MediaREADY kicks out budget-friendly MC HTPC
By Darren Murph 
posted Dec 6th 2006 5:43PM
posted Dec 6th 2006 5:43PM
While not quite available to hit one of Engadget's Gift Guides, MediaREADY is deviating from the MP3 / PMP market to unveil a svelte new box that boasts very respectable innards and a very tempting pricetag. Simply dubbed the MC, this media center PC sports a typical, AV-like enclosure made to sit pretty beside your receiver, DVR, and theater-guarding Robosapian, and packs a decent listing of specs. Touting its own "television-optimized interface," the machine apparently provides all the comforts of Windows MCE, including TV recording, CD / DVD playback, digital slideshows, jukebox functionality, and the bevy of other multimedia-related tasks HTPCs are known to handle. Beneath the hood lies a mysterious 2.8GHz Intel processor, anonymous TV tuner / hardware video decoder, 512MB of RAM, 200GB hard drive, DVD burner, Ethernet, built-in 802.11b/g, wireless keyboard / trackball combo, and an IR remote. On the flip side, you'll find USB connectors, inputs for composite and S-Video, outputs for VGA, DVI, component, and S-Video, and audio ports for the usual stereo and optical / coaxial digital goodness. The sweetest bit about this well-rounded machine isn't the average assortment of components nor the overly simplistic name, but rather its $899 pricetag, which will look mighty appealing next to the much more expensive competitors when it lands in January.
kinda expensive but nice lil machine for ppl with the money.
This company has a (deserved) reputation for not only having crappy hardware and non-conformant motherboards, but they are downright hostile to the open-source community. They hype up a product and sell it with the promise of ongoing support then leave their users high and dry. Look at the product they had out 2 years ago - the MediaREADY 1000. They promised software upgrades but never gave them. When you tried to load a standard linux distro onto it, there were hardware failures and crashes all over the place. Shoddy products. Shady company.