Invidia seems to always eff it's OEM's. They seem to take no responsibility for their designed in products. On the other hand, I don't know what the financial terms of their contracts are.

The PC market is getting a little shifty in terms of their specifications and claims. It's beginning to look like the cell phone industry. I think the market needs a couple good consumer protection lawsuits to keep all the players honest.

I'm dying to find the right box. I thought it was myka, but they look like they can't handle the business side. I thought it was the Lenovo Q700, but it's looking like the spec's miss the cutoff.

Who will end my torture and sell a nice small quiet PC with enough power to run streaming video, not lock me into a limited number of services, but without $800 price tag.

So is this a full fledged HTPC when windows is installed? I really am not thrilled about boxes that don't have web browsers or have finite list of external hardware they support despite having USB drives? Will this thing pull content from a home server?

Poll: Will this box be more or less powerful than the Lenovo Q700

Demo #2 is a stupid waste of my time. How about going through all the screens. If I want to look at hot chicks and listen to bad music, this is not the site.

Thanks Loban!

I'm physically restraining myself from buying this.

Crummy Lenovo marketing: I can't figure out why the 1BU unit is not available for sale, the description lacks some of the typical feel-good specs from the all-in-one box vendors, the Tech Sheet has empty/missing footnotes, the purchase information contradicts the Tech Sheet, blah blah blah.

I was under the impression that in order to replace my commie-cast DVR, that I'd need a specially configured TV Tuner card to receive HD. I can't find anything at Lenovo about this. Am I going to be up a creek if I buy the high end one with the tuner?

Richard,

What is your hardware BOM (especially the MB)? I'm itching to build my own, but I don't have the cash to mess around too much trying stuff that isn't solid and quiet.

Wow!

The Mac Mini sounds like an interesting route (

I have spent many a work hour on this problem. I haven't found a decent machine out there, but what I want is the equivalent of an ACER/ASUS size system without the screen and keyboard. I would use my TV as the display monitor and I'd need a separate IR/Wifi remote.

I love the WD and similar devices except the proprietary OS, the locked in storage, and the lack of streaming internet; It's not upgradable. Apple TV suffers from too much Apple control. Any of the PC "Media Laptops" are way to expensive and I don't need another laptop, I need a device. The Niveus system is cool, except that it's waaaaaay overkill, outrageously priced, and locks me into their system. I *dream* that the next Archos Media Player will be able to do all this, but Archos quality and propensity toward vaporware will probably disappoint.

My specs include:

1. On Screen (TV) Display of my music jukebox (pick your flavor) with access to my NAS (wired or wireless) for the actual repository. No limitations on music file format. The NAS is because I would still want to access the same music repository from my laptop.

2. Stream web video (hula, Youtube, whatever), NAS video to the TV (I only need 720p for my plasma) with a *correctly formatted* display (overscan/underscan solved). No format restrictions.

3. Ability to multitask...If I'm playing music/watching a movie, I should also be able to get to the web.

4. Stream *any* online music service (rhapsody, pandora, etc.) to my audio out (Stereo)

5. HDMI out for Jukebox display, Movie Display, and web display on TV.

6. RCA Out (Music) /and any more advanced digital connector to my existing stereo with some kind of surround sound feature (5.1...7.1 whatever).

7. SD/USB ports for synching my PMP player to my jukebox and maybe a camera for showing my stills, webcam or local USB storage.

8. Solid state OS separate from an upgradable HDD. I only see the need to have enough on board storage to buffer whatever streaming media I'm currently watching/recording at the time. All major storage goes to NAS. I want to be able to upgrade the HDD without reinstalling the OS.

9. Mainstream OS. No one's silly proprietary thing. Make in Linux, make it XP, just don't make it something exotic just to reinvent the wheel so you can lock me in.

10. Whisper Quiet....No fans... Not easy to do.

11. Slim. Laptop Slim.

To me, this all points to a netbook without a keyboard and display but with a beefed up processor (dual core Atom?), RCA outputs, HDMI out and maybe an upgraded graphics processor.