Personal computing discussed
Moderators: askfranklin, renee, emkubed, Captain Ned
sjl wrote:So if I may ask: what are the issues you had with the C200? I've been eyeing off the A400 as a possible (relatively) cheap (and certainly easier than building my own) media playback device, but if there are problems with the C200's playback and there's no reason to believe they've been resolved in the later hardware...
Main issue is that I have a bit of stuff in interlaced VC-1, which isn't handled well by open source software (VLC, Handbrake, etc.) - converting it all to H.264 would be ... painful. The Popcorn Hour does play it, though, hence my query.
Walkintarget wrote:The hardware seems to be the easy part. The hard part now comes in software selection. Everyone has their favorites, but I'm curious to see what you go with.
LoneWolf15 wrote:Thanks. I actually do have a WD Live; I'm very unhappy with it. The user interface, to be polite, is clunky; from what I'm reading here (and what I've seen elsewhere on the 'net), the Popcorn Hour suffers from similar issues, even if it is a little less clunky (and at two or three times the price, it flipping well BETTER be.) Sure, I'm a techie, I can deal with it ... but I don't want to deal with that sort of stuff; I get enough of it at work.The C200 had an average interface; it didn't stand up to the "Can your wife work this?" test, though any techie could. [...] I'd probably get something like Western Digital's or something like that if I was going out-of-box. Then I wouldn't be so disappointed if it didn't live up to my expectations; the C-200 was a $299 box, and for that, you're close to basic HTPC territory.
sjl wrote:It's a crying shame that there isn't a nice, simple, "set and forget" media streaming device out there; I blame the film studios and their ilk for crippling that market before it even formed. It'll happen, I'm sure, eventually ... but in the meantime ...
Thanks again for all the information.
LoneWolf15 wrote:Note that XBMC really is "set and forget" once you have done the initial setup, which is really easy. If you want it to be really KISS principle, I'd consider a Raspberry Pi and its XBMC build; your one downside is if you do a lot of optical media, you either need to kludge it in or have a BluRay player.
Dposcorp wrote:I have a K400 keyboard, the original. I was hoping for two things when they updated it to make it close to perpect.
1) Bluetooth 4.0 option
2)Low power back lighting
Otherwise, it is a great HTPC keyboard & even travel keyboard, for my tablets.