Thoughts on a set-top box

[Jonathan Hutchins]

I have a DirecTV DVR which is a pretty slow, stupid box, but is linked to 
their web site, and I can download what they have on offer.  I've messed with 
mediatomb, and so far the ratio is about three hours futzing with the setup 
for each three minutes of music/video I want to play, to be repeated next 
time because the working setup inexplicably broke.

I'd like to have an option to pipe an audio stream from a cental PC to various 
non-digital audio systems around the house.  My first guess would be an FM 
transmitter plugged directly into the output jack of the sound card.  Every 
FM transmitter I've tried, though, has been barely capable of transmitting to 
a receiver 18" away, let alone through the steel siding to the detatched 
garage.

I could build a full-fledged MythTV box to go beside the DirecTV box - who 
knows, it might even replace it - but that may be overkill, and doesn't cover 
listening in the garage.

So what do you think I should do?  I could shop around for old laptops, and 
put one at each listening point - I can handle setting up streaming from 
there.  I could grab two or three $150 netbooks, and use them - they'd 
probably burn less electricity.  I could go exotic, get some microatx or 
PC104 hardware and build from there.  What's the best solution?