Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-19 Thread Roman Neuhauser
# [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 2003-09-17 12:33:30 -0600:
 My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone 
 is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer 
 I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID) 
 built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I 
 can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to 
 pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with S-Video 
 out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd 
 visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place. 
 In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd like 
 to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song lists 
 at a time. 

that whole thing is terribly overspec'd! do you know an mp3 player
with such a spec? I don't.  Well, you mention playing video, so that
might change things a bit, still.

Anyway, if you want to present the user with CD covers, you'll
either need X or something capable of displaying graphics on the
console (Linux framebuffer, or svgalib, comes to mind). I'd go for
a console solution: less overhead, both computational and
administrative.

You'll need searchable storage for the CD/song titles and whatnot.

 *Tell FBSD to listen to a bill validator 
 (http://www.videocan.com/bill_validator.html - currently waiting for 
 info from them about interface) for credit inputs, and display it as an 
 overlay on the screen (Let's say $1 buys 3 songs or 2 videos - display 
 would show that)

Looks like you can plug that into an LPT port.

 *Once it's determined that there's credits in the machine have FBSD 
 listen to a keypad (telephone pad style) for input in the style of 
 , first 2 being album number, second 2 track number.

 *Queue up and keep track of songs to play. mp3s/CDs will launch a 
 visualization studio to display the music vis to the TVs, or launch 
 videos to play on TVs. 
 *When there's no activity, it will enter a screensaver mode where it 
 changes screens on monitor.

All in all, I think that you need is a daemon that will collect data
from the bill slot (parallel port?) and a keypad (serial port?),
mysqld (the librarized version of the server might be nice), and
something to play the music, mp3 / ogg (I'd go for Ogg Vorbis).

Something along a 300MHz Celeron/Duron w/ 128 MB RAM would IMO be
more than enough.

BTW, I was thinking about doing something similar, with one of those
micro-ATX boards, an LCD display (one of those found on CD players,
you know :), a programmable remote controller, and NetBSD. Would
make a nice cd player. :) (I don't have the knowledge to do the
electricity stuff, but a friend of mine has done this kind of
things...)

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Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-19 Thread Jeremy D. Pavleck
I'm beginning to agree it is now overspec'ed. But only because I'm
thinking now (thanks to input from you folks) about making a marketable
version instead of one for my own pool hall. 
When I say jukebox, I mean ones like these:
http://www.gameroomantiques.com/CDjukebox.htm
http://www.wurlitzer-jukebox.com/showroom-omt.html

Big showy pieces of eyecandy. A gorgeous hunk fof aluminum, with lights
and bubblers, etc etc. My original thoughts where definately overkill, but
it was for my own amusement, so it didn't really matter, ya know? Know I'm
thinking of making something I can mass produce down the line.

I had some time to reflect on the design, and my main problem I was facing
was the visualizations of music. Initially I thought I'd need a fairly
high output video card to be able to properly display the vis. in close to
real time. My current rig @ 1024x768 with a Radeon 8000 can only run the
Winamp vis full screen at 40fps with a noticeable delay in the music beats
and the vis interpretation on the screen. Drop the window to a size where
it hits 70fps or so and the music and vis stay in tune, so I figured a
more powerful vid card was the answer.
But I forgot that a standard TV resolution is only 640x480, so I should be
able to get away with a lot less then top of the line. 
I'm going to try to test all this by using the 1Ghz Nehemiah Mini-ITX
board ( http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2#p243 ) with 256mb
ram. 
Install a RAID card and setup 1 20Gb drive RAID 1 array and 1 100Gb RAID 1
array. 20Gb raid for FBSD and the 100GB RAID for media files.
Then pick up the bill validator, buttons and what not and see if I can't
make it work sans enclosure, which will save me a ton of cash. 
Someone suggested trying Freevo, so I'll see if I can't hack the interface
of it to see if I can achieve what I want. If I was more of an artist I
could mockup the overall look of the display I'm going for, but I'm not
(I'll see if a friend of mine can tackle this part). 
Instead of worrying about making it idiot proof by using a lot of diffrent
hardware like CFlash and such, I'll just use a small UPS that you can pick
up for 30-40$ these days and just have it tell the system to do a clean
shutdown when power is interupted.


**
Jeremy D. Pavleck
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tired of PayPal? Me too.
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help me earn a few cents :))

On Fri, 19 Sep 2003, Roman Neuhauser wrote:

 # [EMAIL PROTECTED] / 2003-09-17 12:33:30 -0600:
  My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone 
  is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer 
  I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID) 
  built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I 
  can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to 
  pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with S-Video 
  out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd 
  visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place. 
  In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd like 
  to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song lists 
  at a time. 
 
 that whole thing is terribly overspec'd! do you know an mp3 player
 with such a spec? I don't.  Well, you mention playing video, so that
 might change things a bit, still.
 
 Anyway, if you want to present the user with CD covers, you'll
 either need X or something capable of displaying graphics on the
 console (Linux framebuffer, or svgalib, comes to mind). I'd go for
 a console solution: less overhead, both computational and
 administrative.
 
 You'll need searchable storage for the CD/song titles and whatnot.
 
  *Tell FBSD to listen to a bill validator 
  (http://www.videocan.com/bill_validator.html - currently waiting for 
  info from them about interface) for credit inputs, and display it as an 
  overlay on the screen (Let's say $1 buys 3 songs or 2 videos - display 
  would show that)
 
 Looks like you can plug that into an LPT port.
 
  *Once it's determined that there's credits in the machine have FBSD 
  listen to a keypad (telephone pad style) for input in the style of 
  , first 2 being album number, second 2 track number.
 
  *Queue up and keep track of songs to play. mp3s/CDs will launch a 
  visualization studio to display the music vis to the TVs, or launch 
  videos to play on TVs. 
  *When there's no activity, it will enter a screensaver mode where it 
  changes screens on monitor.
 
 All in all, I think that you need is a daemon that will collect data
 from the bill slot (parallel port?) and a keypad (serial port?),
 mysqld (the librarized version of the server might be nice), and
 something to play the music, mp3 / ogg (I'd go for Ogg Vorbis).
 
 

Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-18 Thread David L
This is just a long shot, but have you had a look at Freevo?

www.freevo.org

It runs on FreeBSD

David
 Hi gang,
  I was looking at purchasing a jukebox recently for a poolhall. When
 all is said and done, I found a refurbished 100 cd jukebox which I
 thought was really nice, until I heard the price - $4500. This is on
 par with a lot of older refurbished models, and the price can double
 for newer ones! So, the gears in my head started turning, and I
 mentally devised a plan to build my own jukebox that does more then
 your standard juke for a lot less money. Though I am unfortunately
 more of a Windows guy, I am thinking of turning to FBSD for this job.

 My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone
 is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer
 I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID)
 built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I
 can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to
 pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with S-Video
 out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd
 visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place.
 In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd like
 to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song lists
 at a time.
 Here's what I need to do:
 *Build a catalog of all music and videos on harddrive and CDs in
 changer, automatically 1-2 times a day or on demand.
 *Output video to a monitor which shows only the music list. For
 CD's/mp3s it will show the CD cover and a songlist. Typical jukebox
 style with CD's being numbered as well as song (EG. say NOFX's War on
 Errorism is listed as CD 22 and the song Mattersville is track 12,
 they'd enter 2212 as the song request). Show anywhere from 4-8 CD's and
 song info at a time (depending on screen size)
 *Interface with several buttons to control display. A set of NEXT PREV
 buttons which flip through the virtual catalog, and another set
 entitled Music and Videos which switch display
 *When pressing the Videos button, I'd like to be able to see the
 screen switch to a similar style as the above, only showing a
 screenshot of the video, artist name, song title, and album.
 *Tell FBSD to listen to a bill validator
 (http://www.videocan.com/bill_validator.html - currently waiting for
 info from them about interface) for credit inputs, and display it as an
 overlay on the screen (Let's say $1 buys 3 songs or 2 videos - display
 would show that)
 *Once it's determined that there's credits in the machine have FBSD
 listen to a keypad (telephone pad style) for input in the style of
 , first 2 being album number, second 2 track number.
 *Queue up and keep track of songs to play. mp3s/CDs will launch a
 visualization studio to display the music vis to the TVs, or launch
 videos to play on TVs.
 *When there's no activity, it will enter a screensaver mode where it
 changes screens on monitor.
 Stuff I'm thinking about adding but isn't necessary - search function,
 user inserted CDs (which lock CDtray until song/cd is through playing).

 Although I'm fairly certain FBSD can handle this, I wanted to ask the
 experts, to see if I'm right. I'm hoping to have a real easy to operate
 jukebox, so I don't want to have to many buttons, keyboards, etc there
 to confuse people. And if at all possible, I don't want to make mention
 that I'm using FBSD/PC hardware/etc inside (well, except for some
 powered by FreeBSD stickers on the back hehe).
 Let me know your thoughts! If I go forward with this, it's at least 2
 years away, but I think the idea is fairly sound.

 Thanks,
   Jeremy Pavleck
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Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-18 Thread Jeremy D. Pavleck
Forgot all about Freevo, I'll have to see how easy it is to make it bend
to my ways (or, maybe the freevo developers would help me with it in
exchange for some press + % of profits if I market it)
Speaking of marketing it Someone said I should, which I didn't think
about before, so I'm sort of thinking along the lines of idiot-proofing
it. That way, if I do in fact decide to market it, I won't have a lot of
reconstruction and rewriting of things to do. 
Along those lines, what's the best way to boot fbsd? 
Maybe a 1GB CF card for the R/W area, and everything else on a read only
raid array for music, etc? When more music needs to be added, they flip a
switch (or connect a master console) which mounts the media fs as r/w? 
I worry about the MTBF on the flash card being to low, which means a lot
of failures. But I want to make it so you can kick the plug out of the
wall, and no harm is done.
Maybe a small UPS built into the jukebox that would do a clean shutdown if
a powerloss occurs? 
Using CF cards, I could offer fairly easy system upgrades. I'll send you a
new card, you plug it in and return the old one...
I suppose do to the hey this is a marketable idea suggestions I'm moving
from more of a let's build a pc into a huge wurlitzer style box into an
embedded system. My only real goal is to make this thing bullet proof. I
hate the way electronics are headed these days, (20gb seagate drive died
on my server, drive was 2 years old. Replaced it with an 8 year old 1Gb
that has yet to die on me. Then an IBM scsi2 drive died on me, and just
the other day my 4 month old fujitsu drive is telling me I better low
level it, because something is wrong) and don't want to be a part of it.
Plus, although this would be a sensitive electronic device many magnitudes
more complicated then a normal jukebox, if it can't be treated the same
way it will make me and the components used look bad. So any more ideas? 
Sorry for the lil rant, ideas just popping into my head as I type
this. Thanks again. 

**
Jeremy D. Pavleck
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tired of PayPal? Me too.
Check out StormPay, it works the same way, with 110% less
anal-retentiveness!
http://www.stormpay.com/?193662 (Just my referral link, please 
help me earn a few cents :))

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, David L wrote:

 This is just a long shot, but have you had a look at Freevo?
 
 www.freevo.org
 
 It runs on FreeBSD
 
 David
  Hi gang,
   I was looking at purchasing a jukebox recently for a poolhall. When
  all is said and done, I found a refurbished 100 cd jukebox which I
  thought was really nice, until I heard the price - $4500. This is on
  par with a lot of older refurbished models, and the price can double
  for newer ones! So, the gears in my head started turning, and I
  mentally devised a plan to build my own jukebox that does more then
  your standard juke for a lot less money. Though I am unfortunately
  more of a Windows guy, I am thinking of turning to FBSD for this job.
 
  My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone
  is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer
  I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID)
  built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I
  can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to
  pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with S-Video
  out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd
  visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place.
  In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd like
  to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song lists
  at a time.
  Here's what I need to do:
  *Build a catalog of all music and videos on harddrive and CDs in
  changer, automatically 1-2 times a day or on demand.
  *Output video to a monitor which shows only the music list. For
  CD's/mp3s it will show the CD cover and a songlist. Typical jukebox
  style with CD's being numbered as well as song (EG. say NOFX's War on
  Errorism is listed as CD 22 and the song Mattersville is track 12,
  they'd enter 2212 as the song request). Show anywhere from 4-8 CD's and
  song info at a time (depending on screen size)
  *Interface with several buttons to control display. A set of NEXT PREV
  buttons which flip through the virtual catalog, and another set
  entitled Music and Videos which switch display
  *When pressing the Videos button, I'd like to be able to see the
  screen switch to a similar style as the above, only showing a
  screenshot of the video, artist name, song title, and album.
  *Tell FBSD to listen to a bill validator
  (http://www.videocan.com/bill_validator.html - currently waiting for
  info from them about interface) for credit inputs, and display it as an
  overlay on the screen (Let's say $1 buys 3 songs or 2 videos - display
  would show that)
  *Once it's determined that there's credits in the machine have FBSD
  listen to a 

RE: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-17 Thread Jeff MacDonald
I think the idea is fairly sound as well, tho you should confirm
freebsd's support for the tv card, that is the only part that would
be in your way.

Also keep in mind , to develop such a device with acompanying software
will run you much much more than 4500$.

Jeff.

 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of 
 Jeremy Pavleck
 Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 3:34 PM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Is FreeBSD up to this job?
 
 
 Hi gang,
  I was looking at purchasing a jukebox recently for a poolhall. When 
 all is said and done, I found a refurbished 100 cd jukebox which I 
 thought was really nice, until I heard the price - $4500. This is on 
 par with a lot of older refurbished models, and the price can double 
 for newer ones! So, the gears in my head started turning, and I 
 mentally devised a plan to build my own jukebox that does more then 
 your standard juke for a lot less money. Though I am unfortunately 
 more of a Windows guy, I am thinking of turning to FBSD for 
 this job. 
 
 My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure 
 like everyone 
 is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the 
 CD changer 
 I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb 
 SATA RAID) 
 built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. 
 This way I 
 can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. 
 I'd like to 
 pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series 
 with S-Video 
 out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd 
 visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place. 
 In place of the normal song selection screen you normally 
 see, I'd like 
 to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  
 song lists 
 at a time. 
 Here's what I need to do:
 *Build a catalog of all music and videos on harddrive and CDs in 
 changer, automatically 1-2 times a day or on demand.
 *Output video to a monitor which shows only the music list. For 
 CD's/mp3s it will show the CD cover and a songlist. Typical jukebox 
 style with CD's being numbered as well as song (EG. say 
 NOFX's War on 
 Errorism is listed as CD 22 and the song Mattersville is 
 track 12, 
 they'd enter 2212 as the song request). Show anywhere from 
 4-8 CD's and 
 song info at a time (depending on screen size)
 *Interface with several buttons to control display. A set of 
 NEXT PREV 
 buttons which flip through the virtual catalog, and another set 
 entitled Music and Videos which switch display
 *When pressing the Videos button, I'd like to be able to see the 
 screen switch to a similar style as the above, only showing a 
 screenshot of the video, artist name, song title, and album. 
 *Tell FBSD to listen to a bill validator 
 (http://www.videocan.com/bill_validator.html - currently waiting for 
 info from them about interface) for credit inputs, and 
 display it as an 
 overlay on the screen (Let's say $1 buys 3 songs or 2 videos 
 - display 
 would show that)
 *Once it's determined that there's credits in the machine have FBSD 
 listen to a keypad (telephone pad style) for input in the style of 
 , first 2 being album number, second 2 track number.
 *Queue up and keep track of songs to play. mp3s/CDs will launch a 
 visualization studio to display the music vis to the TVs, or launch 
 videos to play on TVs. 
 *When there's no activity, it will enter a screensaver mode where it 
 changes screens on monitor.
 Stuff I'm thinking about adding but isn't necessary - search 
 function, 
 user inserted CDs (which lock CDtray until song/cd is 
 through playing).
 
 Although I'm fairly certain FBSD can handle this, I wanted 
 to ask the 
 experts, to see if I'm right. I'm hoping to have a real easy 
 to operate 
 jukebox, so I don't want to have to many buttons, keyboards, 
 etc there 
 to confuse people. And if at all possible, I don't want to 
 make mention 
 that I'm using FBSD/PC hardware/etc inside (well, except for some 
 powered by FreeBSD stickers on the back hehe). 
 Let me know your thoughts! If I go forward with this, it's 
 at least 2 
 years away, but I think the idea is fairly sound.
 
 Thanks,
   Jeremy Pavleck ___
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Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-17 Thread Robert Storey
On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:33:30 -0600 (MDT)
Jeremy Pavleck [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Hi gang,
  I was looking at purchasing a jukebox recently for a poolhall. When 
 all is said and done, I found a refurbished 100 cd jukebox which I 
 thought was really nice, until I heard the price - $4500. This is on 
 par with a lot of older refurbished models, and the price can double 
 for newer ones! So, the gears in my head started turning, and I 
 mentally devised a plan to build my own jukebox that does more then 
 your standard juke for a lot less money. Though I am unfortunately 
 more of a Windows guy, I am thinking of turning to FBSD for this job. 
 
 My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone
 
 is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer 
 I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID)
 
 built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I
 
 can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to
 
 pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with
 S-Video out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd 
 visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place. 
 In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd
 like to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song
 lists at a time. 

It's a clever idea. I'm certainly no expert, but I should think it would
be a whole lot cheaper if you could dispense with the physical CD
changer and just implement the music with mp3. I'm less sure about video
- there might be legal issues with taking copy-protected DVDs and
turning them into mpegs. Anyway, the more you do with software and the
less with hardware, the less this thing will cost.

regards,
Robert
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Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-17 Thread Jeremy D. Pavleck
Indeed. I'm thinking the CD changer would just overly complicate
things. Right now, I feel 500GB of RAID 5 SATA storage will probably
provide enough space plus plenty of room to grow. If I don't have a search
feature, odds are I'll end up just deleting/moving the files off and
loading new ones on. About the movies, well - I will probbaly mention it
to my lawyer, but with things like this I tend to just do it and wait for
a CD letter to appear. Odds are I won't be yelled at for something like
this, and it's somewhat of a grey area as it is. But I'll talk it over and
see what the lawyer has to say. 
I'm pretty fired up about this whole thing, but I fear it's going to be a
long and winding road, what with my meager income and overwhelming
obstacles I have to face. Thanks for the input though, I appreciate it!

**
Jeremy D. Pavleck
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Tired of PayPal? Me too.
Check out StormPay, it works the same way, with 110% less
anal-retentiveness!
http://www.stormpay.com/?193662 (Just my referral link, please 
help me earn a few cents :))

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Robert Storey wrote:

 On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 12:33:30 -0600 (MDT)
 Jeremy Pavleck [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
  Hi gang,
   I was looking at purchasing a jukebox recently for a poolhall. When 
  all is said and done, I found a refurbished 100 cd jukebox which I 
  thought was really nice, until I heard the price - $4500. This is on 
  par with a lot of older refurbished models, and the price can double 
  for newer ones! So, the gears in my head started turning, and I 
  mentally devised a plan to build my own jukebox that does more then 
  your standard juke for a lot less money. Though I am unfortunately 
  more of a Windows guy, I am thinking of turning to FBSD for this job. 
  
  My plan is to build a custom jukebox looking enclosure like everyone
  
  is used to seeing in bars, poolhalls, etc. In place of the CD changer 
  I'd like to have a full PC (Thinking XP2800, 1GB RAM, 500Gb SATA RAID)
  
  built inside, connected to a CD changer that I can control. This way I
  
  can offer more then just CDs, but mp3s and videos as well. I'd like to
  
  pick up a nice vid card (Say an ATI Radeon 9xxx Pro series with
  S-Video out) and setup the S-Video side to stream videos/xmms mp3/cd 
  visualizations to 6 TVs spread throughout the place. 
  In place of the normal song selection screen you normally see, I'd
  like to place a 17 or 19 LCD that only display 4-8 CD covers  song
  lists at a time. 
 
 It's a clever idea. I'm certainly no expert, but I should think it would
 be a whole lot cheaper if you could dispense with the physical CD
 changer and just implement the music with mp3. I'm less sure about video
 - there might be legal issues with taking copy-protected DVDs and
 turning them into mpegs. Anyway, the more you do with software and the
 less with hardware, the less this thing will cost.
 
 regards,
 Robert
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Re: Is FreeBSD up to this job?

2003-09-17 Thread Joel Rees
 I'm thinking the CD changer would just overly complicate
 things. 

Oh, but there's something so _satisfying_ about watching the CD changer
in motion. 

(I'm not kidding. That's why jukeboxes have a glass front.)

Maybe you could simulate the changer with computer graphics?

 Right now, I feel 500GB of RAID 5 SATA storage will probably
 provide enough space plus plenty of room to grow.

You can always swap the computing hardware out. Start small. Use CDs
(and DVDs) for now to avoid additional copyright problems. 

 but with things like this I tend to just do it and wait for
 a CD letter to appear.

With the creative industries current focus, you're just begging for a
CD letter if you do that. They're liable to raise a fuss about the
public performance issues even if you have the CDs and DVDs themselves
ready to show the thought police. (You thought the high price for
jukeboxes was entirely because there isn't enough demand, right?)

 I'm pretty fired up about this whole thing, but I fear it's going to be a
 long and winding road, what with my meager income and overwhelming
 obstacles I have to face.

Lots of other people are working on the same thing or similar things.
Start small, get one thing working at a time, don't overload your fiscal
or time budget. Don't overload your computing equipment, either -- no
reason to try to serve separate media streams from the same CPU (or did
I mis-read your original post?) unless the actual streaming is going to
be done by slave CPUs. (No reason to tie fbsd down to read a keypad,
either, but then maybe you want a virtual keypad on the screen instead
of a physical keypad?)

-- 
Joel Rees, programmer, Systems Group
Altech Corporation (Alpsgiken), Osaka, Japan
http://www.alpsgiken.co.jp
--

When software is patentable, anything is patentable. 
(http://swpat.ffii.org)

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