[Cialug] Media Center...

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 2:17 AM, David Runneals <david at runneals.com> wrote:

> Hello Geeks,
> I was looking for a good os to put on a media center box (it's an old Dell
> Optiplex Desktop)... Was wondering if there is a good OS you would recommend
> for it. I have OTA programming only, and no cable. I would like to be able
> to save shows and watch them on my laptop and TV later & for it to play
> DVDs. I also need it to have a decent web browser for netflix and pandora. I
> assume I would need to get a tv tuner & a graphics card with HDMI out.
>
>
Your need for netflix pretty much limits your choices to Windows or Mac OS.
I recently went through this when I built a Boxee for my wife (which, btw,
is a great media center front end). Netflix requires silverlight, esp a
certain DRM component that is only available in the official silverlight
from Microsoft. Therefore the mono project's moonlight port won't work.

I have two TVs so this is my set-up:

Main TV:
 * Mythbuntu with one tuner (SD) configured to be a backend and a frontend

2nd TV
 * Windows XP running boxee and the Mythtv app (the nighly version) found
here: http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=18699 note that some days it
doesn't work
 * This computer connects to the mythtv server over the network using Samba
so that movies in the /videos folder show up as normal movies in boxee, the
mythtv app is only needed for watching recorded programs

Boxee has a nice interface that is easily controlled via a remote control. I
picked up a USB sensor on e-bay and then just use my cable box remote to
control it. Any remote can be made to work pretty easily.

By the way, I've found that if you're hooking up to a flat panel TV then DVI
or HDMI are the easiest ways to get the full native resolution of the TV.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." -Benjamin Franklin
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