With technology moving on and digital media being available for everyone it is now getting to the time when you have a home media server in the house.

You can buy off the shelf servers like medi8tor, but for anyone with a PC lying about doing nothing, can i suggest vortexbox.

Yes you can buy a ready built server from these folks. But they also offer a downloadable .iso file. Run this on your old PC and it will install everything for you. ( Note : I did have to do an update the first time to get the applications uptodate ).

For any CD or DVD just drop it in the drive and that will automatically be converted and pulled into your server.

Go check it out, for a home media server, this is making all the right moves.

VortexBox is a free, open source (GPL v3), quick-install ISO that turns your unused computer into an easy-to-use music server/jukebox. Once VortexBox has been loaded on an unused PC, it will automatically rip CDs to FLAC and MP3 files, ID3 tag the files , and download the cover art. Vortexbox will then serve the files to network media players such as Logitech Squeezebox, Sonos, or Linn. The music files can also be streamed to a Windows or Mac OSX system.

Features

• Convert an old PC to a CD ripper / jukebox / NAS in 15 minutes.
• Based on Fedora so it’s easy to modify.
• Automatically tags all files from online music database.
• Automatically downloads the cover art.
• Automatic sharing of file to SMB (Microsoft) file shares.
• Automatic re-indexing Squeezebox Server after every CD is ripped.
• AppleTalk – for OSX or Bonjour for Windows.
• DAAP – Automatically shares all MP3s for streaming to iTunes and Roku Soundbridge.
• NFS – For Linux boxes and almost anything else, Solaris etc.
• DLNA support – Play music and video DLNA enabled players, XBOX 360,PS3, Windows 7 etc.
• Easy installation of mplayer for AlienBBC support.
• Good support for Sonos.
• Works well as a back end server for XBMC (XBOX Media Center) running on XBOX, Windows, OSX, AppleTV, or Linux.

Well my old Epson photo 680’s inkjet head had become so gunged up no matter what I did it wouldn’t clear. So a few months ago I recycled it and bought this nice new epson wireless combi.

After a few months of use this printer is fantastic.

1. It’s wireless so can be anywhere in the house with only a mains plug needed
2. It has a built in scanner that allows me to scan on any computer, just drop the item you want scanned in.
3. It has 2 trays, 1 for A4 paper and the other for small photo paper
4. It has a screen and ports for media cards
5. I also bought the duplexer unit for the back.

It’s great that I can print photos straight to photo paper and put it in my album.  Also printing normal pages I’m saving loads of money with the duplex unit ( that only cost an extra £20 ).

All the print cartridges are seperate so easy to replace.

All in all a good printer, bit expensive but definately worth it.