Oh here is some pics. More to come probably tonight or tommorow once I finish loading windows on it (read below and find out why).
I took pics of the unboxing and the unit itself in case you are interested in getting it:
unboxing....
all the parts from the box. Not to shabby they throw in a small usb keyboard and optical. Didnt expect that. Has a little stand so you can put it vertical if you want.
4 USB, HDMI, Ethernet, VGA
Its hard to see here, but thats actually a SATA port. Could be usefull
top with power button
Now here is the deal. I had this all setup, it scraped all the movies and must for data and gave me slick backgrounds and discriptions for each movie/music just like below. I didnt take any more pics cause the ones i did take look liked shit and i need to take them at night (which i will, tonight hopefully)
They looked just like that. I streamed 1080p video from my main pc (via ethernet- i dont think my wireless router can handle vull 1080p) and it worked FLAWLESSLY. It was beautiful with all the menus and what not. VERY sexy. It scraped all my media correctly without a hitch.
Then trouble struck.
I tried to upgrade the Live distro of XBMC. This is a NO. You should never update a LIVE distro via linux GET. So, I said screw it and install full on umbutu and full XBMC like a real man would do. This worked (last night) but as soon as i went to install the sexy skin you see above, i couldnt. The site hosting it was not allowing the git method to grab it anymore. So, im stuck. At this point i am surfing at work and see another HTPC software called BOXEE that is built off XBMC and is supposed to be the bees knees. What I am going to do tonight, hopefully, is install windows 7 on this guy, install XBMC and BOXEE to do a contrast and compare, and post pics of each. I have a few different reasons to try windows out:
1- At this point in time, NETFLIX streaming does not work on a linux OS. AT ALL. This kind of sucks, it does work on Windows though.
2- It does work with Linux, probably more efficiantly, I installed this guy twice, but damn its a pain in the ass. If you have never worked with linux do not even attempt this.
3- I think it would be a better stress test on this box to run the HTPC software under Windows. This would also let me try Windows Media Center out.
I may go back to Linux, but right I want to try windows out at this point.
Couple of notes. XBMC and BOXEE are both free. Both of them have apps in the apple store for remotes to control them and they actually work. Was kind of cool to use the iphone as a tv remote (does it across http)
Boxee has a cool social feature that allows you to see what others liked to watch or recommend stuff to other people. I dont know how much I will get into this as I know nobody else that runs it.
Boxee has a built in Bittorrent client that you can plug RSS feeds into if you want.
So, tonight I am going to install Windows, then Boxee, then XBMC. I will post pics of it running and maybe even a video. This little box kicks ass and I can see a lot of hard drive purchases in my future.
Sorry if this is scatterbrained but i am feeling ill.
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