Yes, I too thought it was a overly complicate solution in the article.
Modifying an xbox for less than $150 and putting XBMC on it will play all media direct over an SMB share - and that's with S-Video or even Component HD video out and Optical digital sound out..
In fact I play ALL my media (after sold all my CD's) through my xbox - including playing DVD's directly when needed.
Currently it connects to a couple of servers, totallying about 300GB of divx/xvid and ogg/mp3 - perhaps a little pr0n too...
In fact.. even plays streaming video such as Apple's movie trailers, CNN streaming news, Shoutcast radio etc etc etc.
With a modded xbox and a auto-install for XBMC you could be up and running in under 30 minutes (including downloading and burning the CD of the auto-installer).
Oh.. and it's small, quiet and fairly neat too, with an IR receiver for it's own - or programmable remotes too if you buy the DVD playback kit (just to get the IR Receiver)
MatrixStore from Object Matrix http://www.object-matrix.com/ uses commodity hardware and clusters it together to create a highly expandable, reliable and secure storage environment.
The big benefit of Satelite radio is it's ability to stay on the same station across the country on a road Trip. A couple of trips ago I had to drive from Denver to LAX (September 13th, there were some flight issues....) and boy was the radio crap on that journey. Crap music (I don't like country and western), crap local news and even some places with practically no radio at all.
It was a rental car, so I didn't have any CD's either.
Still, it was a Jaguar, so I coped OK.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I too thought it was a overly complicate solution in the article. Modifying an xbox for less than $150 and putting XBMC on it will play all media direct over an SMB share - and that's with S-Video or even Component HD video out and Optical digital sound out.. In fact I play ALL my media (after sold all my CD's) through my xbox - including playing DVD's directly when needed. Currently it connects to a couple of servers, totallying about 300GB of divx/xvid and ogg/mp3 - perhaps a little pr0n too... In fact.. even plays streaming video such as Apple's movie trailers, CNN streaming news, Shoutcast radio etc etc etc. With a modded xbox and a auto-install for XBMC you could be up and running in under 30 minutes (including downloading and burning the CD of the auto-installer). Oh.. and it's small, quiet and fairly neat too, with an IR receiver for it's own - or programmable remotes too if you buy the DVD playback kit (just to get the IR Receiver)
MatrixStore from Object Matrix http://www.object-matrix.com/ uses commodity hardware and clusters it together to create a highly expandable, reliable and secure storage environment.
The big benefit of Satelite radio is it's ability to stay on the same station across the country on a road Trip. A couple of trips ago I had to drive from Denver to LAX (September 13th, there were some flight issues....) and boy was the radio crap on that journey. Crap music (I don't like country and western), crap local news and even some places with practically no radio at all. It was a rental car, so I didn't have any CD's either. Still, it was a Jaguar, so I coped OK. :)