Please Talk About Mediacenter PCs!

[we87]

I just seen the first episode and think it's great. Can't wait to see all of the great stuff you guys have in store.

Please do a segment/show about media center pc's. We have had a pc running Windows Media Center for years now and it's just great. Everything is set up at 1080p, spidf optical, the works. Something always goes wrong every three to six months though and we have to reinstall. It's become almost routine. So we would loveto see what kind of tips and tricks you guys have.

Thanks and keep it up!

[computoman]

I have never had to reinstall my mythbuntu box. I may convert to linhes (liux home entertainment system) though. With the\newer low power more powerful cpus coming out, Using your pc as a media center could be a thing of the past especially now that a lot of content is becoming internet ready..

[must_comment]

I really want them to do this too. I like ubuntu, but if there's a version of myth that'll run on mac or windows or another VOD program like it for free or cheap (ie: NO SUBSCRIPTIONS) I would prefer to see those.

[rharvier]

I'd love to see what capabilities linux distros have compared to media center, especially when it comes to HD content: BR, HDDVD, ATSC/Clear QAM and surround sound formats.

[ghelyar]

I use MythTV on Debian. This lets me watch live or recorded TV on any PC on my network (there are windows frontends, you just need a Linux backend, which I hide away in my attic - this also lets me record things while every other PC is turned off) and has other features too that I never use like streaming video files (I just FTP mine and play them locally).

If you already have a HTPC box near your TV you can easily convert it into a mythtv frontend.

One thing I will say though is that the interface sucks serious donkey balls and that MythWeb and a mouse is a must for using the guide listings and scheduling recordings. I'm working on my own interface that integrates all of this because frankly it ain't that hard to do 10 times better than the sum total of what is already there. Apparently you aren't allowed to tell them that it is bad though because it's free so you're supposed to just be happy with crap (see the interfaces for GIMP, Blender, etc for further examples of this).


Edit:
rharvier:
As far as I know, Linux can do Blu-ray. It can certainly do all of the decoding for it (ffmpeg can, which is what most things on most platforms are based on) and if nothing else, VLC can definitely play it all. I'm just not sure about the decryption. I rip my Blu-ray on a Windows PC (because that's where my Blu-ray drive is) with AnyDVD HD and then I can play it on Linux fine, but I haven't tried actually putting my Blu-ray drive in a Linux box.

MythTV does support HD tuners too and streams it out to any frontends verbatim. When I first switched to MythTV, I was asking questions along the same sort of lines, not realising that I should have been asking things like "are there any frontends that can do live TV", which I had just naturally assumed all of them could do!

[mr_lore]

+1 for sagetv, I've tried a few linux distros, windows mc in a few flavors and its the only one that can do the server/HD extender model well/cheaply.

[ghelyar]

The only one that can do it cheaply? MythTV is *free* (sagetv is not, even on Linux) and separates into backend/frontend if you want it to, like I am.

[mr_lore]

I meant doing the extender model cheaply, not just media center in general, thats easy to do for cheap on a per PC/seat basis. But the headless server with HD extenders for $200 or less per set top box is the best I can find because building an HD capable *nix set top box is even somewhat difficult for less than $200. But I see that changing soon with nvidia's new ion platforms.