Comment Make your own computer/vcr (Score 1) 425
And I speak knowingly since this is the setup I use at home: a small trusty ATX motherboard (Gigabyte GA7ZXE) and a 1.2GHz Duron with 512MB run using a Zallman CPU cooler on which I replaced the fan for a quieter one, and a quiet power supply in the mini case. A couple of quiet hard drives and a DVD/CD-RW (zone free of course :) )... add to that an ATI All-In-Wonder 7500 64MB DDR (TV out + DVI + cable capture + Video-In) with remote, and you have your own personal little PC that sits just next to the VCR/DVD/DTS Sound system. Add a small 300VA UPS (this setup does not uses much).
CAT5e was my choice for the connection, with a wire running along the wall connected to a 5 port switch (so that if a friends come with a laptop, he can get a DHCP IP), itself connected to another 5 port switch in the server room ... the firewall/internet.
You can use it to record TV, watch your anime fansubs, your DVDs (Using Mplayer and a frame buffer kernel for X11, you can watch it all. See GATOS too), and do searches on the internet when a friend comes other (though you would have to go the 640x480 to be able to read it, which is why I put an old $20 14in monitor under the coffee table)
And this baby makes less noises than my PS2 :)
CAT5e was my choice for the connection, with a wire running along the wall connected to a 5 port switch (so that if a friends come with a laptop, he can get a DHCP IP), itself connected to another 5 port switch in the server room
You can use it to record TV, watch your anime fansubs, your DVDs (Using Mplayer and a frame buffer kernel for X11, you can watch it all. See GATOS too), and do searches on the internet when a friend comes other (though you would have to go the 640x480 to be able to read it, which is why I put an old $20 14in monitor under the coffee table)
And this baby makes less noises than my PS2
