Build Your Own Linux Home Theater PC 250
Vic writes "If you have ever dreamed of building a home theatre PC, Extremetech has details on building a Linux-based system, and covers all the details of this epic journey. They did get the unit to run lots of features such as CDs, video, TV, weather, media libraries, guide viewing and show recording." From the article: "To paraphrase one forum quote seen during the research phase of this piece: 'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' But there is some good news here too. Getting a Linux-based HTPC has probably never been easier, though that is admittedly damning with faint praise. So here then is the tale of our ongoing adventure toward building a Linux-based HTPC."
Get an xbox and mod it (Score:3, Informative)
at a fraction of the price.
This looks good (Score:5, Informative)
Obligatory ATI warning (Score:5, Informative)
It just ain't going to cut it under Linux (blame about why this is goes back and forth, but the end result is that it just won't work). Instead, plan on investing in a Hauppage card. The 350 [pcalchemy.com] is a good place to start.
Re:Sure, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Everytime a story like this comes out, the MythTV faithful sprout up, but it's hard not and a list of requirements like that shows why:
MythTv already does:
# Store music, home movies, recorded TV shows, digital photos
# Play back all these media seamlessly
# Support a wide variety of audio and video codecs
# Play back DVD movies, and look as good as or better than a DVD player
# Have a simple GUI that any family member can use
# Serve this media up to other client machines on the home network
# Be able to handle HD music and movie formats, both present and future, with minimal upgrades (okay, maybe we're reaching a bit on this one)
This one is hardware dependent for any OS:
# Run quietly enough so that its fan noise doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of the content it's serving up
I have no experience with this one:
# Go in and out of sleep states with no difficulty
Which only leaves these two:
# Be rock-solid stable 24/7
Frankly speaking, MythTV isn't TiVO, and your mileage may vary. My current uptime is 18 days on my mythtv box. For my wife, a MythTV crash (frontend or backend, she can't tell) results in a computer reboot to bring it back up for her because she's willing to hit the power button but not willing to learn to restart it.
# Support the playback of DRM-encoded purchased/rented movies and music
For any copy protection there is a way to beat it, but what you need is specific to the system. For things like DVDs and Apple's Fairplay the solutions are known and common. For things like downloaded movie rentals, I don't know of any cracks for them, so this could conceivably be an issue.
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2, Informative)
My wife and kid use it all the time, with no difficulty. All of our home videos and digital pix are mounted via NFS and we watch them through MythTV. Ditto with our mp3s - thousands of songs on random getting played through the stereo via Myth.
It's one of the best things I've ever built. Check out Jarod's guide [wilsonet.com] for building a FC3-based MythTV system. The guide is helpful even if you're not a fan of Fedora Core.
Re:No HDTV? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't, however, have the capability to do time-shifting. That's something I'll get once Meedio is done with their MeedioTV product. Also, I'll be looking into the cable card thing at some point, since I'd prefer to record from my cable service.
The whole thing is more of a project than a product. It's something that I enjoy playing around with and it relaxes me. Anyone who just wants something that works should do exactly as you said and rent/purchase one.
Re:Where's the HTPC Distro? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html [mysettopbox.tv]
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:4, Informative)
Right [eff.org] here [seltzer.org].
Re:As long as it passes the "wife" test (Score:4, Informative)
It functions like a TiVo on steroids, except it's a PC (or a Mac).
Almost everything should be taken care of via the frontend, and for everything else (occassional admin type stuff) there's SSH, VNC, etc over your network.
*shrug*
Nope buy it (Score:1, Informative)
The product
http://www.upgrade123.com/catalog/product_info.ph
The chart comparing the two
http://www.upgrade123.com/catalog/article_info.ph
Re:Obligatory ATI warning (Score:2, Informative)
also the Hauppage card is a good beginner card as it has lots of documentation, however plextor has a better device http://www.plextor.com/english/products/TV402U.ht
that "Hardware Encode to DivX, MPEG-4, MPEG-2/DVD and MPEG-1/VCD" as well as a "better" tuner.
there are linux drivers and mythtv supports it, but not many ppl have gotten it (yet).
www.byopvr.com (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Obligatory ATI warning (Score:2, Informative)
A better guide (Score:4, Informative)
If anyone is interested in a much better guide (under Fedora):
Jarod Wilson's Fedora Myth(TV)ology [wilsonet.com]
He does a nice job of keeping this guide up to date and complete. Some people may not like the RPM he uses (Axel Thimm custom packages) but they've worked nicely for me.
Terry
Re:Sure, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Word of warning if you are going to use the mini:
The EyeTV software somehow manages to record and display HDTV signals okay on the mini, but HDTV playback via any other means (Quicktime, VLC, etc.) is damn near impossible, due to the relatively low CPU and GPU power of the mini.
So, if you are mainly watching DVD's and using the EyeTV 500 pretty much exclusively for your HDTV, it's all fine and dandy, but if you plan on running other HD sources through the mini, you will not be happy with it.
If you are a Linux geek and want to play back a wide variety of HD sources, you are probably better off setting up a MythTV box with a high-def video card.
If you are not a Linux geek, I reccomend throwing money at the problem: A dual-G5 tower is a video processing god.
For now, I'm happy enough with the mini. A year from now, when a lot more HD options are out there, I should be able to swap in something beefier (i.e. the XBox360, the next-gen PlayStation, or a newer and better Apple option) while leaving the real meat of my system, the projector and the stereo, exactly as it is.
Re:No HDTV? (Score:1, Informative)
ruling. See http://www.iptablog.org/regulation/ [iptablog.org] for details. These cards are $169.95 and Linux specific. I just got mine yesterday. If you really want HDTV without DRM crap, buy now or cry later.
I will be looking at TV live CD systems this weekend, including Myth TV live and other offerings such as Byzantine-OS.
The OS they're talking about is Windows (Score:3, Informative)
- Store music, movies, TV, photos? Check.
- Play back all these media seamlessly? Sort of. For some reason MCE treats music and video differently, which is strange since Windows Media Player does not. For example, you can create playlists and shuffle music; you can't do the same with video.
- Support a wide variety of codecs? Sure. Of course it doesn't support XVid or OGG Vorbis out of the box, but install the right DirectShow filters and away you go.
- DVD Movies? Check.
- Support DRM? You know it. Actively promote DRM is more like it.
- Serve to other client machines? You need to buy a Media Center Extender appliance, but yes. However, the extenders don't support all content formats.
- Simple GUI? Functions range from simple to almost aggravatingly childlike.
- Rock solid and stable? Believe it or not, I have seen very few blue screens on XP. If you have, you've got dodgy hardware.
- Go in and out of sleep states with no difficulty? I doubt you guys even comprehend this one. Mac OS X has a nice sleep function, but my MCE machine is pretty damn cool. You can hit a button on the remote and it will go into standby. The hard drives will spin down, the CPU goes into low-power mode, everything. But suppose you have programs queued up to record? No problem -- the machine will actually switch itself back on half way when it's time to grab those programs. The monitor doesn't even turn on. It just spins up the drive and starts capturing the TV program, then goes back into full Standby mode when it's done. Very slick.
- Run quiet? It's not silent, but the words "whisper-quiet" definitely come to mind. Most of what you hear is the hard drives. The noise is completely negated by TV at even a moderate volume.
- Can handle HD formats? MCE 2005 already supports current HD standards. You really think Microsoft won't be in on the party when new ones come along?
Say what you will about Microsoft, but their track record for this stuff is pretty all right. My main gripe is that it doesn't support simultaneous "computing" and "TV watching" functions as well as maybe it could. It works, but there are aspects of "dual-mode" operation that are a little clunky. I need to use this thing as a PC -- I can't afford a $1,550 set-top box.P.S. The machine I bought is a Sony VAIO RA830G desktop.