Once it's done, it should be capable of displaying live TV, pausing live TV, recording/encoding TV shows, eliminating commercials, playing back downloaded videos/music, playing/ripping DVD's/CD's, and oh so importantly, play old console *.rom's.TL;DR wrote:A little history, and a little future of the project here. My girlfriend since last august has an unnatural attraction towards the SNES, mostly for many of her favorite RPG series that started on the platform, and her still ongoing obsession with Tetris Attack (Panel De Pon, Pokemon Puzzle League). So I decided that I wanted to give her something special for her birthday (June 1) and the SNES popped into mind. I started thinking SNES-P, but the "P" is somewhat limited by the cartridge size, and I havent been able to find any solution for loading more than 4 games onto a cartridge. So I started thinking emulator, as she has about 12GB of SNES *.rom's. I decided to go with that idea since I am quite the computer geek, but it had to be something exciting, since she already has an emulator on her PC, and a PS2-USB adapter for a better control feel than the mediocrity that is PC game pads. The gp2x came to mind, but it felt to out of the box. I got the idea for a dedicated PC after seeing this article. It was my first sighting of a Mini-ITX board, and the rest just sort of fell into place in my mind. I started asking questions, and checking out hardware to see how do-able it would be, and became familiar with MythTV which provides a wonderful front-end control panel for multiple emulators, as well as most Tivo features, video/music file playback, and a few other conveniences, and it's FREE (TUX POWER!) Now the issue became the coinage. I've got a little extra coming my way, but not nearly enough... But, opportunity only knocks once, one of my good friends, who happens to be my girlfriends best friend of years needed something for a final project for a PC tech class, so he was willing to lend a hand if I pushed the date up a bit to be done in time for his final week. Still, not enough though. This is where my best friend comes in. He likes my girlfriend, and has more dollars than give-a-damn, and agreed to pay whatever we couldn't afford. So, theres the history, now for the future.
I already have in hand a Jetway 1.5Ghz Mini-ITX motherboard, fresh out of the static bag. Since it will be acting as a Tivo box, it will need a Tuner/Encoder card. Uh-oh! That takes up my ONLY PCI slot... Where am I going to put a wireless card? AHA! Mini-ITX technology to the rescue, this board has an optional add-on for a cardbus slot. So, I ordered the cardbus add-on, and will be using a D-Link cardbus wireless adapter (because its gray like the SNES, and uses a linux-friendly chipset). I decided that I wanted it to have DVD playback/ripping, so I decided to take the headaches involved in space/heat management and add a laptop DVD drive. Thinking about how boring, ugly, and flimsy feeling most laptop trays are, I chose a slot-load drive, much like a car CD player, so I could install it completely inside the SNES with no visual cue other than a slot for the disc. Since speed is an issue for the live video recording, I settled for a small laptop hard drive (100GB) in trade for being desktop speed. I would have preferred a standard HDD, but I dont think space will allow it. For the TV tuner, I decided it was worth the extra few clams for the low profile card (A little less than half the height) and a flexible PCI cable, so I can mount the card sideways. External power supply, since this case is going to be CRAMPED. Now for the fun little details that make it interesting... An SNES with a keyboard and mouse? I think not! I decided to fill the now-empty controller slots with PS2-USB adapters. MythTV was programmed from the start to be controlled via infrared remote, so it should be a short leap to controlling it via gamepad. So, two grey PSone controllers for the entire system control. Next up, heat, good god that case is going to warm up, with all that crammed in, there will hardly be any room for air inside, so I decided the air is going to need to be moving around pretty well if this thing is going to last. Solution? A PCI slot fan! It flows almost 40 cubic feet of air per minute, and is thin enough to be stuck inside of an SNES cartridge. So it will just suck air around the plugs and such, and the small vent slots on the rear, and blow it out the top of a dummy-game. Cool huh? Lastly, I would imagine someone thought "If you put the CD drive inside, how will you get the CD out retard?" Well, warranties be damned! I am going to remove/wire onto the eject button, and put a very small button underneath the original "Eject" tab in the center. The power/reset switches up top will also be set for their original functions in a similar fashion.
Atari
NES
SNES
PSx
Dreamcast
Genesis
N64
GameBoy
GameBoy Advance
and perhaps Gamecube, depending on if the new Panel De Pon runs well.
Will be posting first set of pictures in a minute. (10 points for anyone who caught the joke in the quote title)
