Internet on the TV box

[Beaulieu]

Does anyone know how these little machines work? I'm talking about the set-up boxs like MSN TV and SURF TV S1000 (ebay). My friend is planning on designing a new style and I wanted to help him out a bit, so I decided to get some knowledge on the machine first.

Does anyone know where to find some more information on the internals or maybe even some schematics?

 

[3v0]

The first question is why bother ?

I do not know about SURF but the MSN is for the most part closed systems. At least it was a few years ago.

Just get a computer.

 

[Oznog]

It's just a cut-down PC. I'm pretty sure it's running Windows or Linux with a TV-out. They work hard to hide the operating system, booting straight into the browser/email apps.

Early on they tried to sell a scheme where the machines were sold dirt cheap and you were supposed to subscribe to their high profit internet service. However, people soon figured out how to hack the box, run Linux, and use it for whatever you wanted. When that happened, the company stood to see huge losses as peope bought their discounted boxes with no intention of buying their internet service. They tanked soon afterwards IIRC.

 

[philba]

get a mini-ITX motherboard and run linux on it. easy enough to do. the EPIA mobos are particularly cost effective as they include the processor.