Laptop/Portable Wifi HD(TV)

[Razor Blade]

Well I have been thinking about this for a bit and have an idea. I'm sure it's been thought of many times before, but in my head it sounds great. I just need some POV's and feedback to make sure this is a realistic idea. ;)

Bassically I want to purchase a lightweight laptop computer, something a little older, but with some decent specs. Along the lines of a ~2.0 Ghz processor, 512mb RAM, and I would possibly upgrade the HDD or whatever else I think needs a boost in specs etc ... Okay so on to the main idea ...

With this laptop I want to take everything and modify it! Yay! Okay well mainly the outers. I want to create a new shell, and make it into a sort of portable TV through wifi. Basically so I can stream my TV shows/Movies from a server (also part of the mod) to this laptop via Wifi.

Ya, I know what you're all thinking; "Why do that when you could just do it through a laptop without modifying it?" Well because I feel like I wanna start a mod, and not get into something too complex. This would be my first real mod, so I don't wanna bite off more than I can chew. I want something that looks just as it could be a slimline TV, but with all the innards of a computer, is light, can travel easily, and possibly have a touchscreen inerface(?) [I heard you can buy parts (a thin translucent sheet) to make a regular monitor into a touchscreen - I have yet to do more research on that] Also on the software side of things (since i'm more of a graphic designer/artist) design a really cool interface/shell to replace windows default to a really great interface that's original and rivals even that of the greatest electronic corporations! :D

Anyways with Wifi/802.11 b/g be fast enough to transfer video from a server to this mod, possibly HD programs as well, or is this just a dead end project and I should put my thinking cap on again? I decided to ask here, because I love this community and even though you probably havn't seen much of me, I hope you guys do in the future, esspecially with a mod like this! Fun easy, affordable and sexy ... :p

Thanks for the input guys!

[CanaBalistic]

Its allready been done, its called a tablet pc...

[Razor Blade]

Well a lot of help here ...

[Nagoshi]

Im pretty sure you can do this project, Ive always wanted to have some kind of server PC which would shares ALL my files to my other computers :)

Hmmm... 2GHz, 512Mb RAM, and around 80Gb of space... theres a place in the city where they sells such laptops... around $1 000 CAN, without taxes...

I see you live in canada... where d'you live? :P

[Wiscow]

A hybrid tablet PC would be a good place to start. You could fold it up and stick it inside whatever cool looking case you want.

I think Wifi is plenty good for streaming video.
MY viewing computer is an old AMD 1600XP connected to a Linksys WRT54G wiressly connected to my Linux Samba server on a pentium 2 computer. I am able to view DVD files ripped straight to the harddrive.

[Razor Blade]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys. Ya I do live in Canada; Edmonton Alberta to be more precise.

Well although it would be easier to get a tablet PC, or a hybrid like you mentioned Wiscow, they are a tad more expensive and the point of this mod is to modify the hardware and change it up to make it like one. It would save me some money and give me more to do, which in this case is a GOOD thing :p

So I could probably go for even a little lower specced laptop if Wifi is good enough. I just have a question hopefully you guys can answer. Can I take a laptop and buy a screen not normally meant for that laptop to use? Like let's say the laptop originally had like a 15" screen. Could I get a 12" Widescreen and put it on their, and use something like powerstrip, or a program like that to manually include the resolutions meant for the new screen?

Sorry if this is totally impossible, but I can't seem to find any solid answers to the question. Thanks for the reply's guys :)

[CanaBalistic]

I think some laptops come with a 15 pin vga plug for external monitors.
usb maybe?

[Razor Blade]

Ya that kinda just sprung in my head too. It would be nice to use a smaller Widescreen touchscreen LCD ;) Just connect it through the external VGA, which like you said, most have anyways. Well since like 98 :p

[DaveW]

Internally the Laptop uses a cut-down version of the D-sub.

-Dave

[Durrthock]

2.00ghz isnt really the specs of an older comp

[Razor Blade]

:p Yea so true. Well i'm trying to keep this one as cheap ass possible, and can't really seem to find any good deals.

Soooo, I was thinking of buying an old crap laptop like 100 bucks shipped :p And modding the hell out of the case and that to make it look like the sexy ones of today. You know for use in a car or something. Just to futz around, surf the web, download photo's to whatever.

The thing is, are some of the older laptops upgradable at all? Like lets say to throw a wireless card in their? As long as it has a PCMCIA slow right? Excuse my ignorance. I've always been mkind of a desktop guy :D

I'm just looking for something to mod. I'm getting the modders itch. I really don't want to do anything to my desktop till I upgrade it (then I have a bigger project in mind) Plus this is a fun way to get to learn more etc ...

You guys have any other ideas involving a laptop? I was even thinking of using one as another display to show stats and stuff of this computer (desktop)! I'm running out of ideas - help me! :)

Ooooh, maybe just make it into a media server! Ya, nice and small, redo the case, but if I want to stream videos etc, will the processor speed/ram affect it that much, or basically mostley the wireless speed? Because if i'm going cheap i'm probably going sub 300Mhz :p Input is needed thanks guys! I know i'm such a n00b huh :p