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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Linux is Lovely

I finally bought a computer to run my TV. It's a Zotac Zbox and I bought it from Amazon. I was looking at these earlier, mostly because they use a processor and and a graphics controller that are supposed to work with MythTV. I stewed about it for a while, mostly because I couldn't get a clear picture of just what was in a Zbox. It seems Zotac isn't interested in clarity. Apparently, they are trying to sell consumer electronics, which means saying lots of stuff like "new, improved, shiny", and not anything technical or specific. What clinched it was that Amazon had reduced the price by a third (33%). Last week it was $500, this week it is less than $400.

I have not used it to watch any TV yet. It got here yesterday, and I got Linux installed on it without too much trouble, but the wireless networking bit doesn't seem to want to work. I could hook up wires, but all the wireless pieces are there, so it should work. I'll fool with it for a bit and see how it goes.

There's also a problem with what is supposed to be on the screen. There should be a menu bar of sorts across the top of the screen, and a status bar across the bottom, but they are barely there. I suspect the screen size is not getting communicated properly.

So I have Linux on my TV, but no TV over the internet yet.

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