All in one HDTV PC from visionman

[donpaul]

Saw this today. I would love to see more of these, and have a feeling we will with the popularity of home media centers. If I can convince the wife, I may pick one up and give it a try. Hell, it comes with a 30-day trial!

http://www.visionman.com/ALLIO-all-in-one-HDTV-PC-c-77_100.html

$1599
Specifications

    * Allio Lite 42” 1080p LCD HDTV
    * 16:9Full Screen Aspect Ratio
    * 3D Y/C Digital Comb Filter
    * 176 Degree / 176 Degree Viewing Angle
    * 1200:1 Contrast
    * 400cd Brightness
    * Built-in 6Wx2 Speakers
    * 5.1 Surround Sound w/Dolby Home Theatre
    * 2x Component Video & Audio Connectors
    * 2x HDMI Connectors
    * 1x S-Video & Audio Connector
    * 1x Composite Video & Audio Connector
    * 4x USB 2.0 Ports
    * 1x VGA Port
    * Intel Atom 330 Dual Core 1.6Ghz Processor
    * 2GB High-Speed DDR2-800 Memory
    * Slim Dual Layer 8X DVDRW
    * Western Digital 250GB SATA-II HDD
    * Integrated Intel GMA950 Video
    * Hauppauge HVR-950Q TV Tuner
    * Gigabit 10/100/1000 Ethernet
    * Wireless 802.11b/g
    * Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
    * LogitechWireless Keyboard & Mouse
    * Wall Mountable
    * Menu Languages: English, Spanish, French
    * Includes A/V Cable, User Manual, Remote Control

[colinjones]

If you are considering this because it is cheap and includes the TV, be conscious that the TV's brightness and contrast ratio specifications are pretty appaling, if correct. I suspect it looks cheap until you realise how cheap the TV alone is. Don't be conned, check out the TVs picture quality first, especially in broad daylight.

Also, the graphics chipset is not ideal, in many implementations it causes system hangs unless you disable the photo screen saver.

ps. when you give prices, would you mind either saying the currency or at least which country you live in, otherwise it can be very difficult to compare prices (from the link, the US)

[donpaul]

I noticed that too, but I may drop by my local tigerdirect and check it out. I was looking more for form factor and convenience as well as cheap.

I hope this is the start of a new trend of pairing a large LCD HDTV and PC. If anyone runs across a similar platform, please post for comparison. I would love to see a quaity LCD paired with a decent nVidia Chipset PC - would be a great platform for a MD.

[donpaul]

Just found a couple good articles.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/10/silicon-mountains-allio-42-inch-hdtv-with-built-in-pc-blu-ra/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/11/27/silicon-mountain-ceo-interviewed-allio-extreme-outed/

I am looking forward to the Allio Extreme that will boast an NVIDIA GPU and "be able to play Crysis." And there is talk of a cheaper Allio with Ubuntu!

I am getting excited!!

[colinjones]

Hopefully once the new nVidia ION platform starts rolling in production hardware, we will see ultra low cost, low power, tiny form factor units aimed at the HTPC market.... in the meantime you may still find it more effective to buy separately...

The ASUS Eee Box B202 works well at US$290 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220004

This Samsung 40" has 50,000:1 contrast ratio - at US$1299 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889102208

Just add an HDHomeRun network dual TV tuner US$160

Total US$1749 is close to the package price...

[tschak909]

I'm more eager to see an ARM based design, than anything Intel or AMD are coming up with.

Those designs are yesterday's fodder, turning a Ford Excursion into a sub-compact.

-Thom

[donpaul]

Hell yeah, let's use a Nintendo DS or netbook as a MD. J/K!

An ARM based PC inside a 65" LCD with 1,000,000:1 contrast and LED backlighting? A dream!

[tschak909]

http://www.beagleboard.org/



-Thom

[donpaul]

http://www.beagleboard.org/



-Thom

I've got goosebumps!

[tschak909]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXr-D1wROfQ

[colinjones]

I'm more eager to see an ARM based design, than anything Intel or AMD are coming up with.

Those designs are yesterday's fodder, turning a Ford Excursion into a sub-compact.

-Thom

Thom - was talking about nVidia's GPU platform rather than Intel/AMD stuff... but yes the ARM stuff is v interesting too! Not exactly new tho.... ARM CPUs have been around for 22+ years got some very clever design features like all instructions are conditional execution and other stuff that allows for very compact code for a RISC CPU. Amazing that it was designed explicitly for a home microcomputer (as they were called in those days!), by a company in Cambridge, UK, but went on to become the most popular RISC CPU in the world! Been years since I coded for it (in assembly/machine code!), but I don't think the instruction set has changed all that much when I last looked.

[tschak909]

You assume I'd never spent serious time on an Acorn Archimedes, or an A5000, or any other RiscOS machine. (or a BBC Micro, or an Atom, or an Electron for that matter)

Trust me, I know how old the cores are. But with the recent advancements in both semiconductor density, the ARM is showing its muscles as a low power consumption CPU. Witness the massive integration happening from TI with OMAP, with Marvell and the XScale, etc.

-Thom

[colinjones]

Wow, well that knocked me for six! Why on earth would someone from the US have even heard of these machines? They were practically non-existent over there!! Shit, they were pretty marginal anywhere outside the UK for that matter...

I had a BBC B, then a A440 followed by a RiscPC before Acorn's sad death... personally I thought that the module messaging system was the coolest thing out, and the fact that it started as the shadow ROM messaging system in the BBC A in the early 80's meant it crapped all over anything M$ had to offer at the time ... blast from the past so you coded on the ARM? And thus have fond memories of optimising the code to the nth degree and squeezing out that last erg of performance??

[tschak909]

I'm an American, yes. But I've spent time all over this planet...

When I was in the UK, I had friends with Beeb's (rather funny, it was the ONLY computer other than the MSX-alike the Memotech MTX-512, that used British-isms for key words.) , and later I got to spend some time on the ARM boxes. I've always liked the ARM architecture, it's very clean, without losing too many amenities to a reduced instruction set...then again, my first CPU was a 6502, so maybe i'm a bit biased

Later, I spent some time with a 3DO dev kit (they used ARM as well), but nothing ever came of it (or the console for that matter.)

It's not that I am a fan boy... I love all sorts of CPUs, but in this day and age, where the hardware is getting smarter, the die density is increasing, and battery life for our smaller devices is at a premium, I simply do not see Intel or AMD devices _EVER_ reaching the 1-2 watt range that ARM does in its sleep...Not to mention with OMAP devices, the network facilities can be maintained even when the unit is in a deep sleep, just witness the Nokia N810...) All I see here, is win-win, but we have to cut out all the fat....

I want to see someone attempt to do an ARM port of the media director stack, just get it running, and then we can optimize later.

-Thom

[colinjones]

Yes, nice BASIC interpretter with inline assembler! I confess my first CPU was the 6502 as well, far better than those damn 6809 and their awful fans Again, yes, was a real shame that the 3DO platform went nowhere, it could have been mega-big and dominated the market before mega console market really got a grip.... still have mine in a box somewhere, tho last I looked the CD ROM drive had died

A nice thing about the old ARM's (dunno if its still the case) was that the entire unit, registers and cache was static gate logic with no dynamic stuff needing refresh, so you could literally slow the clock to any speed you liked, even dead stop and it retain integrity, and of course at dead stop CMOS logic consumes no power at all!