I've been checking out digital media receivers now and then over the past couple of years waiting for exactly what I want to come out. A digital media receiver is a device that looks like part of your stereo system, hooks up to your receiver, tv and home network. It allows you to browse and play your mp3 collection, show thumbnails and slideshows of your pictures, play internet radio stations, display local weather, play videos off your computer, etc... All the files are stored somewhere on your network.

Many receivers I've looked at have some of the individual features I want but none of them pack in everything.. or if they do, they are restricted to things like AOL only internet radio stations, or they'll play mp3's off your network but you need to run their special server software on a PC. Others are tv-only display, no external LCD to tell you what song is playing.

Then I came across Xbox Media Center (XBMC). WOW. The xbox is really a PC (Intel P733, 64 MB RAM, nVida GeForce video, 8 GB hdd, Windows OS, etc... XBMC is software that can be installed on the XBOX if you have a mod-chip installed. Not only is it skinnable and looks super slick, it supports practically every media format out there and has no restrictions at all. There are hardware upgrades you can install on the xbox such as an IR receiver (so you can control it with a learning universal remote) and LCD display to display current song info etc... The software is free. Not only do you get the best media center software available, you get a gaming console and if you need.. a DVD player.

A new XBOX costs about $240, mod-chip $60, XIR chip $30, DVD remote (so you can program learnable universal remote) $30 used, and if you want the cool looking replacement front panel with built in LCD and other enhacements.. another $90. That's about $450.

I found a guy who's got over 100 used xbox's in very good condition selling them for $120 CAN each (half the price of a new one). I just bought one and started buying the other components. Today I began running network cable behind some walls and through my basement. I managed to install a network jack beside the cable tv jack in my living room but haven't managed to get the other end of the cable up to my main switch yet. This is pretty exciting :) First goal is to build a perfect digial media center, and second goal is to buy a couple wireless game controllers and a handful of games. The gaming stuff will come later.

Update Mar 22 : I just bought a 12 pack of used games (most of which look like games I'd like to play) to go with it.. including shipping, it came to $12.25 CAN/each. Adding up the cost of the xbox, mods and games I will have spent about $570 CAN. Compare that to the price of a new xbox, and new games plus taxes, and mods.. I would have spent almost $1400 CAN. Not bad :)