[mythtv-users] Popcorn Hour Unit as VIdeo Output?

[jedi]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 04:32:49PM -0400, R. G. Newbury wrote:
> An article in this month's Linux Journal is a review of the Popcorn Hour 
> A-100 Media Tank. A paperback sized box with an embedded (linux??) 
> control program, intended to play all sorts of video formats, and 
> apparently capable of doing 1080p with ease, for $200.
> 
> The corporate site is at popcornhour.com. A newer unit with better 
> capabilities is now available for $215.
> 
> A review is at http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/68576
> 
> This unit can stream videos, with or without an internal hard drive.
> 
> Does anyone have one of these? Could it be set up and left in a ready 
> state to stream videos from mythtv...in effect as a video card?
> 
> The output capabilities of this box, *if reasonably usable with mythtv* 
> could sidestep a lot of video problems.

    You still have to deal with video with commercials embedded in them.
If you're really keen on how MythTV skips through those, and how it 
presents everything then the popcorn hour is interesting but not quite
there yet.

    Something along the lines of a cross between appletv and the popcorn
hour would be wicked though... IOW, a popcorn hour that could be treated
as a regular PC through dedicated hacking while still retaining the 
ability to use the h264 acceleration hw.

    quad core systems are already starting to get pretty cheap though...