O n e   c r a z y   m u l t i   t a l e n t

Tired of 5250 channels with nuttin' on? Tired of interrupting commercials? Tired of "tuning your life" to TV schedules? I was, so I invented/built the ultimate TV-Crap killer. A total rage against commercials and unwanted TV channels! A all-in-one media briefcase for Movies, TV-Shows, Music, Music Videos, Pictures, archives, and your own home movies. This is now the future of viewing and listening experiences, all ON DEMAND when YOU want it and tuned to YOUR life....


(Statement & early concept artwork introduced in November 2005, the intial start of the SOMBC project)

Now, let me introduce you to my thoughts and the kick ass invention!

It's really a supercool videoplayer/recorder, dvdplayer/recorder, radio, TV & Internet Media in one unique box.

I'm really tired of countless and pointless hours in front of the good 'ol television and its 5250 channels with nuttin' on. You do know what I'm talking about. The incredible amount of TV Channels via satellite that are constantly pumping out irritating commercial breaks, uninterresting programs, TV-ShopShit and the everlasting low budget sitcoms with a few handful of audience samples playing whenever they feel like it. TV has lost it's soul, clearly.

But you just keep surfing...away from the channels you hate. This only digs you in even deeper after the search of good TV entertainment. You just know.

Well, you will of course find your precious favourite show airing RIGHT when the phone rings, some neighbours drop by, or you have to go to bed and those other normal human lifelike features that we are performing each day. Just admit it, you lost control of your own life. You are controlled by the scheduled TV programming and they know it....that's why the almost good but still irritating commercials are aired in primetime....your PRIMETIME for gods sake!

I do really love movies & tv-shows and TV in general, but it's the amount of crap you have to watch before getting to the gems of genunie television programming that has directed me to this action.

To tease your now possible openminded brainwaves, watch this video to see what I'm talking about. You will recognize the shit I'm referring too. Our souls are in jepoardy!

Michael Bodge's videoremix of Adam Freeland's "We want your soul" track

Well, seen the above movie? Looks familiar? You bet it does.

So, what could I do? (I can't help the whole world sorry.). Well I started using a laptop with my favourite TV-Shows divx'edded into neat little .avi files. Made a quick program that searched for movies on the hard drive and the possibility to select a movie from the list with 5 different media player software. It was called StoneTV, and was the beginning of a new era. I could actually copy whole TV-Series on the laptop, movies and everything else one might find on the USENET to create my own personal TV entertainment night with just what I wanted, when I needed, and when I had the time to watch the things I loved.

I thought about just packing up a standard PC/bare bone in my living room, but this was just too lame. Something unique and dedicated had to be constructed. So the idea developed, I also had to include a TFT screen, a videograbber, bluetooth, lots of USB+ports of all kinds, a memory card reader, firewire, DVD burner, lots of HD space, remote control possibility and wireless lan and keyboard/mouse in the same unit. WOW!

Then came the idea of making this unit carriable, so that I could bring it around to my friends and parties and introduce a new way of doing vorspiels/nachspiels....high quality vorspiels/nachspiels can't be a success without good music, large library of MP3's and possible the connection to internet and listen to perfect party radio channels and even music video's. Your own personal MTV, but far more powerful and entertaining for us all.

The briefcase also supports videograbbing by either using Composite, S-VHS or FireWire signal with burning directly to DVD Dual or wmv/mpeg/common avi files easily. Perfect for those old VHS-C material I had from my youth :)

Also, if you browse my website you will see that I have created a lot of creative media and music material that was always demanded when the rumors went around the village. Now, I could include everything I ever made into one box and have it with me all over the world for that sake.

The concept was totally clear during November 2005, and on the 17th of January the media briefcase hit the power on with great success. Although there were some fine tuning needed here and there, I managed to squeeze all the above mentions hardware (see on picture to the left) into one fine looking and slim laptop briefcase.

You will not believe how difficult it was to construct this box, and I noticed that every part really just fitted in one way and that way only. A incredible jigsaw puzzle and countless hours of thinking and planning.



Luckily with some brief 3D modelling this was of course a lot easier, but anyway it can't give you all the little details of how cables would be laid out for example...they too needed to be in there someplace.

The 3D model does not reflect the finished BriefCase all that too detailed, it was used as a 50% guide to where to place the main and big parts.

It was modelled and rendered in Lightwave 8.5. UV Textures either scanned or made in Photoshop.

During the first days of testing SOMBC, there were some concern about the CPU, Motherboard and the Harddrive temperatures. The inital worst case temperatures (during playing media) without and backcover fans where: 80ºC (CPU), 44ºC (Motherboard) and 42ºC (Harddrive).

Amazing enough, Windows did not reset or became unstable. I did not notice any severe problems running at these temps, but I knew I had to do something. A couple of different fan configurations was tested. Testing showed that having two 8x8cm fans running at 12V would not yield any nice results, messed up due to intefering air flows.

The final solution came to having a just one super silent 12x12cm fan running at 12V all the time.
After this was mounted the temperatures dropped to a whopping 54ºC (CPU), 22ºC (Motherboard) and 38ºC (Harddrive) after 1 hour of constant media playing. In idle mode, the temperatures are steady going at 45ºC (CPU), 24ºC (Motherboard) and 38ºC (Harddrive). The ambient temperature in the room tested was about 24-27ºC.

The intial design was not to have any exterior fans as this would clumpify the briefcase. But, naturally I would go for a fan solution than unstable and overheated components!

Good question, and some even better answers. A laptop cannot provide the solutions I needed to realize this project.


Key points are:

01 - HD Space: A 400GB 3.5" 7200RPM IDE drive cost about 12% of what 4 x 120GB 2.5" 7200RPM
       IDE would cost. And not to mention the space needed to host 4 x 2.5" IDE's in SOMBC..ridiculous.
       A laptop can not provide such HD space, yes you could have external HD USB cabinets...
       but really..not very smart.

02 - Video Grabbing: Laptops do not feature a Video Grabber and the possibility to create DVD, DIVX
       instantly. Yes, you could use a extern video grabber, but it all gets very clumpy and stupid and
       are no fluid and integreated solution as SOMBC provides. The PCMCIA version for laptop are also
       not nice to watch sticking out of the side. It should be integrated, which probably 99% are not.

03 - Placing: SOMBC was meant to hang on the wall, and when it's not in use it will serve as a digital
       wallpainting concept, showing your selected photographs in a slow fading slideshow. A laptop
       would not be very nice to hang on a wall, with keyboards and external power supply to be
       visible. You could use one of those FLIP AROUND LCD type laptop, but again...wrong.

04 - Specifications: Based on the hardware specifications SOMBC vs LAPTOP, SOMBC will yield more
       of what you need when dealing with media entertainment for the same price or even lower in
       other comparsions.

05 - Convenience: SOMBC was put in a briefcase due to the fact it would be possible to transport it to
       a nearby party or meeting for instant "AWWWW, COOL!" experience through the audience.
       A laptop would not yield such a feedback, as they are very common and do not impress people
       anymore as it is. It's just useful. SOMBC is however a true media entertainment center.

06 - Entertainment: SOMBC is not meant to be a computer really. It's meant to be a entertainment
       center/vault and only that. Therefore a keyboard is not really needed, as the concept is to access
       media entertainment quick, easy without pressing to many buttons or go through a wealth of
       menus to get where you want. The slimmest remote control was found to yet again stay within the
       "smallest" possible media center concept. The XP Media Center remote control is really
       old-school and failes completly in my opinion! Too many buttons, too clumpy looking.
       Anyway, I added the feature of a wireless mini keyboard with trackerball integrated.

07 - Interaction: SOMBC features a own programmed software based on the points given above.
       Easy, fast and highly accessible on demand. Hence, the name of the software "OnDemand Vault".

08 - Focus On Media: SOMBC was not meant to play games on, it's a media center. Use your
       favourite cubes for that instead. Therefore, 3D support was of LOW priority as the
       OnDemand Vault software uses only light DirectX9 sprite3D features for the graphics / menu flow.

09 - Speed: Processor speed is not that of importance, as the mainboard for SOMBC has a own
       MPEG2/MPEG4 hardware chip which takes care of the media part. SOMBC don't have to compute a
       lot of stuff, the MPEG chip takes care of what SOMBC is all about. MEDIA FILES. A laptop have
       larger processors, but as written above...it's a useful computer, not a media center. SOMBC is.

10 - Size: The actual physical size of the SOMBC is larger than I wanted, but it is crammed
       down to the slimmest possible size without violating any of point 1,2 and 3. A laptop would
       win the round there. But, 1 out of 10 points will not reach the goal for a media center.
       SOMBC reaches the goal by 9 out of 10 points, making it a true winner.

Microsoft Media Center Compatible boxes.....ahhh..forget it. Trashcan material or suitable as a old-school furniture or whatever.

True media entertainment concept has been given a new real name: SOMBC by Stone Oakvalley

Copyright 2009 by Stone Oakvalley Studios - Web Design/Mastering: < - email