I was doing some research into media player hardware when I ran across this site: http://www.iboum.com/net-media-players.php
which shows that there are a bunch of newer media players running a Realtek chipset, instead of the usual Sigma Designs chips that the majority of current (network) media players use. See also this comparison grid: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1160835 Most of these new players are made by European companies and the devices aren't easy to find in the US, but at least one is US-based: http://www.mvixusa.com/ultio/1080p-high-definition-home-theater-pc.html The reviews say the Realtek-based players are a bit faster than the Sigma Designs ones, and can handle more formats, but it's yet to be seen whether the platform will be any more flexible (i.e. not dependent on the chip vendor for support of new video formats). I do see the US vendor is promoting that they're making the source (Linux-based) to their firmware available (the two European vendors make no mention of the source) and are encouraging third party development: http://www.mvixusa.com/ultio/mvix-ultio-challenge.html They say they'll pay $500 for any new feature they incorporate into their firmware. Not surprisingly these devices lack a native MythTV client, but they do provide a UPnP client, which may be usable with MythTV. A nice legacy for mvpmc might be getting it to a state where it can easily be ported to and incorporated into these Linux-based media players. Thus making it a no brainer for these vendors to include a native MythTV client in their stock firmware. Perhaps the $500 bounty will encourage someone to build upon the work Martin has done. Surprisingly they do include a BitTorrent client. You'd think they'd steer clear of that for fear of getting sued. Many of these players let you playback DVDs from an ISO file and will show the original DVD menus, just like a hardware DVD player. So for about US$170 you can get a box that connects to your network (optionally wirelessly), uses 30W of power, and can playback HD content. You can also optionally install a hard drive for local playback. -Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let Crystal Reports handle the reporting - Free Crystal Reports 2008 30-Day trial. Simplify your report design, integration and deployment - and focus on what you do best, core application coding. Discover what's new with Crystal Reports now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bobj-july _______________________________________________ Mvpmc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mvpmc-users mvpmc wiki: http://mvpmc.wikispaces.com/
