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Linux-based Media Center PC
Linux-based Media Center PC
Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications.
"Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Further blurring the line between set-top DVR boxes and Media Center PCs, the new MediaReady 5000 looks like a large DVD player, but it actually houses a Linux-based computer designed for DVR recording, media playback, Web surfing and e-mail.
A collaboration between hardware maker Video Without Boundaries and popular DVR software company SageTV, the MediaReady 5000 is being officially announced today. Besides standard features such as an electronic program guide for tracking and recording TV programs and media management tools for photos, music, and other media files, it promises access to content on other PCs in your home network and a future broadband content delivery system for movies on demand.
Under the hood, the box is powered by a VIA 1GHz CPU with 128MB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive, using Linux-based SageTV Media Center software. Adding this hybrid to your home theater will set you back $699.