pc in front room

micksjoiner

looking for a mini pc for my living room capable of playing hd content of the bbc iplayer with connection for my surround sound system.
would need to be wireless, hdmi,opticaldigital audio out.thanks

nicklouse

more info.

what connections? HDMI or.... wireless or wired etc etc..

what about a Zotac MAG

micksjoiner

bit dear with no operating system

The Northern Monkey

2nd hand laptop with a smashed/broken screen... but working internals.
With a wireless mouse + keyboard and a cable to the TV its great

Tis what we use... got a laptop for £20 with a vga out.

(no point in hdmi etc for iplayer... the streamed resolution is never that good!)

kaytronika

I quite like Acer Revo's

Kiblams

Buying one instead of building it yourself can be an expensive effort, this is what I did just get a mate who knows about PCs to show you how to put it all together (it's as simple as doing a jigsaw) and build it yourself.

Would use a smaller case/PSU combo if you want it smaller than the one I use.

montevideoguy

bigbenj_08 wrote:

2nd hand laptop with a smashed/broken screen... but working internals.
With a wireless mouse + keyboard and a cable to the TV its great

Tis what we use... got a laptop for £20 with a vga out.

(no point in hdmi etc for iplayer... the streamed resolution is never that good!)

If you download the episodes to the desktop iplayer (and are eps that were on BBC HD) the quality is fine

AndyTheRocketeer

Got the Zotac MAG (needs to be the one with Nvidia ION, not the newer low-power CPU).
22W power max iirc. Fan is audible when it's hot, and sun shining on it (need to move mine). Definitely has wireless, optical audio out, HDMI. 64bit dual-core + HT cpu too.

Basically identical size+spec to the Revo, except Zotac cost £50 less, but the Revo tends to come with Win7. Both are about same price with an OEM version of OS. Mine's Linux/XBMC anyway, and don't care about W7.

Anonymous

You haven't got an Xbox360, by any chance have you?
You can play stuff from your puter to the xbox.

nicklouse

Kiblams wrote:

Buying one instead of building it yourself can be an expensive effort, this is what I did just get a mate who knows about PCs to show you how to put it all together (it's as simple as doing a jigsaw) and build it yourself.

Would use a smaller case/PSU combo if you want it smaller than the one I use.

I used a bigger one for my build used a GA-M56S-S3 board and an AMD dual core 64 bit something and a bout 3Tb of hard disc space. and a big copper heat sink and lots of big slow fans.

need to sort out the power supply fan as it is too loud.

Raymondavalon

I use a Mac Mini I salvaged from the recycling unit at work. (£0.00) 1.66GHz Intel CoreDuo, upgraded to 2GB RAM (£7.00) banged a 250GB HDD into it (£25.00) and a DVI to HDMI adapter cable (£6.00) and upgraded to OSX Snow Leopard (£0.00)
It has wired and wireless Ethernet, streams media over the Interweb very nicely, plus hit the Apple remote and it turns into a lovely little media centre type effort. Not to mention that it is small, looks great and is very quiet

Not shabby for under £40.

And.... +1 on the Acer Revo, that would be my choice if I were to buy one

Gazlar

aldi had some kind of all in one system recently, i'm not a big computer geek so couldnt tell you if its what you are looking for but I'm told the computers they do do are usually of a good spec http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/9794.htm?WT.z_src=banner&WT.ac=All-in-one+PC

IcarusGreen

Playstation 3 does for me. Linked up to a HD TV and surround system. Have BBC iplayer, sky player and other stuff on it.

jacktheoc

I got an old computer off my dad (still quite good and fairly fast) and plug it in to my 40" LCD. Got a wireless mouse and keyboard so i can sit in bed and go on the computer.?

chrisbassist

I use my ps3.

Got. 1T drive for movies. With the right folder structure it works wonders.

micksjoiner

ive got an x-box in the living room used to get iplayer through it ,but cant get to work any more.xbox only sees movies in my downloads