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Multimedia PC
When our loungeroom stereo finally gave up, I considered the option
of replacing radio, amplifier, CD player and DVD player with a home-made
digital version based on a PC.
The image below shows the final result.
Technical:
This is a Pentium II-400 with 256MB of RAM and a 30GB harddisk, built
into a desktop case which I painted black.
It contains an FM/TV card with IR remote, a dual PCMCIA card slot
in a 31/2"
drive bay, 100Mbps network card, TV out TNT2 graphics card - connected
ONLY to the TV, DVD/CD player and hardware Creative DVD decoder card.
We elected to use an RF keyboard and mouse controlled by a USB transceiver
fitted remotely near the couch.
I built a 20W stereo amplifier kit (from Jaycar) and fitted it into
the PC case (no external amp used at all). I then fitted volume control
and input selector switches into the front of the case, along with
speaker switches for two sets of speaker connectors on the back panel.
I also fitted two sets of input connectors (for a VCR and the TV)
to the backpanel.
The software I installed is Windows 98SE (after experimenting with
Win XP, which is too sluggish on this CPU) as the OS. We run the proprietary
FM and TV tuner software which came with the card, Creative DVD and
video player software which came with that card, Winamp 2.4 for all
music files and ACDSee 4 for image files, along with its editor. The
PC also runs IE6 and Outlook Express 6 for web access.
Interestingly, to make the Windows interface readable and remain functional,
I had to increase the system fonts to 135% and set the fonts in IE
and Outlook Express to very large.
The harddisk now contains ripped .wma versions of all our CDs, a large
folder with all our family photos, several video clips and the occasional
captured TV program.
The radio software is set to run on start-up, so that the last radio
station played simply returns when the PC is booted, the TV doesn't
have to be switched on to manage the radio, as it's remote control
is set to access all local radio stations and control volume.
We find that we run slideshows of family photos regularly - and look
at photos a lot more then when they were only in photoalbums in the
bookshelf. Our CDs are packed away and will not be worn any further.
Winamp allows us to select many CDs to play and run them at random
for hours.
The only 'nuisance' is that the DVD player can only play directly
via the decoder card on a separate AV input on the TV. It will not
play windowed or full screen via TV-out on the graphics card, despite
it's "feature" connector and cable fitted.
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