[mythtv-users] HD thin client?

[Scott D. Davilla]

>I don't know about that. It could be a growth area and a way
>to drive sales of more units. It's another reason to buy a new
>PC. The kludge clone should be all over that.

It's all about content, Apple understands that, PC makers don't, they 
sell PC hardware not software nor content. Vista and it's various 
media centers are a mess, bogged down in HDMC restrictions and 
Vista/XP is all PC makers care about selling with their hardware. 
Linux is a small fraction of the WinOS market.

>It doesn't even have to be tiny.
>
>Just reasonably small and  quiet would do.
>
>They could even get by with being ugly.

Not in my media room;) If it's not silent, it just does not go there.

>They could use more normal PC components and under cut Apple quite handily.

Not a chance unless they embed the components on the motherboard as 
Apple does with the AppleTV or MacMini. The cost of manufacturing an 
system out of pre-assembled components will always cost more than a 
system with on-board components. Take the cheapest nvidia 7300 pci-e 
card and compare that to the cost of the just the chip. An easy order 
of magnitude or more difference because of the added costs of the 
additional layout, pcb manufacturing, assembly, testing, packaging.

>A compact HTPC doesn't have to be an ITX affair.

But that's the closest form factor to the MacMini. Look at it this 
way, if it was so easy to make something similar to the MacMini but 
at less cost why don't we see them out there. The MacMini (the intel 
one) has been around for about two years (I have a 1st gen intel), 
and I think there's one box by AOpen that cost more and has less 
capabilities. Why even my Myth backend is close in cost to my MacMini 
and I assembled that myself from PC components and it's in a real 
ugly but cheap (as in free) box.

The HP t5735 looks interesting but no internal hard drive, no 
wireless,no IR and no digital audio. I'd like to see verification of 
their hardware decode claims otherwise I don't belive it. And $450 
for it, $599 gets you a 1.83GHz Core2 Duo MacMini. So a delta of $150.