This is a completely revised documentation my “ding” project - my attempt to build a stand alone multimedia player. It was first documented at bogmog in December 2001. It developed over the years so I decided to redo the documentation for your interest.

The aim of this project is to build a standalone multimedia player. It should be completely remote controllable and able to play various modern multimedia formats including MPEG, DIVX, MP3 and DVD. It should also being used for burning/copying CDs and playing games.

When I decided to build this thing I had no good name or description for it. When I talked about it it was always referred as “you know that thing that will play my video files…”. It happens that “Ding” is nothing more than the german word for “thing”.

Here are my goals again:

• Completely remote controlled: use of Keyboard and Mouse is optional
• Nearly noiseless: I don't want to hear the PC when watching movies
• Good looking: It has to fit in the living room - so the Woman's Acceptance Factor (WAF) has to be high
• Connectible to my TV set: I don't want to watch movies at a tiny Monitor
• Support for all modern mediafiles
• Running Linux: Because it's always the better choice and more fun anyway

Here is the list of hardware currently used

• Intel Celeron 700MHz
• Asus TUV4X mainboard
• Soundblaster Live Player! 5.1
• Verax CPU Fan
• QTechnology UltraQuiet 250 Watt Powersupply
• Serial Infrared Receiver
• Gainward GeForce 2 Ti
• ~380 MB SD-RAM
• 3Com 3C905C-TX-M 10/100Mbit NIC
• LG GSA-4040B DVD Multiformat Recorder
• Sony Universal Remote Control
• DIGN 3E HTPC Case
• MiroPCTV TV card

All the different parts of the setup have their own pages:

• Diskless System
• Case & LCD
• Soundsetup
• XServer using TV-Out
• TV recording