Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Building an MP3/DVD Box for the Home Audio System?

Posted by Cliff on from the as-the-computer-infiltrates-the-stereo-cabinet dept.

_typo asks: "I was thinking about building a nice MP3/VCD/DVD playing box for my home. Such box would stack along with the rest of the home entertainement equipment. I need suggestions about the case to use, the hardware to put in it and the software to drive it." This is similar to the Ask Slashdot on Home Theater Systems, but this approaches the issue from a different angle, that of building your own device to run the DVD/VCD/MP3 aspect of your mega-stereo system. Off the shelf products can do this decently well, especially with DVDs and VCDs, however about the best player of MP3s in existance, aside from the portables, is your average home computer. DVD/MP3 combos will play some MP3s fairly well, but even the best ones have problems with certain MP3s that will play well enough on a machine with a decent MP3 player.

" There's a few problems I need to solve to be able to do this.

First is the case to put the harware on. I've been looking for a case that's roughly the height and width of a 1U or 2U rackmount case but just 13'' or 14'' deep. It should have room for a standard motherboard, a hard drive, a DVD-ROM, and a front-mounted LCD.

To put inside this case I'd need a motherboard with Ethernet 10/100 and video-out included (to have less boards hanging around), and a reasonably good soundcard. As for CPU and memory, anything should do if it doesn't generate too much heat. This setup shouldn't need a fan, to avoid noise in the room.

To interface to the thing I'd like to have a wireless keyboard of some kind with a trackball and a IR remote interface. For the IR remote I think I can use lirc's plans to build a small IR receiver but I would still need to find a way to mount such receiver on the front of the case.

To drive all this I'd need proper software. Linux and X are the base options I'm most confortable with, but I still need the software to browse and play my MP3 collection and playback my dvd's (OMS?). Doing some Web browsing would be nice too but that seams easy enough to do with any regular linux browser.

Finaly I would like it to be cheap to build. Any help will be appreciated."

3 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. I'm looking at the same thing. by Jason+Pollock · · Score: 3

    Here's what I'm looking at:

    1. Motherboard - Advantech 5864L - video in/out, network and built in sound.
    2. Riser card 2xPCI.
    3. SBLive (so I can have digital audio!)
    4. DVD decoder card (if you need that, I don't)

    Add a small hard disk, a read-only linux image, and you are good to go. The hardest part will probably be getting the video out to work under linux. I haven't been able to find any references online. :)

    They even make a small case and power supply, here, but the case is a little ugly. The power supply doesn't appear to have a fan though.

    I'm using an earlier version of the board as the basis for my car-based mp3 system. Works really well. Can't say anything about the PSU, it became available after I started with my system.

    Jason Pollock
  2. Look this up by Coward+Anonymous · · Score: 3

    BeOS - BeOS is far more useful than Linux or Windows. Boot time is minimal (15 sec. at worst), the file system supports rudimentary DB capabilities so you don't need to install MySQL, Perl and other monstrosities just to play a couple mp3s and there seems to be some work in this area. I would post some links I had but my computer died.

    Heat - Get an old Celeron and underclock it to about 100Mhz. That should give you more processing power than you need for mp3s (I don't know about DVD, though) and consume less power than a 486 - don't need a CPU fan.

    Form factor - you can try to find used NLX form factor boards and cases. Some NLX mobos come with Ethernet and TV output built in which is ideal. Sometimes they come with sound but you are probably better off getting a better sound card. The only problem with NLX is that you might have trouble finding a board that will let you underclock. Don't know.

  3. A few links by Van+Halen · · Score: 4
    I was getting all geared up to build myself one of these almost 2 years ago, did some research, bought most of the parts, and then didn't have any time to actually build the thing. Ah well, such is life. ;-) For now, my custom perl script allowing me to instantly call up any of my 300 CDs worth of mp3s is good enough.

    Here are some useful links I found while doing my research:

    I don't know anything about DVD stuff, but hopefully these will be useful.
    --

    Say hello to zMac.