Hi all,

Thought I would share a good product experience here with everyone. I know the Media Center idea is an old one. A device that would be transparent on the network taking network streams and displaying them in HD, possibly recording television shows for you to the internal hard drive, remote control, and a quite small chassis that wouldnt be an eyesore amidst your electronics.

 http://www.hipergroup.com/products.php?lv=3&cate=2&type=27&pid=124

This is sold as a kit or bare bones computer. Add memory, cpu and fan.  

I built a 4 gig bearing, athlon 64 x2 - 5600 cpu'd beast for about 600 bucks. HDMI with HDCP out allowing 1080p built in wifi, vfd, slot loading dvd-r dl drive and all this in the chassis thats the size of a dvd player. I think its a good deal if you can stand to put it together yourself. I found it on newegg.

I threw media center 2005 on it initially but I have serious personal and professional issues with Microsoft so I opt not to use their products. Currently I am in contact with  a software developer from Novell . He and his team are piecing together a custom build of linux for my hardware configuration. MCE 2005 worked well though. Track names and movie titles showed up on the VFD. No driver issues or nightmares to report.

In comparison I have not seen a dollar to performance ratio that matches this "do it yourself" kit.

Once my custom operating system is finished I will post again on the subject and possibly link some video.

I will break out the decibel meter once things are settled as well.

Daryl