Dedicated devices to replace computers?

[Richard_117]

Why is it a $50 media player blows a $2000 computer OUT OF THE WATER when it comes to playback?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Your computer is probably mis-configured and not using hardware acceleration.

 

[Richard_117]

I think the point is, why does it take that much computer power to do what a (likely) $4.00 board inside a cheap media player does?

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Again, because your computer is not correctly configured to use (very fast) hardware acceleration, so it is taking the much slower route of software decoding the video.

The cheap board is correctly configured, so all the decoding is done in hardware.