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."
Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:5, Funny)
Windows: Where do you want to go today?
MacOS: Where do you want to be tomorrow?
Linux: Are you coming or what?
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:5, Funny)
More like:
Linux: Hey, are you going to eat that?
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:2)
Linux: We are carbon paper's biggest competitor!
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:2)
"No, I always walk like this!"
Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week...
Re:Hey, that should be the new OSS slogan (Score:3, Interesting)
That'd do wonders for Linux and OSS.
We do one better (Score:3, Interesting)
Right now, I'm running a via-1000 mb with Freevo, and no tuner card. Plug it right into the tv, set up NFS and SMB shares to my fileserver and just wach TV.
'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' (Score:5, Funny)
Re:'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' (Score:2)
You've really got to read that source code a little more closely, and compile with -WTF next time.
Re:'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' (Score:2)
It wasn't until they had left that I realized my stereo was missing.
Re:'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' (Score:2)
Re:'Buy the beer first, this ain't gonna be easy.' (Score:2)
You just need four things:
Get an xbox and mod it (Score:3, Informative)
at a fraction of the price.
Re:Get an xbox and mod it (Score:3, Insightful)
This looks good (Score:5, Informative)
Sure, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
I can see the use of a TiVo being sustained, but are these homebuilt products mature enough that my mom can use this? (Mom is not very tech friendly)
If I'm going to plop down over a grand for this little thing, (i don't have the spare computers) will i use it?
Re:Sure, but... (Score:4, Interesting)
These devices change how you watch TV entirely. I only watch the shows I like, even shows I kinda like, and I watch them whenever I feel like it. I used to never watch TV because I get bored with the shows easily. Now I watch TV and fast forward through the parts that are boring. (Hint: If you watch ST:TNG you can get all the show in 30 minutes if you skip any scene involving Deanna Troi talking about people's feelings).
I've used mine for about a year now and it's completely ingrained. While visiting my inlaws, the reflex to delete a show after it's over resulted in me turning on their DVD player several times without thinking about it.
Re:Sure, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
Step 1: Hook up a current Mac to the HDMI or DVI input of your TV.
Step 2: Hook up the EyeTV 500 from Elgato to your Mac via Firewire.
Step 3: There's no step three.
I've been using this set up for my media center for a couple months now, enjoying HDTV with PVR features, DVDs (mostly archived on my ha
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
-Jesse
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
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
Plus, the rate of change with the commercial boxes is glacial. Sooner or later, the Gratisware competition WILL match Tivo in any respect.
A jukebox that contains your most used DVD's and ALL of your music, plus does the VCR thing would be very handy to most people.
Media Center, Shmedia Center... (Score:4, Interesting)
Considering how many people these days are VERY familiar with the W.I.M.P. (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) paradigm, there is no need to disguise what these boxes really are unless you are trying to create a very limited use appliance like a Tivo or iPod.
With that in mind, my home theater PC is just a Celeron (P4 family) running Fedora Core 3, Xine (which does nearly everything) and a Hauppaugue PVR250 card (which is perfect for this sort of thing). I wrote some scripts and created some icons to match and my wife finds this WAYYYY easier than the VCR menus system, the Windows ME based system we had before and you know why? She looked at it and said, "Oh, it works like a computer. This is easy'. I've been running like this since about February. It's perfect. Click on one icon and the system becomes a "TV". Hit "Q" (thanks to Xine's extensive kb shortcuts) and you're back to the desktop. Watch a DVD? Just pop it in the drive and Fedora's MagicDev application will launch my "playdvd" script which automatically starts a fullscreen Xine session and starts playing the DVD with full menu navigation support, etc...
Schedule a recording? Just click the scheduler icon and thanks to the magic of Gnome 2.x's Zenity add on, I have a series of nice GUI based dialog boxes that allow me to select the date and time of the recording as well as program name and recording length. It sticks all the info in cron and the show is scheduled. Pause live TV? Just click the "pausetv" icon on the button dock and Xine launches while I have a 'cat
My wife loves the new system since she feels it's the easiest I've ever set up. The real key is to put down the pretenses that this box is anything more than a computer. For my next trick, I'll be completely eliminating any TV or stereo gear from this setup. The TV gets replaced by a much higher quality display LCD computer monitor. The Yamaha 5.1 amp is getting replaced with an amp of my own design that will just be an amp leaving all the preamp features to Gnome's Mixer applet. Can't get any easier than that...
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)
Not that it matters much, but your could trap something in
Of course, you probably don't really care, and I doubt your wife does either. Still, if you want f
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
I've had my ReplayTV crash on occassion (usually due to weirdness with one of the switches on my home network), so even off the shelf consumer PVRs aren't immune to downtime. Even without crashing, my ReplayTVs have to reboot every couple of days for software upgrades, etc., so I wouldn't be too concerned about maintaining perfect uptime. Just make sure your box doesn't go down while you're recording something or watching TV, and that should be about as much reliability as you
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
I take care of frontend crashes by having a X session that simply runs MythFrontEnd and nothing else. If MythFrontEnd exits for any reason the X session terminates and X brings up the lo
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 ev
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
My Windows MCE 2005 box seems to do all of those nicely. It plays back all my MPEG, DivX, OGG, files (and anything with a codec) without any issues.
The recorded TV is stored in a semi-proprietary format, which is nothing other than MPEG with some ASF framing and additional metadata, which can be stripped into a plain MPEG or converted to any other video standard.
I'm not forced to use only DRMed content with it.
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
The OS they're talking about is Windows (Score:3, Informative)
Laugh all you want, but I recently bought a new PC that came bundled with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. It is far (I said far) from perfect, but it pretty much does everything on the list.
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
Re:Sure, but... (Score:2)
i.e. the free as in beer gbpvr [gbpvr.com], the not so free (except for the trial) BeyondTV [snapstream.com], SageTV [www.sage.tv], and Meedio [meedio.com] (there's more but i'm tired of typing in URL's already =) )
e.
No HDTV? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wasn't there an article about HTPCs a few weeks back (though it didn't specifically focus on Linux)?
Re:No HDTV? (Score:2)
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:No HDTV? (Score:2)
Re:No HDTV? (Score:2)
The only problem is that you can only record OTA broadcast HDTV, or unencrypted cable HDTV if the cable company complies with proper QAM modulation and your capture card tunes QAM. You cannot record from DirecTV, Dish, or encrypted cable. The receivers for DirecTV, Dish, and encrypted cable are closed boxes, and it woul
MythTV/Freevo & DirecTV (Score:2)
Do any of these software products have a way of dealing with a DirecTV tuner? I know there's no tuner card per se, but what about using an IR eye, and acting as a remote control to change channels at set times...is this possible using Myth or Freevo?
What about listings? I have OTA HD already, and I also have HD DirecTV channels. Would be nice to just output DVI or Component to the machine, and let the machine do the heavy lifting.
No HDTV ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Where's the cutting edge stuff!?!
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Even though it's HDTV, the DTV cards aren't that sexy because they involved using rabbit ears and getting broadcast HDTV only. (so no DiscoveryHD or HBO HD)... it's dissapointing (unless you live in an area
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:2)
Digial broadcasts are on the UHS band. Rabbit ears are for VHS reception.
For my Mac-based HDTV PVR, I use a YAGI roof antenna.
I have no interest in paying monthly fees of any kind just for television.
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:2)
So if I get some, do I just hang the tape from one, or do I do I still need a VCR?
hawk
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:2)
And this is with the rabbit ears sitting on a desk indoors in an office building with lots of metal everywhere (including the window frames).
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:4, Informative)
Right [eff.org] here [seltzer.org].
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No HDTV ? (Score:2)
You don't need to digitize or compress the video.
The particular digital television standard varies from country to country-- an Australian tuner will not work in the US, and vice versa.
Linux and Video Capture (Score:2)
I ask because I have projects in the works that depends on working video capture drivers, and I'd like to be able to distribute (or distribute a pointer to) a list of
Re:Linux and Video Capture (Score:2)
Re:Linux and Video Capture (Score:2)
AverMedia AVerTV DVB-T USB2.0 [averm.co.uk]
I've no personal experience of how well (or not) it works under Linux, but I thought I'd share their link because it's nice to see a hardware manufacturer acknowledge that Linux even exists.
xbox (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:xbox (Score:2)
The XBox isn't a great solution because the drives suck. A good solution, yes, but not a great one.
Re:xbox (Score:2)
(I don't own one)
any decent home theatre setup today should have digital video. either via firewire or dvi or that new pinout that is equiv to dvi (can't think of the name but its fairly recent).
or, am I the only one who wants to separate, as far as physically possible, the spinning drives and fan noises from the video display/speakers/viewing area?
long cable lengths with analog _anything_ (audio or video) is a no-no. I'm hoping that that new dvi thing will be a good
Re:xbox (Score:2)
Re:xbox (Score:2)
how do you serve content? from remote (ethernet) drives or via local storage?
for any decent sized movie collection, you're gonna need A LOT of drives. even at today's 400gb/unit density.
I'm saying - you need to consider the concept of 'remoting the display'. it just makes too much sense. then you can go wild with fans and drives and whatnot. just in a 'server room', which could be a spare bedroom or basement or closet. just NOT in the quiet viewi
Re:xbox (Score:2)
Yep. I'm expecting to spend $60 or $70 on a used Xbox in early 2006, and with GentooX and MythTV on it my digital playback needs will be covered.
That being said, though, the Xbox is only suitable as a home theater frontend. It has no Video In or MPEG encoder, so for PVR-like functionality you'll still need a separate backend server in the other room, or at least a reliable source for TV torrents.
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: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.htm [plextor.com]
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
Re:Obligatory ATI warning (Score:2, Informative)
A much bigger thing to express (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the recent history of personal computing. In some ways, it's similar to the original homebrew PC movement of the late 1970s and early 80s. Equal parts cool kids club and grass roots revolution, Linux in its many different forms has proven itself a force to be reckoned with. A highly configurable OS that can both scale up to big enterprise iron and down to handheld devices, Linux can do almost anything. It even powers the most well-known PVR on the planet, TiVo.
I think there is something bigger here that merely Linux which is, after all, just a kernel of the OS. The kernel as well as the rest of the significant components are driven to development by the will of the community that finds interest in their own ends. They don't do this to win a popularity contest. They don't do it in order to bring anyone down. Mostly, they are doing it "because they want to." (And the only way to stop that is to take away their freedoms)
I think the project is cool and I will, one of these days, take it upon myself when I have the beer and other money to throw at it. But there is opportunity here for the entrepreneur!
The fact is, only a tiny portion of the public will do this for themselves... the rest of us will want to BUY it...
Building it is the easy part... (Score:5, Funny)
shame you couldn't get it to work properly. (Score:2)
My Mythtv Impressons. (Score:4, Insightful)
I watch TV much anymore, but I wanted to muck around with it, so I bought a WinPVR-250 card.
I stuck it in my file server, and watch it on my desktop. Both are running Debian, of course.
For debian/ubuntu users check out this line:
#Mythtv
deb http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian [rit.edu] unstable mythtv
I am sure you know what it is for.. (minus the
The only tricky part was that the guide was off by one hour (found a quick-n-easy SQL one-liner on the internet to fix that) and setting up MySQL so that it would accept remote connections (this is disabled in Debian by default).
I found out that it will happily run in a window and is fairly desktop friendly, which I didn't know they had it setup to do. My desktop resolution is 2 monitors at 1280x1024 and I run mythtv at 800x600. Nice picture and a pleasent distraction while mucking around with work or whatnot.
Also nice for when you want to watch TV with your laptop.
If I had a second chance at a card (bought it a while ago) I'd get one of those plexor's that use the go7007 drivers.
Plexor GPL'd the drivers themselves and they look nice. Much more capable then the WinPVR stuff.. Can encode in mpeg4 (divx-style) as well as mpeg2 and others, were the WinPVR can only do mpeg2.
I may actually buy one still.
One tip: when you find a show you want to watch, hit the 'r' button to start recording it. I find that when I let it pause for a couple hours and I come back to finish watching the show to many times I accidently change the channel and loose my buffer.
What will Microsoft's reaction be this time? (Score:2)
As long as it passes the "wife" test (Score:4, Interesting)
Not like she's a retarded spider monkey or anything - she's a graphic designer and uses OS X (left myself wide open for that one, i know) but if she's got to use three different remotes and a keyboard, there's no way in hell she's going to use the damn thing. I don't need her calling me at work to walk her through how to watch a DVD or listen to music.
Plus, if it's really easy and slick, then she'll be a lot more accepting of the equipment purchases that i tell her about.
Re:As long as it passes the "wife" test (Score:2)
Re:As long as it passes the "wife" test (Score:2)
She *loves* having the weather module.
Having the future recordings, and being able to tell it to avoid recording upcoming shows that we know we've seen is incredibly useful.
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*
Where's the HTPC Distro? (Score:4, Funny)
Sure, I probably should research this before posting, but if I did that, I wouldn't be a proper Slashdot reader, would I?
Re:Where's the HTPC Distro? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html [mysettopbox.tv]
Re:Where's the HTPC Distro? (Score:2)
been there (Score:2, Interesting)
Now I got a MacMini here. Its small, quiet, comes with a good pre installed OS.
30$ for a remote control (BlueTooth -> SallingClicker)
and Im ready.
serves video, TV, audio, Internet (without virus probs) whatever.
Runs with or without a TV attached (use your mobile phone as a status display)
And most of al
Horrible article, here's a summary (Score:4, Insightful)
Basically it is as simple as selecting the supported hardware, pop in the CD and go... these guys get tripped up tring to get a SUPPORTED remote to work and don't even know how to add two commands to the window manager so they don't have to go to the CLI to run Gedit!!! Morons.
This article did nothing, it didn't educate, it didn't enlighten, and it actually just spread more FUD about Windows MCE being better and easier. Thanks
Re:Horrible article, here's a summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it really FUD if it's the truth?
For "n00bs" at least, XP Media Center Edition really IS better and easier than trying to roll your own Linux PVR.
And remember, MOST CONSUMERS are "n00bs". They can't all be L33T SUPAR USARS LIEK YUO!!!
Re:Horrible article, here's a summary (Score:2)
Cmon, if we expect regular people to use Linux, condescending attitudes towards editing archaic text files won't cut it. I hope newbs go out and buy a copy of Windows and install Media Portal, just to spite your kind.
"Buy the beer first...", famous last words (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"Buy the beer first...", famous last words (Score:2)
downloading movies (Score:3, Interesting)
Downloading movies (yes, I mean mainstream movies with restricted licenses, not the few that are free) would be one of the killer apps for a Linux HTPC, but it seems there is no way to do it, even if I am willing to pay.
I'm in! (Score:3, Funny)
I agree with this post (Score:4, Insightful)
For this reason, I had settled on a Windows XP install with a Hauppauge PVR-250 a while back on my old computer. The main problems I have had to date with it:
Admittedly, I need some new hardware. When I do get around to installing a faster motherboard, proc, and memory I am going to install Linux anyways. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the Linux solutions out there are still too much in their infancy to pass "the wife factor" right now. My wife can't use the current system because it's too sluggish and doesn't *just work* 100% of the time. (It doesn't work at all if I don't manually update the channel listings once a week which can take 20-30 minutes!)
My main point is: if you plan on building a Linux-based HTPC make sure that you have some pretty decent spare parts laying around, because if you don't it's probably just a lot more worth your time and money to go buy a top-of-the-line Tivo right now.
Re:I agree with this post (Score:2)
This is so easy (Score:2)
Re:This is so easy (Score:2)
Use Cases (Score:3, Insightful)
crap. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm using Windows MCE because of DRM :-( (Score:3, Interesting)
DRM is killing me. I'd love to run something non-Microsoft, but I personally do not want to sacrifice quality. I want to be able to play the highest quality that's available.
This means WMV9-HD @ 1080p for video and DVD-Audio for audio. (okay, I'm sure some of you will want to debate this, go ahead. Anyone that I show WMV9-HD to is simply blown away.)
One of the most unfortunate things is that you can not run WMV9-HD without using Microsoft binaries. In theory this is something that can be solved, because if I understand it correctly, WMV9 is standardized and it should be able to implement a decoder from the specs.
BUT, the standard most certainly does NOT cover the added DRM layer that a lot of WMV9-HD content has. And Microsoft has no intention to solve that problem. What we need is a DeCSS variant to remove the DRM from WMV9.
I'm unaware of any DVD-Audio playback capabilities under Linux, but again, this is certainly something that's technically possible. Except for, you guessed it, DRM. At the moment there's only one combination available if you want to play DVD-Audio discs that are 'encrypted'; SoundBlaster Audigy (not the lowest end one) and Windows.
For this one, I'm working on a solution (hardware based). The problematic thing is that the encryption scheme allows for key revokation. I think this is specifically designed as a counter act to the Xing key discovery. If they find that we discover the SoundBlaster key (or maybe find some other way to use the SoundBlaster to get the unencrypted data), then they can revoke it, making new content unplayable on the SoundBlaster. This may sound as very hard to believe (it does to me), and I may be wrong. But I don't see how else it would work.
Re:I'm using Windows MCE because of DRM :-( (Score:2)
OK, well we know this is trivial to overcome. They say as much in the article.
I was unaware that HDTV was being broadcast in WMV format. Point me to all those movies available in 1080p and I might start to agree with y
Xine as well (Score:2)
www.byopvr.com (Score:4, 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
I built my own Linux home theater PC... (Score:2, Funny)
How ironic... (Score:2, Funny)
HTPC-centric distro? (Score:2)
Desktop ATX now HTPC... costs rise (Score:2)
But all is not lost. The old Gateway Destination [gateway.com] PCs are starting to hit the used market for under $75 or so. The last one I looked at could take a standard 6 slot
Re:Too Little Too Late (Score:2, Interesting)
How fast do you think there will be a mod chip for it and someone has Linux on there? DAYS after the release, at worst. HOURS is probably more like it.
Read the specs? (Score:2)
Re:Too Little Too Late (Score:2)
Those specs are overkill for a home theater system. As for whether or not the XBOX 360 dominates the living room, consider that games will drive the purchase of this machine.
Re:Why are there not more turn-key versions of thi (Score:2, Interesting)
Would you be willing to buy a backend/frontend combo, and then buy additional frontend systems for additional rooms?
I'm looking for feed back, as I am working with a small group of people to develop exactly this.
I'm interested in your feedback.