[Cialug] media center

Tue Mar 16 12:09:00 CDT 2010

On Mar 16, 2010, at 11:40 AM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:

> Hi, I am thinking about a whole-house media center. It would be a server that could record shows, store copies of DVDs and other media and be controlled by front-end devices hooked up to TVs.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone has some experience doing the parts of this. I am going to invest some money and would like it to work as painlessly as possible. I need to:
> 
> Choose where to get my content: mediacom, dish, directv (other?)
> 
> How should I record the content: hdhomerun, pci/usb tv tuner (other?)
> 
> How should I watch the media? I.e. what software should I use? I'd like to be able to control it via a remote, watch hi def, have surround sound, watch/pause/record live TV and most of all, be very easy to use.
> 
> I've seen devices like the SageTV HD Theater http://www.sagetv.com/hd_theater.html or Roku HD http://www.roku.com/roku-products and PC operating system net-tops like the Acer Revo.
> 
> Have you read any practical hands-on reviews or tutorials of people doing this?
> 
> Oh, and one last question... how does a person hook something like this up to surround sound? Do you plug your devices into the TV and then use the TV's output into your stereo system? I'm really new to HD.

Pre-packaged systems like Sage/Roku/AppleTV/PS3/etc. are definitely easy to use, and they might do what you want. But if they don't do what you want they can also be very limiting, because they're either difficult to hack or have very limited processing power and therefore cannot be used to do anything very far outside their designed role, or both.

Currently I'd recommend XBMC or one of the derivatives for a frontend, with media distributed via regular file sharing (SMB, NFS, etc.). The downside to not using the same system you do for recording is that live/near-live can be tricky. I personally don't have a problem with that, but you might, particularly if you haven't made the switch to on-your-own-schedule media yet. Luckily if you're using a general-purpose computer you can easily switch among software for different purposes -- use a better media organizer for pre-recorded material and switch to something that supports live/near-live playback when you need it.

As far as recording TV goes I've previously used MythTV, and found it very usable for recording shows but the frontend is terrible for watching, organizing or distributing them. An easy place to start with this is a pre-packaged MythTV distro like MythBuntu or the like. Back in the day I also recorded with my ReplayTV and pulled files off via HTTP, but that's not HD, and they haven't made new boxes for years.

If you're going to record OTA, HomerunHD is very easy to use with MythTV (or just about any other recording system), does not put any strict requirements on the host system in terms of slots, case size, OS, etc. Plus you can potentially use the tuners directly from more than one system, which is handy if you want to do live/near-live playback in more than one location.

Capturing HD cable/dish/etc. is a lot trickier due to the encryption. There are some hacked boxes available that will output usable digital signals, but they're pricey. And some of the company-provided DVRs can be coerced into sharing their data if you're willing to work at it, though usually only for recorded content (not live). AFAIK there's no straightforward solution for any cable or satellite system.

Personally I find it easier to pay for the content to make myself feel legitimate and then just torrent it to avoid the technical hassle. A couple of scripts to crawl your list of favorite shows makes it pretty easy to manage.

For sound I'd suggest an output device that has optical or coax digital connections directly to your stereo. If you get everything onto HDMI (which may or may not be easy depending on the OS, card, etc.) you might be able to pass through the TV, but I wouldn't count on it. If your stereo system supports HDMI you could go the other way pretty reliably: computer->stereo->TV, but you have to have a fairly new system for that. Hence my recommendation for the separate connection (unless you want/need 7.1 PCM, in which case you have a new stereo already and HDMI is the only option).

Remote control is generally not an issue; there are a variety of ways to get IR signals to translate to keyboard button presses or other useful events. The particulars of that depend on what exactly you run as a frontend, but it can be made to work with just about any program on any OS unless you really need mouse inputs. A BlueTooth or IR mouse and keyboard are also not bad options; you may still want a remote for in-show pause/play/volume, but having a keyboard around can make it much easier to navigate a large collection of media.

	Zach

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