have any gaming performance numbers handy for this card, without all the benchmark-website-bullshit? If this thing works well enough... I may consider finally getting away from nVidia. But I thought these Radeon HD cards were giving Linux trouble? Did this get fixed?

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    For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    1. Re:ATI? eek! by Bert64 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the other hand, the OSS drivers seem far more stable than the binary ones on hardware they do support (i have an older X1600), and a media player box like this is unlikely to need very much in the way of 3d capability... In this instance, the open ATI drivers are probably the best choice.

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  3. Even for power users... by MukiMuki · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Even for power users, HTPC's can be aggravating. Why, in a world where you could put together a tiny monster PC for around $300 would someone buy a MivX or NMT player? Simple. Take any HTPC on the market, ANY.

    Plug it into a regular, yellow, composite television.
    Plug it into an HDTV via component or HDMI.

    If you can turn it on, boot it up, and play a video on it without a single configuration edit without any hassle from installation, then please, reply to this topic because as far as I know, an HTPC that does this is akin to a fucking unicorn.

    I have an iStar Mini and a Popcorn Hour, both NMT devices. The Mini's in the living room. If I wanna take that thing to the kitchen TV (13", composite in), I just put the movie on a USB stick and it's showing the film inside of the 2 minutes it takes to set up and boot. When it goes back to the living room, it's an HDMI connection to the TV and coax to the (admittedly cheap) surround system. Works just fine, automatically detects 1080p at startup. Over component, I'd have to hit two buttons to get 720p or 1080i (worst-case, 480p is instantly automatically enabled).

    I had a friend try to build a MythTV box. Hours went by as this man tried to get MythTV to show up at a decent resolution on his HDTV (this was a few years ago, via DVI). This is a guy who runs and actually knows how to use Gentoo, and would be a sysadmin if he wasn't a programmer at a Fortune 500 company (A good one, you've probably used their services at some point(s) in the last six months). On the AppleTV, the first test isn't even a possibility without some insane level of hacking (especially if you want color out of the composite out). I can only IMAGINE what it's like an a Windows Media Center rig. And in the last two cases, playing videos other than Quicktime or WMV, respectively, (let alone something like MKV) is a hassle that goes more hours into getting up and running than those devices are probably WORTH.

    As crappy and low-end as the interfaces are on mini video boxes are, they happen to work remarkably well for the simple process of "Plug into TV, watch stuff", whether "stuff" is on a usb stick or the network. Give me a call when the HTPC manages to get there on a remote-friendly interface.

    1. Re:Even for power users... by Tx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, I did battle with a couple of those little standalone media players, but in the end I went to the trouble of building and configuring a full-fledged (XP and MediaPortal based) HTPC. If you can live with the limitations of those stand-alone things, then fine. But when you run into an unsupported codec on those things, that's it, your only option is to convert the video on a PC. If you want a feature it doesn't have, say you want to add a tuner or whatever, you're stumped. Network performance (if any) usually sucks. There's really no comparison to the power and flexibility of a full HTPC, and yes, the HTPC takes a few hours of setting up, but once done, with a suitable remote and the right software, it's as remote-friendly as any of the little stand-alones.

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      Oh no... it's the future.
    2. Re:Even for power users... by jeffehobbs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Check out the MSI media live bareBones. My daughter is watching Backyardigans right now via Ubuntu/Boxee. TV out has always worked, even 'out of the box.'

    3. Re:Even for power users... by jmac_the_man · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is most likely heresy, but my HTPC runs the Vista version of Windows Media Center just fine. I've got cable running directly into my capture card. With an "unofficial extension" (3rd party patch) it plays the (admittedly common) videos I watch. (No AVI support out of the box was a stupid idea, but that's fixed with the patch.) There's an official Netflix plugin for watch instantly. A one time wizard sets up the tuner and program guide. The interface works over HDMI, so long as I have external speakers plugged into the machine. (I don't, so I use a combination of stereo input and VGA, but that works on my TV.) I use the remote that comes with my case, which has a joystick for mouse navigation, but WMC translates that into keystrokes. I built this from scratch for about 700 bucks. (I got Windows at a discount though.) Add 70 bucks for video game controllers for emulators. And it's also a gaming quality PC. The only advice I can give is that you shouldn't skimp on the keyboard and mouse if you want to game on it.

  4. Maybe it will force Adobe to fix flash on Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Adobe Flash Player is the biggest CPU hog I have seen on my Ubuntu box, even with hardware acceleration enabled. Things have improved with version 10 but the experience is still considerably worse than flash performance on windows. Maybe if a few hundred thousand Neuros devices are sold, it will convince Adobe to put a serious effort into fixing these issues.

  5. MP4 / Patents by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I notice that it supports MPEG4 with mplayer/xine/vlc, I wonder if Neuros licensed the relevant software patents to allow them to ship this codec.

  6. But ATI doesn't support hardware x264 acceleration by sanermind · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Honestly, nvidia's vdpau is the only way to go now for playing hi-def content (like that produced by the HDPVR1212)on anything other than a super high end box. (Seriously, even my quad core2 clocked at 3.2Ghz can't handle high bitrate x264 hi-def), although I've heard there's an experimental ffmpeg branch that can decode across multiple cores.

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    the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
  7. Acer r3600 with NVIDIA ION by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    TFA reads like an ad...

    Here's another:

    Have a look at the r3600 from Acer. I have just bought one and it is fantastic. It passes the girlfriend test by being silent and attachable to the back of the TV -- no wires visible except the power cord, and it is pretty happy at decoding HD video, thanks to NVIDIA VDPAU (ION platform). Costs next to nothing and is available in a Linux configuration. Couple that with a nice TV and a wireless keyboard and you get a pretty neat setup...

  8. Re:Nice by marcansoft · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The 8400GS is a great choice for a linux media center. I got an Asus EN8400GS Silent 512MB and highly recommend it. 512MB is required to decode some reference frame-heavy h.264, and the 512MB version seems to have a better heatsink (and it is, of course, fanless). There are also two versions of the 8400GS chip (one based on an older Gxx architecture - I forget the specific number), and the Asus card uses the newer one which has better VDPAU features.

    Of note, although not advertised, the card does have an SPDIF header - so with a simple RCA to pin-header cable you can get HDMI audio out of it with any DVI->HDMI converter. I've been using this card to watch a lot of 1080p HDTV lately without any issues. If you're looking for a cheap Nvidia card to do 1080p h.264 decoding with VDPAU to an HDMI TV (with audio), it fits the bill perfectly.