Where's the all in one device? Need to buy something

[fotd]

So I'm a somewhat satisfied c200 owner. It plays stuff but IMHO definitely could be a LOT nicer. Nmj is pretty much useless to me, the movie section is way to slow. The music is even worse, after scanning for 3-4 days it is completely unusable. But pretty much all of my video files do play, so can't complain to much.

/rantover

I need to get another streamer for the house. It will be used mostly to play hd wmv, mkv's, and a few xvids via samba or nfs from my unraid server. Id really like it to be able to play my music collection, stream Netflix and possibly pandora. Also ease of use is fairly important, it will be used by a pretty non technical person with bad eye sight. Some bonus stuff would be Internet browsing, YouTube, hulu, etc.

Does a box like this exist? It seems nothing in the market has lived up to the hype. Maybe a good google tv will come out next year. In the mean time I need something for Xmas. Was thinking about pop box, but I guess Netflix isn't on the device. Any ideas, I'm guessing I'll just get an a210 and a bluray player , but would like to know if anything else is worth looking at.

[accident]

do you actually need it before xmas? the first week of jan is CES and everyone with a new box, feature, partnership, etc usually announce it at that trade show.

[halfelite]

you can look at the boxee box it does not have netflix yet but supposed to get it.

[fotd]

(12-12-2010 06:23 AM)accident Wrote:  do you actually need it before xmas? the first week of jan is CES and everyone with a new box, feature, partnership, etc usually announce it at that trade show.

That's actually a really good point. There more then likely will be at least a few google tv boxes or maybe something we haven't heard of yet. I really wanted to get it for Xmas though. Wish I could get an xbmc, popcorn hour, apple, google tv with whole house dvr. Not asking for to much am I?

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(12-12-2010 06:39 AM)halfelite Wrote:  you can look at the boxee box it does not have netflix yet but supposed to get it.

I dunno, popbox had netflix before it came out and then was going to get it after release and still doesn't have it. I hesitate jumping into something new like boxee that doesn't look like it will be everything I want in the long run. I would probably rather just stick with pch since I already know the quirks. However I haven't really looked at boxee since launch, I'm going to check it out in more detail. I know the first impressions weren't that great.

[accident]

There's no perfect box, however you might be able to achieve what you want in the htpc world, it just won't be 1 seemless interface..

[BanditRider]

A lot of the on-line internet stuff is available directly on many new TVs. So maybe a new TV for the internet apps and an A-210 for the local stuff.

[StarbuckII]

The Samsung slimline BD player does all of that except store your files. It's as close as you can get to a single box. However since storage is an issue I did both, a PCH & the Samsung BD player. PSH for Video storage & access to my content on my NAS. So at the worst, the PCH becomes a low cost good performance media NAS.

It is disturbing to hear about your experiences with NMJ. I had hoped that it would be a better implementation than that.

I also wouldn't look too hard to CES. There is getting to be more & more vaporware released & announced at CES every year. Now, I just wait until I can actually see it in a retail store before I believe much of what is said at CES. Just like the emerging tablet market, after much ballyhoo The Google tablet kind of falls flat. The Slate is well heavy as slate & is about as agile as a rock.

I attend CES every year to see concepts that we might see in 3-5 years. I view it like the big car shows. You see concept cars that are pretty neat that you can't actually buy.... The difference between the big car shows & CES is that the car shows actually tell you it is a concept or vaporware car right now. CES, not so much.

[chris57]

The PCH does more than others, in fact it does gets criticised for trying to do too much.

It wont do Netflix as it could not do all that it does presently under the terms that Netflix will agree. Therefore you either have to move away from consumer electronic devices and into HTPC or get two boxes. I'd go Roku/A210 or if you fancy a play and constant fiddling a HTPC.

[calvinandhobbes]

i'd go with a $200 acer revo running XBMC (live install) with w $20 USB MCE remote. Does everything but netflix/pandora and no fiddling. 20 minute setup and forget it. it accesses my unRaid box flawlessly, plays everything, quick interface, small, silent, etc. HD audio support is better on the PCH, but that's it.

[StarbuckII]

As long as the PCH supports Torrent stealing of content. NO premium content delivery services will be joining the party. Dump the theft tools & it just might get PPV services. But the PCH is still the best of breed.

[halfelite]

(12-14-2010 10:54 PM)StarbuckII Wrote:  As long as the PCH supports Torrent stealing of content. NO premium content delivery services will be joining the party. Dump the theft tools & it just might get PPV services. But the PCH is still the best of breed.

Wont happen. Its not so easy with pch being a multi country device. Netflix,pandora,amazon,vudu are only available to the US. The US market for PCH is small compared to all the other countries together.It has nothing to do with the torrent app. Every pc can run a torrent app and there is netflix for it.

Im just assuming most of it comes down to the type of market the pch goes to. And you already get the people saying they want one box to do it all. Well every new tv now has netflix and every other service so no need for pch to even add it.

[tinyhands]

Oh, so all I have to do is throw away my perfectly good tv and buy a new one? Why didn't you say so?

[halfelite]

(12-15-2010 10:43 PM)tinyhands Wrote:  Oh, so all I have to do is throw away my perfectly good tv and buy a new one? Why didn't you say so?

Thats not what im saying but almost every device now has netflix. Its no longer a good marketing tool. Most homes have a xbox/wii/ps3/tivo/tv/bluray player in them already that support netflix and given the small market of US pch users

Im sure if netflix/amazon/vudu were to go global it might get another look