Build a Linux Media Center PC | Hacker News Reader

Build a Linux Media Center PC

extremetech.com

21 pointsjackfoxy16 comments

I've been using Linux for 15 years and *NIX for longer, and I really wanted MythTV to work, but the Wife Acceptance Factor was too low. Windows Media Center won out, due to:

1.) CableCARD support. Expanded analog has left in my area, and ClearQAM doesn't cover enough channels for our use. HD-PVR is a very unfortunate kludge that I wasn't interested in undertaking.

2.) Netflix streaming support. We had it on the PS3 already, but wanted it everywhere. Most of our TV watching is done in the office.

3.) Ease of use, east of setup (even with Mythbuntu and a Logitech Harmony).

They really glossed over the sound, which is one of the more painful aspects of a Linux HTPC in my opinion. If you're planning on usual digital audio instead of stereo sound, be prepared for a rather nasty battle.

It really depends on the sound chip. My emu10k1-based SBLive 5.1 used to be really awesome for digital out (with a small hack to reset the chip every time I switched from DD/DTS back to PCM), but it has gotten worse over the past 8 years. I eventually switched to 5.1 analog output, sacrificing Pro Logic decoding for stereo sources.

Using OSSv4 might be a good option. Ever since I switched to it, sound has not been any problem whatsoever anymore.

I didn't find this at all. Plugged optical out on the motherboard into the optical in on the amp, set mythtv to let the amp decode dd/dts itself and everything worked fine.

As someone who used an Ubuntu box for a media player for 6 months, I have to say that Linux is _almost_ good enough. My major problems included:

(1) Because there was no cooperation between the decoders and video cards, playing HD 1080p content at 60 FPS would skip a lot. Perhaps a beefier CPU would help, but the same machine running Windows had no trouble.

(2) Samba, or at least Ubuntu's version of it, is very flaky. Some days it would see my networked drives, other days it wouldn't.

(3) Moonlight does not handle DRM content from Netflix. If my TV or XBOX did not already handle Netflix, then this would have been a show stopper.

All that said, I did run it that way for 6 months, so I guess it was "good enough".

(2) Samba, or at least Ubuntu's version of it, is very flaky. Some days it would see my networked drives, other days it wouldn't.

The SMB client on your Ubuntu media player would have trouble seeing network drives?

Make sure everything is in the same broadcast subnet and ethernet segment, and make sure that you aren't running NetBIOS ("Windows File Sharing") over anything other than TCP/IP, not NetBeui -- this shouldn't be a problem with more recent Windows versions, but every so often it pops up.

Also, you might have luck if you disable nmbd in your samba clients and let a Windows machine be the master browser, especially if your media player linux machine isn't always on.

But I guess this is all moot if you've moved onto some other solution. Maybe this will help someone else.

It's very helpful thanks. Honestly, I am disliking the WIndows experience more than I disliked the Ubuntu experience, so I will probably give it another go.

To be thoroughly honest, I don't know if it was Samba acting up on me or if it was the Ubuntu file browser (Nautilus?). Every couple days or so, I would have to click the refresh repeatedly for about 30s in order to get it to see the network shares. Was that Samba's fault or GNOMEs? I don't have the knowledge to say either way.

Thank you for the information.

I don't know if it was Samba acting up on me or if it was the Ubuntu file browser (Nautilus?). Every couple days or so, I would have to click the refresh repeatedly for about 30s in order to get it to see the network shares. Was that Samba's fault or GNOMEs? I don't have the knowledge to say either way.

Whenever it's visibility of machines with Windows file sharing, 90% of the time it is what I've described above -- it's neither Samba nor Gnome's fault. The best thing you can do for the browsablity of your network (once you've ensured that NetBuei isn't in use), if you have an always on non-Windows machine (anything that will run Samba), is run Samba on it with nmbd enabled, even if you don't share anything from that samba instance itself. By default, Samba will always win network elections to become the master browser. Since it always wins, the list of hosts that are sharing is more consistent. Obviously, if you want to access shares on a machine that isn't always on, it takes a while (about 30s or so) after that machine boots to show up in the browse list reliably.

Another thing, if you have a bridged network, with both wireless and wired segments (which might be the case with a media player PC), run samba/nmbd on the wired segment. If a wireless machine that is the master browrser loses connectivity, a network election might need to take place and different machines might become the master browser, and they don't always have the full list of machines all the time.

> playing HD 1080p content at 60 FPS would skip a lot.

Did you get VDPAU set up? http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/VDPAU

I've just set up a myth box for my sister, my advice is research tv and video card before buying components. saved 20 bucks and got a cheep card... but it doesn't have drivers in stock ubuntu kernel. it works but takes some fiddling. also stick to nvidia for video card.

I'm trying to set up MythTV now, and am getting near the point of giving up and trying to use Freevo instead.

They don't say how much power it draws. Anything that's on 24-7 needs to at least try to reduce power use.

MythTV supposedly supports wake on lan, but I've got a file server that runs 24/7 to double as a MythTV box so I haven't tried it. Unfortunately, there's less and less on OTA HD that I'm interested in recording.

We've had a MythTV box running in some form or other the last 6 years, so my kids have always had access to instant recordings and movies on demand.

It took quite a while for them to realize that not all TVs work like this, it wasn't just daddy being an ass when they wanted to watch Dora on their grandparents TV.

Heh. I've often wondered how my son (now 2 years old) is going to view media and electronics as he grows up. "What do you mean you can't watch LoTR on your phone?" or "You have do put in a different disc for every movie?"

Man. I need to get out of this rocking chair and chase those kids off my lawn.

The only thing that sucks about linux media centers, is that you can't get Netflix streaming.

My solution is to run a linux media server that broadcasts over UPnP to a PS3 using MediaTomb. Streaming is top notch, it even transcodes filetypes that the PS3 can't handle natively.

Anyway, it's way less complicated than a MythTV setup.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com