Neuros LINK Mixes Quiet, Aesthetics, and Ubuntu 121
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."
Looking good (Score:5, Insightful)
Ideally, I'd like a system much like the PS3 to use for a entertainment hub, something the PS3 is actually quite good at doing and doing quietly as well. Its just too bad that its a Sony product.
Re:Looks pretty good on features and price (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:ATI? eek! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:ATI? eek! (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with h264 "benchmarks" is that every h264 file can be different and
the fact that you managed to get one particular sort of high res file to play on
a particular system doesn't necessarily mean anything. Playing BBC or Apple web
content is a bit different than playing and HD-PVR captures or BD rips.
A $200 popcorn hour will play everything you throw at it.
So will a $300 Revo running Ubuntu or Windows.
This Neuros box is an interesting idea that was obviously flawed and
somewhat behind the curve the moment it was announced.
Re:Nice (Score:3, Insightful)
Specifically any Nvidia chipset that will let you use VDPAU.
mplayer now supports it and you can easily drive 1080p with an underpowered PC, as long as the video card is up to the task.
(And if you're into that sort of thing, off hours you can be contributing to projects that use CUDA to offload to the GPU and thus do stuff much faster).