Pegatron showing off miniature Tegra 2-powered home theater PC

If all these tablet and smartbook shenanigans haven't won you over, but you still feel the call of Tegra 2, Pegatron might have your number. We spotted this details-scarce nettop-ish home theater PC lurking around the NVIDIA booth today, just looking to be loved. The thin plastic box is topped by what looks to be bamboo, with HDMI, Ethernet, microphone and speaker plugs around back. We're very much in the dark as to supposed capabilities or software, but Tegra 2 gives us a good hint: the chip can decode 1080p and Flash video, runs Android or Windows CE, and is the same thing under the hood of the Boxee Box. We imagine something like this going for $100 (though no price or release date has been mentioned) or so and acting as a great little home theater PC for the right sort of user if and when it hits the market.

Pegatron showing off miniature Tegra 2-powered home theater PC

[jellotime91 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:16PM]

with any kind of useful amount of storage, that will not be $100.
More like $300.

[midiwall Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:22PM]

@jellotime91: you're missing the point.. it has an ethernet MAC/PHY on board, it's meant for streaming from a NAS... and the NAS could effectively just be a network share on another box in the house. That's not ideal, but it would work.

[Okjeff171 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:27PM]

@jellotime91 They didn't mention USB support but an external would be an excellent choice... But if that's gonna be the case most of us can just use a ps3/xbox 360

[Mightydh Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:59PM]

@midiwall That is exactly what I want. This will make a really good front end to myth-tv and connect to my ubuntu server in the closet to get my Revision3 torrents only. Legal, Revision3 torrents...

[Blackstar Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:15PM]

@jellotime91

I'd guess closer to $200 to compete with Boxee Box's price point.

Whichever one can be hacked to just run XBMC will get my hard earned cash.

[mp3 Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:20PM]

@Okjeff171

According to the first picture, there's 2 USB ports on there.

For 100$, that's very interesting.

[phertiker Posted Mar 25th 2010 9:19AM]

@jellotime91

An Acer Revo R1600 is only $200, why are you so certain this would be pricier than that?

[sparkychan Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:17PM]

Still looking for a good top box to stream video to my television. Any recommendations so far or should I continue waiting?

[The Geek Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:50PM]

@sparkychan you looking for Boxee and stuff or just a good Nettop?

[abedinthehouse Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:04PM]

@sparkychan
Boxee Box?
If you like the Boxee interface, but not the Boxee Box-wait, they will make better ones.
Make your own cheap one running whatever you want?
or
wait it out you poor soul

I personally, am getting the Boxee Box.......bout 90% sure anyway

[jawlz Posted Mar 25th 2010 12:58PM]

@sparkychan I've been using the WDTV Live, and so far it has handled everything I've thrown at it, and it's a piece of cake to watch anything I'm storing on my home server through it.

[Meekermoloko Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:17PM]

That would look great next to my Atari 2600.

[Zac89 Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:50PM]

@Meekermoloko

Agreed, wood grain exudes that classy retro vibe!

[Cy Starkman Posted Mar 25th 2010 2:10AM]

@Zac89

+1 for retro

[damian Posted Mar 25th 2010 10:39AM]

@Meekermoloko thought of the same thing

[Ken J Posted Mar 25th 2010 12:43PM]

@Meekermoloko

It's not exactly retro. Today's industrial designers are looking for any excuse they can find to include natural materials where they previously didn't belong. The purpose I suppose is to communicate some type of eco-minded message. Expect to see a lot more of the likes of this in the near future.

[Coffey Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:21PM]

I would buy this if it had wifi. I know there are usb wifi dongles, but are there Ethernet wifi dongles?

[M3 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:29PM]

@Coffey
It's called a Wireless Access Point.

[scld Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:31PM]

@Coffey yes, a router running dd-wrt

[brett123 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:33PM]

@Coffey Yes, I believe Linksys makes a Wireless-N Gaming Adapter that works with ethernet connectivity.
http://www.google.com/products?sourceid=chrome&q=linksys+gaming+adapter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=V72qS4rlFIOOtAOcs6XFBg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CC4QrQQwAA

[Mightydh Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:56PM]

@Coffey Yes. It is called a bridge. I worked on a medical device that needed wi-fi in some instances. Ethernet was the only device on the product. I bought a ton of the linksys wireless bridges. Then got smart and bought a shitload of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817201523&cm_re=wireless_bridge-_-17-201-523-_-Product

You setup the bridge to talk to the router (this is what people should buy to connect their 360 wirelessly) and BAM! Wi-fi out of ethernet.

[Teslanaut Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:22PM]

Pegatron, TRANSFORM.

[New Reformation Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:50PM]

@Teslanaut

Wait, are the above pictures of Pegatron in a transformed or untransformed state?

[Special Agent Steve Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:24PM]

Tegra 2.... yes. I hope it runs Android.

[M3 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:31PM]

@Special Agent Steve

Or Linux? XBMC would work well on a device like this. Don't know of any good Android based Media Center Applications.

[University of Pi Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:52PM]

@M3 that's probably because only phones {and microwaves} run android (at least on the market currently)

[HawtDawg Posted Mar 25th 2010 2:35AM]

@Special Agent Steve

An Android HTPC.. lol

[Waltah Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:30PM]

It's all wood...it's all good.

[Vakarian Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:32PM]

Interesting device. But it sure is ugly

[HawtDawg Posted Mar 25th 2010 2:36AM]

@Vakarian

You're ugly! Wood grain is in.

[RDM Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:33PM]

Apple TV - RIP: 2007/2010

[RDM Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:35PM]

@(Unverified)

Correction: Apple TV - RIP: 2007/2007

[yulebellow Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:35PM]

it's PEGATRON!

[iFAP Posted Mar 25th 2010 1:12AM]

@yulebellow

Pagasus+Megatron=Pegatron!

[Mightydh Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:52PM]

What...$100?

I'll take 3. Hell, I'll Velcro these to the back of the tv if necessary.

[derspiess Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:12PM]

Wonder where they're getting $100? I would be surprised if it retails for that when it comes out. I can imagine it dropping to $100 after a few months, but I'd guess $149-$199.

[DoctarPeppar Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:12PM]

Yet another Tegra product that will probably turn out to be vaporware.

[Heratiki Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:14PM]

So tire of hearing about Nvidia Tegra products. You want to sell me on the platform then let me f****** buy one. Don't just keep talking about amazing machines that no one will ever see. Sigh...

[htd Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:34PM]

it's not a PC and it wont be cheap

[dannyry Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:43PM]

are these supposed to have built in tv tuners?

[mp3 Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:21PM]

@dannyry

This one doesn't.

[blueskyv201 Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:43PM]

If this ever comes out, I'll be all over it. I was just thinking of re-purposing an old desktop as a HTPC. I would first need to buy a decent low-end video card that supports flash 10.1 GPU acceleration . . . yawn.
Point I'm trying to make is, I'd much rather buy this beauty.

[ckrames1234 Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:58PM]

I don't know what they were thinking!

If I had a choice to make the HTPC either fake wood paneling or sleek black, i sure as hell would pick the black.

[Patlex Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:01PM]

Maybe it just me, but at that size w/ with some cheap flash drive(maybe an 80gb ssd w/ an sd card or two) would love to put one in my car and hook it up to the cars stereo and nav system.

[mikedep333 Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:11PM]

For those of you too impatient to wait, there is the $200 Acer AR1600 with an atom and the (1080P) nvidia ion. I'm sure it can do boxee fine, on windows or on linux.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103228

[gadgetfanboy Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:16PM]

Looks like my answering machine from 1986. Awesome! (or an Atari 2600)

[pr1te Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:46PM]

@gadgetfanboy Yeah, exactly. I mean, to each his own, but jezis, that just looks awful.

[groale Posted Mar 25th 2010 12:36AM]

$100....nice Jedi mind trick...

[Massive Poop Posted Mar 25th 2010 2:09AM]

IT'S EFFIN WOOD

That's sexy enough to sell itself

[LEDfoot Posted Mar 26th 2010 10:22AM]

@Massive Poop Technically, it's bamboo which is a type of grass, not wood.