Just another project for playing mp3 files with a PC?
Yes and no - so what's the difference?
It's not only for playing mp3 files but it's also a region free DVD player and digital VCR and much more!
- MP3 Player
- DVD player
- Digital VCR
- Completely digital audio processing:
- Controlled by a normal infrared remote control
- Navigation and status information over a 4 x 40 LCD display
- Maintenance over the network or the connected TV
- Low noise design:
Plays mp3 files from CD's, the local hard disk or over the network.
Region and macrovision free of course!
M-JPEG recording of an external video source.
- coax and optical outputs
- coax input
- DVD decoder: Dolby Digital coax output
Temperature regulated Papst fan in the power supply, passive cooled cpu, ACPI enabled OS
| CPU | Cyrix P200+ low power version,
passive cooled.
This cpu was laying around in my tool box, still good enough for playing mp3's and DVD movies... |
| Ram | 64 MB PC100 |
| Mainboard | |
| Soundcard | SB live value with Hoontech SB digital bracket II for digital coax and optical outputs. |
| HD | IBM 8 GB.
The size is a total overkill but this hd was just laying around because it had a headcrash once, but is still good enough for Win98 and for holding some mp3 files... |
| Network | 100 MBit noname PCI card |
| DVD | Creative dxr2 decoder card
with a 2x DVD drive.
The best card available! Region code can be changed, macrovision disabled and the best of all: hardware conversion from NTSC 60 Hz to PAL 50 Hz (and vice versa)! Nice for old TV's and VCR copies. |
| Graphic card | Matrox Mystique PCI with
Rainbow Runner add-on card for TV out and M-JPG capturing.
The Mystique card was also laying around in my tool box and the Rainbow Runner I got for only 40$. |
| Keyboard / Mouse | Silitek Airboard: infrared
wireless keyboard with integrated mouse.
Only used for maintenance and Win98 crash recoveries... |
| LCD panel | Matrix Orbital 4 x 40 LCD |
| IR unit | Universal Infrared Receiver |
| OS | Win98
Unfortunately necessary for the DVD player. Linux would be a much better choice for a MP3 only player... |
| MP3 Player | WinAmp
2.50 (freeware)
Ties Bos UIR plugin for the infrared remote control. Will be replaced with a COM interface in the future when I add the DVD part and the PC Remote Control software. My own LCD Plugin for displaying song information. Reproduction control plugin by Carlos A. Osorio for automatically playing inserted CD's that contain MP3 files. |
| DVD Player | Original Creative software.
Remote Selector 1.7 by Erwin van den Berg (registered). |
| IR handling | PC
Remote Control 3.0 by Moisés Cambra (registered).
Not yet used, will be used for the central infrared control handling. |
| Remote maintenance | WinVNC
3.3.2
Similar to PC Anywhere but it's freeware and comes with the complete source code! |
- Infrared control.
- Displaying song information (title, artist, album, song position, song length, song number, total number of songs, etc.) on the LCD panel.
- Automatically playing an inserted mp3 data CD.
- PC shut down with the infrared control.
- PC power on with the space bar on the infrared keyboard.
next
steps:
- Infrared control integration of the DVD part.
- Navigation menu for selecting the desired functionality: MP3 player, DVD player, configuration etc.
- Integration of the LCD panel into the PC case.
- Designing the case for a smooth integration in my hi-fi equipment.
- Continuos web site updates with project state and pictures of the PC, LCD menu etc.
- A nice looking aluminum front plate like this one.
- Making a ram disk for all necessary programs and system dll's so the hard drive can be shut down while playing mp3's from a CD rom. There was once an article in the c't magazine about making a Win98 boot CD rom in combination with a ram disk, perhaps I can use some parts of it. Don't know yet if it works...
| 13.09.99 | Received my long awaited subwoofer for my home theater - poor neighbors and less time for this project :-( |
| 11.09.99 | Exchanged the Shuttle Hot-597 mainboard with the Asus P5a mainboard from my workstation for the keyboard power on feature, an additional PCI slot for future extensions and mainly for better CPU cooling. The power supply fan is now blowing directly over the CPU. I found out that the Cyrix P200+ is very tolerating: I wrongly set the core voltage to 3.5 V instead of 2.8 V - it ran 3 houres passiv cooled till I touched the CPU cooler and realised that something's wrong... (could be a good sign for overclocking). |
| 07.09.99 |  Found
this exciting web site: DVD on Linux!
A PCI based DVD decoder board with an open programming interface!!! The
copy protection is implemented in hardware so the drivers can be released
under GPL. I'm very excited about that project, looks like I'll have a
Linux system next year - no more that buggy Win98... |
| 31.08.99 | Initial web site released. |
| July 99 | Building the PC. Started programming the LCD WinAmp plugin. |
| June 99 | First idea of a standalone mp3 player. UIR and LCD panel ordered. |
Universal Infrared Receiver
WinAmp homepage
Matrix Orbital LCD displays. Order Matrix Orbital LCD's at Linux Central (they ship world wide!)
My other projects
Similar projects:
Roli's
Galaxy - Linux MusicBOX Project
LC-DAT
MP3-O-PHONO