Techy's in the house!

This is how I cooked myself a little music/movie player based on the following hardware pieces:

• Network Attached Storage (NAS), 1 of 2 slots with a 320GB hdd (for now);
• modded XBox 1 with XBox Media Center 2.0 (XBMC), free Open Source application
• Stereo
• small 7'' LCD (a TV is optional but recommended for movies:))

A NAS is basically a computer-in-a-box with a hard disk which allows to store and share files.
The XBox is an old one where I added a chip (without having to solder it) which then allowed me to add a smaller hard disk and use an alternative software, XBMC.
XBMC is the best multimedia player for the XBox, it plays music from all formats known to me, including online Shoutcast streams, all movie formats...
I use one XBox controller to handle the interface and the small LCD to display it. This allows me not to use a full-blown power-consuming TV.
XBox is connected to my Stereo on the AUX input.

1. My home network connects computers, NAS, Xbox to themselves and the internet;
2. I store my MP3s, AVIs, MOVs, etc... on the NAS;
3. I turn XBox, LCD and Stereo on;
4. XBMC is displayed on the LCD, I control it with a game controller and the sound comes out on the Stereo;

Extra notes:

1. If I want to watch movies on a bigger screen, I just turn off the LCD, and plug the video RCA cable to the TV and turn it on;
2. The best party music mode is to just select an adequate Shoutcast stream and let it play all night (either BIGUPRADIO for Dub or Boulevardurock.net for indie);
3. It's also possible to control XBMC from a computer through a web page with XBMCAJAX (only works decently with Firefox though);

I would love to get a device like the SlimDevice's Squeezebox, which would replace the XBox, but it's DAMN EXPENSIVE, 350EUR for the wireless version and 300EUR for the wired one. The major problem is that the online radio Pandora is not available outside of U.S.A. anymore and guess what online radio the Squeezebox connects to!

Pinnacle has the Soundbridge M1001 (also called Roku Soundbridge), which is cheaper and looks good enough (to please me), and recently the wireless module also supports WPA encryption:D Here's a review.

I am not terribly geeky, but with the amount of media one can store and listen to, why not make life easier and set such an environment. I just LOVE the feeling of arriving home, opening the door and having music playing! And for barely 170EUR, it looks more and more appetizing.

More about QNAP, iTunes server, Yamaha E810, XBMC, wireless music another time...

Cheers,

norbs