Thank you for the reply, oldskool. Very good suggestions!
I have explored most of them, except the hacked Tivo (I even have an old S2 in the basement, somewhere...).
I've seen a Sonos (and Escient Fireball) system in action and they're very slick but I don't really feel the need to drop a grand just to hear my MP3's in the den!
Both the Squeezebox and Roku (and Tivo) require a client to be running on my main music PC. That's not a big deal.
For my needs, the iPod AV dock is a waste of money (IMHO) as it offers no benefits over just plugging in a $2 Headphone-To-RCA cable from Radio Shack. That AV dock *does not* let you do on-screen picking and choosing of songs/playlists. You still have to use the iPod to pick songs. It just sends iPod video to your TV, which I don't have a big interest in (yet).
I actually really like the Mac Mini idea - though it's certainly not the cheapest solution at $600+. I could move my entire music collection over to the Mini and be done with it. I'm an IT guy, so I understand completely about using a VNC client - and that's a great idea to circumvent the non-HD set problem. But I want clean and neat - and I don't really want to require the laptop to be fired up in the HT room just to pick a song.
I am going to wait a couple of months for the new DLO Homedock to be released. Provided it works as advertised and has decent sound quality, it appears to do *exactly* what I want for $150.
DLO Homedock Deluxe V2
