A favourite gadget: home media center

My husband and I are geeks. There, I said it.

We love gadgets, computers, software ideas and anything of that type. I am happiest tinkering with code at the back end and using my laptop and smartphone to keep in touch with people. Matthew is happiest just being a full-on geek. Between us we make quite a sad pair.

But at least we are compatible! And happy in our geekiness!

For Christmas this year we finally booted out our rubbish little television – my frugal, use-it-until-it-dies principles were sorely tested in doing so – and we got brand new a 42″ LED TV (we waited and bought it in the sales though so that eased the financial pain). It’s nice and everything but I couldn’t get quite as worked up about it as everyone else in the house.

Did I tell you that everyone else in the house is a boy?

But then Matthew did something to it and it became my favourite gadget in the house. It turned from a regular TV into what you see in the picture above:

A huge computer. And not just a computer but a Media Server.

I don’t know what that is either so this next bit I asked Matthew to dictate to me.

I might be a geek but I’m the right kind of geek.

To get our TV to be a media server we plugged a Mac Mini into the RGB input of the television and use a wireless keyboard and mouse to operate it from the sofa.

From the sofa – that’s definitely my kind of geek.

Matthew installed Boxee which is made by ex-Google TV employees, so we essentially have Google TV for free. Boxee allows you to manage your existing media like iTunes, TV shows you might have downloaded from iPlayer or movies you have on hard disk.

It is also a portal for accessing lots of TV shows, usually older ones, for free.

This is not sponsored by Boxee by the way, I just think it’s cool software.

We can also use it as a regular computer. Here’s Edward playing the evil Bin Weevils.

I’m not sure why Edward has a red sash around his waist but I’m sure he was probably saving the world a few minutes earlier.

I prefer to use it to look at property p0rn once the children have gone to bed.

I’m thinking this little gem that’s on the market now might do nicely. With any luck I might not see any of the children for days on end.

But of course, the best reason for having such a fabulous set-up is so that I can admire the best of the web in 42″ glory.

Ah, now that’s more like it.

What’s your favourite gadget?

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Welcome to the Friday Club Carnival, a weekly carnival held here. This week’s Carnival is all about a favourite gadget and here you’ll find lots of posts about other brilliant gadgets:

Geeky Mummy gives us A Geeky Guide to Buying a Mobile Phone. Clare at Seasider in the City gives us Tech her family can’t do without. Jacq at Mymumdom tells us about her backing camera (I have to get one of these). Helen at Cheeky Wipes tells us about her favourite gadget in And the award for best gadget goes to….. Bibsey writes about her favourite gadget, my ‘precious’. Cara at Freckles Family writes about a gadget she loves. Jax at Live Otherwise gives us her favourite gadget and it’s not what you think. Merry at Patch of Puddles tells us about her clay sculpture tool. Cass at The Diary of a Frugal Family posts Gadgets – I love you…... Katherine at Living and Learning tells us about the fizz in her favourite gadget. Maggy at Red Ted Art posts about her digital camera. Domestic Goddesque writes about Coping with addiction. And this is mine: Ella at Notes From Home tells us about her home media centre.

Tagged as: friday club, geek