As I have said before I believe that in the future, that people’s home media centers will all be based around a computer or computer like device like the Apple TV. This is important because instead of just being able to play media you have on physical media like tapes and DVDs you can play off your hard drive and stream media from the internet. I bleieve that in the next 20 years a computer-based home media solution will be standard. This also allows people to play media off computers in the house and stream media. It also allows users to watch and listen to podcasts on their full media center so they can have enjoy their media on the full setup in their living room.
If you want to do this now you can buy and Apple TV or hookup a computer to your TV and have it stream from other computers and from the internet. I think that is one of the best ways to reuse your computer and can help everyone enjoy their media much more.