There was a time when watching a movie meant that you had to go to a cinema, choose one of the titles that were running and stay in a room full of strangers watching the movie in total silence without any breaks, whether you liked it or not.

Then the entertainment revolution came along and movies moved in your living room.

Munchies were available whenever you liked and pause was just a button away.

But then, things got a new turn and content starting to move to the Internet, so much that you now find yourself spending more time in front of a computer monitor then in front of the TV.

And who can blame you?

YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, just to name a few, have all the content that you like and is a lot more convenient than driving to the a movie rental center to get that DVD you feel like watching.

But now it's time to bring that content back into the living room, next to that big screen HDTV you just bought sitting right there, gathering dust, like a really expensive piece of furniture.

How to do that, you ask?

Well, moving that big and heavy desktop computer next to the TV is not really an option.

Your notebook could be a far better choice being a lot more compact and light but that would also make it less portable and you bought it so you can use it wherever and whenever you liked.

Another option would be to buy a dedicated HTPC but those things are usually expensive and choosing the right one could prove itself really difficult.

But don't panic, as ZOTAC is prepared to enter the scene with its brand new ZBOX, a nettop barebone on steroids, that promises to offer you an gratifying HD experience at an affordable price point.

Being a barebone, it requires a little tinkering before starting to make use of it, as you have to add your own memory, hard drive and operating system, so some assembly skills are required, but once you get those few things in order the ZBOX is good to go.

Although small in size, the ZBOX HD-ID11 should prove itself a really capable piece of hardware as the new NVIDIA ION2 graphics card used is powerful enough the decode HD video content without breaking a sweat, at least according to ZOTAC.

Sure enough we will put those claims to the test in this review, but ZOTAC's mini-PC, as they like to call it, should prove itself a good solution for those users that want a really cheap HTPC or a basic computer that can also playback HD video content.