Would it be possible to mod one of these http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...cs&n=507846 to interface with a computer (Mac) in some way? I would't want to try it because of the complexity of doing something like this (And the price of the unit, but it would be quite useful for ripping dvds or simply keeping this on them so they could work like they were on a harddrive.

Note the fact that the changer doesn't burn anything.

-Knife

I know. I was just thinking about using it for playing or ripping the DVDs.

Some of these jukeboxes have the capability to interface with computers built in. The newer Sony ones I believe will do it. If you had one without that ability, the easiest way to mod it would likely be to fit a Mac mini logic board (and the rest of it) into the changer case, and try to swap out the actual player mechanism for a superdrive. Then you can burn discs too, and you have network access to the box.

Thats all they are really, a big motorised carousel with a DVD player next to it, and a method for kicking the discs into the drive.
I have a 200 disc Sony CD changer, and every time I move house with it, I have to open it up and unjam all the discs which have rolled about.

If you were seriously good at that sort of thing, maybe you could replace the controls in the changer with custom ones used via USB. Then write a driver which would let you make use of the USB port on an Airport Express station which is normally reserved for a printer to control your music = wireless jukebox. A lot of work though.

Check out this product:

http://www.thezephir.com/

It can controll most audio/video components. While it wont help in ripping disks it will allow you to build a custom interface to controll the changer from your mac. Add a firewire or PCI video capture bridge and you can watch movies and rip the DVDs on your mac, all without altering the DVD jukebox in any way.

In the past i've tryed to make a 5disc CD-ROM drive out of a old Sony 5disc player. Worked but it involed replaing most of the electronics with a CD-ROM guts. Sadly I couldn't find a way for it to change discs.

Another mod I did once was a car AM/FM/CD player in my PC. But it was used for listening to music while playing Counter-Strike with out having a MP3 player in the background slowing down the system. Just used the 12volt power lead and gound from the power supply and used a cable that had RCA audio on one side and a standard headphone jack on the other side.
Used the Lin-In on the soundcard and added a wire from the CD player to the case for the antenna. Only one bad thing about this. The CD player is wider so I hade it sitting on it's side in the drive bays. I used a chunk of cardboard that matched the color of my case to close of the gap.

Other then that I have no idea.

I used to wonder if I could swap my CD changers player mechanism for a DVD player and rig up video output. Might have to open that sucker up again and take a better look...

The zephir looks good, but the website is terrible and I can't tell how it works at all. And I would much rather the interface plug in with firewire than a wirelesss connection. Is there anything else like this?