Hey, Just wondering what anyone thinks of something like a Dell Zino for the living room for streaming videos?, is there anything else out there thats a better option or these machines even up to it? as it won;t get much all that much don;t want to spend too much on it.
The Dell Zino is a mixed bag. It has more than enough power to be a great streaming machine...but some idiot at Dell decided to use Windows 7 instead of Linux, and then they went and totally f**ked the windows install. If you wipe it out and install Linux, it would probably be a decent unit...well worth the $200 that it should cost. Too bad the thing costs $300. Apple TV is only $99, and it can be jailbroken. Once jailbroken, you can install XBMC...this makes it a $99 media center. The only problem is that it only outputs in 720P...XBMC can still play 1080P content (like bluray rips), but it has to be downscaled to 720P "on the fly". If your TV does not do 1080P anyway, or if your eyes are not good enough to tell the difference from the couch, it would seem to be the best option right now. Also, it has no optical drive because it is smaller than an optical disk. If you do need 1080P or optical disk support, you might consider a PS3...I really hate recommending $ony products...but the PS3 has the same price as a Dell Zino...and it really is a much better system...not only does streaming work, but you get a video game console as a "bonus".
ah thanks,I have a ps3 but was hoping to get something that I could install Sopcast on directly so I won;t have to have the laptop on at the same time, think you can only watch sopcast on ps3 using tversity...
