OT? Network A/V Receiver or Media Bridge Opinions

First off- if there is a better group to post this to, please let me know.

I am preparing to network my home A/V system with my current wired/wireless
home computer network in order to play music and video from the hard drive
as well as streaming content from the web. There have been "Media Bridges"
available for a while now (ex: Linksys WMB54G), but recently a lot of high
end A/V receivers are coming with a network (RG-45) connection built in.
Any opinions on which way is better?

 

I've just done this, and I've now got the slickest home media playback
I've ever seen: for the princely sum of around 60 quid.
I'm using an old Xbox, softmodded so that I've been able to install
XBMC. Have a google for examples - off the top of my head it does
* dvd playback with upscaling
* upto 1080i playback with component cables
* plays *all* media from *anywhere* - off the network, off youtube,
off shoutcast, off last.fm
* automatic adding to library from SMB shares, including imdb lookup
and dvd artwork
* allmusic.com reviews and album art for music.
* playback from joox.net, BBC podcasts/listen again

some examples here:
http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2006/03/21/screenshots-of-my-xbmc-setup/
if you search ebay for XBMC you'll see some thinly-veiled auctions
selling premodded xboxes with it installed.

Best of all, it's "living room friendly". Use it with the MS DVD
remote and you can get at all your music, pictures, video etc all from
your sofa. It's little, it's quiet (XBMC does fan control) and it
comes with ethernet, video out, a remote, a dvd drive and even optical/
component out with the optional cables.
Oh, and you can even install X-DSL Linux on it in about 30 seconds,
which will give you a desktop with Firefox, email, etc.

Seriously, it's definitely the best gadget I've ever built, and
probably the best one I've ever owned - 100% happy with it so far. It
absolutely cacks on any prebuilt media boxes available commercially.

Ric