I recently acquired 3 Pioneerpos PXi Stealthtouch touchscreen POS computer terminals. These are basically computers with a touchscreen built into a somewhat compact chassis. The internal guts consist of a Celeron 1.2ghz processor, 512mb 144-pins DIMM RAM, 20gb hdd, Intel 82559 Pro 10/100BaseT with remote boot and wired-for-management capability, the OS is XP pro.

I would basically like to make this a "jukebox" style interface to have around the pool for parties and get togethers. I am currently looking for the best type of software to tie this into my home audio equipment. I do have a network controllable Denon reciever with multi-zone capability, a NAD network controllable tuner, and a Crown 4 channel network controllable amplifier. I need some guidance getting all this equipment to work together, as well as a way to tie either another computer or a large external hard drive that I can store all my music media on.

My knowledge in networking is basic at best. Is the limited capability of the touchscreens computer hardware an issue or is it enough to handle what I'm trying to do? The end result I'm looking for is something simple and easy enough for anyone that walks up to it to use.   

DaSouthWon,

Do you know if the screens' touch features require any additional software on the computer, or whether they are just plug and play?  The reason I'm wondering is that you could easily try one of the various Media Center Applications, I would think - Windows Media Center is an option if it's MCE, not XP Pro, but I doubt it.  There are others as well - Boxxee and Media Portal, for instance, that run on Windows.

There's also full-blow Media Center OSes that run on Linux.  For instance, you can get Linux MCE that is a full blown media, home automation, security, etc, system.  Though, if it don't work with your hardware, then it pretty much don't work.

The first 2 I mentioned, you could try by downloading and installing, directly in Windows.

And of course, perhaps some of the media players would also support such..

And... then there's websites... if any of the websites have a built-in touch recognition, which I think some do now, or at least are working on it, then that might give a good option..

I looked through the programs installed on the system and it does include one that does things such as calibrate the screen, adjust sensitivity, and control various other settings.

The operating system is XP pro, however I don't have a problem changing it since I really don't need any of the XP Pro specific features.

I'm interested in learning more about the Linux system. Another guy that purchased three of these set them up for home automation. He simply swipes a card at the gate at the end of his driveway, the gate opens, the alarm is turned off, the garage opens, the entry door unlocks and the lights come on. Pretty damn cool if you ask me. When he leaves, he swipes the card, and it does the opposite of what happens when he gets home.

I'm trying to figure out away to upgrade the hardware on the unit. The Pioneerpos site designed the unit so that all you had to do was change the Celeron chip with a Pentium and nothing else had to be changed. However this was in 2002 and the Pentium chip used is a Pentium III. Not exactly cutting edge. The motherboard appears to be a propriatary design and not one of the standard size configurations. I'm going to take a look at Boxxee and Media Portal.

If you want to try out some of the stuff like the home automation and security, then Linux MCE will be the one to go with.  Of course, they're all free, so you can try any/all.  If Linux MCE works with your hardware, then it may very well be worth your time.  The install takes a long time, but hardly any of it is with you sitting there, unless you just want to.