News - Zotac ZBox Blu-ray AD03 takes AMD Fusion into the living room

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Compact mini PC touts high-def visuals through "perfect CPU and GPU synergy".

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that is a really nice bit of kit but it its going to be £400+ there is no point.

I really like the look of that, I think it would even fit in the gap under my LCD screen, which would be a bonus.

£400 is still ok, as long as that is the top end with drive, memory and OS.

Fails without a TV tuner though, in my mind a proper media PC has at least 1 tuner, preferably 2 or 3 so it can act as a proper PVR. Dangling USB tuners off it is not really a good solution.

The great thing about media PCs is that properly configured can replace all your other boxes into 1, tuners, optical disk players and streamers etc.

Add one of these, and you are good to go!

http://shop.blackgold.tv/epages/BT31...oducts/BGT3595

I would rather add a tuner card than pay for one they decide to integrate to the board.

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Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle

Fails without a TV tuner though, in my mind a proper media PC has at least 1 tuner, preferably 2 or 3 so it can act as a proper PVR. Dangling USB tuners off it is not really a good solution.

The great thing about media PCs is that properly configured can replace all your other boxes into 1, tuners, optical disk players and streamers etc.

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I agree but this is still the closest I have seen to the ideal HTPC. Every depends on noise levels though.

I use a Blu-ray player at moment and I can hear it during the less noisy parts of the film which is not good enough. An HTPC needs to be very very quiet which means that the mounting of the optical drive is critical

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Originally Posted by Jay

that is a really nice bit of kit but it its going to be £400+ there is no point.

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I think possibly you're being a bit mean - it does have a slim-line slot-loading blu-ray drive, and they ain't cheap at the moment.

Do agree with others that some sort of in-built tuner module is needed. (DVB-T2 or S2, pref.)

i would buy the model without the tuner an fit my own if it was an option. Integrating a tuner is just asking for problems down the line. USB 2.0 has enough bandwidth nevermind USB 3.0 so i dont see any downfall. At £400 it seems pretty reasonable as well IMO.