Dies Natalis Solis Invicti

[Bizarro]

This conversation with my brother (the one who lives with me) brought to you by Jack Daniel's and egg nog.

Me: What movie are you thinking of seeing?
Him: Mind Your Own Business, Loser: The Motion Picture
Me: Don't you think that one's a bit derivative of the Mexican film, Callate, Pinche Puto Perdedor?
Him: Nah. But the score is kinda like the original soundtrack to Shut Your Word Hole, You Fucking Douche
Me: Yeah, but even that movie lifted its plot from J_______ Is a Little Bitch Who Can't Hold His Whiskey

And so on.

[Berunda]

http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices

I'm lookin' at  these:

LG BD370, LG BD390

anybody own one of those or have any experience?

[Bizarro]

I desperately want one of these:

http://www.tvix.co.kr/ENG/products/HDM7000.aspx

It's an external hard drive/player that links wirelessly to your PC and can play flat out anything, all the way up to .mkv format HD video and FLAC audio files.

I have a similar thing now called a TVisto, but it doesn't support as many formats or have wireless.

Even so, it allows me to watch pretty much anything I like from the torrents on my plasma using a handy remote.

I am sort of considering this one, too, which is less fantastic but considerably cheaper:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/home-entertainment/bd4f/

Then there's always the option of buying a remote/mouse like this one:
http://www.hillcrestlabs.com/loop/

...buying an HDMI output for one of my older PCs and just turning it into a Linux media center.

Decisions, decisions.

[Doctor Rock]

You know what?  I believe that, as a business, regular TV broadcasting is fucked. 

[Bizarro]

I find myself thinking about this article more and more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/technology/personaltech/10basics.html

I am seriously considering doing the no-cable, strictly PC-based route.

This guide makes it sound good, too:

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap

[Tripp]

thats what I'm doing pretty much. And I STILL find that there's not much that I want to watch.. I've seen just about everything I want to see.

[Tripp]

we bought one of these for $200 and it did NOT come with wireless hookup. Sherm gave me a wireless USB antenna type thingie (like you would hook up tour laptop) and that picks up the house wireless. There's no cd/dvd drive. It's built for online gamers and the like. For 200 bucks it ain't a bad deal.  Pretty fast processor and all

[Tripp]

I'm streaming Terminator 2 from Netflix right now.  it's ever so slightly pixel-y at times. I wouldn't say it's pure hd quality but the sheer accessibility of movies balances it out I think. Sure, pay-per-view movies have been around forever but for 10 bucks a month, semi-unlimited downloads..  not too mention if I hooked with a torrent site..  and it's only on our internet bill with the phone company.  So... NO cable bill, no change in the internet/phone bill, and a freaking buttload more variety. 

[Tripp]

I should say, internet bill + netflix bill. 

Still cheaper than cable.

[Berunda]

I find myself thinking about this article more and more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/technology/personaltech/10basics.html

I am seriously considering doing the no-cable, strictly PC-based route.

This guide makes it sound good, too:

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap

We're no cable, sorta kinda. We pay for internet, and our plan includes free, or I should probably say "free," cable. It's analog, and I have a Tivo that records analog but no digital. In addition there are a handful of QAM signals coming over the same line, and since our tv has a QAM tuner we get those (but I can't Tivo them). Toss in a Netflix subscription and we're done. What I'd like is a Blu-Ray player that will stream Netflix stuff as a bonus.  I've considered a torrent site for visual things, but I can barely keep up with torrent for audio things. One of the links Jeff posted earlier had a unit with a bit torrent client built in, which is a pretty brilliant idea though.

[Bizarro]

we bought one of these for $200 and it did NOT come with wireless hookup. Sherm gave me a wireless USB antenna type thingie (like you would hook up tour laptop) and that picks up the house wireless. There's no cd/dvd drive. It's built for online gamers and the like. For 200 bucks it ain't a bad deal.  Pretty fast processor and all

That's one of the units I'm looking at. It's the one specified as a great option in that article from LifeHacker, actually. Either that one (for price), one of Dell's mini desktop all-in-ones (because we have an account with them and can get a nice one and pay it off a bit at a time), or maybe a refurbed Mac Mini (so I could have it run OS X instead of Windows but still pretty much have access to any app).

Are you running Windows on yours, Tripp? Or one of the Linux distros? I wonder if either that Acer or a Dell Mini can be made into a Hackintosh.

[Doctor Rock]

Hackintosh! 

Guffaw!