How Do You Handle Home Media?

carpoolio writes "Yahoo's Tech Tuesday has an interesting series on bridging the PC/home entertainment gap. The solutions are fairly complicated, and very Windows-centric. As I store more media on my PowerBook, I'm finding more ways I can't listen to or view it on my stereo and TV. One example: TiVo Desktop won't stream AAC files - only MP3s - from iTunes to TiVo. That's an easy fix, but still: how do you get stuff off of your computer and onto your TV, stereo, etc.?"

Dear carpoolio

[slashnutt]

This is a response to your question about 'How Do You Handle Home Media?'.

In reading the question, you have actually answered the solution yourself. As you point at problems simply eliminate that area. You pointed to Tivo not streaming then eliminate that component from the problem.

There is nothing preventing you from hooking the computer to a stereo tuner solving the issue or hooking a composite video card to a TV (better would be a DVI input directly to a flat panel). If the component doesn't suite your needs then that component is not part of the solution. That goes for the Windows Centric issue you addressed; if it doesn't solve the need than there are non-proprietary solutions, I think the name start with L or something someone.

Really, Tivo and other you named are fighting a battle that may be hard won. The proprietary market seems to have slowed in response, yet the onslaught of FOSS solutions hasn't eroded over the years. The FOSS solutions seem to now fit needs faster than their proprietary relatives. Now if the true lower level hardware could be non-proprietary so you could order a manufacture to assemble components you designed in a collective community. Don't like Intel great IBM has some neat PowerPC chips don't like the video card drivers great we'll build it to your specs - this is a dream not achievable just yet.

:Easy Solution-Signal Strength.

[Anonymous Coward]

"My computer is my TV/stereo. I got a cheap TV tuner a couple years ago and it works fine, and I have my computer connected to my stereo. As a cheap college student, this is especially good as it also saves cash (TV tuners are much cheaper than TVs and I don't have to buy a seperate set of PC speakers) and space."

There's one difference I've noted between TVs and TV Tuners. The TV has greater sensitivity to an incoming signal. I've ran an identical signal, and the TV picked up more stations than the TV Tuner.

Ogg Vorbis only

[Anonymous Coward]

I do everything with Ogg Vorbis... be it my iRiver portable player, desktop, or whatever. I realize this limits my choices, but at least I'm using an open format that is controled by the people.

Re:MythTV you insensitive clod!

[ego093]

I would like to not only second the recommendation for MythTV, but also say that for this Linuz newbie, the experience of installing and using MythTV was fantastic. The community is extremely helpful, the Wikis are updated with the most important stuff and the latest version installed without any hitches. My wife can't believe it's free. I can't believe it was so easy.

Enough gushing.

Re:I still do it the low-tech way

[thanasakis]

You are of course right.
But allow me a few remarks:
1)If power goes down while you are listening to your music there is a chance that you may loose some data or even have a damaged HD.
2)Especially if you're running Windows, your system can be rendered unusable by a number of reasons. How long would it take you to rebuild the entire system installing the OS and all the software that you are using.
3)How long does it take to boot your system? A minute, half a minute perhaps?

I could go on, but you get the point. You see all the commodity devices in our houses cannot be damaged by power outages, nor can be damaged by stupid users whatever buttons they push (contrary to computers). In addition, you don't have to install anything to make them work and finally, when I press the power button the machine is ready within 1 or 2 seconds.

And that is (IMHO of course) why today's computers are inappropriate as normal everyday media centers. I can put up with having to reinstall windows or linux or FreeBSD to my machine at work, but I don't want to do that same when I get home. I just need a machine that just works and not another PC to administer.

Just my 5 cents.

Re:Windows now - moving to mythtv

[mottie]

My solution: I bought a ATI USB wonder. Then using xkbd I was able to map all the keys out on the remote, and set up the config file for MythTV to do whatever I wanted. This remote is great, because it has a number of buttons that are used specifically for this (labeled a - h if I remember correctly). Its also RF not IR so you don't have to have line of site.

PS2, network adaptor, Gameshark Mediaplayer

[mavx5]

I have been using this setup for well over a year and it is a very viable solution. Simply hook up your home network to the PS2, install the Mediaplayer server software on your PC (runs on Windows and Linux), run the Mediaplayer on the PS2, and voila! It's real simple and easy to use. It plays your DivX videos, MP3/WAV sound files, and even displays pictures. For about $150 total (if you buy a used PS2), you get a very elegant solution to play your media in your living room with no hacking whatsoever.
http://www.broadq.com/ [broadq.com] - Underlining software for Gameshark MediaPlayer