HD200 VS ASUS Eee PC

[Folkboat]

Our SageTV server sits headless in our bedroom closet and displays on a 42" LG LCD HDTV directly. Looks and sounds great thru a surround sound system
All media displayed is SD.

The Living Room is not quit identical as we use an MVP for SageTV video/audio playback. Both locations have the ROKU Netflix box for Watch Now videos.

The issue is in the living room, I would like to:
- upgrade the MVP to digital output
- replace/sell the ROKU Netflix boxes
- attach a USB drive for additional/archival backup for ripped movies

The HD200 would be provide a digital feed to the TV, uses minimal power, and would allow for a USB hard drive attachment. What it won't do is Netflix.

OTOH the ASUS Eee would do all of the above, and would be about $75.00above the HD200. OTOH its a PC running Windows - this greatly reduces the simplicity the HD200 offers.

Although Blu-Ray is fantastic, its not in the cards right now (and may never be).

I'm sure I am missing something, if so what is it.

Thanks

[SWKerr]

I would investigate the Eee PC a little more. The original Eee Box PC does not have the graphics power to adequately handle HD. Asus has the Eee Box B206 that has HDMI and ATI HD graphics but it is new and I have not seen pricing as of yet.

You can probably build a AMD X2 / 780G system for around $300 but it will require a certain level of expertise. This is probably a better option than the Eee PC right now. I would expect that they will have something in the $300 range soon but you probably would have to wait another few months.

[mayamaniac]

He says all media is SD, so no HD. And he's not interested in Blu-ray either. For SD only, the EEE-PC is the way to go, it does solve his netflix/hulu needs. And just add a remote.

However, I think the HD200 would produce better picture quality than the Asus, even with SD.

[paulbeers]

I would wait until the Nvidia Ion platform comes out. Its an Atom PC with the Nvidia 9300 int video chipset. This means it might be capable of even BluRay playback. I know you aren't interested now, but why not wait just a bit longer.....

I have an Asus EeePC 1000ha. It is not capable of anything but SD playback due to the poor GMA950 graphics. Yes you state you only want SD playback, but you might as well future proof...

I personally don't use full pc clients anymore, but to each his own.

[SWKerr]

I am not sure what the point would be to upgrade to digital output unless you had plans for eventual HD content. Some Netflix movies are already available in HD. I would also recommend looking at a cheap ATSC tuner card for the server if you have HDTVs.

I am with Paulbeers on the wait if you can. There seem to be a fair amount of HD capable PCs that have been announced around the Atom platform but nothing on the market right now. In a few months you would probably have a lot more choices.

[Clift]

The HD200 supports Netflix through PlayOn
http://www.geektonic.com/2008/12/sag...flix-hulu.html

And I'm sure Netflix support is being worked on for a direct solution. And you won't ever have to worry abotu the power of the thing. If and when you decide to go HD you will be all set.

[dgeezer]

I have an EEEPC B202 as my desktop. I loaded the Sage client software on it and it ran fine and played back my SD recordings fine. It is a wonderful little box for internet and email etc. It's very quiet and only draws 17 watts total. I leave it running all the time to take care of downloads etc. I really want to see an atom motherboard released that had more ports (pci, sata pci-e etc) since I think it would make the ultimate Sagetv server.

However, I also have an HD100 and HD200. I would highly recommend the extender over the eeebox. It is just that much easier. I just saw an HD100 on ebay go for $114.00

[Folkboat]

The picture quality on a LCD HD display using a Digital DVI-HDMI connection is superior to the analogue S-Video provided by the MVP!

A Remote......hmmmmm another expense associated with the ASUS Eee client configuration. We have the JP1 programmable remotes, however in order to communicate with the Eee we would need a IR receiver!

Netflix does it really work reliably using PlayOn??
Simply keeping the ROKU Netflix boxes solves the problem, however selling them helps fund this project. OTOH using a PC for WatchNow does not offer HD playback the Roku boxes do.

It should be noted our SageTV server is not a power house. Its an AMD Semperon 64 2.0GHZ processor using an AGP ATI 9500 (DVI to HDMI) video card. I am in the process of doubling memory from 1 GBto 2 GBs. (getting the circle of death gonna increase my Java HeapSize)

The entire system works and works well, in order to consider BLU Ray a major upgrade would be needed - it just ain't in the cards!!!!

Lets face it,the nature of HTPC's is an excuse for technoid's to spend countless hours researching ways to improve what works. Otherwise we would own TIVO's.

[Taddeusz]

When I bought my HD200 I gave PlayOn a try. While I could get Hulu to work I could never even get a listing of videos from my Netflix queue. It just didn't work at all.