Anyone have any ideas on what I could rig up with a 7 inch LCD TV (12 volts DC w/RCA inputs) and a 2 channel amp? Ideas dont have to necessarily use both. I just have them lying around and was hoping to come up with something interesting to do but all I've got so far is building a war spying box with subwoofers and putting it in my car. Anything goes. Awesome to laughable practical to outlandish. If it has something to do with linux even better because that will give me a good reason to tinker (I havent fired up linux in over a month... the ftp server doesnt count).

EDIT: I've got three working computers I could dedicated to this project.

-Clayton

Uh, how about tossing out your current stereo, and grabbing:
An FM Tuner,
DVD Player,
LIRC Receiver,
Smallish remote,
http://mythtv.org

And blend well?

Cool

Create your own video community

I do not know what is this... "video community".

Actually I think Im going to turn it into an oversized iPod for my car. I want to be able to incorporate all the functions into a USB number pad (used with laptops). Im thinking about rigging a Palm keyboard (the ones that fold up to about ... palm size) to be used with USB/Firewire/PS2 incase I need a full keyboard for whatever reason. I was also considering using a really small track ball mouse to avoid having to program a whole interface but this is Linux! We dont need no stinking mice! Besides, forcing myself to program a GUI (read: a program that full screens over Gnome or KDE) and use already available programs as the back end would be a great way to get closer to the guts of linux while at the same time accomplishing something more than the oh so amazing "Hello World!"

Software Backend
At this point I have only two functions in mind for my carputer: An mp3 player and a movie player. I like XMMS. Would this be a good choice for the back end? I want something snappy. I dont want to wait while it loads the next screen worth of songs when Im trying to scroll.

Choice of Programming Language
Assuming I do end up creating a GUI what would be an ideal language to use with the beginner in mind? I pick up programming very fast and have no trouble grasping the concepts I just lack experience.

Ok, I know Im going to get a TON of you saying "RTFM" and "Google it." I have been and I will be. It's just nice to have an interactive opinion as opposed to reading a ton of language reviews.

Another long winded post,
Clayton

I used a VIA mini-itx 500MHz fanless with a 12v in power supply and booted linux rom a 128M CF card and ran mpg123 on it in my truck for a long time.

Im going to be using an HP 500Mhz machine. Pentium 3 I think. I was looking into underclocking so I could do the same thing, go fanless. Even ten fans won't do much good when its mounted in the trunk.

Mpg123 doesnt seem to be active currently and the last version has some "serious security issues". Not that I really care. My car only browses safe sites. That in mind mpg123 looks like a good option. I'll dig up some more info when I get home. Thanks enine. Your sig is funny as balls by the way.

-Clayton

Maybe it was mpg321 then, I remember there are two similar projects.
The nice thing about the mini-itx is there are several options available for 12v power supplies instead of having to use an inverter. Mine would run off a 1A wall wart in the house when I was testing so it would run off a car battery for days before draining it.

Wow... thats awesome. I have never even heard of mini-itx. It didnt even register that it was something different when I read what you posted earlier. That is deffinately something to look into... Yep read a couple articles and found ONE on newegg. Deffinately an awesome little item. Also found the 6-26v power supply that plugs right into the ATX plug. Going to have to work towards that though because Im trying to make this as cheap a project as possible to start out with.

EDIT: Yea it was mpg321. Comes with slackware. WOOT!!!1one