linux.com — Linux has no shortage of audio and video players, but if you want to devote you whole system to multimedia use, you need the Xbox Media Center (XBMC). Although initially designed for the Xbox gaming console, XBMC has been ported to other platforms. The Linux port of XBMC that I use is quite usable, especially for video playback.
Aug 19, 2008 View in Crawl 4
lowtoleranceAug 20, 2008
I would say that no, it doesn't lack impressive features, but script support could use some work. As for the ftp and http server, I think linux already has more than enough support for that.
xxl3wAug 20, 2008
Hermmunster: what version of windows are you using? win98se or winME? i haven't seen a BSOD since win98 when oob nuking was popular. I take that back, my harddrive failed a few months ago and I had a BSOD.To keep things straight: I am a fanboy, but I enjoy both windows/linux. I don't use linux because it doesn't fit my needs. Now my 5 year old uses linux because many developers release free Tux games, educational games, and it's able to go to nickjr.com. I just dread when she wants to print something, because last time i tried to install a printer on linux it was a nightmare (although USB wasn't around those days).
drakiaAug 20, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://217.118.215.116/">http://217.118.215.116/</a>XBMC for the XBox, without the runaround.
davdevAug 20, 2008
Uhm, anyone who actually cares about Picture and Sound quality. DVD may be good enough for you, but I want more, and Blu-Ray delivers it. Unfortunately getting it to work properly, even on a Windows machine, is a pain in the ass.BLKMGK, I agree MKV is a great option, and supposedly you can convert the lossless audio to FLAC and it will work in Linux, but to me that is way to much work.
largetalonsAug 21, 2008
You don't need to open the xbox or do any soldering. You can do a softmod using this guide:<a class="user" href="http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft-xbox/article/how-to-go-from-xbox-to-xbox-media-center-in-30-minutes.html">http://www.productwiki.com/microsoft-xbox/article/ ...</a>It's super easy.
blkmgkAug 21, 2008
davdev - it's some work but it also means that all of my media is online and not stuck in disk cases all over the place. I have over 600 DVD and a pile of BDHD-DVD and all of those cases quickly became a tempting target for theft. Anyone who came into my home saw them and friends thought I was BlockBuster - serious PITA! Now all are packed away in totes and the media is served up via unRAID servers. With this XBMC front-end it's all cataloged and at my fingertips. It is a PITA when I get a new movie and cannot watch it right away but I have the whole work process for rippingcompressing down pat and it only takes me a little while to prepare it. Compressing can take a good bit of time - Harry Potter #1 took 14 hours - but if I want more speed I can use a quad core to speed it up a good bit. I could also just not compress it but some of the file sizes are nutz - Harry #1 was over 29Gigs for video alone!So, I compress to save space and try to be patient. eac3to, SlySoft AnyDVD-HD, meGUI, and a few other utilities all work together to make this possible. The end result is my feet up on the table watching most anything I want with "just" 5.1 sound - and I'm okay with that. Oh and yeah eac3to can do FLAC files. If I ever had a huge "theater" at home maybe I'd care more about it but if it comes to it I do have the original media. To each their own...
davdevAug 21, 2008
BLKMGK:I should clarify, every movie I have is ripped down to my server as Video_TS and ISO files. I couldn't live without my server. However, I do not like to compress, as even with the best methods, I can clearly see and hear the difference. That is why I don't convert to MKV.
xxl3wAug 22, 2008
Christ, you type too much. That was much information you pulled from what I said. I didn't know you work with home PC repair. I bet that sucks. I'll explain to you why you see so many BSODS: improper driver installation, improper software installation, spyware, adware, the customer's dog pulled out video card cable while it's screwed into the video adapter port, and the 100,000 other ways end users ruin their computer. Sorry, I'm blessed, I work in a network environment where I manage what a user can do. I only see a BSOD when a disk or motherboard fails. Although at home, I have seen BSOD on winXP when a new brand of hardware comes out and the drivers are garbage.Good luck with that book you're writing.