Mini PC kit - lots of uses

[steingra]

I recently read about this cool little mini PC kit in PC magazine. I think I am going to get one and see how it works for a file server with external USB drives. It only uses about 20 watts I believe. So it could replace a much larger power hungry PC. And its soooo tiny!!!

I think it costs like 300$ called VIA ARTiGO Pico-ITX Builder Kit

Here are some links
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx...&ArticleID=553

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/artigo/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Ee4tNl3Vg youtube video of course.

[Jesse]

Hi,

Very cool. I definitely have a few interesting ideas for this.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Jesse

[Zardoz]

Hmmm,

I've been using an MVP for a while and I'm not really happy that I can't stream anything to it such as Netflix movies and SlimPlayer audio. I am beginning to think a client would better suite my needs. Does anyone know what the most reasonable configuration (cost vs performance) would be. I still plan to store most everything on the server. This little box peaked my interest in that regard. Could it make a good MVP / HD Extender replacement?

[GKusnick]

I doubt this would make a good Sage client since it has crappy on-chip graphics with (as far as I can tell) no hardware MPEG decoding, no TV-Out, and no provision for an add-on graphics card.

But I suppose it's a fairly cheap experiment if someone wants to try it.

[cenwesi]

I will keep you guys posted. Got mine yesterday and as i write you i am installing Ubuntu and plan on using this for watching ALL my recordings/movies on my other server that currently runs sage. I am sure it will play it just fine as well as if i had installed windows.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by steingra

I think it costs like 300$ called VIA ARTiGO Pico-ITX Builder Kit

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I doubt this would make a good Sage client since it has crappy on-chip graphics with (as far as I can tell) no hardware MPEG decoding, no TV-Out, and no provision for an add-on graphics card.

But I suppose it's a fairly cheap experiment if someone wants to try it.

Hm, $300 VIA crappy graphics PC kit, $200 STX-HD100 HD Extender....

[Folkboat]

http://us.shuttle.com/kpc/features.html

[jaminben]

Originally Posted by Folkboat

http://us.shuttle.com/kpc/features.html

Specs look very similar to a MAC Mini which I use as a client, works fine for all conent including 720p/1080i using the Intel GMA GFX. However if I had to choose between a small pc or the new HD extender I'd go with the extender.

[gplasky]

Unless you actually need to have a DVD player at the client location or need to run a plugin dependant on a Windows application (winamp plugin for example) you won't be able to beat what a HD Extender can do for $199. You won't find a $300 PC (not yet at least) that can play a HD TV recording as well as the HD Extender. You just won't.

Gerry

[Zardoz]

Even though I haven't yet moved from the dark side to HD, I might consider an HD extender if it met my needs. If it can't stream audio and video any better than Mplayer there's really no point. I still have a PVR-500 tuner card and other non-HD hardware. I would like to be able to use the Netflix "Watch it now", Minibrowser, and other streaming formats and future enhancements on my end devices. I use an MVP now and am looking for a solution for the future, not just a great format enhancement like HD now that still has the same Mplayer limitations. Can the HD extended stream or do I need a client? I am moving toward HD but only about 50% there and it's not the primary concern right now. I want greater functionality right now will work on better video quality later.

[cenwesi]

Reporting back:

Ok, for those that doubt that the Artigo PC will not work, it does work and works just fine. As i stated on some thread, my previous client/server PC died and i had to move my cards to my Ubuntu Server. All my recordings and stuff was already stored there. Any, I installed Ubuntu Gusty v7.10 first using a USB cdrom drive and then later on i re-installed over the network (VM PXE). Anyway installation went fine without a glitch. Mplayer, Totem, VLC plays videos just fine without installing any Artigo Linux driver (ubuntu). The current version of Mplayer that came with SageTV will not display/work unless you install the Linux Artigo video driver. With that being said, i was able to now watch all my shows including live tv. I noticed that one of my movies The Mist would play but the buttom part was green and kinda off like the whole movies of offset with its color (don't know how to explain it). If I play this with the regular Mplayer, it played fine. This leads me to believe that the current version of the mplayer that comes with Sageclient is way outdated. I tried to created a symbolic link to see if i can use the newer version, but no luck. I just get exception errors when i tried to play anything. I tried adjusting the SageTVPlaceshifter.properties extra_mplayer_args=-afm hwac3 -vo x11 option and that didn't help. I started looking around Ubuntu Site when i realized that Hardy Heron LTS was released.

I downloaded and setup my PXE and installed Hardy. I did not install any Artigo Linux video driver on this version. I installed SageClient and tested my Video, including "The Mist" and guess what, it worked like a charm. It looks like the new kernel solved something. I guess if i had upgraded the kernel from 2.6.22-14 to 2.6.24, that might have fixed it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Hardy seems way faster than Gutsy and i don't have to install anything. SageClient works like a charm. Now i just have to figure out how to have this box run just SageClient once i boot. I don't want to see the gui or desktop, just sage. Currently i have it start as a session service and OS auto login.

[gplasky]

Congrats!
I don't think anyone was saying it wouldn't work. I think the comments were how well it would work. I also don't see you recording or trying to play any high def TV. I think that's where a lot of the comments were coming from. That it wouldn't have the horsepower to play hidef. Now a days you need to be able to play hi def especially when a $199 HD Extender is capable of that.

Gerry

[kltye]

So is this box capable of playing HD videos? I'm 99% confident it can't - but then again my Asus EEE PC which runs a teeny Celeron M @ 630MHz can playback HD very well...

[cenwesi]

If anyone have any HD file they want me to test out i will. Is there a site i can download a sample and test out?

[stanger89]

There's a number of MPEG-2 test clips on w6rz.net, and the apple site has lots of 1080p H.264 trailers.