N00B-alert: Usage question

[bakker_be]

Hi everybody,
a very basic question: I'd like to be able to control a mediaplayer device, based on an Epia mini-ITX board, and running either WinXP or some flavour of Linux (not decided yet).
Ideally, the device will not have another display, nor will it have keyboard or mouse attached.
My first idea was using a small touchscreen, but at around €200 they're a bit too expensive to my taste, so I've started looking into lcd's.
I think the 635 will allow me to do this, but I haven't got a clue really.

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[IanB]

I have a mini-ITX system with an EPIA SP board installed (see this thread). It runs a fairly light installation of Fedora Core 4 and runs completely headless.

Choice of OS is trickier. The 635 is much better supported under Windows with CC2 being a good system. Unfortunately, Windows is a pain to run (a) headless, (b) for a long time without maintenance, and (c) on lower-spec hardware. Linux is much better in all three respects, but there's a downside in that the full feature-set of the 635 isn't widely supported. Yes, LCDproc will get some text to the display in 10 minutes, but that's about it. What you're talking about is proper interaction using the keypad.

As I've not found an application yet that supports the 635 including SCAB, LEDs and keypad under Linux, I am writing my own. It sounds like you will need to do the same (although I'm interested if you find a pre-canned application on the web as open-source).

As a footnote, the 635 is a beautiful piece of technology, but expensive to get hold of in the UK - don't know about your locale. 635 + SCAB + delivery + import taxes cost about 100UKP.

Ian.