Neuros LINK Mixes Quiet, Aesthetics, and Ubuntu

jonniee writes with a link to Dr. Dobb's Journal's look at a rather cool living-room-suitable media-centric computer from Neuros (presented as being suitable mostly for developers and serious hobbyists for now), excerpting: "The Neuros LINK is essentially a quiet x86 PC running Ubuntu Linux with an ATI graphics card delivering video via VGA, DVI, and HDMI output. ... What makes the LINK such a compelling platform for these folks and Linux/open source developers in general is the recognition that a real business entity is stepping forward to spend the money necessary to market and commercialize what tech enthusiasts have been doing for years."

Re:Looks pretty good on features and price

[value_added]

I wonder how quiet it is, some of the pictures had fans...

At least you clicked the link. ;-)

In the text accompanying those pictures it said 27dB. Not quiet, but not noisy either.

Re:Looking good

[OrangeTide]

"Noise: under 27dB"
That's from the device's specs [dvrupgrade.com]. Although I'm not terribly impressed, that seems rather high for a box that needs to be near my entertainment center.

Re:ATI? eek!

[javilon]

There is another reason for considering Nvidia. They have vpdau [wikipedia.org]:

VDPAU (Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) is an API designed by NVIDIA for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix operating-systems (including Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris).[1][2][3] This VDPAU API allows video programs to offload portions of the video decoding process and video post-processing to the GPU video-hardware.

This would allow them to use fairly quiet and cheap processors, like the atom, and still get flawless HD 1080p output.

Re:Nice

[Anonymous Coward]

I use an old Dell gx620 with a Nvidia 8400GS. Running Ubuntu and Xbmc, easy as pie.

Re:ATI? eek!

[TeknoHog]

In my experience, watching video on Linux is hardly limited by the graphics card, and you certainly don't need a gaming monster to get get good video. I'm only interested in a good Xv implementation for hardware scaling, since the video formats are evolving anyway.

My current media machine has a Mini-ITX motherboard with integrated Intel graphics and a Core Duo T2300 at 1.66 GHz. When I watch 720p H.264 (that's the most my monitor is capable of), only one CPU is used at 60%, and of course everything is smooth. The machine has only one fan, rated at 24 dBA, but it's running at 7 V instead of 12, so it's even quieter. The power supply is a passively cooled one (like PicoPSU) rated at 80 W.

Re:Yes but...

[inamorty]

NetBSD Controlled Toaster [uberreview.com]

Re:Looks pretty good on features and price

[addsalt]

FYI - XBMC now runs very well on the AppleTV (aside from HD support). You can replace your Roku and AppleTV with, well an AppleTV. It removes all the crappy restrictions and provides a beautiful interface my 3 and 4 year olds can use and my wife is happy with. It might be worth a look if you haven't tried it

Re:ATI? eek!

[wagnerrp]

Support. VDPAU is something that is in the drivers, and can be used right now. Last November, they added it to their beta drivers, and offered a patched version of mplayer to test and as a code example. XvBA has been rumored for years, and hints of it showed up in the driver in October, but it is still not functional.

Re:But ATI doesn't support hardware x264 accelerat

[wagnerrp]

A 3.2GHz Core2 should be able to handle any video an HDPVR can throw at it. The HDPVR really isn't even that high bitrate. Peaking at 13.5mbps, it's less than half what you might find on Bluray disks. The problem is that it is single sliced. You can currently only use one core per slice. The ffmpeg-mt branch should being decoding within range of most dual core processors.

Re:Looking good

[Azaril]

According to wikipedia, 27dB is actually as loud as a "very calm room" [wikipedia.org], and is a minimum of 20 times quieter than talking. The PS3 weighs in at 24dB at idle [videogamesblogger.com], so this box is twice as loud as that (I believe from googling, that source shows the new, smaller process PS3 though this may not be the case).