A Simple, Silent, TV-Based Linux Media Player

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

Actually, I did this recently

[phorm]

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

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

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

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

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