Building your own?

When the time passes for these converter coupons, would we see more kits for building our own converter box?

ATI, a maker of the best video cards out there, should make one of these converter boxes, and let the user put whatever flavor of Linux (Popcorn, etc.) or Windows CE, hard drive, memory to suit your needs. They'd really rock. It would also revive business at local computer building shops, too.

Too bad nothing like this would be shown at the Consumer Electronics show, as this is something kinda trivial, and is comparable to "selling popcorn." That means selling things with very little profit margin, unlike the HDTVs, Blu-Ray DVRs, laptops, cell phones and game systems featured there.

I read your examination of the Zinwell ZAT box, and wondered if you knew of any other rating(s) of other boxes. The only source I've seen is the Feb '09 issue of Consumer Reports. I like the Zinwell's feature of channel changes, but no one seems to carry it around here.