OK and once again i'm lost floating around my little technophobic world

No. It's basically a media player with streaming capabilities and limited internet access to Facebook, Picassa, Youtube etc.

For what you want go for a HTPC. You can get a basic one on eBay for about $400.

Thanks Amazulu.

I'll keep researching, the goal is something that is easy to use. Something you can switch ony, pick up the remote and play Hulu and Netflix without fannying around starting programs, VPN's etc... Something a total moron would be able to use.

Or wait till the Raspberry Pi is available and run your xbmc software from that.

I agree and was posting about this earlier but I think we may be waiting a while before they are available.

They have a mailing list of 2-400,000 customers who want to buy, now - I'd expect them to have turned round to their manufacturers in China and said "do you give a discount for quantity?"

There will be a wait, but I wouldn't expect it to be too bad, compared to waiting for other gadgets.

I've spent all day mulling over it and now iinet has just doubled my download quota I think I'll just keep kicking it old school, for now.

That is downloading bittorrents (behind a VPN) and streaming to my trusty Netgear 9150 media player plugged into my plasma.

Should be getting a new MacBook pro anyday now which I can just plug into the plasma too.

Looks like volume manufacture is kicking off. RS say they will have 75,000 coming in over May/June - which should cover the first day's EoI. Not long before you'll just be able to buy one straight off.

xbmc is running at alpha already

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1197

OK, just ordered a US version of the WD TV Live off Amazon, the cost is $100 - shipped! bargain...

Reason I got the US version? The WD TV Live apparently has hard wired chips which determine which features are available in each country.

I wanted Hulu Plus, Spotify and Netflix which are not available on the Aussie one. (I expect Spotify will eventually be available)

I'll need an Unblock-us account at $5 a month, premium Spotify a/c, Hulu plus a/c Netflix a/c. All in all about $30 a month (USD).

Bye bye Foxtel!

I know what netflix is, and I'm incredibly impressed with Spotify..... I even had a browse around Hulu via my VPN.... So what does Hulu Plus give you ?

Free Hulu gives you the last 2 or 3 episodes of popular TV shows whereas plus gives you the whole season plus other stuff that is Hulu plus only content.

Getting a Hulu plus subscription looks like a fairly convoluted process, doable though.

That's a great price - mine was $115 from Officeworks. I'll be interested to know how you get on with this - keep us posted.

I've recently upgraded my network with a Netgear N900 WNDR4500 wireless router ($210 pricematch at OW). It's fantastic. Very fast wireless speed, no drop-outs, easy USB device hook-up (unlike my previous Asus), DLNA etc. I've got a 3Gb WD external hard-drive plugged into it to use as a media-server, and it works very well.

Spotify is AWESOME. I've signed up for premium and can now access it via our Squeezebox internet radio and my mobile - with more devices to come.

Great stuff.

I've just signed up to premium too and have got it working on my old Nokia 6120c. Incredible.

Very similar to my set up. I've got a secondary 5Mhz wireless network running just for video streaming. Works well. I can stream 720p to my media player easily. Haven't tried 1080 yet though.