I love my Xbox 360s for home theater use, but there are a couple of weaknesses. One, they have a very small set of codecs for playing back video files. That can be solved by products like TVersity and PlayOn that transcode on PC and feed them video they like, but it requires a pretty hefty CPU on the PC. Two, they can't browse the web to grab torrents or YouTube video, or watch Hulu or Fancast directly. Again, PlayOn hooks you up to Hulu, but the interface is limited.
I was looking at upgrading my desktop so it could transcode the latest h.264 high def files, but the price is prohibitive because it will require buying a new copy of Windows. That made me look for another solution, maybe a new Linux box dedicated to transcoding, but such a beast isn't available at this time. What I stumbled on was the Dell Inspiron Zino HD:
It's a tiny home theater PC with HDMI 5.1 output, a DVD drive, and (with a factory CPU upgrade) enough muscle to handle h.264 and high def Flash. It comes with Win 7 Home Premium and costs just $324. I could add Blu-ray for another $100, but I really don't think I'll every buy a Blu-ray disc. I'll drop it into my TV room setup where the DVD player is now, and put it on the network cable currently running to my Xbox 360. I found software to help me control it from my Harmony 880 remote, and I can always VNC into it from my netbook when I need a keyboard. So ...
Dude, I'm getting a Dell!
I was looking at upgrading my desktop so it could transcode the latest h.264 high def files, but the price is prohibitive because it will require buying a new copy of Windows. That made me look for another solution, maybe a new Linux box dedicated to transcoding, but such a beast isn't available at this time. What I stumbled on was the Dell Inspiron Zino HD:

It's a tiny home theater PC with HDMI 5.1 output, a DVD drive, and (with a factory CPU upgrade) enough muscle to handle h.264 and high def Flash. It comes with Win 7 Home Premium and costs just $324. I could add Blu-ray for another $100, but I really don't think I'll every buy a Blu-ray disc. I'll drop it into my TV room setup where the DVD player is now, and put it on the network cable currently running to my Xbox 360. I found software to help me control it from my Harmony 880 remote, and I can always VNC into it from my netbook when I need a keyboard. So ...
Dude, I'm getting a Dell!