Linux Media Center

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Zachstar

Check out this video!

http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Video

Now this is just stunning. It puts all the 80s and 90s audio/video equipment I have to shame.

It also puts to shame the "Xbox media center" which for a time was gaining wide popularity.

And it keeps an eye on the house with the right sensors. How about that!

I run a Linux media server. I have Gentoo Linux on it. I posted this before, but this is what it looks like:



Not much bigger than a hard drive. It has a 500 GB stuffed into it, and I use it as my primary home server, as well as my ftp server for when I'm on the road.

http://www.kurobox.com/revolution/what.html

Here is the flavor of Linux I have on it:

http://www.gentoo.org/

The reason for Gentoo is that you can optimize it for any platform, and make a special install of it that only works with the box it is on, but since it is optimized, it will run faster and more efficiently (no bloat) than a generic flavor of Linux. A smaller footprint can also be created. There is a downside though - since what I describe means you have to compile all the code on the box, and compiling code on this little guy (PPC 266 Mhz) can take a while.

For serving media out to various windows platforms and to my TV, I use this media server:

http://www.twonkymedia.com/

It will serve up various forms of media to any device capable of playing it.

My main device I use to play back this media is this:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=438

There are no fans, and it has perfect silent operation so it is perfect for an entertainment center. I pipe the sound over to my Rotel surround proc via digital coax, and I use the DSM to decode the video and also pass it to the Rotel. Picture quality is perfect from the DSM.

-S

PS. As I type this, I am processing video (A nice way of saying that I am removing the commercials) from a slew of video that my media center recorded, and I will dump it on the Kuro. Takes about 2 minutes to remove the commercials. Its mainly waiting for my RAID drive to chew the large files.