Repurposed HD200?

[btrcp2000]

Okay, so about once a year or so the big boss comes out and drops hints as to what is physically possible with the hardware.

I am a financial planner, not an electrical engineer, but how hard would it be to take the guts out of an hd200 which supposedly runs on 7 watts http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...ighlight=watts and kludge them into something that would look like a laptop but fire up like a media mvp? Couldn't you plunk all of this into a portable dvd player with a big fat battery?

As dimwitted as I am with electronics, even I had my wireless media mvp running sage off of a playstation battery for about 2 hours at its peak. I abandoned the idea though whern it was clear that hd stuff wouldn't function.

To those who say "just use a laptop around the house", I say "to hell with video cards and codecs". If I never have that fight again it will be too soon.

* off topic where posted; split to its own topic *

[Fuzzy]

[Brent]

I have to ask. Why?

[voidpt]

Originally Posted by Brent

I have to ask. Why?

My guess: HD200 + Supported Wireless Dongle + LCD Screen + Speakers + Battery = Portable HD200 Media Player (running around house)

Wouldn't mind it myself (agree with the codec argument). Using a small Fujitsu tablet thingy with WinXP & SageTV Client for this purpose now (only good for SD & 720p material, 802.11g, CPU power).

All is possible, but you would need to be the Ben Heck type to get it together. I see one problem that needs solving in this senario. Who gives commands to the interface? The HD200 only takes IR commands (or telnet possibly). A touch screen would be perfect if presses could be translated to the HD200 interface.

[btrcp2000]

For use on the porch, patio, driveway, etc., or wherever we gather with the neighbors. I would rather not use a laptop as a portable client for all the same reasons I don't want a pc-based living room client instead of an extender. My thought is that this would be an instant-on solution, or at least much quicker than booting a laptop and starting sage client, and without the inevitable video driver/codec issues.

I originally thought of this when I apparently had the only functioning sagetv wireless mvp in existence. I also had an old playstation one with a battery and an attached 5" lcd screen. I kludged it all together and actually at one point had the battery running the screen and the wmvp watching an sd movie through sage, and it lasted about an hour and a half. Shortly thereafter we started recording everything in HD via r5000 and hdpvr, and I never bothered to try it again on the assumption that 802.11b would never carry 1080i stuff.

So my thought here is that if the hd200 (which I don't currently own) can connect off of (as well as power)an 802.11n usb dongle as narflex implied, and it only requires 7 watts, this should be technically possible, shouldn't it?

My ultimate vision of this is something that could not only be portable, but also be connected to a regular tv as well, since it wouldn't be used that often outside.

EDIT: You only need to be Ben Heck if you don't want it ugly! I actually posted this concept over there, but never heard anything. I simply planned on using the same remote, why wouldn't that work? Touchscreen would be cool but WAY beyond my abilities.

[Taddeusz]

Not to say that your vision of a portable HD200 is out of reach. But if your server has sufficient processing power you shouldn't have any problems watching HD recordings on your MVP. The MVP can only play SD MPEG2. What will happen is that the HD recordings will be transcoded to be playable on the MVP. I think your server is up to the task as long as it's not doing anything else.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

Not to say that your vision of a portable HD200 is out of reach. But if your server has sufficient processing power you shouldn't have any problems watching HD recordings on your MVP.

I still use my old MVP (wired) in the shop/lab and can watch pretty much anything on it without problems. Of course it makes my quad-core server work pretty hard but it does work.

I bet if you have the funds to send a MVP or HD200 to Ben Heck, he'd whip up a cool mod. Might be a nice idea for Narflex to do for some good SageTV PR

[btrcp2000]

Theoretically yes, but a couple things I didn't mention are that my wmvp is not on speaking terms with my new dlink N router. When it worked, it was talking to a linksys 54g tomato router, but I needed faster wireless for other non-sage reasons. Plus mvps can only do WEP, which I don't like.

Also, I have four mvps, all wired. Two of them do not like certain r5000 or HDPVR files, and the other two never have a hiccup. Never have figured out what the issue is, other than determining that it is the mvps themselves, having tried them on different cables, switches, etc.

Could be easy fixes to these things, I just have never bothered, as I am going to be redoing everything from the ground up soon to go WHS and quad core.

[Fuzzy]

honesty, it sounds like you need a laptop... everything you are wanting, codec issues are a non-issue these days (even the built-in sage decoder works well with pretty much anything), and it isn't a single-task item, like the HD200kenstein would be...

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

HD200kenstein would be...

Nice naming scheme Some crazy one has to do this now...

[btrcp2000]

I have a netbook laptop that I love as a laptop, but hate as a sage client for all these reasons. Last time I tried it, it choked on HDPVR files throwing up x800200017 errors. Granted, it doesn't have the horsepower to do this (Atom 1.3ghz, gma500), which I knew it wouldn't going in but I bought it anyway because it has absolutely everything I need in a laptop. if I go out and buy another laptop solely to do sage, that to me is the same thing as a "Single purpose" item as you say, and it solves none of the issues I raised here.

I agree that it would be a waste if it were only occasionally used, that is why I said my ultimate vision would be to have it as something that can still be connected to a regular tv, where it would be most of the time.

The more I think about it, the more I think it wouldn't be that hard, just a matter of getting a battery big enough to run everything and stuffing it all into a radio shack project box.

[lovingHDTV]

The battery part would be doable. What are you going to use for a screen? Carry a LCD TV outside with you and a power cord? Or is this for inside only where you have a TV?

You mention a portable DVD player, but all the portable DVD players I've seen don't accept video input.

[planetc]

Surely once you have purchased the hardware to do this you will have spent enough to have bought a laptop? A laptop is likely to be a prettier solution with better portability and is certainly not going to be any more single purpose than a klodge job. Or am I missing something?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

I have a netbook laptop that I love as a laptop, but hate as a sage client for all these reasons. Last time I tried it, it choked on HDPVR files throwing up x800200017 errors. Granted, it doesn't have the horsepower to do this (Atom 1.3ghz, gma500), which I knew it wouldn't going in but I bought it anyway because it has absolutely everything I need in a laptop. if I go out and buy another laptop solely to do sage, that to me is the same thing as a "Single purpose" item as you say, and it solves none of the issues I raised here.

I agree that it would be a waste if it were only occasionally used, that is why I said my ultimate vision would be to have it as something that can still be connected to a regular tv, where it would be most of the time.

The more I think about it, the more I think it wouldn't be that hard, just a matter of getting a battery big enough to run everything and stuffing it all into a radio shack project box.

I would recommend just spending the money to up the horsepower in your server, and use placeshifter on the netbook.

[btrcp2000]

It won't do placeshifter either, something todo w/ 3d, overlay, etc. PS just crashes.

Hardware costs I don't think will be much honestly. When I started this with the wmvp, I found the psone lcd screens on clearance at KMart for $13, broken psone for the housing on ebay for $7, and the battery at a used game place for $20

I don't count the cost of the hd200 (unless of course I destroy it) or the dongle since I'll get one sooner or later anyway, and if I do it right it will still serve its main purpose attached to a real tv most of the time. Best case scenario I can find a broken portable dvd player with a working screen and battery,and composite in.

Part of the fun is just seeing if I can do it cheaply. If I go over $75, it won't be worth it.

[wrems]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

Part of the fun is just seeing if I can do it cheaply. If I go over $75, it won't be worth it.

Dismantling an HD200; $200.
Cobbling together parts to reinvent a laptop; more than $75.
The look on your wife’s face when she has to carry a 15 pound HD200kenstein; priceless.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

It won't do placeshifter either, something todo w/ 3d, overlay, etc. PS just crashes.

Sounds like a driver/java issue.. I've been able to run Placeshifter with no problem in my truck, with an Atom330, and crap Intel 950 graphics (probably very similar to your netbook).