Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable

Since I've been having serious problems with satellite all week, DeviceGuru's submission was really interesting to me. He says "Inspired by Roku's awesome Netflix video download box and impressed with Boxee's free A/V media center platform, it was merely a matter of time before DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum would create the BoxeeBox, an Ubuntu-powered HTPC with Boxee serving as its primary media center UI. Based on a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, the BoxeeBox has the look and feel of consumer A/V equipment and packs 2GB RAM, 1TB HDD, CD/DVD drive, USB, Firewire, HDMI, DVI-D, RGB, and 8-channel surround sound audio."

Comments

dang...it was slashdotted

[Anonymous Coward]

dang...and I wanted to see and read the actual article.

is it anything similar to mythtv, etc.?
anyone got a mirror?

slight difference

[Anonymous Coward]

"Inspired" by this little $100 box, I decided to make a clone that's 30x bigger and only cost me $600.

Re:slight difference

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, this Dick Lehrbaum guy should go to work for the U.S. government designing economic stimulus packages!

Re:slight difference

[Beat The Odds]

"Inspired" by this little $100 box, I decided to make a clone that's 30x bigger and only cost me $600.

Damn, I'm impressed. That thing must be HUGE.

Where do you put it? In spare room? In a shed out back? Please, let us know.

Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

That's nice and all, but how about something sub $300. If one of these can be built sub $200 (including the tuner), I would buy it today.

Re:Sub $500?

[furby076]

You would need to sacrifice some components for cheaper ones and sometimes these systems are tweaked so they do one thing and they do it well, but just barely.

Re:Sub $500?

[QuantumRiff]

I couldn't agree more. A $500 box would free me from cable, at the price of about 18 months worth of cable. That's not a very good ROI. $300 would at least break me free in a year or so. (I don't have digital cable, if I did, it would probably be much quicker) Also, why do you never see these set top boxes with the over the air tuners? I would love one that acted as my digital TV tuner too

Re:Sub $500?

[goombah99]

Why? The point of Roku is that you can get netflix content. The BoxeeBox is not going to do that.

Re:Sub $500?

[Striikerr]

Why? The point of Roku is that you can get netflix content. The BoxeeBox is not going to do that.

Umm, yes the Boxee Box WILL get NetFlix streaming content. It can connect into your NetFlix account and it displays all of the Streamable content presently in your queue. It will also let you browse other streamable content. I have used Boxee to access my NetFlix streamable content on my Mac connected to my TV. It is an amazing application!

Re:Sub $500?

[ShieldW0lf]

I've got an old Athlon with Mythbuntu and XBMC sitting in the living room streaming content off my home network, and I'm quite content not having cable. People who visit that do have cable with all the trimmings want to know how they can buy what I've got because it's better than what they have at home.

I could use another terabyte drive on the thing though...

Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...

Re:Sub $500?

[0100010001010011]

Buy and old xbox. It's not going to do HD content, but Boxee is a fork of XBMC. Using XBMC+rtorrent+pytvshotws I have what can be assumed to be a near identical setup. The 'server' is in a different room and it has 2TB of space.

Re:Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

A $500 box would free me from cable, at the price of about 18 months worth of cable. That's not a very good ROI.

Mod parent up! That's exactly what I'm talking about.

Not only is it not a good return on investment, but you also have to worry about it breaking.

What about channel guides? All of the MythTV users I've talked too complain about them being unreliable, or having to pay a subscription fee for them. It totally defeats the purpose!

You're really at the whim of these content providers to continue to provide programming for free. One little disagreement with your ISP, etc. could render this thing useless.

Re:Sub $500?

[gEvil (beta)]

What good would a channel guide do you if you cancel your cable and no longer have "channels" to tune into? Sounds like some people haven't really thought this through.

Re:Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

You would need to sacrifice some components for cheaper ones and sometimes these systems are tweaked so they do one thing and they do it well, but just barely.

Which reminds me, from what I read of the article (before I restarted my browser and discovered the site was Slashdotted) they spent something like $190 on THE CASE! Why the case? I'm thinking I should start making cases in my garage out of plywood and selling them for $100 each.

Re:Sub $500?

[internerdj]

HTPC cases are expensive because they can be.

Re:Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

What good would a channel guide do you if you cancel your cable and no longer have "channels" to tune into?

I was thinking more along the lines of canceling TiVo, but it's also an example of how, without corporate support, these kinds of projects can go wrong.

Re:Sub $500?

[Jon_S]

Netflix works on Mac, not on Linux

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=3385

Re:Sub $500?

[goombah99]

I was under the impression that the Roku had a modest buffer in it. The streamed netflix content really stinks for me. I have comcast and after 6pm at night I get all sorts of interruptions. I can't figure out who to blame. When I do a traceroute I see the latency if about 0.5 seconds and there are 5 hops just within the the limelight system Netflix uses. Plus half the time the resolution goes to hell.

So I had assumed the reason to pay for roku was it somehow worked better than the ultra-craptastic silverlight system Netflix has.

Re:Sub $500?

[multisync]

A $500 box would free me from cable

I can't read the article, so I'll ask you. How does this free you from cable? Maybe if all you do is watch movies, but if you want to watch TV you would still need to connect something to the tuner on this thing.

Re:Sub $500?

[Jon_S]

True, My Mythtv + boxee box is over $500 ($400 core2duo+nvidia Dell box, plus more for tuners and a 500 gig drive), but after 18 months, you still have the box (and I can use it as a real computer in the meantime when I want).

Program guide costs $20/yr, pretty cheap.

Both mythtv and boxee work great (well, boxee is still alpha). Note, with cable, you can't record (i.e. mythtv PVR) hardly any HD since it's encrypted, although the new hauppauge HDPVR "tuner" is making strides (and you have to jump through some hoops). I suppose you can use the cable-supplied PVR but I heard they aren't that great and of course you are limited with what you can do with it.

Overall, I have no inclination to consider cable.

Re:Sub $500?

[jammindice]

I think the real question here is can the streaming content be saved locally?

With my mythtv box that i have one of the main benefits is i can store the shows for later, not just until i have time to watch them but for when you want to do those marathon weekends and re-watch everything from the beginning in order.

I think if they can record streaming shows from abc and such (which are available OTA) would be great, recording the netflix is not as needed since as long as you have the service you have all of the movies.

Re:Sub $500?

[gEvil (beta)]

Gotcha. I was still thinking along the lines of the GP (or whoever) up there who said he was gonna ditch cable.

Re:Sub $500?

[russotto]

I couldn't agree more. A $500 box would free me from cable, at the price of about 18 months worth of cable.

You have cheap cable. "Standard" cable in my area was $50/month and rising when I dropped it over a year ago. "Basic" is cheaper but I can get all of basic over the air anyway.

Also, why do you never see these set top boxes with the over the air tuners? I would love one that acted as my digital TV tuner too

It can be done, it just costs money. The only way to do it cheaply is to design your own hardware based on set top box components and sell enough units to cover development costs.

I have a MythTV box I built for about $800. It could be done more cheaply. But below $500 is pushing it, unless component prices have dropped a lot. An ATSC tuner is still around $80, and you're probably going to want two. Then you need all the regular computer stuff. For HD playback, you need a reasonably powerful CPU and decent video. And you'll probably want to put some effort into making it quiet, so you can't just grab the cheapest crap around.

Re:Sub $500?

[Svartalf]

In this case, the OTA's often about as good as basic cable these days, with the TV stations providing multiple feeds in addition to the network one. I'm only missing a few things like Discovery at this point- not sure if it's worth the $30-50/mo for Dish to get it.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

I use MythTV to capture OTA HDTV (ATSC) in Los Angeles. I get all the regular network and PBS programming stored directly to disk at native broadcast resolutions. For example I recorded the entire superbowl broadcast (at 1080i), just so I could fast forward and see the halftime commercials that everyone likes to talk about. This was so I could replay it during the week once I scrounged up the 3D glasses...

The only thing I feel like I'm missing is movies, so I might eventually subscribe to netflix. But since those hours spent watching movies would be hours not using the new MythTV recording, I'll probably wait a while and see if I really miss the movies that much. With the three different SoCal PBS channels and their 3-4 ATSC subchannels each, I'm still finding more than enough new programming recorded each week to have a surplus of content worth watching whenever I happen to turn on the TV.

Re:Sub $500?

[PunditGuy]

I guess it depends on your cable company, but Comcrap in Minneapolis has SA set-top boxes for digital cable that have active Firewire ports, and I was able to record everything -- including HD channels -- that wasn't pay TV (e.g., HBO) via MythTV. Until I ditched the cable, anyway. It was highly reliable with the latest Knoppmyth, and didn't tie up a tuner.

Re:Sub $500?

[jedidiah]

If you can get the cable provider's PVR box, then go for it.

Otherwise, be very cautious. You may end up spending good money
on something that ends up being a big turd.

Homebrew systems can be expensive and complex. However they are also reusable.

Re:Sub $500?

[aliquis]

And because the finish is better?

Re:Sub $500?

[jedidiah]

The Hulu plugin will give you access to all the "TV" you would ever want.

If you aren't used to Tivo style navigation, you won't even be missing anything.

Re:Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

The 'server' is in a different room and it has 2TB of space.

How much does this 'server' cost?

Re:Sub $500?

[internerdj]

I do agree the finish is nicer than your average case, but I've seen full tower cases with finishes as nice run $100 cheaper than the cheap looking HTPC cases.

Re:Sub $500?

[powerlord]

I was thinking more along the lines of canceling TiVo, but it's also an example of how, without corporate support, these kinds of projects can go wrong.

Well .. splurge the $300 except instead of buying an HTPC, go for the TiVo lifetime service. Pays off after ~2.5 years.

If you've got a Series3, TiVo HD, or TiVo HDXL and are planning to switch to Over The Air reception + Netflix/Amazon/Streaming from desktop, then it seems like a good deal.

If you DON'T have a TiVo yet, then its a more expensive proposition (~$900 total for TiVo HD XL+lifetime).

Compared to building a $500 HTPC its a higher cost, but its a cost that includes: Guide Data, Remote, ~150 hours HD/1300 hours SD, NetFlix streaming, AmazonVideo capable, can play video streams from PC Desktop, can backup programs to desktop (and if you're using Over The Air, any show you record will be offload-able), Internet access to set DVR to record shows (I rarely use it, but I have used it a few times), and most importantly "Someone else gets to manage the software". Updates to add new functionality (like the NetFlix connector), get pushed out ~2-4 times a year, bug fixes will follow if needed, and the wife can use the TiVo remote and to both her and I, its just an appliance, no further care needed.

Re:Sub $500?

[Thelasko]

I was still thinking along the lines of the GP (or whoever) up there who said he was gonna ditch cable.

Overzeetop says it best further down the page.

Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper? If so, and Hulu agrees not to break the box every couple of months, then I'm interested.

The channel guide scrappers that are currently used with MythTV break every couple of months, what's keeping that from happening with Hulu?

Re:Sub $500?

[foniksonik]

Get an Apple TV for $229 or a Mac mini for the same price already built into a sexy case... save yourself the trouble.

My ATV runs boxee great (no Netflix support due to their use of Silverlight as a media player - needs too much raw CPU)... but it gets Hulu, RSS torrents great, all other Boxee services and I've got a 1TB external attached where I store all my ripped DVDs and music collection. Add an antennae and HD OTA receiver - no more cable.

Total cost $429 (not counting my DSL fees... which are grandfathered in as a utility not an entertainment expense).

Re:Sub $500?

[crispin_bollocks]

Good luck with the UL flaming oil test!

Re:Sub $500?

[AvitarX]

usenet and bit torrent.

errr....
hulu.

Re:Sub $500?

[Lumpy]

XBMC Live - Better than Boxee and uses far less Horsepower for 720p HDTV.

I built one for $190.00 with a P4-3ghz proc and motherboard, all the goodies including a 8600gt video card and MCE remote. expense was the hard drive to hold all the 5Gig AVI HDTV movie rips. I use a python script with command line bittorrent and wget to silently pull all podcasts and tv shows I am after to the box. works great and I dont have to have a tuner card. Add an additional $99.00 of you want it to look like a stereo piece, or buy a old replay TV for $20.00 and hammer everything inside that case.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Believe it or not there are actually "channels" that you can tune in using an "antenna" for "free" in "HD"

Shocking....

Re:Sub $500?

[tuxgeek]

"That's nice and all, but how about something sub $300. If one of these can be built sub $200 (including the tuner), I would buy it today."

I currently have a Motorola cable dvr provided by my cable co. It' s a piece of shit that I return to them monthly just to get another pos unit. I would gladly pay the 6 bills to own something that will replay my recordings w/o crashing.

Thanks Rob, for the link and giving others an alternative option to cable hell.

Re:Sub $500?

[Lumpy]

I do this with XBMC live. I ignore Boxee because it's all SD quality or worse. Great for someone in a dorm or small apartment, sucks for someoen with a 42" plasma. XBMC live + pytvshows + some of my scripts and I have all of the Revision3 HD shows, lots of HD podcasts from other places as well as everything commercial I want from eztv.it

I just cant stand the low quality TV that boxee has as a source. I guess that's the only way to give you "legal" tv from hulu.. only crappy quality permitted.

Re:Sub $500?

[Big Boss]

The guide data fee is $20/year via SchedulesDirect. Hardly worth complaining about. I think this only works for USA users though. No idea on other countries as I don't live in them so I don't need guide data for them. :)

I built my Mythbox for about $300 including a nice case. The second frontend machine was about $200 as I didn't need a hard drive. I boot from a USB stick and get content from the main Myth machine or the fileserver. I need a couple more TB on the fileserver though. The 2TB I have on there is getting full.

Not using Boxee, they don't support running on 64-bit Linux. Or didn't when I looked into it anyway. Once they do, I'll consider adding them for the online content like Hulu.

Oh, I guess the tuner isn't included in those numbers. I use an HDHomeRun, dual OTA HD tuner box that connects via Ethernet. About $140. I was paying about $80/mo for DirecTV, now I use OTA and online for free. I would be paying for the internet connection anyway, so for this purpose, it's free. Less than 6 months for ROI on the main machine, another ~2 for the second box.

Re:Sub $500?

[Fallingcow]

This can probably play any console game from the Atari to the N64/PS1 via emulator, though. That's some good added value.

Legal? No. The first thing every single person I know who has even a little computer knowledge would do with a box like this? Yep.

Re:Sub $500?

[Fallingcow]

My big road block to ditching cable? My wife.

Specifically, the fact that her main use for the cable is watching those god-awful HGTV/TLC shows: "John and Kate Plus Eight", "Flip that House", "Property Virgins", "Clean House", that kind of thing.

The trouble is that no one seems to bother putting that crap on the usual torrent sites. I can understand why, but I really wish I could find it. Haven't been able to so far, and most of the shows aren't even available on the official websites.

Any idea where I might find it? Anyone?

Re:Sub $500?

[hairyfeet]

Well, since I can't RTFA since it was slashdotted I can at least help you out there, bud. I have built an HTPC for around the price you state. The reason I say around is simply because you know how volatile PC prices are and can vary wildly day to day. Anyway here is how I did it.

Lets start with the case. Here is the cheapest HTPC case I can find, but if you don't mind fugly you can go even cheaper and get a running box to boot. Simply look up "Compaq Deskpro SFF" or "Compaq Deskpro EN SFF 733" in Google. I was able to pick up a 733MHz for $35 with $10 shipping. It is just a little beige box, a little bigger than a DVD player. Makes a perfect HTPC case, at least I thought so. In fact I am typing this on a second one that I picked up and never got around to converting. For surfing the web the 733MHz paired with 384MB of RAM(max for this little board) and Win2K Pro(came with it) it makes for a nice little net surfer. Oops...back on topic.

Motherboard. Since either the retail HTPC case or the Compaq Deskpro is going to need a little board to squeeze into that little case I would suggest this one which is the classic Atom+945 combo. If you decide you want more graphics and don't mind going over budget both NV and ATI make several PCI graphics cards for those that wanted to upgrade to Vista(shudder). As for RAM, here is a 2GB stick for $22 which will max out the board. Now I am leaving out the tuner for a reason, and not because of price. I am leaving it out simply because the features vary so wildly among tuners that it really is a personal taste thing. I picked up an analog tuner(since I have cable) for a dirt cheap $15 that does all I want it to do(Mpg2/4 and FM radio) so you will need to decide which features/formats are right for your situation. Finally the HDD, which is $33 for a 80GB but again you can get bigger if you don't mind going a little over budget.

Now lets figure up the damage. If you build a Linux based HTPC like in TFA and and go analog with the tuner like I did you should just squeeze in at around the $200 mark, give or take $10 for shipping costs. The final total for the parts listed, which is the worst case since most tech guys have at least a few parts lying around, is $181.96 before shipping. So your $200 HTPC is doable, and with a few extra bucks thrown in for a larger HDD and a digital tuner could actually be quite nice. Well I hope this helps some, as it did give me something to do other than waiting on TFA to come back up.

Re:Sub $500?

[foniksonik]

18 months really isn't that long. It will go by in no time at all and you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. How many years have you paid a cable tax? I've been paying personally since 1998 and prior to that my family paid from `88 or so... that's ~20 years of cable tax. 1.5 years to get your ROI when you plan on having to pay cable tax for the next 3 years at least.

Re:Sub $500?

[Bassman59]

Believe it or not there are actually "channels" that you can tune in using an "antenna" for "free" in "HD"

Shocking....

ummmmmm, Digital != HD

But your point is otherwise correct.

Re:Sub $500?

[tepples]

What good would a channel guide do you if you cancel your cable and no longer have "channels" to tune into?

Free-to-air television still has channels, and DTV has three times as many as analog did.

Re:Sub $500?

[Bassman59]

My big road block to ditching cable? My wife.

Specifically, the fact that her main use for the cable is watching those god-awful HGTV/TLC shows: "John and Kate Plus Eight", "Flip that House", "Property Virgins", "Clean House", that kind of thing.

If she likes that crap, you have grounds for divorce right there. No judge would deny it.

Re:Sub $500?

[Abcd1234]

What about channel guides? All of the MythTV users I've talked too complain about them being unreliable, or having to pay a subscription fee for them. It totally defeats the purpose!

How does a $20 per *year* for reliable guide data "[defeat] the purpose", exactly? Oh, right, because some whiners can't stand to pay for any kind of service, no matter how small the fee, or how much effort is involved in running it.

Re:Sub $500?

[Bassman59]

Get an Apple TV for $229 or a Mac mini for the same price already built into a sexy case... save yourself the trouble.

My ATV runs boxee great (no Netflix support due to their use of Silverlight as a media player - needs too much raw CPU)... but it gets Hulu, RSS torrents great, all other Boxee services and I've got a 1TB external attached where I store all my ripped DVDs and music collection.

I have a Mac mini and an eyeTV that do quite well as a DVR set-up. And we ditched cable TV last week because we never watched it. So now we have a Hulu queue with "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" and Netflix brings us something fun to watch every few days.

So what's the point of wasting hard disk space ripping DVDs you own? Just watch them on the computer (hooked to the TV).

Add an antennae and HD OTA receiver - no more cable.

Antennae is plural, and moreover refers to the things sticking out of a bug's head. You need to "add an antenna."

Re:Sub $500?

[poot_rootbeer]

Buy an old xbox. It's not going to do HD content

Actually, the original Xbox hardware is entirely capable of output at 720p or 1080i. The bottleneck is the CPU, which simply isn't powerful enough to do sustained decoding of HD-resolution MPEG data.

Re:Sub $500?

[Peepsalot]

You can pick up a used Xbox for $50 from gamestop.com and put XBMC(the software which Boxee forked from) on it. It's a very nice media center for playing any media shared on your network. The only downside is that the xbox does not have the processing power to decode HD content, and has no input for recording content. To get those things, you probably will have to spend 500-600.

Disclaimer: It may cost you a little more than $50, since in order to hack the xbox to run xbmc, you need a particular game, a memory card, and an adapter that allows your computer to write to the memory card. Luckily for me, a friend of mine already had all those though.

Re:Sub $500?

[CronoCloud]

"Clean House" is on the Style Network, not HGTV or TLC where it would actually fit in better with the other programming. Doesn't everyone love Niecy and her hair flowers, and Trish's "I sound like I need a throat lozenge" voice? "Property Virgins" isn't half bad either, but I can't stand "John and Kate Plus Eight" or "Flip this house"

Any idea where I might find it? Anyone?

Find a (most likely femme) geek with the inclination (and equipment) to record and upload those shows and convince them to do it.

Re:Sub $500?

[TooMuchToDo]

Glad cable is cheap where you and GPP live. Comcast in my area no longer offers standard cable. Minimum service is digital basic, starting at $60/month. That doesn't include additional decoder boxes past the first. So a $500 box has an ROI for me of a little under 9 months. It also insulates me from further rate hikes by Comcast (which they don't seem to shy about). Similar to a solar panel install on the roof of your house. There's an investment, but it pays off at some point and insulates you from further increases in cost.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

I see that you're not married.

Re:Sub $500?

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

I'm thinking I should start making cases in my garage out of plywood and selling them for $100 each.

I got tired of cutting myself on the card slot openings on those metal cases. I'd rather try splinters for a while.

Re:Sub $500?

[stevewahl]

Believe it or not there are actually "channels" that you can tune in using an "antenna" for "free" in "HD"

Shocking....

ummmmmm, Digital != HD

But your point is otherwise correct.

The original point is not incorrect. There are channels you can tune in using an antenna, for free. A subset of those channels (until the analog cutoff in the US anyway) are digital, and a subset of the digital channels are HD.

So there are free HD channels using an antenna. I watched the olympics and the superbowl in HD for free, and I'm not exactly a sports fan.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thelasko,

You work for a cable company don't you?

Re:Sub $500?

[Mister Whirly]

"save yourself the trouble. My ATV runs boxee great (no Netflix support due to their use of Silverlight as a media player - needs too much raw CPU)."

Those seem like contradictory statements. I already have Netflix and want to be able to access all the features. The Mac Minis seem underpowered for what you could get if you built it yourself. (Unless a "sexy case" is the most important aspect of it to you.) I think you haven't looked at the prices of Minis for a while too. $600 for a Dou Core 1.83, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive? I just built a Duo Core 3.0 Ghz, 4GB RAM, 750 GB drive, and a Geforce 9800 GT for the same price. Granted it is a little bigger than a Mini (well a lot bigger) but size wasn't an issue for me. (I also got a nice Antec 500W power supply, and Antec case and a ThermalMax CPU cooler included in the price. And a LG Dual-layer DVD-RW.)

Re:Sub $500?

[Mister Whirly]

Ditch the wife instead of cable. That list of shows alone are grounds for disillusionment.

Re:Sub $500?

[Sinning]

I thought this was /.

Isn't the complexity the fun part?

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a Mythbuntu box that is hooked up to all three TVs in my house. I only get OTA TV, and a few shows on-line. It works great, but it did cost some money to build it from scratch with two tuners and 2TB of hard drive space. But the two tuners cost $250 (pcHD5500's) and the hard drives cost that much too. I needed a better video card, but it isn't that new of a system that I am using.

The TV schedule is $20/year from schedule Direct, and I don't mind paying less than $2/month for it.

After using this for one year now, it was a very good choice to do it. It will be my home media PC for the next 5-10 years most likely. Maybe even more. It does HD video, no broadcast flag, automatic commercial skipping, holds all videos that I have, and just works now that it is setup.

Re:Sub $500?

[hedwards]

Because we operate under the premise that things like movies wouldn't be made in any meaningful quantity if people weren't going to pay. True some people do create low budget films for free, but the number is pretty small and the production quality isn't usually as good. Plus some types of movies are just too expensive to do right, even if you're being budget consious.

The only reason we had protections for Copyright, Trademark and Patent in the legal code originally was to ensure that there was an incentive to produce. Even if you're wanting to give away your code, photos, books, what have you, the protection does ensure that you have legal redress should somebody use it for purposes you don't approve of.

Were we to have that level of deregulation in the IP market, you'd have only the choice of produce or not produce, with no option to control it at all.

Re:Sub $500?

[hedwards]

Honestly, unless you're aim is geekery, the Roku is a better option if that's what you want. They haven't released the update yet, but they've already stated that there will be an update to add both Hulu and Amazon to the device's options.

I've got one myself and the quality and convenience are hard to beat. It's definitely a bargain at $100. Or if you've already gotten an XBox 360, they'll probably add support at some point, they already did with Netflix.

Re:Sub $500?

[hedwards]

Actually OTA HD has been the way to go for quite a while, mainly because most of the Cable providers were compressing the signal down to somewhat lesser quality than OTA. The only problem is a lack of selection, last I checked there was only one genuine HD channel available here.

Re:Sub $500?

[multisync]

Right. I keep forgetting many people in the US get programming OTA. Most people get their basic programming as well as "premium" services via "cable" where I'm from. I shouldn't post before coffee ;)

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

I gave up trying to find a cheap quiet box and just put it in the next room, with a few wires running through the wall.

Re:Sub $500?

[multisync]

usenet and bit torrent.

Yeah, but you don't need to spend $500.00 to do that, a bittorrent client and newsgroup reader will suffice.

I was still in the process of waking up when I posted that comment, and didn't think about OTA content available to residences of most large US cities. That's why I didn't understand how what sounds basically like a fancy PVR (or whatever you want to call it) would help people ditch cable. I suppose if it integrates with Hulu and Netflix and whatever else, it's more convenient, but again I can simply stream media from my file server if I'm just interested in watching content I downloaded from the Internet.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...

It is in Canada (CBC) and the UK (BBC).

Re:Sub $500?

[OolimPhon]

The channel guide scrappers that are currently used with MythTV break every couple of months, what's keeping that from happening with Hulu?

If you're still using scrapers with Mythtv you're doing it wrong. If you're in the US/Canada use Schedules Direct. Anywhere else there's a standard XMLTV updater.

Re:Sub $500?

[Fallingcow]

Doesn't everyone love Niecy and her hair flowers, and Trish's "I sound like I need a throat lozenge" voice?

Heh. The worst part is that the company I'm with is working on a couple of "reality" type shows (though semi-decent ones, IMO--not picked up by any networks yet, we're still in the "pitching" phase) so any attempt on my part to even sort-of enjoy shows like "Clean House" are destined for failure.

I'm constantly thinking, "oh, god, that was so obviously set-up" when they make one of those "deals" with the homeowner to give them a couch or whatever if they give up such-and-such thing, or (worse) wondering how many takes they did of an "off-the-cuff" witty exchange. Oh, and then there's the editing where, just every now and then, you can really tell that they've butchered a conversation to make it fit what they needed it to be or they cut a statement short because the person rambled. Totally ruins it.

Re:Sub $500?

[ptx0]

Mac minis work well as an HTPC (frontend).. USB tuners may work if it's running Linux for a backend.

Re:Sub $500?

[Trillian_1138]

My big issue (well, not that big) is XBMC's inability to stream NetFlix videos. I'm not too torn up, but it'd be really great if the XBox under my TV could not only play DVDs and stream music/movies from my computer in the other room, but stream from my NetFlix account as well. But it looks like we're going to be out of luck for that...

-Trillian

Re:Sub $500?

[default luser]

If you can get the cable provider's PVR box, then go for it.

I recently moved from a Series 2 Tivo to Comcast's PVR (Motorola), and I am very satisfied. Hell, it's even easy to turn-on 30-second commercial skip (BONUS: you don't have to re-enable it every time the DVR loses power), so I'm very satisfied using it.

What you lose:

Tivo Suggestions. A loss, certainly, but one I can live with.
Recordings are not grouped into a category tree. It means more scrolling to reach items not recorded recently.
You cannot skip by 15-minute increments using the skip buttons while FF/RW.

What you gain:

Dual tuners, and no conversion loss. I know you can get this with Series 3, but Series 3 is also much more expensive than Series 2 ever was.

Re:Sub $500?

[wootcat]

And Plex is a Mac port of XBMC. It's really sweet on a Mac mini.

Re:Sub $500?

[dalhamir]

Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...

oh yeah, I'd love for congress to decide what sitcoms get made, that would be wonderful. And you do realize that even if a government pays for it, it still actually costs you money right? Someone has to actually pay for the content to get made, and the way to actually get what you want in the long run is to pay for it yourself. That said, the cable model of payment is certainly idiotic in the age of the internet, and boxee's integration of Hulu and netflix make it both practical and responsible way to get your media more efficiently.

Re:Sub $500?

[Darinbob]

My DirecTV with Tivo cost $200, with tax, as I recall. I can't imagine making any of these at-home media replacements or DVRs with a $200 PC.

So far, DirecTV with local channels has already broken me free from cable; half the price, digital quality, integrated DVR, no a/b switch, etc.

If I dump that for some home brew setup, where does programming come from? The internet? Digital broadcast? I just don't see it. Are there really free, fast streaming sites that give me all the channels I like legally? Or just some spots where I can pay $1 to watch an episode of Lost that I missed?

Re:Sub $500?

[RicoX9]

Must be nice to have $28/mo cable. Where I live BASIC is $60/mo. I dumped cable over a year ago, and rarely miss it.

Re:Sub $500?

[ShieldW0lf]

you do realize that even if a government pays for it, it still actually costs you money right?

Yeah, I realize. If I'm going to be indirectly involved in supporting people while they make stuff, I want everyone to have access to it. If it's going to be part of the common pool of culture, I'm OK with helping fund its creation. Otherwise, I'm not.

My favorite stuff is almost always government funded anyways.

Re:Sub $500?

[sanjosanjo]

I've tried to make an HTPC but I could never get the remote working properly. Are you able to put the machine into standby using the remote? I'm interested in saving power as much as possible.

Re:Sub $500?

[cayenne8]

"I could use another terabyte drive on the thing though..."

Keep an eye on sale ads, I'm seeing 1 TB drives for $100 and less all the time. I think CompUsa online had them for about $90 the other day....

Re:Sub $500?

[aonaran]

$20 a year for a subscription to the channel guide is not really all that much, and in my experience the one I'm subscribed to http://www.schedulesdirect.org/ is very accurate.

I used to use the precursor (Zap2it Labs) for my hacked (to work in Canada before Tivo had Canadian support) Tivo. Back then it was free, but they had problems with people abusing the system, so they went to a very cheap subscription model.

Re:Sub $500?

[JoeBorn]

The Neuros LINK is essentially a $299 thin TVPC,discless (runs off flash storage) designed for playback (including running Boxee) comes with ubuntu 8.10, wifi, already tweaked and running with wireless controller, expandable with PCI, SATA, etc. http://www.neurostechnology.com/neuros-link

Re:Sub $500?

[aonaran]

There are plenty of channels to be had over the air (OTA) with an antenna.
That is how I get my channels and then if I want something that is only available on cable (like HBO series) I just buy the season on DVD. I get a whole season on DVD with a bunch of extras for about the cost of one month of cable. Sure I have to wait till the season finishes before I can buy the DVD, but I'm patient.
People don't talk much about what they are currently watching where I work so there is no spoilers for me by accidentally overhearing conversations at lunch.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

a $500 box would free me from cable... at less than the price of 3 months worth of cable.

LOL.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

So you violate copyright law and feel you're justified in doing so because it saves you money?

Re:Sub $500?

[cayenne8]

"What about channel guides? All of the MythTV users I've talked too complain about them being unreliable, or having to pay a subscription fee for them. It totally defeats the purpose!"

RE: I've not found a single problem with the MythTV guide. And hell, it is only like $15-$25 a year...chick feed.

And man..if you have to sweat $300-$500 for a home made settop media box, sounds like you might wanna watch a bit less tv, and work to get a better job. $500 for a toy like this shouldn't break the bank, unless you are a college student, you know?

Re:Sub $500?

[cayenne8]

"Both mythtv and boxee work great (well, boxee is still alpha). Note, with cable, you can't record (i.e. mythtv PVR) hardly any HD since it's encrypted, although the new hauppauge HDPVR "tuner" is making strides (and you have to jump through some hoops). I suppose you can use the cable-supplied PVR but I heard they aren't that great and of course you are limited with what you can do with it."

Get yourself a HDHomerun unit. It works GREAT with mythtv. It has dual tuners, either are capable of ATSC and QAM tuning. I hook one to my cable (Cox) and it successfully finds all the unencrypted HD and SD channels...and often some pay ones they forget to encrypt, in addition to the On Demand channels people watch.

And heck...this is all off an internet only connection...HD and analog are on the internet line, and they can't put traps on the line or they'll degrade the high speed internet signal.

But, I digress...get yourself on of these units..works great.

Re:Sub $500?

[Jon_S]

I do have an HDHomerun. Use it only for OTA. As you say, it works only on the unencrypted cable channels (not that I've checked, I don't have cable). You are lucky (for now) if Cox doesn't encrypt too many HD channels.

Pretty cool about getting the cable while just paying for the internet, though. I've got DSL.

Re:Sub $500?

[a9db0]

I'd skip the case referenced. It's small and it's black, but the power supply is not one I would want running in my living room. It also only supports low-profile cards, which limits your options. I know - my daughter's pc is built in one.

Also, while the Compaq SFF systems are great little boxes, they're not going to pass the gf/wife test. Also they tend to be a bit noisier. Avoid the P4 boxes - they are SERIOUSLY noisy, especially under any load. I've one at work, under my desk I use to run terminals. If I fire up Firefox, it sounds like a jet taking off. The 866/933 PIIIs are the sweet spot for them. They make great workstations for email/web work. I use them for firewall appliances because they are small, relatively easy on power, fully supported by Debain, inexpensive, and reliable. But they just don't have the horsepower for full 1080p decode.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically this is considered stealing cable. Yes he pays for the internet portion, but not the TV portion. I can't say that I wouldn't do it myself, but if one is going to steal, it should be acknowledged that it is stealing.

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's their fault. if they allowed REAL FAIR USE it would not be this way. It is ragingly stupid to force me to watch Show X at Y time on Z channel. They know it. YOU KNOW IT.

so shut the fuck up you moron.

Re:Sub $500?

[Lumpy]

Yes. you can put it into standby. you cant take it OUT of standby without a custom circuit.

I use crestron for control, so I simply have my remote tell the processor to fire a contact closure to restart the pc from sleep. But I also stopped using sleep. you cant download the stuff automatically when it's sleeping.

if the box sleeps you never have content.

Remote is brain dead simple. buy a windows MCE remote and reciever. plug it in, it works.

Re:Sub $500?

[Jorophose]

Personally, I've been waiting for residential fibre in Ottawa to finally get off cable. Either that, or get all of our analog stations over the air (especially global and omni! we 3 global + omni!).

I think CNN is streamable, and if you look hard enough I'm sure you could find a Western-movies station. Doesn't Miro support commercial channels already? Even 480i/p channels would be great... it's not like everything is HD anyway, especially not in my house.

I thought about doing that, like a 200$ TV box. It doesn't really work. Unless somebody comes out with a cheap tuner and fast (oh come on, a digital tuner can't cost more than like 20$ to make, and even an analog one shouldn't cost those insane amounts), it's going to be very hard. I think you could get a VIA Nano setup (looking at the crunchtablet) for 150$, or even an ARM (OMAP or i.MX515 on a board with more than a crappy 128MB) for the frontend.

But yeah, prices on this stuff is ugly. Cases are not too bad, Apex has mini-ITX and micro-ITX cases for like 40$-50$

Re:Sub $500?

[Jorophose]

It's ridiculous. mini-ITX is also like this, but thankfully Apex has some (MI-008 and MI-100) that retail for like 50$, and according to SilentPCReview, they're actually not that bad, if you don't mind an internal PSU. No frills, but it does have room for a DVD drive.

Re:Sub $500?

[Jorophose]

What's your experience with the atom? What can it handle, where does it fall?...

And what about your TV tuner card? I've been trying to find a good one, they're all 100$+. Or 20$ like the KWorlds and they barely work (no information on if sound works = not really working).

Re:Sub $500?

[hairyfeet]

Well I can't really tell you about the Atom since I tend to "Frankenstein" everything and I managed to snag a little Sempron board that fit into the HTPC which I later sold. The customer is quite happy and uses the tuner to record MP4 which he then offloads onto a USB HDD for later burning. I tend to build a machine, play with it for awhile, then get bored and sell.

What I can tell you about is capture cards, especially the cheapos as they are verey popular here. Most folks have lots of old VHS tapes with things like weddings, ball games, etc, and while my conversion rates are reasonable if they have a stack of tapes I tell them it is cheaper simply to get a card and DIY. After showing them how easy it is to capture(I usually program 3 settings-low-med-high so they don't need to know things like bitrate) they are quite happy to hand me their money and have me set it up. Since they are mainly converting VHS and watching some cable on it I can't tell you about high def, but the two cards I have had the most good luck with is the Sabrent which is at the top of the list here and the other which can be hard to find is the "easy TV FM".

The nice thing about the Sabrent is it is a Philips chipset, while I believe the Easy TV is a Brooktree. The reason that is important is not only does Mediaportal usually not give you any trouble setting up with these common chipsets, but that you can find tons of free programs in both Linux and Windows that work well with those chips. That way you can go XP+Mediaportal or Linux with Mythbox, your call. These chips have been out long enough that everyone has drivers for them and both free and commercial software vendors that do capture support those chips. So while I haven't had much luck with KWorld(tend to be buggy) the Sabrents work fine. I also have a couple of customers that use the KWorld USB tuner in their XP laptops and don't seem to have the trouble that the PCI cards do, so if you want to go digital for cheap that might be an option.

IMHO this is one of the side benefits to the changeover to digital. All these analog cards that went for $40-50 are now $15-25, which means that those of us on cable/sat can pick up a card to play with for cheap. So now if I am out of town I can record my shows by simply picking a time and letting the card do the work and at such cheap prices you don't feel heartbroken if the card can't do all that you'd like. That said I record my stuff at 2MBps using the P4 3.6GHz I have had for years and I am very happy with the picture quality. Those whose weddings and kids Bday parties I converted are also very happy to have a nice DVD with their memories backed up safely and easily copied than to worry about tape wear and breakage. So pick you out a little card, Frankenstein you a machine together(for watching anything over 500MHz works fine, for recording I recommend a 1.5GHz or better depending on the format) and most importantly have fun! After all what fun is a new toy, even a cheapo toy, if you don't play with it?

Re:Sub $500?

[cayenne8]

I don't think of it as stealing.

I pay for a computer connection, and that's what I have hooked to the cable...computers.

Re:Sub $500?

[hairyfeet]

I never tried the P4 version but considering the heat of the early P4s that wouldn't be surprising. I got turned onto them when my school was tossing out a bunch of them after upgrading the secretaries and nobody wanted them because they were "only" a P3 733MHz. I sold several to SOHOs who think they are just wonderful bookkeeping machines, turned a couple into great multi-format DVD players and sold them, and still have 2 I kept for myself and the fam.

As for the girlfriend/wife test I bet I could get it to pass with the P4. Those early P4s could be cooled with low rev fans if you used a fat heatsink and with the Compaq case being metal having the heatsink near the top would simply help transfer heat. I did sell one of the P3s to a married guy and got the wife to approve by showing her how simple it was to use. I put a white face of the DVD (so it would be pretty and match the case) and loaded up mediaportal which as you can see by the link adds to the pretty while giving a nice big coating of easy on top.

I have learned through my own exp if you want to make a female happy with tech the best way is to make it easy for HER to use it, not what we as guys would consider easy. They HATE lots of menus, buttons, and extra crap that they will have to figure out, and I have found many are tech phobic. By loading up mediaportal on top of the XP that the boxes came with you give her a nice easy to use menu with easy to spot icons in a simple circle interface. And of course the guy was smart enough to take my advice and pick up a wireless keyboard and mouse(girls HATE wires running everywhere) and pick up a copy of AoE I cheap. Don't ask me why but that game is like catnip to girls and plays nicely on those old 733MHz boxes. When I went back last year to do an upgrade on his office den PC she just waved me towards the back while she sat on the couch with AoE playing on the Compaq. When I asked Steve about it he laughed and said I did my job of selling it to her TOO well, as he didn't get to play with it anymore!

But it helped reinforce a valuable lesson told to me by one of my old bosses: Give your customers what THEY need and want, not what you think they would like. Too many of us tech guys try to set up things the way we like them instead of what is good for the customer. And with the females I have found that to be as simple and intuitive as possible. They want to simply pick up the control and know what to do without having the man tell them how to work it. Give them that and your female customers will be happy little campers and recommend you to all their friends. My last boss would get SO pissed when a pretty girl would come in and he would start trying to help them only to get "That's nice, but my (insert sister/cousin/aunt/best friend) said I should get the big hairy biker guy in the back to do it. Is he around?". And it was all because I did everything I could to make it so they pushed the button and it went, period.

Re:Sub $500?

[whimmel]

I built one for "free" and installed it as a menu option on my existing MythTV machine. Works like a charm..

Re:Sub $500?

[MikeBabcock]

Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...

You mean like the CBC here in Canada? :-)

Re:Sub $500?

[MikeBabcock]

A new PS3 will run you less than $500 and it has full media streaming for photos, music and video with full official DivX support in HD. If you lived in Europe, it can also record TV, but there's nothing stopping you from using MythTV or FreeVO to record TV on another machine.

Re:Sub $500?

[ShieldW0lf]

You mean like the CBC here in Canada? :-)

That's exactly what I mean. You can't see CBC's stuff if you're overseas, you can't see the BBC's stuff if you're overseas, etc...

Having foreigners immerse themselves in your culture is a good thing. It makes them sympathetic to your perspectives. A nation paying to create cultural works and then refusing to allow people from other countries to see them unless they trade something shiny first is just plain stupid.

Re:Sub $500?

[drinkypoo]

You know, if we just reinstituted copyright LIMITS rather than letting disney buy some legislation to push them out every time steamboat willie is about to go public domain, the whole system would be pretty reasonable. The covenant for copyright was that none of the material would ever be lost, because in order to register to completely prove copyright you had to send your work in to the LoC, and it would enter the public domain and people could get a copy at that point. Well, they still get theirs, but we don't get ours. Fix that, and copyright works!

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Netflix works with Boxee on Mac. Netflix does NOT work with Boxee on Linux, because Netflix uses Silverlight, and there's no Linux port for it, nor will there be in the near future. The Boxee developers have been quite clear on this point.

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?s=2a3148a3aec3f71a5dbd6e496d0bf81d&t=3385

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Boxee on Linux will not support Netflix. The developers have been quite clear about this -

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?s=2a3148a3aec3f71a5dbd6e496d0bf81d&t=3385

Re:Sub $500?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only on Windows/OS X, not Linux.

Re:Sub $500?

[ShieldW0lf]

No it doesn't. You're still destroying the value of the creation as part of the mechanism that funds the creation. An idea that isn't propagated is underexploited. Achieving maximum exploitation of ideas requires that the mechanism for funding is not tied to the right-to-copy. We need a new way. We're only hurting ourselves sticking with this system...

how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always read it as "you-bun-too", which would make "an ubuntu" wrong. But i guess it could be pronounced a "uhh-bun-too" or "ooo-boon-too". "ooo-boon-too" sounds like something a chimp would say, so I guess that must be correct.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[QuantumRiff]

I've always thought it was ooo-bun-too

Like Goo bun too, which apparently, makes me sound like a chimp ;)

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[larry bagina]

/me imagines a ubuntu advertising campaign similar to the budweiser frogs, but with monkeys.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[rgetty]

A Zambian (Africa) friend says "ooo-boon-too".

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[Panzor]

Wow, I've been saying it wrong for two years...

"oo-BOON-too" http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[Lostlander]

http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq?action=show&redirect=FAQ

Third one down

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[MoellerPlesset2]

I've always thought it was ooo-bun-too

All three 'u's are like 'oo' in 'moon'. The pronunciation of 'u' as in 'unique' is pretty much unique to English.
Check out this video of Mandela talking about Ubuntu (the concept, not the distro). He's a Xhosa speaker, so he should know.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[multisync]

Wow, I've been saying it wrong for two years...

That's nothing. Think about how long some people have been mispronouncing "Linux."

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[GungaDan]

I thought it was a swahili word, in which case the first sound would be a "yoo," as in "yoo-ganda," that swahili-speaking nation near kenya.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[Shark]

Except that 'unique' is originally a french word which is where that 'u' sound comes from.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[MoellerPlesset2]

Except that 'unique' is originally a french word which is where that 'u' sound comes from.

It's not. The French vowel sound is /y/ whereas in English it's the /ju:/ diphthong, in IPA phonetics.
That has to do with the Great Vowel Shift, not with the French origin of the word.

Consider for instance 'moon'. That was originally pronounced with an /o:/ sound. The same sound as the 'o' in the German version, 'mond'.
That vowel sound (which doesn't remain in English) got shifted into /u:/. So English's 'oo' sound is is what most European languages write with 'u' (and what it originally was in English). The existing /u:/ sounds in English, e.g. 'house' (which sounded like "hoose") then had to change to avoid confusion, and became the /au/ diphtong.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[tepples]

The pronunciation of 'u' as in 'unique' is pretty much unique to English.

English long 'u' sounds like the word "you", spelled phonetically as [jUu], roughly like a short 'ee' followed by 'oo'. French, Occitan, and Dutch have a long 'u' that mixes the same sounds, except they're in too much of a hurry to say them one after another, instead choosing to say them at the same time.

Re:how do you pronounce ubuntu?

[Panzor]

it's "Line-oox," right? haha, kidding.

popcornhour rules

[grub]

If you don't want DIY and something non-geek friendly for ~$200 check out the popcornhour network media tanks. Streams from a server or user-installed hard disk. Plays x264, divx, xvid, wmv, etc all at up to 1080p.

We own two and just love them.

Re:popcornhour rules

[CopaceticOpus]

The Popcorn Hour boxes look very nice. Still, they are rather limited by their lack of ability to play web based video. I'd like to see a box around the size and cost of the Popcorn Hour box, which adds the following:

1. Runs Boxee, in order to give access to Hulu, YouTube, and many other online videos.
2. Is a licensed Netflix device.

Maybe they are working on it, or Roku is, or someone at Boxee is. Whoever gets there first should find plenty of waiting customers.

Re:popcornhour rules

[grub]

Popcornhour boxes can play youtube, google video, etc. Hook up a USB keyboard and you needn't fumble with the remote control to enter things.
I just forgot to mention that in my post.

Re:popcornhour rules

[Rude Turnip]

Install the PlayOn media server on a Windows PC. It's a DLNA server that will stream Hulu and your Netflix queue to any DLNA client. I've used it with Boxee, Xbox 360 and Apple TV w/XBMC. It's a one-time fee of $30, but so handy for so many devices!

Re:popcornhour rules

[DwySteve]

I believe I saw an addon program that lets your computer act as a DLNA server (uPNP streaming media server) that the Popcorn Hour will find. The program allows the streaming of Netflix movies with a proper account, etc. It might also have done Hulu. I agree that those are becoming very important, but remember the Popcorn Hour is Linux-based, so people will be hacking it completely.

As a side note does anyone know if this thing is legit? I know it's biased but the place that makes them seems to be a mainland chinese company and they have the reputation of sometimes copying designs, adding a few features and selling them. While it's a great box I wouldn't be surprised to hear it's a WDTV core with some software additions (AFAIK, both use the same processor and decoding hardware, but lots of boxes do nowadays so it's kind of a wash).

Re:popcornhour rules

[fractalrock]

I just went to their site, and was unable to find a dealer in the US. What am I missing?
Amazon doesn't seem to have them either.

Re:popcornhour rules

[Anonymous Coward]

Order through the webpage.

Re:popcornhour rules

[manekineko2]

I've heard Popcorn Hours have a tendency to choke on certain files. They support 95% of stuff out there, but 5% gives them problems.

Since you've owned it and presumably follow development, what are the odds of firmware updates coming out that can give you support in the future for something not supported now?

I ask because I've long been an XBMC faithful, and their updating history has been just phenomenal. At this point, it seriously can play any file I throw at it, even things I can't get playing on my computer.

Re:popcornhour rules

[grub]

I've had it choke on some quicktime files and poorly encoded xvids. That's it I think. I was a die-hard XBMC user, too, but even 720p x264 caused mine to slow to a slideshow. All that said, I don't recall mine ever having problems with a proper Scene release.

Re:popcornhour rules

[manekineko2]

Are they good about support/updates?

Re:popcornhour rules

[grub]

The support forums are very active and the firmware is updated after much testing. As I wrote before, we own two of them. My younger brother bought 2 based on seeing ours in action and a couple of friends from work bought 1 and 2 respectively.

Check out the forums, they're active and you'll get a feel for the capabilities! :)

What's in a name

[sakdoctor]

A 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo based system isn't going to be silent.
I think THE requirement for a media centre is silent operation. (and I don't mean silent 2.0 as defined by the marketers these days)

Also, stupid name.

Re:What's in a name

[rhpenguin]

I'm not running Boxee, but.. I am running MythTV on a machine I built and it's REALLY quiet. Specs are:

Asus M2N-E
AMD Athlon x2 5000+BE
GeForce 8400GS Silent Edition
2GB OCZ DDR2 PC6400 RAM
WD 1TB HDD x2

Works fantastic, you'd never know it's running while watching TV.

Re:What's in a name

[quattr0]

Totally agree. Building a box like that and could keep it running quietly like a regular DVR is not cheap. Like other poster mentioned, popcornhour is the way to go. Simple and affordable.

Re:What's in a name

[DanWS6]

You'd be surprised. I recently build a media pc using a 3.0 GHz core 2 duo, 4GB of ram, etc. The system is deathly quiet compared to my old one, which featured duel p4 xeon's....

Re:What's in a name

[Rageon]

Extremely similar specs to my HTPC, except I went with the 5400 and the 8800GT. I just used a ton of fans running slowly. It's not "silent", but it's quieter than the DVR from my cable company.

Re:What's in a name

[Spatial]

A design choice rather than a limitation. The C2Ds have a TDP of 65 watts and very high tolerances in general. Great candidates for passive cooling.

Re:What's in a name

[Hatta]

My PC is a 2.2GHZ C2D, stock cooler. I have it in an Antec P180b, with 2 120mm fans on low. I can't tell whether the thing is running or not without looking at it. It's definately quieter than my first gen Xbox running XBMC. Granted, this is probably not the case you want for an HTPC, but it can be done.

Re:What's in a name

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, that depends on the cooling system you use. Liquid cooling answers end up being much quieter than air-only cooling- and there's even off the shelf, sealed, ready-to-go answers for this sort of thing.

Re:What's in a name

[JohnBailey]

A 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo based system isn't going to be silent.
I think The requirement for a media centre is silent operation. (and I don't mean silent 2.0 as defined by the marketers these days)

Depends. If you go with all cheapest possible ordinary parts, then yes. The fan noise will be loud enough to be annoying. But if you go for quiet fans and a pretty heavy gauge metal case, it will be as near silent as a DVD player.

A couple of these quiet case fans and a PSU with a slow 120mm cooling fan is surprisingly quiet. And even the stock AMD cooler is pretty quiet(no idea about Intel). The computer is for watching video, not playing the latest dual SLI graphics cruncher games, so passively cooled video cards are also fine. And there are quiet hard drives, which can be made even more quiet by mounting them in an acoustic caddy.

Also, stupid name.

Yes Sakdoctor. Very stupid name.

Re:What's in a name

[Lumpy]

I think THE requirement for a media centre is silent operation. (and I don't mean silent 2.0 as defined by the marketers these days)

THE requirement for a media centre pc is to fit in a cabinet where you cant hear it. I dont understand the obsession with making a silent PC that sits out. put the thing in a cabinet or in your equipment rack and call it done, dont waste time and money making it "silent".

My Xbox360 and ps3 sound like jet engines, so a standard pc will be silent compared to them.

Re:What's in a name

[viper66]

My HTPC is quieter and uses less power than the DVR I had rented from my cable company.

Re:What's in a name

[Xtravar]

You're new to this aren't you?

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Buy a passive heatsink.
Line the case with Dynamat (or flashing tape if you're cheap).
Buy only the best fans.

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[e2d2]

Apparently slashdot has determined how fast one can think and type and then deemed any faster "too fast". I guess it keeps out the trolls, LOL!

Good article if...

[MrBandersnatch]

You're looking to build a media PC but I couldnt help but be disappointed by the use of a micro-atx rather than mini-itx motherboard. While we may have to wait for Nvidia's Ion platform before mini-itx can do HD playback the current batch of boards are quite nice for SD playback.

Boxee looks interesting...are there any comparisons out there between it, Freevo and MythTV?

Re:Good article if...

[Big Boss]

ITX can do it. Just get a board with an NVidia 8xxx or better chipset and use VDPAU. It's "beta" quality right now, but plays everything I have thrown at it, including some CPU killing Blu-Ray transcodes. And it does it while using ~5% of my X2 3800+ CPU. Amazing stuff.

You can add a PCI based VDPAU capable card for about $60 as well if you want to keep your existing setup.

Re:Good article if...

[wagnerrp]

Boxee looks interesting...are there any comparisons out there between it, Freevo and MythTV?

There is no comparison that can be made between it, Freevo, and MythTV. Freevo and MythTV are DVRs. They record TV. Boxee is simply a media player (if perhaps a very fancy one).

Re:Good article if...

[wagnerrp]

'Blu-Ray transcodes' are by no means CPU killing. Your X2 3800+ should be able to handle anything up to maybe 15Mbps h.264, which is higher than any transcode you're going to get from the internet. VDPAU lets you play the actual Blu-Ray on that computer, or lets you get away with something much smaller like an old single-core desktop or an Atom (see the ION platform).

Re:Good article if...

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Boxee doesn't record video. Myth and Freevo do. If you're trying to get rid of cable or SAT, then that's not an issue. Was for me, though I'm getting closer to ditching my sat.

2) PC specs are more stringent for Boxee than myth, freevo, OR xbmc. Crashes regularly on my Ubuntu AthlonXP 1.6ghz. I use XBMC with no problems.

I have an older PC-based HTPC running XP (The only one in the house... also runs iTunes, Video editing SW, and other PITA stuff to get working on Linux!). Has GBPVR for a backend recording off satellite, and XBMC for the frontend. Downstairs has a modded XBOX running XBMC over a DD-WRT Linksys in Bridge mode, and my Ubuntu main system runs XBMC too.

Re:Good article if...

[PitaBred]

You don't have the horsepower to drive HD on a Mini-ITX board. They don't run anything other than Geodes or EPIA chips, and H.264 is only barely beginning to be accelerated under Linux so you need a pretty beefy CPU to watch full HD H.264 media, or a ton of disk space with a lesser compression scheme. Using Micro-ATX you can put a proper multi-core x86 CPU in to do the decoding.

Re:Good article if...

[PitaBred]

Whoops... my bad. Looks like there are Mini-ITX boards with AM2+ sockets. Still, they cost a lot more than a comparable Micro-ATX board, are only slightly smaller and have many fewer expansion options.

Re:Good article if...

[MrBandersnatch]

Indeed, there are in fact Core 2 Quad supporting Mini-itx boards out there...I'm reasonably sure I also came across a core I7 option recently (industrial spec boards). You can pack an awful lot of ooomph into the small packages.

Re:Good article if...

[MrBandersnatch]

Now THAT is DAMN interesting; many thanks on the info. Do you know of a board with a firewire header perchance (attempting to save myself some research)?

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[furby076]

/. needs to be deregulated :) Sides good trolls know how to time things JUST right.

hiiiii

[Anonymous Coward]

my name is boxxeeee

Re:hiiiii

[Anonymous Coward]

stop spreading this cancer!

Re:hiiiii

[HermMunster]

I think the only way to do that is to have you end it, you know, the cancer that is you. Grow up.

HDTV channels not possible though

[pyite69]

Sadly, without the ability to get HD channels like Discovery, HBO, etc, these boxes will always be at a serious disadvantage.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[grub]

Any decent BitTorrent client with RSS feed capability is all we use. The sense of immediacy to watch a show "now" because it's being broadcast at that moment is gone. It takes control of your viewing away from the broadcasters.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, without the ability to get HD channels like Discovery, HBO, etc, these boxes will always be at a serious disadvantage.

No offense, but I'm sick and tired of comments like the above. You come in here and talk about HDTV as if it is actually available to everyone now.

Why can't you see that when you purchase one of these boxes, you're fighting for freedom? If you buy a cable box, you're voluntarily submitting yourself to oppression. It is really that simple. Now, the beauty of this box isn't just the snide factor involved in running a minority-share operating system, it is also in that you don't have to rent it yourself, thus, saving yourself around $60 per year! Do you know how much Linux software you could buy with that?

I'm not trying to be harsh here, just to wake you up to the realities of the enormous implications inherent in choosing a set-top box. Next time you go looking for one, remember that features like "HD" really aren't totally necessary.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Anonymous Coward]

You are right. "HD" is really not necessary. Neither is TV at all for that matter.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Anonymous Coward]

8/10

*golfclap*

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[N1AK]

Why can't you see that when you purchase one of these boxes, you're fighting for freedom? If you buy a cable box, you're voluntarily submitting yourself to oppression. It is really that simple.

Get a sense of perspective. Someone choosing to pay a monthly subscription for television is so completely different from just about anything that could legitimately be called oppression that it makes the whole notion laughable.

There are no 'enormous' implications in buying a set top box, there are a few ones that might constitute definition as minor. If you're really out to support media 'freedom' then stop watching the fucking TV, watching TV content on official portals and/or using Bittorrent to download TV content, then go support material produced and distributed in another way.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Anonymous Coward]

Long live the new flesh.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[elrous0]

Speak for yourself. I like the "freedom" of watching HD content. I'm not going to be some technological luddite still watching shitty NTSC standard definition just for some bullshit cause, thank you very much. If you want me, you'll need to bring your cause into the 21st century. This is /. for Christ's sake!

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Big Boss]

Hauppage HD-PVR.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[elrous0]

Perhaps he should have specified the word LEGALLY.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[Anonymous Coward]

It's illegal to download TV shows? It's been legal to record TV and loan the media since the Betamax lawsuit.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[tepples]

If you're really out to support media 'freedom' then stop watching the fucking TV, watching TV content on official portals and/or using Bittorrent to download TV content, then go support material produced and distributed in another way.

Have you any suggestions of worthwhile Free entertainment video? Or were you trying to imply it doesn't exist?

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[langelgjm]

Speak for yourself. I like the "freedom" of watching HD content. I'm not going to be some technological luddite still watching shitty NTSC standard definition just for some bullshit cause, thank you very much. If you want me, you'll need to bring your cause into the 21st century. This is /. for Christ's sake!

See, I like a different kind of freedom. I like the freedom of being able to have my MythTV box automatically flag commercials, then encode a recorded program to H.264, and list it in an RSS feed that iTunes can subscribe to, whence it can be downloaded as a video podcast to an iPod.

I like the freedom of being able to watch my recorded programs from anywhere with a fast enough connection, via the built-in streaming capabilities of MythTV.

I like the freedom of being able to increase my storage capacity whenever I want, by simply popping in another hard drive.

I like the freedom of being able to record _any_ show that I can watch on the TV screen, regardless of whether it's "premium content" or whatever, and knowing that at no point in the future can someone simply decide to mandate a firmware update that changes my ability to do that.

The price of these freedoms? I'm limited to SD analog cable. But for me, it's totally worth it.

So, how much of that can you do with your provider's PVR?

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[kelnos]

Even if the legality of downloading TV shows might be questionable, it's certainly copyright infringement to *upload* them, which is what you're doing if you're using BitTorrent.

Re:HDTV channels not possible though

[N1AK]

I'm not a big TV viewer, and the majority of what I do watch is actually TV series bought on DVD as I don't have a license (required in UK to legally watch broadcast TV) but then I am not as bothered about the cause of media 'freedom' as the poster I was responding to.

I have watched some decent Video content that is distributed using YouTube, but I tend to find it at random. Rhett and Link is an example that comes to mind. I also have paid membership to a couple of podCasts that distribute for free with the option of joining, and they produce video content from time to time (podHammer and 40K radio).

Finally, being in the UK I also watch some BBC content over iPlayer which strangely is legal without a TV license. But I haven't done this in weeks.

I'm not well informed enough regarding alternative video media to offer any real advice on best sources (if any), but I have my doubts that much exists. The majority of the market that is tech-savvy enough is simply using torrents to download the same big studio content without having to pay, which means any small studio is basically competing against 'free' big studio content.

Boxee for Developers

[mbone]

I have been in touch with the Boxee people about sourcing content on Boxee, and they pointed me to their API for Developers and an RSS format.

What's not clear to me why there aren't templates or the equivalent for common video sources such as H.264 or Flash. (I.e., if I am sourcing a standard video stream, why do I even need an API ?

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[modf]

It's back up for me, but here is a cached version just in case:

http://74.125.47.132/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.deviceguru.com%2Fthe-boxeebox-cookbook%2F

Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Overzeetop]

TFS makes it sound like you can replace your cable (or satellite) provider with this box. Where is the (non-OTA) broadcast content coming from. Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper? If so, and Hulu agrees not to break the box every couple of months, then I'm interested. If it's just "you can download stuff that's a year old and on DVD from netflix, do OTA, and access your personal media collection," then it's really not much better than what already exists.

Unless it's that he's put it into a nice looking box. In which case...he's just discovered the world of HTPC cases.

I'd love to believe, but without an article I'm puzzled at where the novelty is.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

There's lots of stuff that you can do that makes the vast majority of cable/sat boxes look like sad relics from the 20th century....mainly because they are exactly that. SADLY though, there's absolutely no legal avenue to do what is possible without violating someone's copyright e.g. If I download the latest BSG 10 days before it will air on my (paid-for) sat channel I cannot do so legally. Its a stupid situation.

As to the article...its fluff.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

If I download the latest BSG 10 days before it will air on my (paid-for) sat channel I cannot do so legally.

Not sure where you live, but where I live there's nothing wrong with downloading anything. Providing is the problem. That said, if you think that being able to get something 10 days before the owner intends it to be distributed, you've got problems bigger than you think.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Hatta]

There is a Hulu scraper for XBMC on which Boxee is based. It works pretty well for the most part. Some streams just don't work, but most do. I doubt they have permission from Hulu, as they seem to bypass the flash based ads. But it is GF friendly, as long as she can handle an occasional stream not working. Pick up a used xbox on the cheap and try it out.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Overzeetop]

Actually, I've got a Dell 740/745 micro box that has a barely-functioning XP-MCE on it. I might try this out in it's place for the bedroom if I can get a remote that isn't code-compatible with the main Vista media center (everything in my house is tied on an IR network to the equip closet, so I have to be careful of overlapping IR codes...I can't believe MS didn't consider this when the created MCE). It won't do HD (or at least not x264) since it's only a P4-2.4. I've already got 3TB on my unRaid box, so presuming Boxee can read a Samba share, I could see all of the SD content at least.

The bummer is that my slow DSL won't stream HULU, so I'd have to decide whether internet video is worth the extra $35 a month for the next connection speed up (I get 768 for $18/mo; 3.0 is somewhere around $50 on either DSL or Cable).

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[adolf]

Personally, I'm puzzled by the whole thing.

With just a little bit of spare CPU on a Windows box, my PS3 has wife-compatible Hulu and Netflix. And it's also a wife-capable CD player. And a wife-capable DVD player. And a wife-capable Blu-Ray player. And even the wife can figure out how to stream music and shows from the Mediatomb box onto the PS3. I understand you can also play games on a PS3, and I'm sure nobody believes me, but even my wife has been seen doing so.

It's not currently doing any OTA stuff, but I don't have any hardware to support it just yet . . .

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[locallyunscene]

Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper

I can't tell if that's a typo or if you're a fan of Wendell Berry.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Xtravar]

I just taught my girlfriend how to watch Hulu with our spare PS3 using the web browser. It's not that hard.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[knewter]

yes, there's a wife capable hulu plugin for boxee. Did you even look? It's touted in giant letters.

http://boxee.tv/ If you didn't go there before you started spouting off like you deserved to be part of the conversation, you should be shot. Metaphorically. With a real gun. In the face.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[CronoCloud]

Ditto. I read about these guys spending money and time on building a box when a PS3 can do some/most of the stuff they want to do, even without installing Linux on it. I take it you use the PlayOn server for sending Netflix to the PS3?

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[TooMuchToDo]

I use Mediamall's PlayOn media server ($30) to stream Hulu and Netflix to our PS3 and PopcornHour box. It's extremely wife-friendly. I just added the shows the wife watches to my Hulu queue with subscriptions, and she gets emails when there are new episodes to watch. Sounds simple enough to me. We of course don't watch sports, so no need for a live OTA feed, as we get news from web video feeds through PlayOn as well.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[powerlord]

TFS makes it sound like you can replace your cable (or satellite) provider with this box. Where is the (non-OTA) broadcast content coming from. Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper? If so, and Hulu agrees not to break the box every couple of months, then I'm interested. If it's just "you can download stuff that's a year old and on DVD from netflix, do OTA, and access your personal media collection," then it's really not much better than what already exists.

I've got a "wife friendly" Hulu scraper.

Its called the web browser on the PlayStation 3. I was just watching Burn Notice on it the other day, after cable went out, but not the CableModem. :)

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[langelgjm]

Not sure where you live, but where I live there's nothing wrong with downloading anything. Providing is the problem.

With most P2P, downloading necessitates providing.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[stickyc]

The wins with Boxee are:

• It's got a fairly high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) in that the UI is pretty easy to use (certainly much easier than Finder/Explorer).
• It's a "social" media player. In that it has a "friends" system like most other social sites. You can see what your friends are watching (opt-in, of course) and use that as a tool to find new content.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[Eil]

Where is the (non-OTA) broadcast content coming from. Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper?

Hulu, Netflix, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and others probably.

If so, and Hulu agrees not to break the box every couple of months, then I'm interested.

They're not screen-scraping, I believe they have arrangements with these companies to provide their content via an API.

Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it

[adolf]

Indeed. Playon is non-free, but the cost is not a real issue. The quality is just fine, even on my well-adjusted 52" Samsung LCD, for a streaming movie that I did not have to download in advance or wait for it to show up in the mail. It's a lot softer than a DVD, but blocky and frame aberrations artifacts are generally not large issues. And, despite being anal about audio and video quality, I find that within a few minutes of watching a streaming Netflix film via Playon and a PS3, that I forget that I'm doing so, and just watch the movie.

It also streams Hulu just fine.

I'm not afraid of spending money on software that actually works, yaknow? And the same registered copy of Playon will also concurrently stream (with a little more CPU, but CPU is bloody cheap right now) to my brother in law's Xbox 360 upstairs. It just works. It might even work under Wine, but I don't even think it matters anymore: Any geek who plays games (and therefore has a PS3 or 360) probably has a relatively stoutly-configured gaming machine running Windows on the network, and that machine will run Playon. If time is money, then Playon is cheap.

So, yeah: Me, too. I keep watching these folks fumble around with streaming media, thinking they're on the bleeding edge, when I've been doing this stuff for a long time.

Which is not to say that I don't like my Linux machines; I just don't like transcoding streaming media with them because it's inconvenient and, at best, barely works.

YMMV. :)

Boxee or Miro?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been thinking of building a similar system. A friend at work has been experimenting with Boxee and is fairly satisfied, although he had some issues w/sound and Ubuntu.

Then I read the Slashdot post about Miro, and thought maybe that was a more refined option and maybe I should go for that software instead.

Has any one used both? Are there any major advantages/disadvantages to either of them?

Could someone fill us in?

[elrous0]

Since the site is slashdotted and the summary is a little shy on details, can someone summarize how this thing works without cable? I know you can torrent some shows and watch some on sites like hulu, but that doesn't really "replace cable" (especially if you watch HD content). So how does this media center work with no cable input?

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's entirely based around the illegal downloading of copyrighted content from the internet. You know, the thing that everyone around here claims not to do. Yet whenever an article like this pops up, those same people talk about how they've set up something like this and canceled their cable accounts.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[SilverJets]

So then it doesn't free you from cable since you cannot reliably download copyrighted content.

Bittorrent? Ok..if you don't mind waiting days for it to dribble down to your PC. And that's if the file is actually what the title says it is. Not that anyone would offer a file for torrent with one name and have it be something completely different.

Usenet news suffers from the same problem. Trying to decipher some of the file names people use can take longer than the actual download.

Hulu? Nice start. But so much is missing and content is getting rotated off pretty quickly lately.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[jedidiah]

> It's entirely based around the illegal downloading of copyrighted content from the internet.

This is just FUD.

Boxee just takes what you can already legally access in a web browser from a
computer and makes it a bit more suitable for consumer use. It gives you a
nice full screen interface that you can control with an IR remote.

If you have your own content online then you can access that too.

It's just AppleTV minus the store.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Hatta]

I know you can torrent some shows and watch some on sites like hulu, but that doesn't really "replace cable" (especially if you watch HD content).

I don't watch HD content, but besides that XBMC with torrents and hulu has completely replaced cable for me. If I can get the daily show, south park, and star trek over the internet, and weather OTA, I don't know what I'd need cable for.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bittorrent? Ok..if you don't mind waiting days for it to dribble down to your PC. And that's if the file is actually what the title says it is. Not that anyone would offer a file for torrent with one name and have it be something completely different.

I use bittorrent for television exclusively. I can tell you that if the show is at all popular, I can download it about 2 hours after it airs in 15-45 minutes, which is pretty reasonable for a 42 minute show.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[AvitarX]

Bit Torrent,

Fairly new stuff isn't bad, 12 hours tops if you wait until 24 hours after release.

Usenet,
Use NZBs, and check file size for sanity.
xvid = about 500 MB/hour, which is about 10-20 minutes. x264 is higher quality and is about 1.5GB/hour, takes 30-45 minutes.

hellanzb makes it easy, just drops ready to go avi's

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[spinkham]

Check out the showfinder site.

We don't have cable, and between a mythtv box with a hdhomerun OTA box, hulu, and netflix, we watch everything we want. There's a few shows we're one season behind on, but I prefer to be able to watch the seasons at my own pace over when they're broadcast. Of course, I work from home, so get no spoilers at the water cooler.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[iammani]

Bittorent slow? and that someone would name it different from the actual content?

Have you heard of something called https://thepiratebay.org/

If not you should try visiting them someday.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Inda]

Usenet:

1) Use indexing sites.
2) Use Usenet search engines. Only search for scene release names (the folder names, get those from other NFO indexing sites)

It's not hard. It's faster than runny snot on a cold day. 700mb in a little over 6 minutes for me.

Sorry for breaking the no talking rule.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[TooMuchToDo]

Wow. Someone's out of the know.

Bittorrent: You can grab an episode of Battlestar Galactica or Heroes about 30-60 minutes after the show airs. Comcast just upped my connection to 12Mb down/2Mb up for no additional charge. At those speeds you can get an entire episode in roughly 20-25 minutes.

Hulu: Hulu is streamed to our PS3 via PlayOn's media server. Everything comes in at 480p (HD option configured through Hulu). We watch Family Guy, Bones, House, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Fringe, etc. without any problems.

Netflix: PlayOn streams Netflix Watch It Now content to our TV as well.

Do I still need an internet connection from Comcast? Yes. But I'd need that anyway. If I can get TV over IP (not in the traditional sense of course) why should I pay $50-$150/month extra for Comcast's version?

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[powerlord]

Hulu is good in that its free.
1) Hulu works with OSX, Windows, Linux, PS3, and some other Set Top Boxes.

If you don't mind paying a few dollars to watch a program or movie:
2) Amazon Video has a lot. They work with OS X, Windows and TiVo.
3) iTunes has a lot. They work with OS X, Windows and AppleTV.
4) PlayStationNetwork Store has a lot of Video content. Works with PS3/PSP.
5) MicroSoft's MarketPlace has a few programs that you can download to XBox 360s.
6) NetFlix streams video to subscribers and works with OS X, Windows, TiVo, and some other Set Top Boxes.

Depending on which programs are "must see" for you, you can pay for some of the programs and still spend a lot less money than you would have on cable. If most of what you watch is free (OTA or Hulu), then the savings become even more pronounced.

If you don't care about being a season or so behind, wait for the boxed sets at the end of each season and pick those up (probably about the same cost as buying them), or get through a NetFlix subscription for substantial savings over buying either individual episodes ala'cart (through iTunes/Amazon/PSN Store/MS Marketplace), or buying the Season Boxed Set.

There are LOTS of options for delivery. The only thing I haven't figured out how to get are those cheesy SciFi Original Movies. some of them are fun and I'll miss them when I give up cable, but it'll probably keep my brain from rotting (any more). :)

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[rho]

Your experience with BitTorrent is a lot different than mine. Maybe I'm not patient enough to figure out all the tricks. You may be able to download BSG 30 minutes after it airs, but what if you want something older? It's either not there, or only two people offer it and it takes a week to download.

I've basically never been satisfied with downloading things from BitTorrent. I'd much rather spend a couple of bucks and get it from iTunes. Or wait for it come out on DVD and have Netflix mail it to me. BitTorrent is a nifty technology that serves a niche, but otherwise it's a bigger PITA than spending some money.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[AncientPC]

Try http://www.tvrss.net/shows/

They even offer RSS feeds so you can subscribe to them with your torrent client and download automatically.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Mr. McGibby]

You're not on the right sites. piratebay is lame.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[ruckerz2k]

If you look at boxee there is a way to stream video from major cable networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, ABCnews, etc). For most people, this was already available if you sat at your computer, loaded a browser, and watched it. Boxee frees you from that by presenting a slick interface that looks pretty nice on 50"+ HDTV's.

Boxee also has an app plugin for browsing and streaming videos directly from netflix. No more are you limited to watching it on your desktop PC (or the flimsy interface of Windows XP if you originally had an HTPC hooked up to your TV).

One unfortunate problem though, is that ABC.go.com and netflix use Silverlight, so the ability the watch videos from those sources (at least for now) is limited to the OS X platform. (The next release will likely have it in Windows.

Boxee implements social networking with video recommendations. The problem of watching freely available content online was that it was difficult to find. Although free video RSS feeds are available on miroguide.com, the aspect of social network makes each video rss feed viral. Provided you have many friends and those friends have even a few rss video feeds, suddenly you have a lot of them to choose from.

Keep in mind that boxee is in its alpha stages. I think besides making the application itself more platform independent and stable, the team will probably clean up their social networking gateway.

Boxee won't free you from cable if the content you want to watch isn't already available online (via torrent, website, or what have you).

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[darkmeridian]

CableCARD? I have no idea what else to think.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[TooMuchToDo]

If I want something older, I use Netflix.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[rho]

Even if that's true, what to do about it? Keeping up-to-date on the best BitTorrent sites is annoying and not worth anybody's time who is older that 25.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Eil]

Since the site is slashdotted and the summary is a little shy on details, can someone summarize how this thing works without cable? I know you can torrent some shows and watch some on sites like hulu, but that doesn't really "replace cable" (especially if you watch HD content). So how does this media center work with no cable input?

Easy, instead of connecting a coax cable to it, you connect an Ethernet cable instead.

Boxee is a fork of XBMC which (through corporate funding and proprietary add-ons) can view streaming content by connecting to services like Hulu, Netflix, and the plethora of other video services that are sure to be coming down the pike soon. The trick is that Boxee lets you watch TV content on your TV instead of in a little web browser window.

While I'm not sure about Boxee as a product, the concept of being able to simply pull down whatever content you want straight from the content provider (instead of waiting for it to air or messing about with a video recorder) is something that's long overdue.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[ccalculus]

Ever heard about Coral Cache? Just append ".nyud.net" to top level URL ie. http://www.deviceguru.com.nyud.net/the-boxeebox-cookbook/ Moderators, why can't all links on Slashdot by default be updated to Coral Cache links? Or is "slashdotted" phenomenon desirable for publicity reasons?

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[SilverJets]

Well last time I used bittorrent it wasn't a torrent at all, it was a dribble. Wasn't worth wasting my time.

Hulu is nice but there is a lot missing. I know they are working on licensing, etc. but they're are many shows they just don't have and lately they seem to be offering only 5 episodes at a time and rotating them out. Last year the retention seemed to be much longer.

Netflix isn't an option for me.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[spectre_240sx]

Personally, I'd be pretty annoyed if an article I wrote got on slashdot and coralcache got all of the hits.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[Mr. McGibby]

Ok, old man. I've been using the same tv bittorrent site for a couple years now. I haven't had to keep track of sites for a while now.

Re:Could someone fill us in?

[MikeBabcock]

I missed an episode of 24 last week and decided to download it, and it came in at 350MB in about 20 minutes. Sure, it could be faster, but if your download speeds suck, blame your ISP and not the technology.

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[CopaceticOpus]

Sides good trolls know how to time things JUST right.

Skipping unnecessary characters such as "b", "e", and "," can make all the difference!

How does this rid oneself from cable?

[filesiteguy]

Okay, so you can watch movies on the thing. What about the latest soap opera or miniseries or news program?

Re:How does this rid oneself from cable?

[Cornwallis]

What about the latest soap opera or miniseries or news program?

I don't watch soaps. I live them.

Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[olddotter]

Look here: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=5773&highlight=AppleTV

Seems like using an AppleTV with Boxxee provides a nice elegant $229 Boxxee box. I haven't used it, but friends tell me its great and dirt easy todo.

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[jorenko]

I do this. The only hard part is the initial patching of the aTV to turn on ssh, though that may have gotten easier since I first did it a year ago.

I use it to watch downloaded stuff like Make: Television and to stream from Hulu. Works pretty damn well, and the NFS and SMB support is much better than the previously best apps like aTVFiles and others.

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[Major Blud]

I use this as well. Relatively simple to install using a USB stick. I use it more for Hulu than the Boxee codecs. It's still in alpha so there are a few glitches from a performance standpoint, but nothing too serious. This combined with Netflix streaming from my Xbox360 and simple AppleTV purchases has allowed me to totally ditch cable since October of last year. I do receive OTA to my Media Center PC, which allows me to use my Xbox as a MCE. This allows me to access my local channels for news and such. I still get to watch what I want, commercial free for the most part. AppleTV's video podcast are also phenomenal, allowing me to watch the national news channels on a nightly basis.

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[ZorinLynx]

A friend and I tried this.

The AppleTV has such a slow processor that it can only play standard definition video using Boxee. It required the (proprietary) Apple Quicktime stack to be able to do 720p, since it needs hardware acceleration.

If you're only doing SD you'll be okay. But if you want to play back HD you're going to need more muscle.

Just fair warning for anyone considering trying this. :)

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[Major Blud]

I may be blowing smoke since I haven't tried Boxee HD...but HD from the iTunes store works fine on my AppleTV (720p). Wouldn't this reflect a problem with Boxee instead of a "slow processor" in the AppleTV?

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[JPDeckers]

Patching has become much easier, in fact, with the atv-usb-creator (http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/), you have a fully legal* and easy way to install Boxee on it: create USB image, plug, reboot appletv & play

* YMMV

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[Trukster]

Yes it would, sort of. At least in the case of Hulu, Boxee encapsulates Hulu's flash player instead of directly grabbing the video file. This is added overhead that is not there when playing iTunes video.

Re:Boxxee on AppleTV $229 option?

[michael path]

If we're talking about CPU issues with one service and not on the other, with the same resolution, we're not looking at a Boxee problem as much as we are a codec issue.

Rendering in HD is a very expensive process for a CPU, especially an H.264 codec. Standard file compression rules apply - the more an item is compressed, the more CPU cycles needed to decompress.

Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

Buy and old xbox.

Any ideas on how to buy an old Xbox console without buying one that has version 1.6 firmware?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

I have an xBox that I bought 4-5 years ago, and that has never been connected to the internet. I'm not sure of the firmware version offhand, but I'll check when I get home... Seems to me like it should still be an old version, and I'd be happy to get rid of it if someone were interested...

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop worrying about those details, get the cheapest xbox you can find no matter the version, pay somebody 20 bucks to get it modded and you're good to go. I had mine softmodded for that money, no problems at all, and it's good enough for running xmbc. My first hacked xbox I worried about getting the right modchip, compared features between modchips, looked for an xbox with the right firmware and cd drive model, ... All wasted time. Just get the simplest thing that works (i.e., any xbox + softmod) and you're set.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

Ebay?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Chris Pimlott]

1) Buy a used xbox from someplace that lets your look at it first. You can determine the version by looking at serial number and manufacture date. Short version: if it was made before 2004, it's pre-1.6

2) You can still use a hardware mod chip on a 1.6 box.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

Buy a used xbox from someplace that lets your look at it first.

Who has tried this at a local GameStop or somewhere? Or where else would you recommend that would be available to people in most parts of the United States?

Short version: if it was made before 2004, it's pre-1.6

The Version 1.6 Warning page states that Xbox consoles can be updated to 1.6 through the Internet. By "look at it" do you mean "turn it on before paying for it"?

You can still use a hardware mod chip on a 1.6 box.

For many users, it takes less time==money to buy a Popcorn Hour box than to learn to solder.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

get the cheapest xbox you can find no matter the version, pay somebody 20 bucks to get it modded

Have you any idea on how to search for firms near one's home that provide such a service? The Google query I tried didn't appear to give relevant results.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

Any ideas on how to buy an old Xbox console without buying one that has version 1.6 firmware?

Ebay?

What search terms should I use to narrow this query to only consoles with the soft-moddable firmware? Or should I "Ask seller a question" on every single listing?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

Any ideas on how to buy an old Xbox console without buying one that has version 1.6 firmware?

any used game store

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

any used game store

What's the polite way to ask whether I can turn on the box before I buy it, in order to make sure that its dashboard has not been upgraded to version 1.6 or later through the Internet or a game disc?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[ubercam]

That's not the firmware version, it's the "version number" of the motherboard given by the scene/community to differentiate between the different boards as they were revised/changed/made cheaper over time. It's not official Microsoft version numbering. Also, no matter which board you end up with, there are mod chips available. Divineo still sells them, whether you're in Canada, US or Europe. I'm sure you could find some on Ebay/Kijiji/Craigslist or even at a game shop in your area.

I bought mine in 2002. It's a 1.0 board. I started with XBMP and kept up with XBMC development over the years.

If you were planning on running Linux, I'd have to ask why? It's no problem with a mod chip, but keep in mind that XBMC runs _natively_ on a modded bios (Xecuter, Evox, etc). Running GentooX, or whatever Linux distro on a free/open bios, and XBMC for Linux on top is 100% redundantly redundant. Just make XBMC your default dashboard and forget about the rest of that garbage.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

Also, no matter which board you end up with, there are mod chips available.

How hard are they to install for somebody who knows nothing about soldering? I couldn't get to the article, but from the comments, I'm guessing BoxeeBox needs no soldering.

If you were planning on running Linux, I'd have to ask why?

I wasn't. I was just linking to a warning page stating that newer versions of the motherboard and dashboard can't be softmodded, and this warning page happened to be maintained by the Linux community.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

Buy an already modded xbox from Craigslist for $60 as I did.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[FuckTheModerators]

Soldering's unnecessary. All the old-school Xboxes I've modded have been with solderless hardware modchips.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

Buy an already modded xbox from Craigslist for $60 as I did.

Tried it: 0 results. What should I do differently?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[mkw87]

There is a good chance the old one I have has pre-1.6 firmware. I'll have to look as I'm selling it....I know I hacked it in college to run NES and SNES ROMS, but I don't recall what version the firmware is.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

You can do a softmod of a version 1.6 XBox. Do a search for Splinter Cell XBox Hack or something like that. I have done it and installed Xebian, but it is a fair amount of work to do it if you have no experience.

If you have the money to buy an old XBox, save it to buy a Popcorn Hour box.

If you want a challenge and have some time, mod the XBox.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[StikyPad]

For many users, it takes less time==money to buy a Popcorn Hour box than to learn to solder.

It also takes less time==money to grab a McBurger rather than learning how to cook one yourself. In the short term. In the long term, knowing how to cook, and knowing some basic electrical concepts and skills, saves a *lot* of money==time.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[bogjobber]

At GameStop it all depends on the employees/manager of the store. The store near me let me boot up a bunch of old xboxes and check their firmware/DVD drives. I imagine at your local GameStop they don't sell many xboxes and would be very accommodating. Small-time game shops I would imagine certainly would let you. The only question is who still sells used xboxes? Last year when I modded mine pawn shops wouldn't even carry them and GameStop was nearly ready to get rid of them.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Peepsalot]

I think this wiki must be outdated. I have a 1.6 xbox, and I used MechAssault softmod just fine for installing XBMC.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

The serial number was exposed last I checked. You can actually see it through a hole in the box. If they let you handle it, you should be able to see it.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[ubercam]

There are solderless adapters available for most chips that are still available for sale. The later motherboard versions are difficult to solder unless you're pretty good. On the other hand, the solderless kits are very simple to use.

Check them out at Divineo (.com, .ca, .co.uk).

FYI, softmodding is the process of loading a hacked savegame file which triggers a buffer overflow exploit, allowing you to execute your own code (in this case, a homebrew dashboard called Evolution X so you can run some utilities). AFAIK it's functionally equivalent to a mod chip, but I've never done it, nor do I know anyone who has. YMMV

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

1.6 is the version of the hardware, not firmware. An upgrade won't change anything.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[tepples]

1.6 is the version of the hardware, not firmware. An upgrade won't change anything.

Details, details. I meant how do I avoid buying one whose dashboard has been upgraded to the version that came on 1.6 hardware?

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Chris Pimlott]

Buy a used xbox from someplace that lets your look at it first.

Who has tried this at a local GameStop or somewhere? Or where else would you recommend that would be available to people in most parts of the United States?

GameStop, EB, anyplace that sells used systems. I should hope they let you look at it, I wouldn't buy second hand goods sight unseen. I suppose a local independent store may be more accommodating than a national chain.

The Version 1.6 Warning page states that Xbox consoles can be updated to 1.6 through the Internet. By "look at it" do you mean "turn it on before paying for it"?

Sorry, I don't really know the details of 1.6. Much of the warning sounds like worries about hardware differences in 1.6, though. Anyhow, my older xbox has never been remotely upgraded, but then again I don't play online; I imagine if you just keep away from Xbox Live you should be fine.

You can still use a hardware mod chip on a 1.6 box.

For many users, it takes less time==money to buy a Popcorn Hour box than to learn to solder.

There are solderless chips (they have spring-loaded contact pins), I have one in my Xbox. Very easy to install.

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

First of all, you don't have to buy a modchip or do any soldering. You can softmod. It's software only and will get you everything a modchip gives you. Upgrading the hard-drive is trickier with softmod, but still really easy...xboxhdmaker. Second, with softmod, it doesn't matter what version of xbox1 you have...they all work. I have 3 softmodded xboxes in my house streaming content from PC. I have softmodded about 20 xboxes for friends and co-workers...and they were all different versions. I know at least one of them was 1.6

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Zoxed]

> If you were planning on running Linux, I'd have to ask why? It's no problem with a mod chip,

Last time I checked the graphics chip on the 1.6 board was not properly supported under linux :-(
(But XBMC works fine)

Re:Version 1.6 Warning

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are just worried about doing the modding, then you can do a softmod using with the hard drive hot-swap method on any Xbox version. It essentially involves disconnecting the hard drive from the Xbox during short time it is unlocked when the Xbox is booting then connecting it to a computer just after it is turned on but before the BIOS detects hard drives, then if you've done it right you can boot a special livecd to copy a modded bootloader and replacement dashboard on there. The hard part here is getting the timing right with the hot-swap. I used this method because I didn't have any of the games needed to soft-mod. I got most (if not all) the information on how to do this from www.xboxscene.com, look at the tutorials section of the website.

If you are thinking of running Linux on an old Xbox I would say, don't bother, it is far too slow and (in particular) memory limited.

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[Anonymous Coward]

Here was their list of recommendations:

The solution would be to optimize your applications to use less CPU.
Adding appropriate indeces to your SQL tables can often help reduce CPU.
Using static .html documents instead of painful .php scripts will practically eliminate CPU usage.

Painful? I think someone enjoys Perl a bit too much :)

links...

[Anonymous Coward]

link1-cpu quota exeeded

link2-cpu quota exeeded

link3-cpu quota exeeded

uh... anyone got mirrors?

or just buy a dlink HD media server for 100$ like

[Anonymous Coward]

or just buy a dlink HD media server for 100$ like i did

x86_64 yet?

[digitalderbs]

The media available for boxee is quite diverse; I very much like the idea of watching Netflix videos without having to resort to a VirtualBox/WinXP operating system. But I haven't been able to get a 64-bit binary for it, and I can't seem to compile it in 64-bit too. Running it in a 32-bit chroot was unsuccessful as well -- has anyone had success with boxee for 64-bit platforms?

Re:x86_64 yet?

[rla3rd]

I followed these instructions for getting the 32 bit deb to work in a 64 bit hardy, worked very nicely.

http://forum.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=31733&postcount=28

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[Anonymous Coward]

Too bad we /.'d the site.

Maybe DeviceGuru "sat" on it.

What is this thing called Boxee?

[OhHellWithIt]

Seeing as TFA was /.ed, I tried to look up the Boxee project, and it's necessary to register just to see anything about it. Does anyone know what's up with that?

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[Hatta]

That's exactly what I was going to ask. This isn't the way Open Source is usually done, so it seems pretty suspicious. I'm sticking with XBMC, don't have to register to get it, and I can watch Hulu, etc on it. What does Boxee do that XBMC doesn't? If I have to register to find out, I'm not even going to bother.

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[Chris Pimlott]

Boxee is quite nice, but the development is not particularly open. It's controlled and guided by a start-up, the social networking portion is closed source, building from source and alternate binaries are not encouraged, there's no public bug tracker and new feature support for Linux is uneven (although this is largely the fault of proprietary content plugins).

Their stated goal of creating an official Boxee hardware box does give them a strong incentive to keep up the Linux version, though.

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[foniksonik]

Go to the forums... public to view, registered to comment.

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[Flooded77]

I've been using Boxee for a few months and as far as I can tell, registering with site allows you to add friends and rss audio and video feeds that are then populated in the boxee menu. The forums don't require an account unless you want to post.

I don't really utilize the social aspect of it, but it's nice to manage my feeds in one location rather than on each box in the house.

You don't need to register to add the repositories or download binaries (you can find links to them on the internets) and I haven't received any email from boxee, so I think the registration is purely for managing rss feeds and friends.

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[tepples]

What does Boxee do that XBMC doesn't?

The first result from Google boxee xbmc claims that Boxee adds an easier installer and social networking features.

Re:What is this thing called Boxee?

[Hatta]

Oh, so nothing worthwhile.

Please tell me this is a troll

[Mr. Underbridge]

Why can't you see that when you purchase one of these boxes, you're fighting for freedom? If you buy a cable box, you're voluntarily submitting yourself to oppression. It is really that simple.

Freedom? Oppression? We're talking about TV here. If not having full control of TV programming (which you don't create or pay for) is the worst thing that's happening to you, then you are leading a seriously charmed life.

If the parent is a troll, on the other hand, then very well done indeed.

This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[jlwestsr]

Looks like the DeviceGuru's site got hammered from traffic being directed from here. Good for the visit stats, bad on the hosting account. :-)

Mirrordot

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever happened to Mirrordot?

Re:or just buy a dlink HD media server for 100$ li

[SilverJets]

Or just use your pre-existing PC. Which is what I do. Why another box? My PC already has everything described in the summary. All I need to do one of these days is add a Blu-ray drive. I already watch online videos (Hulu, etc.), download content from binary newsgroups, pop in DVDs, and watch programming through cable. On top of that I can surf the web, play games, do programming, use office applications, etc. Why do I (or anyone with a half-decent computer) need this?

PS3 Port?

[Tularean]

The PS3 seems like the perfect platform for this app, I wonder why it hasn't been ported to it. There are similar apps already available. They're capable of playing 1080p video, and they can be used easily (just burn a DVD, no need to even install anything) and legally, with no hackery (like you have to do with the original XBMC). Those apps just aren't nearly as slick as Boxee, or even XBMC.

Re:PS3 Port?

[elrous0]

The PS3 CPU alone doesn't have anywhere anywhere near the muscle to handle this. And you can't access the any of the GPU muscle on a PS3 because Sony locked it down.

Re:PS3 Port?

[Tularean]

I swear I read there was some XBMC-clone out for the PS3 and it was quite capable of playing 1080p video. I just looked again, and can't find any reference to it. Did I dream it? Weird... The closest thing I can find is MegaBox, which was apparently in the news in January 2008 and never mentioned again. It seems to have disappeared (or perhaps it was never real?).

Re:PS3 Port?

[CronoCloud]

Two reasons:

1. The PS3 already can do quite a bit by default. The web browser is Hulu capable, it does DLNA, it's DiVX certified for "pay content (though try finding any), and there's always the Video in the Playstation store.

2. Under Linux, there's no RSX access, so no accellerated video. 720p is about the best you'll get.

So there's no incentive to port this stuff.

Re:PS3 Port?

[bigdanmoody]

The PS3 CPU is a 7-SPU Cell processor, and is an incredibly powerful CPU. I'm not sure why you think it lacks muscle. Personally I use PlayOn to stream Hulu and Netflix to the PS3, and TVersity to stream downloaded content.

Re:PS3 Port?

[Tularean]

If it could play h.264 at 720p, and worked as well as XBMC, I'd buy a PS3 right now. *shrug*

Linux as an HTPC frontend

[Riddles]

And this basically sums up my experience with these devices over the past couple of years. Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it). Getting sound on both regular outputs and digital outputs with Alsa is "challenging" to say the least. And then I just want the box to suspend and wake-up using a remote. Again, that's possible in theory, but somehow I've never found a board that will reliably go into S3 and wakeup from S3 over and over again. If you finally get it to work once, it suddenly doesn't work the second time.

Finally, I've just switched to a UPNP frontend for my Mythtv backend. It turns on and off in 5-10 secs, does both analog and digital audio outputs and I've never had issues with its tv outputs. I've lost some functionality, but at least it's reliable and "just works".

Re:Linux as an HTPC frontend

[JustNiz]

>> Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it).

This sounds like you're trying to use some horrible analog interconnect like S-video or something. Last time I remember modelines was on my Amiga.

Funny how connecting my PC to my TV has never ever been a problem for me. But then I have always used newer (nVidia) videocards, and have a TV that also supports DVI.

If you really want decent TV-out then upgrade to 1990's tech and get a video card and a TV that supports DVI or HDMI and use that instead. All your modeline problems will go away too.

I don't know if you're one of them, but the number of friends I see still using legacy analog interconnections rather than digital even though their TV and other boxes already have digital connectors is frustrating.

Re:Linux as an HTPC frontend

[JoeBorn]

I have a kind of unique perspective on this, we're actually building a discless Ubuntu TVPC box for mass production and its clear that getting it to "just work" at least in all situations does take some work. We use a new chipset (AMD 780g) because it supports audio over HDMI (note that many of the comments on here quietly note that they are using DVI with analog audio of some kind) nVidia's drivers still don't support this. We're actually working directly with ATI to make sure that the graphics chipset resumes properly from sleep, that it auto-senses the display properly, etc. For many on here, those kind of hiccups are no big deal, but when it comes to the WAF or making a real mainstream product, there is a lot of little details that need fixing. Take my word, there is a lot of tweaking needed to truly have something "just work" and bear in mind that we're dealing with production runs of perfectly identical hardware, so the problem goes up dramatically if you are piecing together a variety of components in a DIY way, although I suppose you have more options of tweaking during install than we have for a product sold to consumers at retail.

More than just Hulu

[rickatnight11]

Yes, Boxee can play illegally downloaded content, but this is not what it's being "geared" towards. If it were purely for downloaded content then you could use XBMC, Windows Media Center, MythTV, or any of the many media center software packages out there. Boxee is special in the fact that it has a much wider array of streamed content support (not just Hulu.) If you check out there website it says right on the front pageabout how it supports streaming video sites such as "Hulu, Netflix, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Last.fm, and flickr." This is in ADDITION to your downloaded content. Now, I personally prefer my downloaded content as it's the exact quality I want and I don't have to tax my network while playing. Plus, I like having more control over my interface, so XBMC is my favorite, but Boxee is REALLY easy to use, and just simply plays a lot of content. At least try it before writing it off.

Re:or just buy a dlink HD media server for 100$ li

[DwySteve]

Lower power consumption is the killer app of this decade.

Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota

[rickb928]

/. buggy? Not at all, it's jsut that the code lags the documentation.

That can be fixed, in documentation, right?

ps- It should be obvious now that /. is not yet self-aware.

Wouldn't it be cheaper...

[Etherized]

... to just buy an AppleTV and install boxee on that? Really, why do you need an actual Linux box, when Apple's hardware is custom built for exactly this sort of thing?

I have tried boxee on my MythTV box, and it's got potential - but it's also got quite a few rough edges (and given its nature, there's no guarantee that what works today will keep working tomorrow). Oh, and the Linux version won't work with Netflix or ABC, either.

Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper...

[JustNiz]

I was thinking of buying an appletv and running a mythtv frontend on it until I discovered that Apple's hardware doesn't support 1080i.
THey're one of the shyster companies who advertise products as being HD-compatable but conveniently neglect to mention that it can't be seen at native res. There should be a class-action against all these companies for purposely misleading advertising.

Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper...

[thesolo]

The major problem that I run into with running Boxee on AppleTV is that the AppleTV's specs are too weak to handle some of the good stuff from Boxee. For example, Boxee supports Netflix on the OS X release, but not on AppleTV. 720P content is often choppy (at least when played wirelessly, my ATV only has 802.11g, not n-draft), etc.

Plus there's the whole issue of firmware updates breaking Boxee.

The one reason I want the AppleTVs though is that they're now supported as AirTunes speakers, which means that with an AppleTV in my living room & bedroom, I can play music through most of the house just by telling iTunes to use multiple speakers. They kill two birds with one stone.

I just wish I could make them faster...maybe a new processor and a dedicated cooling solution, I'd have to crack it open to see the internals.

Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper...

[kelnos]

I really don't get why claiming HD support but "only" 720p makes you a "shyster." Hell, 18 months ago, most people with HD LCD TVs only had 720p TVs. You didn't hear people complaining that those LCDs "weren't really HD," did you?

Re:Wouldn't it be cheaper...

[JustNiz]

Because they don't make it as clear that it only supports upto 720p as that it is HD compatable.
There are plenty of 1080i broadcasts (at least in my neighborhood) and Blu-Ray is 1080p. Its not like those resolutions aren't used.
I'd be pissed if I bought something claiming HD compatability yet it couldn't do some HD channels properly.
The thing is, many people have already bought stuff like a 30" tv, and because it has a sticker on it saying "HD-compatable" they reasonably expect to be able to watch all HD tv in full glory.
The problem is that manufacturers feel free to label stuff with a native resolution less than 1920x1080 as "HD compatable" just because you get some sort of picture at all from a 1080i signal, regardless of the fact that there's no way the TV can display the picture at full definition. Which is what HD is all about after all.
It seems the only thing that is keeping the TV companies out of a class-action suit for bad advertising is that most people don't actually know their TV isn't actually giving them a full HD picture, because many consumers aren't clued-in enough to check for native resolution and just think that because the tv has a sticker and the picture is incrementally better than their old analog TV that it probably is full HD.

Linux/Alsa: 5.1+ Sound Card suggestion?

[alexandre]

The site is down so I can't get to the specs but...

What good sound cards are easily supported in latest kernels with the ability to output 5.1 (or more) easily under alsa? Anyone got a working HTPC setup with one?

What about all those crazy DTS/TrueSurround/THX things, are they worth it?
Do we even have support for all this?

A friend had to revert to windows because of the sound setup in Linux for his 7.1 amplifier, I don't have the details but just wondering...

I'm still in 2.0 here but wouldn't mind switching if I found something nice as i have a brand new HTPC just waiting to be setup with more gizmos...

But it has to run on a Debian HTPC, I'm not switching my OS.. from my cold dead hands! :P

Re:Linux/Alsa: 5.1+ Sound Card suggestion?

[ratboy666]

Actually, it's not too difficult to get going. DTS encode is a "no-no" for now; the format is closed. But, AC3 will work fine (certainly on my surround receiver). I generally use the mainboard sound hardware.

http://www.johannes-bauer.com/dolby/

Of course, DVD (etc) material will play back with "DTS, THX, etc." -- simply route the audio directly to the surround unit, and let it take care of the decode.

So, the problem comes down to: CD audio and other pure audio sources - these are mastered 2.0. Easy to encode to digital AC3, and pass through to the surround unit.

DVD, which has 5.1 audio -- simply pass the digital audio DIRECTLY to the surround unit, and let it take care of things. (this is what "DTS passthrough" refers to). Further, DTS is *not* a DVD standard (AC3 is). You also want to pass AC3 through to the surround unit as well.

Local playback (2 channel, with headphones), or 5.1 attached local speakers (analog). Here, alsa can use ffmpeg to decode AC3 and DTS.

THX (the name by itself) is a logo certification program -- it is not a format. You won't have to worry about that.

There is very little "7.1" material (maybe on some DVDs), AC3/DTS passthrough will deal with naturally. The name "THX format", or the -EX or -ES formats refer to the additional channels. With passthrough, if the surround receiver can handle it, you get the extra effect. But, again, its not common.

And that's really all you need for a media playback unit. There is even an alsa option that will take 5.1 material, and encode to 2.0 headphones to give the illusion of surround. The "vdownmix" alsa plugin does this (although how good it is can, of course, be argued).

The rest is probably just marketing...

Re:Linux/Alsa: 5.1+ Sound Card suggestion?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just my experience, but I was able to easily get 5.1 sound using optical output using crappy integrated sound on a VIA motherboard. And this has been working fine for me for over 2 years now. The trick is to set the audio output to ALSA's 'iec958' device (might be different for other HW). Using the passthrough mode of $MEDIA_PLAYER, you can pass PCM, AC3, DTS, whatever out to your receiver for proper decoding. Unfortunately, if you have a multi-channel format (like maybe AAC) that your receiver doesn't support, you're stuck finding a way to transcode it to AC3 before sending it out.

(The only hitch was a hardware problem: my motherboard was missing a jumper that disables the front audio outputs and enables the rear outputs. Certainly not ALSA's fault, though.)

Re:Linux/Alsa: 5.1+ Sound Card suggestion?

[kelnos]

So, the problem comes down to: CD audio and other pure audio sources - these are mastered 2.0. Easy to encode to digital AC3, and pass through to the surround unit.

No need... I'd be surprised to find a receiver with digital inputs that doesn't accept 2-channel PCM.

Re:Linux/Alsa: 5.1+ Sound Card suggestion?

[Anonymous Coward]

I use a XITEL MD-PORT DG2 external USB to Toslink adapter that I bought years ago. It shows up as a 2-channel USB sound device and the MythTV option for pass-through digital allows DTS and Dolby Digital streams to be sent through to my A/V receiver for decoding. This works great for passing ATSC digital signals directly out for listening.

I PATCHSTICKed my Apple TV

[Philip K Dickhead]

Have Boxee and XBMC, now.

Ditched Dish Network.

Kids don't care its gone.

Watching Rocky and Bullwinkle, now.

The only thing keeping me on cable/satellite

[F.O.Dobbs]

Sports. Tell me how I can get live HD sports and I'm listening. Everything else can get downloaded, ripped or scraped from another source.

Re:The only thing keeping me on cable/satellite

[keithpreston]

Depending on you ISP. ESPN360 pretty much has all ESPN live sports content except ESPNU (bastards want you to buy a premium sports tier) between this and my antenna, I can see 95% of my Kansas Jayhawk Basketball.

Wean

[Anonymous Coward]

Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable

Thank you for that title. From it, I have most likely accurately labeled you as somewhere between a pretentious douche who brags about how much he doesn't watch TV and a crazed street preacher going on and on about the EVILS of cable/satellite/etc. As such, I can save valuable time by not reading this article and waste said time on far more important tasks like writing snarky comments on Slashdot as an AC. Thanks!

Kiss kiss,
AC

Re:Wean

[kelnos]

Well, it's also possible that the poster wants to help us save money on usually-overpriced cable/satellite service. But nah, let's jump to the douchebag conclusion. It's more fun that way.

AMD 780g / 790gx has better on board video then in

[Joe The Dragon]

AMD 780g / 790gx has better on board video then Intel. also why not put a $50 less low end video card that is faster then intel gma?

for the same price as they paid for the MB they should of got a 790gx or 780g + side port ram board.

Cost of bandwidth vs. Cost of cable/satellite

[stinkbomb]

With so many ISPs putting data caps on their services, with charges for any overages, aren't these data-hogging applications eventually going to cost you as much or more than just getting cable/satellite? I have a Mac that I watch iTunes, Hulu, etc. on, and a Roku box which I love, in addition to regular web-surfing, WoW-playing. All that consumes a fair amount of data, and if it exceeds the cost of cable/satellite, what's the point? Especially if I can get on-demand services from my cable/satellite company.

BOXXY BOX! oh, wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

And at first I thought some super genius invented some sort of box-shaped fallout shelter to protect us from Boxxy. :-(

Useless unless you live in a Hulu country...

[MaXMC]

So boxee is pretty much useless if you don't live in the United States (or have a proxy there)...

A Xbox360 would be nice too but Netflix doesn't exist here... neither does the Video store on my PS3... WTF! Even Sony produced movies aren't rented out in the PSN Store because of f-ing licensing issues

Lucky for us Swedes we still have Piratebay ;)

News on the web, soaps over the air

[tepples]

What about the latest soap opera

What does SOAP or soap have to do with web browsers or musical theatre? People who actually like the romantic serials on daytime TV can get them over the air on ABC, CBS, and NBC.

or miniseries

These get released on DVD more often than not after they've aired.

or news program?

If you actually believe what they say on msnbc, cnn, or foxnews, then just put a .com after it. Besides, US residents within range of a public broadcasting service can still get Jim Lehrer, Charlie Rose, and NOW over the air.

So unless you're into televised sports, OTA+Netflix+web might fit your needs.

Why do people like this thing?

[Manuscript Replica]

I tried Boxee once on my iMac, but I really couldn't figure out what exactly people love about it so much. I'm having trouble recalling details, but essentially, it seemed to have "channels" of which the only interesting one was content from Hulu. Since I can already access Hulu with a browser, without having to install this media app with a goofy UI, I was a bit nonplussed.

Boxee also installed a daemon that took over the input from my Apple remote, which I was sorta pissed about.

I will never use Boxee

[jackhererUK]

I have just watched the demo video for Boxee and i refuse to sue any piece of software that does anything "automgically", is it powered by fairy dust and sprinkles?

Re:or just buy a dlink HD media server for 100$ li

[tepples]

Or just use your pre-existing PC. Which is what I do. Why another box?

Because a lot of PC owners have the PC and the big screen TV in separate rooms. Or the TV is an SDTV, unable to accept VGA, DVI, or HDMI signals without a scan converter. Or someone wants to use the PC while someone else living in the same residence wants to use the TV.

NO google Cache and /.ed

[Lr427]

Damn its been /.ed with no google cache

Just in case anyone wants to build one...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't use the parts this guy did, he chose wrong. The Intel P45 chipset can't decode 1080p in hardware without a beefy CPU. The nVidia 9300/9400 chipset can, so you can save some money on a less powerful (and less power-hungry) processor and motherboards based on it are cheaper too.

Boxxy is our Queen

[stevegee58]

Boxxy is our Queen Boxxy is our Queen Boxxy is our Queen

Re:Boxxy is our Queen

[Anonymous Coward]

GTFO newfag

Shhhhh be vewy vewy quiet...

[sbeckstead]

The reason most of these things come in so expensive is that the case must be very quiet to sit in the living room. You need quiet fans and HD. other than that you could build it for sub $300.00 and have the noisiest cable pvr (or ota pvr) on the block.

An easier solution

[stickyc]

For those who don't wish to spend as much time assembling and tweaking, but still want to enjoy Boxee goodness; You can buy a refurbished Mac Mini, DVIHDMI dongle, and 1tb external disk for roughly the same price as the author spent on his Ubuntu rig. Boxee is available (and started) as a native OS-X application. Plus, with OS-X, you can get streaming HD Netflix.

The downside of Boxee

[stickyc]

I'm a huge Boxee fan, but it's biggest differentiator (from XBMC, Plex, and similar forks) is also it's biggest liability.

In order to be an effective "social" media player, where titles can be shared and recognized by others, it has restrictions on the media sources. If your content isn't in IMDB, Hulu, TV Guide, or one of the other supported providers, there's no way to get it into Boxee.

The biggest offenders are TV series on DVD. Boxee understands Battlestar Galactica Season 1, Episode 5, but can't parse the DVD rip of Battlestar Galactica Season 1, Disk 2. Or, likewise, the DVD rip of Pixar's Short Films Collection (but it can parse the individual short films).

To be fair, last time I checked, none of the XBMC forks could parse these media (someone really should write a Netflix scraper plugin), but at least you could manually enter them.

Re:The downside of Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a DVD order option in XBMC's thetvdb.com scraper that will handle that just fine. Just because the other forks haven't thought of it, doesn't mean the XBMC guys wouldn't have.

Old xbox with plugin

[Anonymous Coward]

I use an old xbox, costs 50 bucks from game stop, soft mod it, install xbmc, installed the hulu plugin, south park studios plugin, mtv plugin, and have it networked with my computer that has 2 tb of storage, and stream movies and music to my tv from my computer. with all the plugins, i can watch anything on hulu, watch any music video on mtv, and watch every single southpark episode. Cable sucks, I have an on demand setup that cost me fifty bucks, also xbmc will play almost anything.

Advantage of Broadcast.

[jellomizer]

The problem with internet TV/Movies vs. Cable is there is a lot of work in order to find something new. Channel Surfing is actually a good way to find something new that you may not have chosen to watch.

Granted it would be much better without all the add or at least try to offset the adds so they are on different times vs other stations.

Also there are news stations that are more current and sometimes will have a program based on current events (like NOVA on PBS)

Plex/XBMC or Boxee

[GlobalEcho]

I've been planning on doing an HTPC this month. I had half-settled on Plex -- XBMC for OSX -- on a Mac Mini when I heard about Boxee. Does anybody have experience of both, and would you be willing to share opinions?

From what I understand, Boxee is good for watching web video, and sharing video recommendations among your "friends" on social networking sites. XBMC is better for dealing with libraries of locally stored media and the like. And neither is all that good as a DVR.

Am I right? And since it's the DVR (based on talking to an HDHomeRun) that interests me most, I'm kind of torn. But I lack the time to really give both options a full workout.

Re:Plex/XBMC or Boxee

[JoeBorn]

Boxee is basically three things: 1. XBMC-strong playback of downloaded content, rich media browsing, automatic population of cover art, etc 2. "remote controlled" internet tv- it adds plug-ins that XBMC didn't have (some have apparently since been backported) for viewing hulu in an "up down left right" interface that eliminates the need for a mouse. 3. social features- see what your friends are watching, twitter what you are watching, share, etc. I don't know plex, but neither XBMC nor Boxee is DVR software, for that you want mythtv or something like that. Myth has a programming guide built (have to signup for the service though) works with the HD homerun, etc. No reason you can't run both on one box, that's what we do on the Neuros LINK (which is essentially a discless TVPC). It's not as seamless as a single app that does everything, but its a good solution today since there isn't a single app that does all that well yet.

Re:Plex/XBMC or Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

Note that Plex != XBMC for OS X. Rather, Plex is a semi-open fork of XBMC, whereas XBMC for OS X is the fully open XBMC for OS X (as the name indicates).

Two Words - Re:Sub $500?

[Vortran]

High Definition

Power to anyone that can push a 1080p monitor to it's 1080p limit with a $300 htpc.

The struggle is now that we have the massive HD screen, we yearn for 100% 1080p content or as close to it as we can get. Hence an htpc that has 3 HD tuners, BluRay drives and a BlackMagic Intensity Pro with some (other hardware) which itself costs about $300 and knocks hdpc on it's stupid little ass.

Vortran out

Wont work

[Anonymous Coward]

Except most cable companies have prevented people from people to leave their cable box by enforcing monthly data transfer. Take charter.. they have just announced that they are capping at 100gigs /month for most people. For Netflix one can use that up in 4 days. So replacing the cable box for most people is not possible. Why do you think the cable companies have put the caps on recently?

Re:Wont work

[HermMunster]

If they do that they'll pay a significant price down the road. There are serious consequences to killing markets to keep a monopoly alive.

Re:popcornhour can play Hulu/Netflix

[Anonymous Coward]

I just got popcorn Hour A-110, and it's awesome, especially for the price.

For Netflix/Hulu, you might try the PlayOn by MediaMall, which also works with xbox.

Here's a link
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1803746/play_netflix_hulu_on_popcorn_hour_and_xbox_ps3/

After RTFA, I sort of get it

[Overzeetop]

Okay, just a followup after getting through the cache.
    (1) wow, there's a lot of setup involved.
    (2) Alpha? With my wife's entertainment on the line? Riiiiiiight.
    (3) No remote? A wireless keyboard does not a remote make.

From a geek perspective, it's a fun read, but it's still in its infancy. There's a lot there to install after getting Ubuntu up, and before Boxee gets into the mix. I was a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be an off the shelf CE-like remote.

In his defense, $345 of his $825 build (including remote keyboard) went for a large HD and the case (and special fan). Another $120ish for the keyboard. I'm not certain, but you could probably shave the process back to $40-50, too as long as the hardware decoder on the graphics chip works well. Kind of makes you wish you could retask a Popcorn Hour, since it has the video horsepower, the networking, and a remote for $200. Hard to believe you can do 720p video and only get a tree-view directory.

Nice... but $500?

[__aazsst3756]

I'd love to have that box, but my Craigslist Boxee Media Center cost $50 plus $50 for a decent graphics card. Needs a remote, but otherwise works well.

Boxee weak and convoluted

[HermMunster]

I'd been using an XBMC off an old modded XBOX for some time. It'd work well except that under certain circumstances it wouldn't perform. The library element of it was/is flaky at best.

Then I heard that XBMC was available for Linux. I downloaded it and got it up and running rather quickly. It seemed to handle those little annoying things that the XBMC for the XBOX couldn't. My reservation was that it took away some features from the XBOX and broke others. I found that when I played something and paused it it would cause the whole thing to crash. I traced it to two issues but that took time.

During this testing to resolve those issues I chose to try out BOXEE. I found it worse than XBMC. It isn't that it's different nor that it's incomplete, but that it's both. It's difficult to find things, difficult to get them to work. It crashes -- not as stable as the other choices. It has no where near the features (as if they are either hidden or have been removed).

What I found to be the best was this combo:

I bought a 32" LCD TV with 3 HDMI ports. I then took a spare AMD 5000+, 1.5gig of RAM, an used 250 gig HDD, a used wireless keyboard and mouse (with new batteries), old used DVD drive, a set of 5.1 logitech speakers, an NVIDIA 7800GT video card and installed Ubuntu Linux on it.

I bought a cheap $25.00 DVI to HDMI cable and used that as video out to the TV.

Then I installed XBMC, VLC, Libdvdcss2, win32codec, and flash, onto it. After that I bought the VLC remote control app from the Apple app store for the iPhone/iPod Touch for $2.00 and then bought the XBMC remote control for the same for about $2.00.

One more thing I did was buy a Logitech CAM w/microphone and I installed Skype. I then installed pidgin. I've been in the middle of phone conversations using Skype on Linux on that computer when customers come in. Most show some amount of awe at what I'm doing. The web cam part works flawlessly. Linux recognized the camera without any need for drivers. Sound and video are perfect on it.

I configured the VLC to allow control using the iPhone remote software. I configured the remote control programs to work with their respective software.

I then used smb4k to create shares to video and audio sources (though XBMC doesn't necessarily require this).

Using the VLC and XBMC remote control software I can manage either player to start and stop any video or music file in my library.

The XBMC issues that I spoke about earlier were resolved by ensuring that Pulse audio wasn't used and by ensuring that I didn't select an LCD type in the settings section. This made it quite stable.

I like VLC because I can use the mouse and manage it in full screen or windowed mode easily. The VLC remote allows me to switch easily enough. So does using the mouse.

I like XBMC because it helps in organizing the library though the library features seem to work inefficiently.

I use Firefox with flash to play shows from Hulu.com and Joost.com.

At first I was using gnome as the desktop manager but when KDE 4.2 came out I switched and have been pleased with not only it's aesthetics but also with it's features and stability (though I do get some crashes--certainly more than with gnome).

I set the desktop background to cycle every 10 minutes or so and went to www.interfacelift.com to get a bunch of desktop backgrounds that looked extremely sharp.

I have this running in my repair shop where my customers can come in and see how incredibly useful and beautiful Linux is. I'm not saying that Windows can't be made beautiful or useful but I put to rest that Linux can be both as well.

I most likely will install Boxee on that unit and play some with it, but right now my current configuration satisfies my needs greatly and looks incredibly sharp on the TV (due to the DVI to HDMI cable). The pictures look incredibly sharp.

One point I'm trying to make here is that something nice can be put together cheaply and the other is that you don't have to dedicate your computer to one program. Using Linux and XBMC/Boxee can provide an excellent platform for all your multimedia needs.

As someone who's done this (for a few years now)..

[msimm]

A few quick points:

Disclaimer: your mileage, needs and interests may vary.

1) I liked MythTV on Ubuntu which I most recently installed using Mythbuntu. The Xbmc derivatives look nice, but never so compelling I actually used one (because I was already using something I liked).
2) If you plan to use it, consider not fscking with it. Having a TV on the fritz because you tweak the software constantly can sometimes be pretty annoying (maybe mostly to the *other* people).
3) Consider 2 disks. Maybe it's just me, but after a few reinstals/etc I occasionally get sloppy and screw up my partitioning.
4) Keep a hobby PC to play around (if you like to) with and let the HTPC just work TM.
5) If you have a (non-geek) wife, consider not going the home-build route and using a Xbox or something like (which, after 4 or so years is what I use, exclusively) the D-Link DSM-750 (along with a DNLA server like the cross-platform Twonky) this way you end up with a slim, attractive, wireless (803.11n), fanless, HD streaming media device that will allow you to plug your previously computer-bound content (Ogg and MKV included) directly into your HDTV (without having hassle with it).

Of all the solutions I've used this has worked the best for me. But like I said, your ymmv (and I'd be curious to hear about it).

ZvBox.

[Ostracus]

"Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable "

Or try one of these

Re:ZvBox.

[HermMunster]

As has been said, the problem with those types of devices are the expandability. In the case of the custom build there's enough room to grow for most everyone. The prefab's are limited and can't be reconfigured as technologies change.

In his case he spent too much but he has a nice device. In my custom build the costs are about $325.00 and I have significiant room to grow.

Boxxee

[fredbox]

The Queen of /b/ takes over Slashdot. It was bound to happen.

Re:As someone who's done this (for a few years now

[Techman83]

2) If you plan to use it, consider not fscking with it. Having a TV on the fritz because you tweak the software constantly can sometimes be pretty annoying (maybe mostly to the *other* people).

Seconded, I plan major changes a long time in advance and usually tie in a hdd upgrade at the same time. Means I can fall back to the old setup if I can't do it in time. Makes for a much happier significant other!!

I use Knoppmyth as of R6 it will become LinHES. There is a lot of development and the aim being to become an out of the box PVR solution.