So, I’ve talked to AV folks… my network of over 100 people, techies, hippies, yuppies and no one (and I mean no one) could tell me how to hook my computer to the web. I have a fairly low-tech solution at the moment. After 4 trips to Best Buy (those guys are high) and a bunch of Internet research… I have my Macbook attached my TV with mini-DVI –> DVI –> HDMI hooked into my TV. The lesson I learned is that you lose sound if you aren’t connect HDMI to HDMI. So now we’ve got external speakers, a laptop on the floor and cords everywhere. Plus, I can’t use my laptop and if the sound is too loud or too soft, one of us has to climb off the bed to the floor. And, ABC does this lovely thing where commercials resize the window out of full screen mode. You can see my deliema.

Onward. Enter the Zotac MAG. It’s small, sexy, and does everything I want it to and more. Wow, I think I’m in love. The Zotac MAG (Mini All-in-One Giant) is essentially a computer, an HTPC (home theater personal computer) to be exact. It has a 160 GB hard drive, 2 GB of DDR ram, a sweet video card, integrated sound, a wireless card, 6 USB inputs and a magical HDMI input. It’s built to connect to your TV. And hey… you want blue ray? Get an external USB drive and attach it. There’s no CD drive, and there’s no operating system in the Zotac MAG. So, you can pick your operating system… FUN!

And, the best part? You can hook an infared wireless remote to your system, which is especially cheap if you’re using Windows Vista or 7. The remote control has a point and click mouse, the ability to drag and drop, plus programable buttons. Yah! Now, just picture yourself sitting in front of the TV moving from your favorite Southpark clip on YouTube one second to Hulu the next, to your latest video download in the evening. All this from the comfort of your couch. Did I mention it’s only $300?

Oh, and did I tell you that you can mount the Zotac MAG to the back of your TV. That’s right… no box below your TV cramping your style. You my friend are on the cutting edge. You don’t need a DVD or blue ray player or bulky cable box or even a DVR. This thing replaces everything and in full HD quality. Unbelivable.

Let’s look at what else in on the market:
Apple TV – It’s a closed system. If you just want watch movies  iTunes and look at photos, this is for you.
Roku – It’s $100 and let’s you tap into the Netflix system online. Apparently, there are 17,000 things for you to watch on there, albeit I couldn’t find much of anything that wasn’t ancient to watch.
Blue ray players with Netflix, Pandora, YouTube & Blockbuster built in – LAME! You can’t really surf YouTube and it seems like a lot of the videos are missing or impossible to find. The idea behind these systems is good and the ones with wifi built-in have firmware updates… so they’ll get better with time. It’s kind of like a glorified Roku box and you can’t go anywhere you want on the Internet like Hulu, ABC, Fox and illegal video sites.
Custom HTPC setups – This is actually probably the best way to go if you’re tech savvy, have time on your hands and want to spend a little more. If you build your own home theater computer, you can put whatever components you want in it. Personally, I’d rather opt for the Zotac MAG since I can’t even build a custom HTPC for cheaper than what I bought it for, piecing out the components separately. Plus there are 6 usb outputs for other external devices.
Google TV - Looks like it’s setup to integrate with your regular television programming, not to replace it with a cheaper, more technologically advanced alternative

Do you know what I was told when I asked an audio visual professional how much a system like this would cost? He said, “There really isn’t anything on the market for less than $5,000 if you want to be able to connect to the Internet without your laptop and use a remote.”

WRONG

Now that I’ve thoroughly talked this thing way up, I should probably admit that I haven’t received it, set it up, or configured my system. I’m getting it tomorrow, so I will give you a quick write up with pictures and all to show how I do/did it!

UPDATE: I did it and it works! Read How to Install Windows 7 on Nettop (Zotac MAG) with USB Key