[Icecast] KGO AM 810 Question / Distributed Home Media

[HJ]

At work yesterday (Fri Oct 16) I heard someone call into KGO Radio, 810 AM,
San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose to the "tech guru" guest.

"I have a bunch of files in Ogg and FLAC format that I want to distribute
around the house," said the caller, "How can I do that?"

I immediately thought of VideoLAN, and even Icecast2; but to wired/wirelessly
ship media around from one computer to TV's, radios/stereos/home
entertainment systems, and other computers -- what WOULD be a good way to go
about that?  VideoLAN + a set-top box?  Who sells inexpensive set-top boxes,
or is it possible to build, say, a very cheap (*n[i|u]x/*BSD-based)
workstation and wire it up to "regular" home-equipment, especially several
points around the house?

On a side-note, this "tech guru" was no guru.  He said himself he wasn't
"up-to-speed" on almost every topic callers brought up, and claimed "Your
formats may be too 'technical' for most people," which I thought was a VERY
bad thing to say to the majority of the San Francisco Bay Area.  We should
track this gentleman down and berate him.  ;)


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