[Cube] G4 Cube as HTPC or media machine?

[Chris Weiss]

For some of that, you might look into a dedicated playback unit like
the iodata AveLinkPlayer2. It'll play movies of a variety of formats
from network shares, as well as DVD and CD media. It also does audio
files although not protected iTunes files. It should play standard
iTunes files though.

On 12/28/05, Philip J Robar <pjrobar at areyoureallythatstupid.org> wrote:
>
> On Dec 28, 2005, at 9:37 PM, Scott Strungis wrote:
>
> > I am trying to evaluate the suitability of my Cube as an HTPC.
> > It's in
> > the living room now and is being used for DVDs, CDs, iTunes, MAME,
> > DLed TV
> > shows, and light websurfing.  It's connected to my set with a
> > converter
> > box that goes from VGA to Component.
> >
> > When it comes to DLed TV shows, I can manage lo-res stuff, but any
> > Hi-Def
> > streams that I grab up can't be played full speed with VLC, Xine, or
> > MPlayer.
> >
> > This is a stock Cube with 512 megs of RAM and a Geforce2 card.
> >
> > Has anyone tried any sort of DVR work with their Cube?
>
> EyeTV (http://www.elgato.com) has several solutions.
>
> As far as HD you're out of luck with even with the fastest upgrade
> you can buy for your cube. The problem is that even on G5's Apple and
> the graphics card makers haven't exposed the hardware that would
> assist with decoding HD so HD decoding on all Macs is software only
> and therefore depends on raw CPU power. Even G5s strain to decode HD
> content. My Powerbook 1.33 GHz G4 can't decode even 480P smoothly.
>
> One solution is to record HD on the Mac and ship it to a standalone
> media box for playback. See http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/
> eyetv500.php for more on this. Other reviews of Elgato stuff are
> readily available on the net.
>
> The real answer for HDTV recording and playback is your cable
> company's PVR. Comcasts Motorola box isn't a TiVo yet, but it doesn't
> suck either.
>
>
> Phil
>
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