I've already discussed getting free HD with an antenna and watching some of your favorite shows online. Now it's time to get extra geeky and combine some of this together.
The goal is to have one device connected to your TV that combines the all of these sources into a user friendly viewing experience. While this idea is starting to gain traction, no one has completely mastered it. Apple has its Apple TV and Netflix has the Roku box. A company called ZeeVee also has some products out there. Game consoles are also another way to have video content delivered to your tv. The xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 can also be portals to online video, which might keep you from having another device hooked up to your tv.
Right now the most flexible (and geekiest) option for getting your favorite content to your living room is by buying/building a media center computer. If you have a laptop, it may be as simple as installing something like Boxee or XMBC and hooking it up to your big screen. The downside is that you have to keep hooking/unhooking your computer. One of the cool things about Boxee is that it can be used on an Apple TV with a little hacking. This is a pretty cool solution and is fairly cheap since an Apple TV is about half of the cost of a small computer. Another alternative would be to purchase a small computer (Mac Mini, Dell Studio Hybrid) and put similar software on it. One advantage here is the option of using the built in dvd player as well.
Let's get ultra geeky now. If you built/custom ordered a computer just for the living room it could have all sorts of cool stuff. By using the right software (as mentioned above) you could have access to internet video, any videos/dvds ripped to your hard drive and possible even access to a Blu-Ray drive. This could also be a sweet gaming machine. I'm not just talking about hard core games, either. It would be pretty easy to install a few emulators and play your favorite NES games in all their 8 bit glory on the big screen. Here are a couple things you might want to consider before going this route. First off, how much is this going to cost? I don't know about you, but I am not made of money (perhaps you could justify it because of all the money you will be saving?). Secondly, a big beastly computer may suck up quite a bit of electricity, especially if left on all day. Thirdly, do you want another large living room appliance taking up space, not to mention its accessories (wireless keyboard/mouse)? Lastly, if this is going to be a noisy machine, it may just be annoying and not worth the trade off.
I personally have thought about this a lot and have only used my laptop to occasionally watch online video using boxee or hulu. If I was going to sink some money into this I would probably look at something like a hacked Apple TV. That is just my opinion. Would you like something like this? Or have you built a lean mean living room machine? Let me know your thoughts.
1 Comment
I just stumbled upon your blog after catching up with some long put off facebook junk. Anywho...I've been running XBMC on a modded original Xbox for about a year and a half. It is by far the easiest, coolest media streaming setup.
You can buy a used Xbox for $50 tops, and the remote attachment is $10 at Gamestop. From there you're good to go, you'll need some other items to mod the box, but nothing that a friend couldn't hook you up with. ;)
Later,
Paul
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