Willa (my current ladyfriend) has been using an old decrepit laptop with a bad keyboard hooked up to her TV at home to watch NetFlix instant-streaming movies. I took pity on her as the “geeky boyfriend” and bought her a Roku HD Player (e.g., “NetFlix Box”) a few days ago.
We just finished doing the initial setup and account connections via my TV and Internet connections here, and she’ll take it home with her to try out tomorrow.
Today’s color choice, “Pinkle”:
I’ve updated the Trackman Marble FX post to reflect that the three I have are now up for sale.
A few weeks ago, I built an XBMC-based media player to use with the 32″ TV in the living room:
I decided to make another system using an original XBox for the bedroom, since I don’t need to play HD content on the 19″ TV in there. I bought a refurbished XBox from Gamestop for $54 shipped, and picked up the rest of the pieces I needed (XBox-to-USB cables, an 8M memory card) off eBay and from a local shop. I used a 10″ LCD TV while setting it up, so I didn’t have to run back and forth to the bedroom.
Here’s the XBox after doing a “softmod” to install Linux and the UnleashX dashboard:
Here it is with XBMC installed, running the default “PM3″ theme:
And here’s the final setup. Hooked up to the 19″ TV, running the same Confluence theme as the system in the living room, with the XBox DVD Playback kit plugged in so I can use a remote instead of a wired controller.
Am really happy with both systems; the living room unit cost me around $200 total while the bedroom XBox setup cost me $90.
A new friend taught me how to crochet last night.
I’ve joked with friends that I’m the “Free Hardware Fairy” a lot lately, as I get rid of stuff and fix their computers up.
Well, it came time to setup http://www.freehardwarefairy.com/.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought a Neuros OSD media player off eBay. The auction showed a “Developer Beta” unit. It showed up about a week ago, but I didn’t have time to play with it till tonight.
After much pulling out of hair, I finally realized that what I had been sent was a “Developer Sample” OSD unit; it has a green printed circuit board versus the tan PCB for the Beta units (that was shown in the pictures accompanying the auction).
The end result is that I have a unit that cannot be upgraded past the original 3.00 firmware, and for my purposes is basically an expensive doorstop. This is highly annoying, as I sold my AppleTV in order to buy this piece of hardware.
Neuros Technology had a trade-in program in 2006, where owners of “Dev Sample” OSDs could swap them out for “Beta” units at no cost, but I highly doubt they’ll still do that. I’ve emailed support but I don’t have my hopes up.
Update: The nice folks at Neuros Technology are going to send me a coupon code that lets me buy the current model with a good discount. That is, if they ever get around to it.
If not, I’m going to just buy an eGreat M34A “Networked Media Tank”.
If anyone else is looking for an AKAI PDP4206EM Service Manual, here you go.
I’m still looking for a PDF of the user manual.
