OS for HTPC

[Zedicus]

heres the skinny. x-fi is mainline in ALSA 1.0.21
the driver has been open sourced and was recently mergeable. if it doesnt work now i would imagine it will very soon. also the ALSA stack is the defacto standard now.

as for blu-ray. theres a few options some very intensive to set up. some fairly easy. the good news is that mplayer has a SVN version which has BUILT in NATIVE support. i will not even geustimate at time lines for an official release but if you can grab SVN you can use it now.

heres some links to the harder ways.
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-691564.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

 

[Deusxmachina]

Last I knew, XBMC can't record TV. If you're sticking with Linux, I'd plan on some version of MythTV.

 

[Zedicus]

actually XBMC can record. there is a simple packaage that adds this via a pluggin. actually by now it may be built in to the main installer.

not to be a d!ck but things in linux change so fast that statements that start with 'last time i knew' or 'when i tried it last' or 'back when my friend was using it' are usually wrong.

also there is a mythtv plugin for XBMC too.

 

[RejZoR]

While Linux is free, you're quickly screwed over stuff like drivers. Like in your case for X-Fi.
Windows on the other hand doesn't really have those problems.

 

[Zedicus]

actually the windows support of the x-fi cards was just as bad. now they are universally supported on pretty much everything. creative even opened sourced the driver to linux developers.

did you even read this entire post or just start regurgitating FUD?

 

[King Wookie]

Weell, it's a moot point now.
No more lady in my life, so no need for a HTPC.

I'll use the bits to build a pc for a little girl to help with her studies.

But thank you all for your input.

 

[xfire]

Weell, it's a moot point now.
No more lady in my life, so no need for a HTPC.

I'll use the bits to build a pc for a little girl to help with her studies.

But thank you all for your input.

Awwwww....... Don't worry more will come along
Ubuntu would have done just fine.
This is for the PC for the little girl
http://edubuntu.org/

 

[Deusxmachina]

actually XBMC can record. there is a simple packaage that adds this via a pluggin. actually by now it may be built in to the main installer.

not to be a d!ck but things in linux change so fast that statements that start with 'last time i knew' or 'when i tried it last' or 'back when my friend was using it' are usually wrong.

also there is a mythtv plugin for XBMC too.

Well, "last I knew" and also "last I looked at the 'About" page at xbmc," it didn't say anything about recording TV. It can do it using plugins of other programs which people have had various levels of success with, yes.

But, my bad. I was thinking of things such as this thread from two months ago where a moderator and developer say it's only a frontend and you have to have MythTV anyway. http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49218

"Much as spiff said, xbmc is doing the frontend thing. A great deal of development is being put into making it, hopefully, relatively simple to connect xbmc to a dedicated tuner. At present, this mostly means myth-tv on linux, but eventually, hopefully, it should work with MCE and the MediaPortal tv-server."

Can XBMC frontending for MythTV schedule recordings from the EPG yet? Sure is hard to find definite answers and how-to's for certain things on the XBMC forums.

 

[Zedicus]

that i dont know. maybe try posting for more specific info on their forums. ive been watching and testing with xbmc for about a year but havent rolled it out into my home yet. and honestly i do ZERO tv recording. at some point soon xbmc will be replacing my custom rolled distro i built for my front end devices. but even at that they were fairly simplistic, browse the web (why record when most shows can stream from somewhere) play videos, music, and emulators off of a huge file server.

ive looked into doing tv recording a few times and set up mythtv once. it just seams like way more work for no real gain then my way. not to say my way is perfect for everyone, it just works best for me and my family.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

By the way, anyone knows how to integrate blu-ray capability in the Windows 7 Media Center?

I heard PowerDVD would have a plugin, but I'm not sure.

 

[Zedicus]

powerdvd ultimate is the one you want. it integrates with MCE in windows 7.
their MAY be free codecs out for windows, ive never looked into it.

 

[Boyfriend]

CyberLink PowerDVD 9 Ultimate integrates into Windows Media Center under Windows 7. It works fine for all supported file types.
Check out this site to find free codec that also integrates into WMC. I personally prefer Media Player Classic-Home Cinema for all types of videos and music. It works great and also support remote control.

 

[bpgt64]

I find myself board with Window's 7, haven't had any real issues to work out. I used XBMC back in the day with my OG Xbox, the ones you could Softmod...That was a media Center. I need to cut my teeth on the Linux commands and I am thinking on installing Ubuntu Server Edition 9.10 to do so.

I am fresh out of college with no Linux experience, however it's been made apparent to me that I need to start learning some of the basics if anything. However, I have been a bit concerned over the lack of Blu-Ray support for Linux, as my HTPC has a drive, and I would love to use something other than WMC...but I am not sure I'd get support for my TV tuner either with the Linux Distro.

If there's a ray of hope that I would? I would start the install and fun tomorrow.

My HTPC sits as the following;

AMD Athlon 64 7850 Black ed
Asus generic AM2+ Mobo
4 gigs of DDR2-1066
ATI HD 4670 512MB70
Xi-Fi Titanium XtremeGamer

 

[i789]

I find myself board with Window's 7, haven't had any real issues to work out. I used XBMC back in the day with my OG Xbox, the ones you could Softmod...That was a media Center. I need to cut my teeth on the Linux commands and I am thinking on installing Ubuntu Server Edition 9.10 to do so.

I am fresh out of college with no Linux experience, however it's been made apparent to me that I need to start learning some of the basics if anything. However, I have been a bit concerned over the lack of Blu-Ray support for Linux, as my HTPC has a drive, and I would love to use something other than WMC...but I am not sure I'd get support for my TV tuner either with the Linux Distro.

If there's a ray of hope that I would? I would start the install and fun tomorrow.

My HTPC sits as the following;

AMD Athlon 64 7850 Black ed
Asus generic AM2+ Mobo
4 gigs of DDR2-1066
ATI HD 4670 512MB70
Xi-Fi Titanium XtremeGamer

sorry you will not get blu-ray support, not because Tux the penguin cant get it to work, Sony demands large sum of money for license and NDAs and what not. However, if you dont care about doing it "legally", there are always ways

 

[xfire]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD
and his problem was kind of solved. Read post 31.