Media Center

Legacy: This article describes a concept that has been superseded in the course of ongoing development on the Organic Design wiki. Please do not develop this any further or base work on this concept, this is only useful for a historic record of work done. You may find a link to the currently used concept or function in this article, if not you can contact the author to find out what has taken the place of this legacy item.

What is it?

A silent compact PC with an embedded OS and multimedia capability.

Specifications

• 2U PF-19 rack mount case
• 8 USB ports
• 4 Firewire ports
• Wireless networking 802.11
• Fast ethernet
• Boots from flash card or USB device
• Video: Composite RGB (NTSC/PAL), VGA
• Integrated multi-format flash-card reader (CF, xD, Memory Stick) NZ$35
• Infra-red interface for remote control
• Web-based interface
• Audio in/out
• Microphone input
• Analogue (joystick) and switch inputs

Hardware

Note that the first hardware configuration is 'ideal' but a prototype could be made from lower spec components, suitable for the testing phase.

Product

• VIA EPIA-TC10000 1GHz C3 (Nehemiah) & Mini-ITX with CF card option
• Compact flash cards 128mb can be used by the motherboard to boot an OS
• 512 mb CF card
• Flash card reader
• 512 MB ram
• Plug pack power supply
• PCI 90 degree riser card (to mount PCI card on same horizontal as mother board)
• Ethernet switch
• Wireless Router/DSL
• USB hub
• Firewire hub
• Heatsinks
• Case
• Knob
• Sockets
• Panels
• LEDs
• Microphone
• IR photo-couple

Prototype

• Any 1 ghz + x86 ITX integrated board (audio, video, ethernet on board)
• Power supply
• 128 MB ram
• USB Flash Drive

Hacks

Hardware additions to add to the user experience

• IR reciever - built and tested
• Audio signal and RF switching

Useful bits

• Cases: Component stereo type cases, this will not look or sound like a PC
• Fascia panels with RCA sockets or USB sockets
• Heatsinks suitable for processor and/or power supply for passive cooling
• Component RCA type connectors of different colours (red, yellow, white, green)
• Bi / Tri color LED for panel lights
• Any other cool looking bits

Software

• Boot from USB memory stick or compact flash card
• Video player
  • MPlayer
• Audio player plays all audio formats including
  • mp3
  • aiff, wave
  • ogg
• Picture viewing and organising software (via ImageMagick)
• File transfering and sharing software
• Can handle multiple audio and video interfaces. To play different music to two different rooms for example.

Application

see interface for design aspects or nodeInterface and PERL-SDL-SWF for development

See also

• Interesting projects using small PC boards
• Solid state embedded storage
• The PC joystick interface
• Website to order compact PCs from
• Some interesting linux IR applications