[plug] Turning an out of date PC into a linux home entertainment thingymabob?

[Ari Finander]

Hi all,

I have an Athlon XP 1700+ based system that it does not look like I'm going to be able to sell. So, rather than hook the laptop up to the TV every time I want to watch something on my file server or listen to music stored on the server I thought I'd see if there are any distros built for this sort of purpose. I remember in an Australian PC User mag a few months back about an xbox mod using a linux distro for this sort of thing. Here's what I'm working with:
Athlon XP 1700+
512mb RAM
brand new Gigabyte motherboard with onboard video and audio
20gb and 10gb HDDs
cd burner
floppy
300W PSU

So, I figure I'm going to need a networking solution and a video out card. I'm wondering about a video capture card with a remote, but I have no clue about linux support for these. I recall that in the article I mentioned the xbox remote worked with whatever distro they used. I have two PCI wireless cards and a usb wireless g card (coming back from RMA soonish). I'd prefer not to have to string wires into the lounge room, as the video from the server to the laptop via wireless g is just fine at present.

So, any thoughts? I do not want to spend more than $100 on this (not that I'd be allowed to, anyway *grin*).

Cheers,

Ari

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