Re: [Hampshire] Ultimate Linux Media PC?

On 08/03/2009 09:41 AM, Alan Pope wrote:
> Hi Pavithran,
>
> 2009/8/2 pavithran<pavithran.s@???>:
>
>> Yes I am suggesting someone to use a proprietary software in a linux
>> list but I am afraid that there is no *viable* FOSS alternative :(
>
> Untrue. MythTV, Boxee and XBMC are all (for the most part) FOSS
> alternatives to Windows Media Centre.
>

As much as I hate to agree with someone suggesting Media Centre....

I've not used Windows Media Centre, but for a non-guru all of those
"alternatives" above are a REAL pita to install configure and maintain.
I use Freevo at home but there is no way I would recommend a Linux media
centre to anyone who doesn't really understand Linux and is happy to get
their hands dirty. XBMC is by far the best of the bunch both in terms of
support and features, however it DOESN'T do TV (well not without some
nasty hard to configure hacks to make it use a Myth backend).

>> This is because of many reasons :
>> * Bad Hardware vendors who don't write free drivers .
>>
>
> So vote with your feet and buy hardware that _is_ supported. There is
> a lot of it about. Also worth noting that Linux based systems support
> _more_ hardware out of the box than _any_ other operating system,
> including Windows, OSX and BSD (and BeOS, Haiku, OS/2...).
>

Have you tried finding and actually getting hold of such hardware in the
UK? I spend a long time researching, asking questions on the extremely
unhelpful linux-dvb mailing list and eventually bought what I thought
was a supported piece of hardware, only to discover I'd got it wrong and
I had to wait approximately 6months before support was even vaguely
there. I suffered months of having to download source snapshots and
build my own kernel modules which then needed to be rebuilt every time
the kernel was updated.

The really good hardware with Linux support is stupidly expensive, and
almost impossible to find in the UK, my best chance so far is shipping
it in from Germany and paying seriously over the odds for the privilege.

The other problem is that manufactures often ship revised versions of
known good hardware, which subsequently doesn't work in Linux. Your only
real bet is to try and find a small shop someone sell old and out of
date hardware which will probably work ;)

>> *Many proprietary video formats
>>
>
> I'd be interested to know exactly which proprietary video formats the
> FOSS media player VLC can't play. With VLC and MPlayer I don't think
> I've yet come across a format they wont play.
>
> I think you'll find that FOSS also supports way more codecs than most
> proprietary solutions. Windows for example doesn't support
> OGG/Theora/Vorbis, DIVX or H.264 out of the box. Most Linux distros
> these days can install codecs very easily.
>

I would agree with VLC, but it doesn't have good hardware acceleration,
meaning you have to throw a seriously fast CPU at it to ensure you can
get playback of the more demanding video codecs. This doesn't go well
with finding a small low noise box to sit under the TV. MPlayer is good
but you need a very up to date version, usually compiled from source to
use the latest acceleration from Nvidia (VDPAU) which is pretty much
required to get a decent media centre experience.

>> *lack of video standards ( Yes MPEG is a ISO standard but mp3,divx thrive )
>>
>
> There are many standards for video compression, and (as outlined
> above) they pretty much all work on Linux. Which ones don't

The all work, but varying degrees of actually "work". If all you need is
to play back an mpeg video, yes it all works, if you want sensible fast
forward and rewind functions (which you find an all the most basic DVD
players) then you are completely out of luck with any Linux system,
except for XBMC but it doesn't do TV so is no good for me :(

Linux media centres are great, flexible and powerful, but they are a
complete PITA to get working and setup and are very fragile once you do
eventually get them working.

Now I've not used Windows Media Centre, but I find it hard to believe it
can be worse ;)