Shipping should be minimal, I'd guess under $10 but I'd have to box and weigh it to be certain.
Basically what it does is, hook the unit to your network and stereo, you install the software on your PC and point it to a folder of music files. It catalogs the music files and you use the remote and the unit to play them. It doesn't have to be playing on the PC, this unit actually plays them. It's like a mini pc that plays digital music (mp3, wma, etc.), but it only does audio. It has video out for "future support" and displaying track info on your tv as it plays the music, but a tv display not needed since the unit has a screen itself.
There are also free internet radio stations that it can play but I only used it for MP3 audio. I have updated the firmware to the latest and I have the newest software I can toss on a CD also.