Hardware manufacturers are responding with everything from high-end computers, designed to work with the home entertainment system, to low-cost, wireless receivers that take digital audio and photo files from the PC and play them on your stereo or TV.

If you don't mind running cables through the house, and just want to listen to your digital music on your stereo, you can avoid these devices. Here we highlight some ways you can bridge the digital divide between your PC and the living room, from low- to high-tech.

Cables

If you have a collection of music stored on a hard-drive MP3 player, but want to play it through your stereo, all you need are a few cables from your local electronics store. Ask for a mini-plug to an RCA jack adapter. Plug the mini-end of the cable into the headset jack on the player and the other end into the line input (Aux) of your stereo. Turn down the volume on the player and use the stereo to adjust the audio levels, since the amplifier will be stronger than your MP3 player.

If your music is on your computer's hard drive, you can connect to your stereo in a similar way. You need a cable with a one-eighth-inch mini-plug on one end and two RCA jacks on the other, available at any stereo store. (Audio experts advise using shielded cable instead of speaker wires with jacks, to prevent noise interference.) The mini-plug connects to your computer's sound card using the "line out" port. You can use the "speaker output," but the sound signal won't be as clear as the "line out."

Next, plug the RCA jacks into your stereo's "Aux" or "tape in" inputs, but don't use the "phono input."

Lola by x10 (www.x10.com)

Lola is available in three versions, priced at $49.99 for direct connect, $69.99 for wireless and $99.99 for VGA connections — making it one of the least expensive options for wirelessly playing music stored on your computer on your stereo. The model you use depends on the gear you have. If your computer is less than 20 feet from your TV and stereo and your TV has a video output (a round port), choose the $49.99 option. The mid-range package is for people with a computer in a different room and whose PC has a TV video output. If your computer is in a different room than your TV and sound system, and your PC has only a VGA video output (a trapezoid-looking thing with holes in it), choose the Lola Wireless VGA option.

Each package contains a remote, a 2.4 gigahertz wireless transmitter and receiver, batteries and the cables needed to hook everything up. You download the software from the x10 site. For a wireless unit, there are a lot of cables involved, but the x10 Web site and setup poster show exactly what goes where. When you're done, you can view a list of all your music files on your TV, control it with the remote and hear your tunes on your stereo. The Lola Media Manager will import all your existing playlists.

To access them, click the "Playlist" button on the Lola remote. New playlists can be created or modified using the remote and onscreen TV menus, or the Lola Media Manager on your computer. The remote uses a mix of infrared and radio frequency. It sends signals to your computer to control the Lola software using RF, so it can be used in any room of your house, up to 100 feet away; for everything else, such as TV, it uses infrared. However, one drawback to wireless networks on the 2.4 frequency is that appliances in your house — a cordless phone or a microwave — can cause interference.

• ew5000 and en5000 by Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com)

  HP's digital media receivers are another option for porting your music and photos to the living room. The ew5000 ($299) is for those who have a wireless (802.11b) network set up at home, while the en5000 ($199) is for Ethernet connections. Each unit includes the appropriate cables and a remote control, allowing you to beam your WMA and MP3 files to the stereo.

   

• Windows XP Media Center PCs by Gateway, HP, AlienWare, CyberPower and ViewSonic

  This category of computers is equipped to work with your TV, cable box and a remote, enabling you to record television to a hard drive, and many come with high-fidelity speakers. Prices range from $1,155 to $4,149, if you get a package that includes a plasma TV. These computers connect to your TV through s-Video and RCA TV outports, so you can use the remote to navigate the hard drive's contents and hear music through your stereo, as well as view video and pictures. You can record television shows on DVD disks but, due to copyright protection, these can't be viewed on commercial players— you have to watch them on your computer system.
  
  Originally published on May 18, 2003