Internet video - hulu, abc.com, etc.

[lifeislife]

I have a tricky problem with multiple solutions and I wanted to get some opinion on which option may be better than others.

I have a Sony Bravia LCD TV wall mounted with a harman kardon AVR 235 AV receiver and direcTV HR21-100 HD receiver and harman kardon DVD player.

The A/V equipment is set up in a rack in the corner of the room and the receiver output is via component video over cat5 cable. The HR21 and the DVD player connect via component video and the receiver has only 2 component video inputs (and no HDMI inputs).

I would like to see hulu, abc.com and perhaps cwtv.com and cbs.com videos on my TV rather than my windows xp laptop or my iMac desktop (with Vista Ultimate on boot camp).

I thought of:

1. Bravia Internet Video Link
2. Apple TV (with Boxee hack)
3. Mac Mini

#1 is aesthetically the best, but I am not sure how to send the audio output through my receiver. Also, it does not have all the internet video providers (esp not hulu.com) and I have not seen too many hacks available to enable that.

#2 is fine except that I would need to somehow get three component video inputs and put them into the 2 allowed on my receiver. Is there a concept of component video "hub" that works well?

#3 seems to be the most ideal choice, but it has only DVI output and as I understand from looking on the internet, going from DVI to component video is extremely hard, if not impossible.

Also, putting #2 or #3 next to the tv is possible but there is a question of aesthetics as well as audio going to the receiver.

Anyone with any ideas to resolve my situation?

[lifeislife]

Wow, and here I was thinking as I wrote the original question, that I would get so many responses that I'd be confused at the end :-)

[Stuart Sweet]

Hi, I just saw this post and you might want to try a piece of software called PlayOn from themediamall.com which transcodes hulu, CBS, and several other sources for use on DLNA-compliant clients, of which for example, you could use a Playstation3 or DIRECTV DVR. I think it might help you if you're going to use one of those devices anyway.

[Cholly]

Easy solution for the component video inputs: a Philips A/V Switcher available at Wal-Mart for around $25. It will automatically switch your component inputs together with associated audio. Works very nicely.

[lifeislife]

Update: I brought over the guy who did my wiring to see what may be my best option with a mac mini.

There is a cat5 cable being pulled for data (home network/internet), along with the cat5 cable used for component video balun. He proposed to re-purpose the cat5 data cable for a VGA balun and use wireless gaming adapter or such, for hooking the directv receiver to the home network.

My concern is that the VGA balun apparently can go only up to 1280x1024, or 1600x1200 (I saw the former online, the latter was in his email as a clarification). Is that good enough for non-blu ray HD content like hulu HD, CBS HD, etc.?

Anyone used such a balun? Are there any out there with higher res?

The other option is to send the video through HDMI over wireless, but I don't know how much that would cost.

There is also an HDMI over powerline but apparently it does not do interlaced content which sort of eliminates the product from consideration.

[jadebox]

I've been looking at the zvBox:

http://www.zeevee.com/

It takes whatever is displayed on your computer's screen and transmits it over a cable as an HDTV signal to your TV.

It's expensive, though. $500.

-- Roger

[lifeislife]

I've been looking at the zvBox:

http://www.zeevee.com/

It takes whatever is displayed on your computer's screen and transmits it over a cable as an HDTV signal to your TV.

It's expensive, though. $500.

-- Roger

Yes, I saw that on amazon when it was in pre-release but sort of gave up on it when I realized I need to route it through the home cabling. I am not sure where the "source" is for the home cabling.

Also, of course, it is expensive. :-(