I just bought this ridiculously inexpensive computer from Best Buy primarily to have something to connect to the main TV for occasional web surfing.
As it turns out, it's useful for playing DVD-A backups...it has an HDMI output that can be configured for 7.1 audio and Foobar2000 works well with it. I've been able to use the Foobar2000 DVD-A plugin to convert multichannel DVD-A (48kHz and 96kHz) to FLAC, which is then converted to multichannel PCM and sent out via HDMI.
It has no optical drive of its own, so you'll need another computer to do the file conversion, but I'm pretty darned amazed at what you get for the money.
The big catch, at least in my setup (computer to Onkyo TX-NR906 to cheap Vizio 47" LCD) is that the TV *must* be on. I assume it's some weird HDMI thing, but if the music's playing and I turn the TV off, the music stops. I have to not only turn the TV back on, but have to restart Foobar2000 before it works again.
Anyway, I'm not trying to encourage copyright infringement here, I just have come to prefer having my music on a server for easy and continuous access. I've had a Squeezebox for almost two years and think it's the greatest thing ever, with the catch that it can't deal with high-rez surround. I don't see this super-cheap computer replacing the Squeezebox, but at least now I can put all my DVD-As in one place.
As it turns out, it's useful for playing DVD-A backups...it has an HDMI output that can be configured for 7.1 audio and Foobar2000 works well with it. I've been able to use the Foobar2000 DVD-A plugin to convert multichannel DVD-A (48kHz and 96kHz) to FLAC, which is then converted to multichannel PCM and sent out via HDMI.
It has no optical drive of its own, so you'll need another computer to do the file conversion, but I'm pretty darned amazed at what you get for the money.
The big catch, at least in my setup (computer to Onkyo TX-NR906 to cheap Vizio 47" LCD) is that the TV *must* be on. I assume it's some weird HDMI thing, but if the music's playing and I turn the TV off, the music stops. I have to not only turn the TV back on, but have to restart Foobar2000 before it works again.
Anyway, I'm not trying to encourage copyright infringement here, I just have come to prefer having my music on a server for easy and continuous access. I've had a Squeezebox for almost two years and think it's the greatest thing ever, with the catch that it can't deal with high-rez surround. I don't see this super-cheap computer replacing the Squeezebox, but at least now I can put all my DVD-As in one place.
