Maybe this is a dumb question but.......
I'm probably looking more for a media player than a HTPC. Currently I have a Comcast HDTV DVR connected to 50" Pioneer. In another room I have meedio running on a XP machine (which I am really happy with even though it is no longer supported)
I want to have a machine that with a WAF meedio style interface that can play all the kids DVD's. For me I want to able to stream or play HD TV shows that I download. With Europe starting to broadcast HDTV there will be many more shows that I am likely to want to download and view. As I have the Comcast DVR I have no real need to view/record live TV.
As well as the WAF front end I want this thing to be quiet. I'm real happy to install and configure software but I probably want to avoid buying all the components from scratch. At the moment I'm wondering about the new duo mini-mac due to the fact that is small and quiet. But lack of software support, my unfamiliarity with Mac's and concern over the graphics card & h.264 make me nervous. For the same reason the current crop of media players (Zensonic, TVIX, PixelMagic, mediagate) all fall down as they do not support H.264.
Does anyone make such a unit?
Thanks
olax