HTPC Get (Dell Studio Hybrid)
Arrival! Pics to ensue and a more descriptive writeup. With a little tweaking this will be a superb little media center.
Dell may have finally pulled it off this time. While not entirely geared as a Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC) one can easily see how it can easily fit that role. With a small form factor and attractive design, interchangeable colored sleeves, along with the must have slot load bluray drive, and hdmi port this little guy will fit right in with any media system.
I don't have a stellar TV by any means, and this setup will also allow me to optimally connect my few consoles and have everything arranged all neat and tidy. Another fantastic feature of it is that the XBOX 360 controllers are of course able to interface with the computer. This will make for outstanding emulation playback.
While I wasn't able to throw in for the Bamboo sleeve just yet, as soon as I get the floors done in my house I'll go ahead and do that. I gotta be somewhat fashionable and match the computer to the floor. This will also motivate me to upgrade the sound system as well as the server space. While the system itself does come with a 320 gig drive I plan on keeping it lightly loaded and streaming most content.
Another key point is that XBMC has been successfully ported over to other operating systems. (P.s. modded xbox for sale yo.)
More to follow (Est ship date of computer 2008.12.04)
Update 2009.10.08
I have the Studio Hybrid fully hooked in to a surround sound system now, with HDMI feeding the video and Toslink feeding the Audio. I ended up going with Mediaportal for the HTPC interface. While XBMC has a much nicer interface, it just plain sucks as far as codec support goes. Last time I checked you could only use their own built in codecs, and for those to give you a clean picture you needed quite a bit of a video card backing the thing.
Anyway, I'll take a photo sometime if I get bored =)
I don't have a stellar TV by any means, and this setup will also allow me to optimally connect my few consoles and have everything arranged all neat and tidy. Another fantastic feature of it is that the XBOX 360 controllers are of course able to interface with the computer. This will make for outstanding emulation playback.
While I wasn't able to throw in for the Bamboo sleeve just yet, as soon as I get the floors done in my house I'll go ahead and do that. I gotta be somewhat fashionable and match the computer to the floor. This will also motivate me to upgrade the sound system as well as the server space. While the system itself does come with a 320 gig drive I plan on keeping it lightly loaded and streaming most content.
Another key point is that XBMC has been successfully ported over to other operating systems. (P.s. modded xbox for sale yo.)
More to follow (Est ship date of computer 2008.12.04)
Update 2009.10.08
I have the Studio Hybrid fully hooked in to a surround sound system now, with HDMI feeding the video and Toslink feeding the Audio. I ended up going with Mediaportal for the HTPC interface. While XBMC has a much nicer interface, it just plain sucks as far as codec support goes. Last time I checked you could only use their own built in codecs, and for those to give you a clean picture you needed quite a bit of a video card backing the thing.
Anyway, I'll take a photo sometime if I get bored =)
