Ok, so I was reading about the advancement of NAS (network attached storage) technology and it's move towards home use and I got an idea. I'm curious, those of you who have set up your own home networking, if this might work. Say I took a NAS unit and attached it to my home network. I then used a Slingbox, or other such technology to allow my music/movies/pictures to play on my television/stereo/computer. Would it be possible to create a home theater "control" out of a PDA using wireless technology? What I mean is, if everything is wired together with my files stored on the NAS server, with the Slingbox able to send the media upstairs (to my PC) or downstairs to my television and stereo, could I make a PDA (wireless) act as a remote that would allow me to access my files stored upstairs on my NAS server and play them on my stereo or television? This is just a hypothetical, but if possible, might be pretty cool. Am I missing any links or just dreaming?
This is vy possible to do. In fact, I'm building a prototype of a similar set up that you're describing for work. As for the PDA, I'm using a Sony PSP as it has built in WiFi and am using its browser interface to act as the controller.
Heads up, I bought one of the cheap iomega NAS hard drives and it is too slow to stream video. I had better success streaming video from an extrnal hard drive on another computer on my home network than from the NAS drive.
During my innitial foray into the technical foundation of my hypothetical plan I read that Iomega is a good, cheap storage option, but it isn't great at streaming. There were a couple NAS drives mentioned that sounded like they were designed for streaming media, but I can't recall which ones. CNet, PC Mag, and a couple other sites that are easy to find can provide a wealth of information. Most had their strengths and weakenesses, it's just a matter of weighing options and finding the right one.