Initially described in a previous post.
We Have
- The empty shell of a ruined DVD player
- An underused Acer Aspire One
- An old D-Link DBT-120 Bluetooth adapter
Specifications
- Connection to television
- Target hardware sports a VGA port and line-level audio connections; target television has VGA and line-level inputs
- Audio connections could be made through existing RCA ports in back
- A new hole for the VGA port needs to be bored out
- Connections to be routed to front or back
- USB, especially for keyboard, mouse, and boot drives as necessary
- SD card slot(s)
- Super-awesome remote control (remote input to Box)
- Possibly with radio interface, like a cordless phone
- Possibly a charging station, again like a cordless phone
- Locator/”page” button on console, to aid in locating a lost remote, once again like a cordless phone
- Potentially, gameport connector(s) on the remote itself for retro gaming without tripping on cables
- There is apparently some precedent for using Wii Remotes for this very purpose, and the Bluetooth adapter might help with that
- Remote control proxy (output from Box to IR on other devices)
- Box has peripheral to control an IR emitter that itself can control other things (TV, cable box, DVD player), so that the remote to the Box is the only remote you actually need to keep track of[1]
- 10-foot UI
- The choice of which one does not have to be made ahead of time, as the machine could be made to run any of them interchangeably
- XBMC is a likely candidate
- features an Addons Manager; plugins are installable for YouTube and Hulu among others
- If we go to the trouble of making a Windows-based XBMC box, there’s even a plugin for Netflix (that doesn’t work in Linux), but we already have the Wii for that
- MythTV (a DVR) isn’t the most natural choice since the target hardware has no hard drive or TV tuner
- [1] Yes, we have separate remotes for TV, cable box, and DVD player. How lame. ↩