captain_tinker
Well-known member
Folks,
I had a thread recently about Squeezeboxes, and running it via a NAS box. I have done some further research on the subject and found that it is indeed possible to run slimserver on some but not all nas devices. My wife also inquired about maybe running a DVR sometime, and I thought, heck, why not build my own DVR? That way I don't have to subscribe to any of the services. I then thought, heck why not run Slimserver on that? I suppose I could build my own fileserver/media center pc. So I started looking into it. I actually found some really neat stuff out there to build one with. I found motherboards with digital audio outs, HDMI outs, Svideo and component video outs, etc. I found all the required hardware, but then started thinking, ok what OS do I put on this thing? I don't have a copy of the Microsoft Media Center software, though I do have XP Pro. Maybe there is a way to get the media center software to go on it? I then thought, what about Linux? It is free, and I am pretty good with it, so I started looking it up.
I found a couple of things. One option is to use MythTV. So I set up a Fedora 7 machine and tried to install MythTV. I think maybe I didn't do it right or have the right software installed to begin with. I had to use the source code because I couldn't find the RPM's for it. It didn't work out too well. I just couldn't get it to complete properly and in the end junked the idea.
I then found LinuxMCE. It is a program that runs only on Kubuntu linux. That was actually successful and worked pretty well. Though I was only running it on a virtual machine at the time to see if it worked. I don't have the actual hardware yet. So I couldn't really try out some of the features, but it installed well and looked good otherwise. So that would be an option.
What other options are out there for HTPC's? I think a few of you have them, what OS do you use, or which would you recommend? While I am at it, do you have any good suggestions for a case to put it in? I would love something that was fanless, but if not, at least something really quiet would work. I'm looking for something very small if possible. Able to fit a microATX or smaller board in it, with maybe at least room for two HDD's and a DVD drive.
-capT
I had a thread recently about Squeezeboxes, and running it via a NAS box. I have done some further research on the subject and found that it is indeed possible to run slimserver on some but not all nas devices. My wife also inquired about maybe running a DVR sometime, and I thought, heck, why not build my own DVR? That way I don't have to subscribe to any of the services. I then thought, heck why not run Slimserver on that? I suppose I could build my own fileserver/media center pc. So I started looking into it. I actually found some really neat stuff out there to build one with. I found motherboards with digital audio outs, HDMI outs, Svideo and component video outs, etc. I found all the required hardware, but then started thinking, ok what OS do I put on this thing? I don't have a copy of the Microsoft Media Center software, though I do have XP Pro. Maybe there is a way to get the media center software to go on it? I then thought, what about Linux? It is free, and I am pretty good with it, so I started looking it up.
I found a couple of things. One option is to use MythTV. So I set up a Fedora 7 machine and tried to install MythTV. I think maybe I didn't do it right or have the right software installed to begin with. I had to use the source code because I couldn't find the RPM's for it. It didn't work out too well. I just couldn't get it to complete properly and in the end junked the idea.
I then found LinuxMCE. It is a program that runs only on Kubuntu linux. That was actually successful and worked pretty well. Though I was only running it on a virtual machine at the time to see if it worked. I don't have the actual hardware yet. So I couldn't really try out some of the features, but it installed well and looked good otherwise. So that would be an option.
What other options are out there for HTPC's? I think a few of you have them, what OS do you use, or which would you recommend? While I am at it, do you have any good suggestions for a case to put it in? I would love something that was fanless, but if not, at least something really quiet would work. I'm looking for something very small if possible. Able to fit a microATX or smaller board in it, with maybe at least room for two HDD's and a DVD drive.
-capT
