Recommendations for a under-TV video player?

[andrewducker]

I want something that I can bung under my TV that will run XBMC.  At the moment, the best bet is the Apple TV, for which the only problem is that it's two years old and will only support 720p.

On the other hand, my TV also only supports 720p.

Anyway - in an ideal world I'd have a tiny PC under there - but finding something I can buy off the shelf for £200-odd pounds that will run silently, has HDMI output and a remote control is tricky.  The reason I like XBMC is that it supports SMB shares and plays FLV, mov, and pretty much every other format under the sun.  If someone has a better bit of kit then I'm open to suggestions!

Comments

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

ZING!

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145753

I'm sure you can build/ scrounge pieces that'll go with that. But with the NVidia Purevideo drivers you can do HD decode with the graphics card, so you don't need a fast processor. Maybe something like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141881 or http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134749

All stored in http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141001

:)

[andrewducker]

Tempting. I'm trying to avoid building from scratch if I can avoid it though, as the hassle factor is higher than I'd like. Making sure I have all the right bits that will work together, plus silent fans, a decent mini-case, etc. would be a pain, not to mention putting it all together, installing an OS on it, etc.

Now, if I can find someone selling a cheap, silent mini-PC using that motherboard...

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

Well I'd be happy to put it together for you. A couple of silent fans shouldn't run you too much, and with a system like that you can add a BD-ROM drive and dual-core later on for a nominal fee.

Getting a media centre remote isn't difficult either, and that means easy integration with Windows Media Centre.

Essentially the HTPC gives you expandibility with expense of slight complexity. The AppleTV limits expandiblity, but it's easier to setup.

[andrewducker]

You're on. Do me a quote for something that will run silently in a small case (so I can stick it under the TV)! A DVD drive is a necessity, as is HDMI out, but other than that I'm easy, so long as it runs XBMC well enough to do 720p - which shouldn't be too hard.

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

£250ish seems to be the price for the following + a silent case fan.

[andrewducker]

The question being how quiet that power supply is:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums//viewtopic.php?t=35887&highlight=&sid=a78884a0597068e73ce20643b9b9db36
would tend to indicate "not very"...

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

I keep looking into this myself every few months: I'd say Apple TV is your best bet.

[andrewducker]

I just dropped a question on the XBMC site to make sure that it can deal with 720p AVIs ok (my TV only goes that high anyway).

If it does I'll be picking one up and hacking away at it.

If it means I can get rid of the DVD player and the XBox then I'll be happy.

The only reason I'm doing this is because my XBox fan is noisy. Maybe I should just open that up and see if I can fix it...

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

I've opened mine up before: I think you should be able to swap the fans out pretty easily.

[poisonduk.livejournal.com]

i have a small form factor pc under the tv. Got the same one for k too. Has remote control and loads of outputs and definitely came in under 300. Its hp and works great for playback

[andrewducker]

Got a link? I can't find anything that matches that description...

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I did some similar digging rcently with subtly different but roughly similar requirements and concluded it couldn't be done without blowing the budget out of the water. A little longer and Saint Moore's Law will save us. But please do post if you can prove me wrong - I didn't search terribly thoroughly.