[Cialug] Media Center...

[David Champion]

You may also want to look at some of the set-top box or game console
options. Many of them will stream Hulu or Hulu Plus, Netflix, and their own
proprietary media services (i.e. Playstation Network sells & rents TV or
movies). You can also stream from UPnP to most of them.

I've gone the streaming route, mostly watch Hulu or Netflix, don't have any
cable TV, and only occasionally watch broadcast TV.

-dc

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 9:20 AM, Matthew Nuzum <newz at bearfruit.org> wrote:

> 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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