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Multimedia Home Entertainment System for Linux
An anonymous reader writes "A group at the University of Saarland in Germany has been busy
developing a Linux-based networked multimedia home entertainment
system. The project consists of two parts: the
Network-Integrated Multimedia Middleware
(NMM), to provide a common framework for audio and video playback
using open source software, and the
Multimedia-Box,
a Linux box outfitted to be a TV receiver (digital and analog), video recorder, and a
CD-, DVD-, and MP3- player using the NMM. Screen shots of the
inside
of the Multimedia-Box and the
user interface
are available, as well as videos and a
detailed description
(PDF) of the hardware and software used throughout. Can't wait to
stick one of these on my network..."
Hmm. Didn't ever see me doing this.
Cool, though
Seems like too much special hardware for something that for most features, software will do nicely
My other
I noted with some interest that this thing will play DVDs under Linux. As sucky as it is :-( , this isn't legal; like Redhat with MP3, this is a high profile target that needs the same walking on eggshells approach. All existing DVD playing software for Linux uses the illegal DeCSS codec, and I need hardly mention that the Linux kernel itself is currently in violation of the DMCA w.r.t media systems, as it has no TCPA to prevent criminally stolen movies from being played.
That user interface is ugly. Try mythTV for a great Linux Tivo/MP3/Ogg/Image/MAME media center. I'm putting one together in a Shuttle XPC box. Making it as pretty as possible increases the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor).
--- witty signature
Seems like slashdotted already. Mirrors, anyone?
Flame thrower linux is a similar project that I have been following. It seems to be slightly dead, but still fully funtional with a "pre alpha" version out.
Great store. The $2 games are: Heritic II, Railroad Tycoon 2, and Myth II. Look in the operating systems section. They also have a couple other games (Terminus and Tux Racer come to mind) plus a small selection of non-game titles from the Kompany and a good selection of distros as well as some BSD. A special this month, $13 Inland u-Connect firewire / ieee 1394 card, works well (VIA chipset, one 6 to 4 pin cable).
My only complaints are that some non-sale items are over priced (buyer be aware) and that they don't have a Maryland store!
Seems everyone is making an Athlon/SS40 combo these days (several people in this thread at least and myself included - at least they made it relatively easy to remove bays/drives/fans/etc. for people who don't have 6 year old hands). How long will it be until someone taps MythTV and Shuttle to just make a cheapo all-in-one PC/DVR/Jukebox package? It seems like an obvious step to us, so I'm surprised the money hounds haven't picked up the scent.
I was under the impression that some architectural sacrifices were made on the epias that would require some sort of major overhaul to be even close to on par with AMD/Intel procs, but I'm admittedly underread.
Does it strike anyone else as odd that there are 3 (or more?) open source initiatives competing in this area...can anyone tell me the difference between them (because they look pretty much the same on specs to me)...and, if they do serve the same functionality, why they're bothering competing with each other when obviously collaboration would turn three not too bad systems into one insane one?