Well it finally had to happen. While Tivo’s been working great for the last year and a half, my “need to build something” has started to kick in again. I’ve been thinking about how I can accomplish a few things:

1) A centralized audio system that can play MP3 content in any room. Ill have a PC hooked to the structured media panel’s distributed audio, and I need a good UI and a way to control it from wireless devices.
2) Distributed recorded TV content to any room in the house. In other words, if I record something on one box, I should be able to watch it from anywhere in the house.

So i’ve decided to play around with Windows XP Media Center Edition to see what it can do. My inital design will center around using the Asus Pundit small form factor as the “brain” of the box (plus I figure if it doesn’t work out, it’s a great form for a “kitchen” computer). If my experiements work out, i’ll probably build a powerhouse box for the home theater, replacing both the Tivo and DVD player, but we’ll see.

More details to follow as I get a clearer picture in my head. Here’s some great sites with information on building your own MCE box: The Green Button, xpMCE (read “building a MCE box for under $1000“), MCE WebGuide and Machineroom.com.