Smallest device to receive network streaming video

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Kil4Thril

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I'm hanging a TV on the wall in the kids' room (HD, LCD or plasma), and need something to stream to it. I already use a hardwired PS3 in my living room flawlessly with PS3 Media Server, so I hope I can find a tiny little device to do just that. Anyone with some ideas? I need this to be able to hang on the wall or ceiling to keep it out of reach of little hands.
 
WD media player or Patriot Box Office. A wired connection would be ideal, but a good wireless connection might be OK for SD content. Apple TV maybe? Moving up in price an Atom/ION2 nettop might work, or one based on the new AMD Fusion if you can find one. Further up in price woud be a little PC (Gateway, HP and a whole bunch of manufacturers make them now) or a Boxee box. At the top of the price list would be an Apple Mini.
 
Another vote for apple tv
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Newegg has the Patriot Box Office for $45 AR and coupon code.
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look for Xtreemer at http://www.xtreamer.net/
they have a small device that does play everything (video/Music/pictures) and does streaming with a wifi a/b/g/n usb card :)

i am using one to play videos

Best of luck
 
The smallest I would say is the apple tv. But I wasn't too impressed with it and I'm sure if your kids loose that remote it's $20-$30 for a new one.

Personally I like a xbox 360 best for streaming. But that may be too big for you.
 
Apple TV only does 720p. avoid those like the plague.

WDTV Live is best bang for buck really.. Has a good chip.
 
Kil4Thril said:
By any chance will a machine based on the Jetway NF92 get the job done? I need no transcoding as that's handled by the WHS machine when necessary. Here's the board:

http://www.jetway.com.tw/jw/ipcboard_view.asp?productid=687&proname=NF92-270-LF

I could set that up into a Morex 350 and hang it on the wall over the door where only I could reach it.
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Depends what content you are throwing at it. I don't believe that board will do hardware accelerated decoding of H264 content, and at 1.6 ghz, you're not going to be playing 1080p. Not sure about 720p.

You could use an ION/ION2 board which is hardware accelerated, run XBMC Live, and that would play pretty much anything.
 
I'm also looking into this, under different circumstances though.

I've looked at all the boxes (WD Live/Zino/Patriot Black box (just examples)) and also saw: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1580291

The E350 from AMD looks very promising, the MSI board has already been released apparently, but it's a soft launch? Which means no one has it except a few reviewers. No date for actual release from what I've seen.

So if it's time sensitive, I'd do a WD Live TV Plus or Dell Zino.
 
Fenris_Ulf said:
WD media player or Patriot Box Office. A wired connection would be ideal, but a good wireless connection might be OK for SD content. Apple TV maybe? Moving up in price an Atom/ION2 nettop might work, or one based on the new AMD Fusion if you can find one. Further up in price woud be a little PC (Gateway, HP and a whole bunch of manufacturers make them now) or a Boxee box. At the top of the price list would be an Apple Mini.
Click to expand...

ghostee said:
Depends what content you are throwing at it. I don't believe that board will do hardware accelerated decoding of H264 content, and at 1.6 ghz, you're not going to be playing 1080p. Not sure about 720p.

You could use an ION/ION2 board which is hardware accelerated, run XBMC Live, and that would play pretty much anything.
Click to expand...

i've been using an atom / ion2 setup as you can see in my signature, it's not bad as long as you're not looking for top notch HD quality streaming from either netflix or hulu. itunes HD movies look great though.

Kil4Thril said:
I'm hanging a TV on the wall in the kids' room (HD, LCD or plasma), and need something to stream to it. I already use a hardwired PS3 in my living room flawlessly with PS3 Media Server, so I hope I can find a tiny little device to do just that. Anyone with some ideas? I need this to be able to hang on the wall or ceiling to keep it out of reach of little hands.
Click to expand...

i'm starting to think that the apple tv (itunes) and roku xds (netflix, hulu, & pandora) w/ an hdmi switcher plugged into a tv gives you everything you may want. but that would be 3 remotes that can easily evaporate w/ little kids...
 
Either go with something like a roku, or wait until the brazos/zacate based nettops start coming out. i'd take one of those over an atom/ion2 any day
 
Apple TV 2 running XMBC , imo .

720p is not an issue, on my 100" projector you can hardly tell the difference between 720p/1080p.
 
calliusmaximus said:
Apple TV 2 running XMBC , imo .

720p is not an issue, on my 100" projector you can hardly tell the difference between 720p/1080p.
Click to expand...

I can tell the difference on my 37"...

It all depends on how close your sitting and what else you would be using it for.

I'm looking for a cheap tuner for my Westinghouse myself, sine my POS laptop only has VGA and my Westinghouse won't run 1080 off VGA due to (well who the hell knows why, I already flashed the firmware...)
 
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