CD player / mod question

[lurkist]

Does anyone know of a kit you can buy which is like a Hi-Fi seperate CD / DVD player, but with no drive included?  Allow me to explain.

It would look like any standalone CD / DVD player, but with a gaping hole in the front to which the user would add his / her own computer CD-Rom / CD-RW / DVD etc.  It could have full set of ins and outs, all the usual playback controls, and a small menu driven screen which would change according to the unit inserted.  Of course it would need a small OS of it's own on ROMs to achieve these things.

The advantages should be obvious but I've noticed that computer drives are far more capable than any I've come across in a CD or DVD player (and I've owned a few!).  Imagine a player that plays virtually anything you insert.  Multiple formats, unusual sizes (99min audio CDs etc.), overburned disks, DVDs, VCDs, MP3s, DIVx, etc. etc. etc.  Plus the ability to upgrade any time a nice drive comes along.

Does this exist?  Am I the only one who wants it to?

Cheers!

[lurkist]

Nah.  Too much fuss, too many bits and pieces, software for this and that, booting up and down, etc.  I have a PC, it's not what I had in mind.

[lurkist]

Hmm, I'll look into this.  Cheers, Moto.

[lurkist]

I am looking along these lines as well!  I thought of this a couple of years ago, but could never source an IDE DVD drive with A/V outs (don't exist?).

Now I am after an IDE player with play / ff buttons (these days, manufacturers tend to just have the eject on there), headphone socket and volume control (also on the way out) so that I can stick it in an external case and use it as a CD player.

I'm going on the assumption that it will work to play audio CDs without being connected via IDE...