A Simple, Silent, TV-Based Linux Media Player

jamienk asks: "My life has gotten simple. I can easily get the TV shows and movies I want on to my computer, however I get sick of watching them on my computer, and it's a drag to burn SVCDs or DVDs. Instead, I now want a silent Linux box to sit on my TV with TV out. I want to control it with a remote to run Mplayer (or something that can handle lots of formats) and play video files that are on my wireless LAN. I don't need it to record TV shows, play or rip CDs or DVDs, or even to have a hard-disk really, if the software could fit in RAM or something. Does anyone have links, pointers, or suggestions for cheap, easy, DIY solutions?"

Comments

The ultimate RIAA/MPAA friendly device

[Otter]

I like this guy's attitude! He wants to build a device that plays audio and video files but deliberately excludes any capacity to acquire those files through fair use!

Go XBox

[Gadzinka]

Buy XBox, install modchip and use xbox media player (XBMP). It has ethernet, perfect video out, enough power to play mpeg2/mpeg4 with postprocessing and runs $100 used, with modchip, or $150 new without modchip.

And it can also run Linux, if you really want to type your mplayer commandline, but I'd advice against it -- XBMP is really cute-iful ;)

Similar machine in either ATX or ITX form would cost you at least twice more. With AV-gear type case, another 100% more.

Robert

Re:Go XBox

[Vaevictis666]

So to expand on this...

XBox Media Center installed on a modded xbox really is all you need. Plug it into your hub/router/whatever, and with a little bit of config you can get it to run directly off of a samba share from your desktop.

Get the DVD package, and you have remote control access. The thing also plays DVDs (I haven't got XBMC doing DVDs yet, but running the xbox dash to watch it isn't bad) so that's most of your video bases covered.

Re:Go XBox

[nathanh]

What chip would Slashdot suggest that I put in the thing? I'm leaning toward the v2 SmartXX, just now, mostly because XBMC supports an LCD module with it. Is there any compelling reason to choose any one over any of the others?

No chip, unless you've really got your heart set on the LCD. Install a softmod. Very easy to install. Non-intrusive. Won't void the warranty. Works fine on all versions of Xbox. Search for UDE, UDE2 and UXE. There are many tutorials on the web, if you look hard enough.

You will be very pleased with XBMC as a music jukebox. I am over the moon with mine. All my music available, all the time, without having to shuffle my CDs in and out of a stupid carousel. Configure XBMC to be the default dashboard. Will take less than 5 seconds from power-on to music playing.

Re:Go XBox

[Vaevictis666]

Ahh, that explains it. I have it set to no autoplay. I'll need to try that when I get home then :P

However, if I want to do anything with menus, like the misc featurettes from the LOTR "appendices" discs, I do need to boot to xboxdash - though IIRC they were doing a fund drive a few weeks back to see how much people *really* wanted full dvd support, and if it was enough to pay a developer to take some time to do full-time work implementing it for XBMC (and thusly, also mplayer)

links 4 j00!!!!!one!!

[Beatbyte]

www.htpcforums.com
and
www.htpcnews.com

Linux HTPC HOW-TO
http://www.sllug.org/how-to/linux-htpc/int roductio n.html

If you're actually staying silent you'll want this platform instead of standard ATX
http://www.mini-itx.com

TiVo-esque GPL software
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/

Hauppauge MediaMPV

[passthecrackpipe]

Got one the other day. PowerPC platform, runs linux out of the box. Lots of interesting projects going on around it. Very hackable. Dirt cheap. Love it.

Re:Buy a tivo.

[jamienk]

Myth TV and Tivo are all about aquiring media and playing it back later. But I already have aquired quite a bit, and it is sitting on my computer hard drive. Now, I just want to watch it on my TV from the couch. Tivo excells at recording shows off of TV. It is not good at playing my XVID files off my WIFI network. MythTV seems like maybe it could do what I want, but it's WAY overkill -- I'd want to put it on a computer with no DVD drive, no TV card, and with no Myth backend on my network, etc.

XBox

[ikekrull]

I use an XBox with a USB wireless LAN adapter for this purpose.

It runs Freevo, and while not completely silent, could be made so with a bigger CPU heatsink and a silent PSU- the noise it does make simply isn't intrustive enough for me to bother, however

I use Xebian, so no mods were required for the hardware (I did need to rend MechAssault to get Linux on the hard drive), and I can play XBox games if I want to.

Movies and MP3s are played off a samba share on another linux PC, and it mostly works pretty well.

There are a couple of caveats though-

Limux's approach to swapping memory is pretty awful for this type of application. After a long period of idle time, attempting to play a movie results in about a minute of vigorous disk-thrashing before anything actually happens on-screen.

The XPad driver/XBox controller seems to behave erratically - often requiring an unplug-replug cycle upon bootup to be recognised. Currently i dont have the XBox remote, but it can be used in place of the controller.

Disks sometimes get 'stuck' in the drive and won't eject - no matter whether the software 'eject' command is used or the hardware eject button.

Depending on how much time you have, all these issues could likely be fixed, but if i was you, i'd just buy a wifi set top box like this one:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318

The XBox is quite flexible, and it has been a fun toy to have, and does extra things like rip DVDs and act as a 'standard' Linux PC - but as far as a 'plug n play' solution, i doubt you will get what you want with any PC-based solution, at least without spending a lot of time tweaking - there are just too many things to go wrong, from boot time to peripherals to media error handling etc.

Re:MythTV

[ChaseTec]

Parent post is right even if they aren't all that informative. I have a Gentoo system with a Geforce MX with tv out in my entertainment system and I ran MythTV on it for a couple of months without a tv tuner card. MythTV does more then just record and playback tv, such as play dvds and divx/xvid movies. It actually uses MPlayer or Xine(I prefer Xine) to handle playing but everything is basically presented in a girlfriend friendly enterface. As far as a remote goes I just have a wireless keyboard and mouse. And you mention wireless, 802.11b won't cut it for all movies so make sure you use G.

Seconded.

[rasteri]

I ran a network cable through to my living room, plugged an xbox into it, installed xbmc and now I can watch videos stored on my server (which has a large hard drive and runs linux). I just ripped most of my DVDs to Divx, which gives more than acceptible quality, and I have a lot of mp3s on there as well. It plays all of it. I am utterly amazed at how far the XBMC project has come along - give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

Another vote for the XBox

[aderusha]

The XBox isn't completely silent, but you can control the fan speed through software. Much of the noise is mediated if you replace the default 8GB HDD with a larger 5400rpm (slow and quiet) drive. Modding a newer unit (version 1.6) requires the installation of a modchip or using a softmod. Softmods don't require any soldering, but are prone to occasional failure as MS updates the XBox software. Your best bet is to troll your local pawn shops and video game stores for a used xbox. If you can get a 1.0 or a 1.1 version XBox you can mod it complete with a disable switch without having to buy a chip. Anyway, the point of all this is to run XBMC, which will play damn near any media format you can through at it, including newer container formats like OGM and Matroska. It can stream over the network using SMB/CIFS or one of a handful of XBMC-specific streaming protocols (stream servers available for linux, mac, and windows.) XBMC can also display local weather, stream web radio from shoutcast stations, rip cds, play dvds, display rss feeds, and with the python script engine it can even play movie trailers or even give you showtimes for movie theaters in your area.

Here's some handy links:

• Home of all xbox knowledge: XBox Scene
  
• Being a cheapass, I use cheap modchips. You can get an Aladdin XT for $11 from RobotPig. They're in the UK but they ship quickly worldwide. Good shop and cheap! The $60 modchips come with loads of neat but ultimately entirely useless features.
  
• If you're scared of a soldering iron, here's a solderless solution for all versions of the xbox: The Spiderchip. I've never used one of these things and I've never purchased anything from this shop so take this as a suggestion and not a recommendation.
  
• Here's a great introduction to softmods. Again, despite what all the softmoddie guys say a chip will always be a better solution.
  
• If you buy a new XBox, you'll be getting a 1.6 version and your modding options are somewhat limited. You're voiding the warranty anyway so you might as well pick up a used box. Here's how to tell which version XBox you're getting. Print it out and take it to the shop with you.
  
• All versions of the XBox except the 1.6 can be TSOP flashed, which is just write enabling the onboard BIOS flashrom and flashing a mod bios to it. Cheap, relatively easy, and every bit as good as a chip. The only drawback to a TSOP flash is that you can't easily disable it unless you have a 1.0 or 1.1 XBox. Here is a pretty complete guide to TSOP flashing.
  
• Here is the homepage for XBMC. They're hosted on sourceforge, so you can checkout the CVS and compile your own copy if you have VS.NET 2003 and a copy of the latest XDK.

Check out the forums on XBox-Scene and for XBox Media Center (XBMC) for useful tips rom the thousands of XBox enthuiasts out there. Good luck!

Actually, I did this recently

[phorm]

I've setup a linux box on an Epia-M10000 with Xine, Mplayer, Realplayer (although Mplayer suffices for this), appropriate codecs etc etc.

Then I picked up a little app called "autorun" which you can use to poll your CD-ROM and run scripts when a disk is inserted/removed. Built a script that checks for the content on disk and loads as appropriate:

VCD: Xine
DVD: Xine
Mp3/Ogg: XMMS
RealMedia: Realplayer
Quicktime/AVI/etc: MPlayer

Apps load with fullscreen set and play through. The only major issue is DVD's with menus in Xine. They don't like my touchscreen, but I'll probably either make it play through to the first play track or figure out how to make it like my touch.

Oh, and the M10000 has linux drivers and TV out, as well as DVD and basic 3d accel.