You may see this sort of device in the future. Unfortunately, to qualify for the $40.00 coupon program, the converter boxen had to conform to a very specific set of capabilities.

Some features were forbidden, including HDMI and RGB output.

Once the mess with the coupons goes away, expect to see converter prices drop to reasonable levels, AND expect that the manufacturers will again compete based on features.

For now, you could take an old PC and run MYTH-TV to get network media browsing and even streaming video from sites like youtube or hulu. You could put a DTV receiver card it it and effectively build your own converter box.

http://www.mythtv.org/
this package runs on any of several linux distros. there are also live CD versions and installable full versions like "Mythbuntu" or "Mythdora"

http://www.geexbox.org/en/index.html
this is a live CD (less than 20 megs!)

http://xbmc.org/
could run on an old XBox. some sort of soft hack is required. You'd have to use a USB tuner card.

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