A Simple, Silent, TV-Based Linux Media Player 67
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?"
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Buy a tivo. (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Buy a tivo. (Score:2)
Try GeeXboX [geexbox.org].
Re:Buy a tivo. (Score:2)
And an old laptop with TV out is a quickly realized, small, quiet implementation. All you'll need is a little homebrew IR receiver.
Re:Buy a tivo. (Score:2)
Ok, now I know why you didn't just google this (Score:2)
The ultimate RIAA/MPAA friendly device (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The ultimate RIAA/MPAA friendly device (Score:1)
He doesn't want to exclude the capability, he just isn't concerned with having them in the new box.
LK
Go XBox (Score:4, Interesting)
And it can also run Linux, if you really want to type your mplayer commandline, but I'd advice against it -- XBMP is really cute-iful
Similar machine in either ATX or ITX form would cost you at least twice more. With AV-gear type case, another 100% more.
Robert
Re:Go XBox (Score:3, Informative)
XBox Media Center [xboxmediacenter.com] installed on a modded [teamxodus.com] xbox really is all you need. Plug it into your hub/router/whatever, and with a little bit of config you can get it to run directly off of a samba share from your desktop.
Get the DVD package, and you have remote control access. The thing also plays DVDs (I haven't got XBMC doing DVDs yet, but running the xbox dash to watch it isn't bad) so that's most of your video bases covered.
Re:Go XBox (Score:2)
Re:Go XBox (Score:2)
Re:Go XBox (Score:3, Informative)
However, if I want to do anything with menus, like the misc featurettes from the LOTR "appendices" discs, I do need to boot to xboxdash - though IIRC they were doing a fund drive a few weeks back to see how much people *really* wanted full dvd support, and if it was enough to pay a developer to take some time to do full-time work implementing it for XBMC (and thusly, also mplayer)
Re:Go XBox (Score:1)
Re:I titter like a schoolgirl at modchips! (Score:2)
Robert
Re:Go XBox (Score:2)
Silent Thermal Controlled Power Supply? What does it do, change size when it gets too hot? And a Seagate hard drive is silent?
If you really want silence, get a fanless mini-itx board, an 80 or 120 watt power supply (which has no fan), and do a network boot or boot from compact flash. That's what I have for the PC in my listening room. The m
Re:Go XBox (Score:2)
I've got about the same goal as the submitter: All of my music exists on the computer, but I still have to find, load, and refile CDs in the living room to play any of it on the cool stereo and chill out on the couch with music.
Since that sucked, I decided to fix it. I built a reasonable machine with a composite NTSC output from stuff I had laying around. Tried Frevo, MythTV, and a few other things. They were all varying levels of terrible at playing music.
MythTV was a complete bitch to comp
Re:Go XBox (Score:3, Informative)
No chip, unless you've really got your heart set on the LCD. Install a softmod. Very easy to install. Non-intrusive. Won't void the warranty. Works fine on all versions of Xbox. Search for UDE, UDE2 and UXE. There are many tutorials on the web, if you look hard enough.
You will
Re:Go XBox (Score:2)
Nice tute. Two mistakes :-)
UDE2 works on all versions of Xbox including v1.6. UDE1 works on every version except v1.6.
Be aware that UDE2 only works on region-1 encoded Xbox (ie, American) so if you have a PAL v1.6 (eg, Australian) you need to perform further
Seconded. (Score:3, Informative)
Definitely go XBox. (Score:1)
Most graphics cards will only output S-Video at best; Europeans wanting to connect in RGB Scart are looking at £100+ VGA to Scart transcoders, or other specialist hardware.
Plus there is an optical digital out on both the RGB Scart cable for Europeans, or the Component output for NTSC users.
B
Re:Definitely go XBox. (Score:2)
Nah, being able to play all the MAME, NES, SNES, C64 etc emulators on TV is a real bonus -- I'm 32 and my contact with games ended around late Amiga
Robert
Re:Definitely go XBox. (Score:1)
links 4 j00!!!!!one!! (Score:4, Informative)
and
www.htpcnews.com
Linux HTPC HOW-TO
http://www.sllug.org/how-to/linux-htpc/in
If you're actually staying silent you'll want this platform instead of standard ATX
http://www.mini-itx.com
TiVo-esque GPL software
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/
Mo' Links (Score:1)
homebrew_pvrs_on_linux [hatch.org]
russell pavlicek experiment with a pvr [linuxprofe...utions.com]
his article in infoworld about it [infoworld.com]
Without knowing what 'computer' you are capturing (Score:2)
If you are capturing to a Windows, or Mac, using Haupauge! software, you might want to look at the Haupauge! set top box to play from your recordings.
If you are using MythTV on a Linux box, you may want to set up an XBox MythTV front end. Or build a box based on a ViaC3 600 chip with a mpeg decoder.
If you are using some other setup to record your media, you are pretty much on your own for figuring out how to put together a front end for it. XBox, or possibly
Re:Without knowing what 'computer' you are capturi (Score:2)
He's not.
That was the whole point of his post: He's not interested in capturing, just playback.
Hence all of the other, useful, responses.
Reading for comprehension - it'll do wonders for you...
Re:Without knowing what 'computer' you are capturi (Score:2)
Hmm, like yours.
Ok, the hardware has been identified, use an xbox, or mini-itx based system, possibly with a fanless m6000 or m10000 via processor.
Provide whatever network hardware is necessary, up to and including a wireless usb adapter if you can get one of those to work.
Since you want this to be as quiet as possible, build it using either boot from lan, or boot from flash.
You will need some way of selecting the media file that you are going to play. If you
Hauppauge MediaMPV (Score:4, Informative)
MythTV (Score:2)
Re:MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
XBox (Score:3, Informative)
It runs Freevo, and while not completely silent, could be made so with a bigger CPU heatsink and a silent PSU- the noise it does make simply isn't intrustive enough for me to bother, however
I use Xebian, so no mods were required for the hardware (I did need to rend MechAssault to get Linux on the hard drive), and I can play XBox games if I want to.
Movies and MP3s are played off a samba share on another linux PC, and it mostly works pretty well.
There are a couple of caveats though-
Limux's approach to swapping memory is pretty awful for this type of application. After a long period of idle time, attempting to play a movie results in about a minute of vigorous disk-thrashing before anything actually happens on-screen.
The XPad driver/XBox controller seems to behave erratically - often requiring an unplug-replug cycle upon bootup to be recognised. Currently i dont have the XBox remote, but it can be used in place of the controller.
Disks sometimes get 'stuck' in the drive and won't eject - no matter whether the software 'eject' command is used or the hardware eject button.
Depending on how much time you have, all these issues could likely be fixed, but if i was you, i'd just buy a wifi set top box like this one:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318
The XBox is quite flexible, and it has been a fun toy to have, and does extra things like rip DVDs and act as a 'standard' Linux PC - but as far as a 'plug n play' solution, i doubt you will get what you want with any PC-based solution, at least without spending a lot of time tweaking - there are just too many things to go wrong, from boot time to peripherals to media error handling etc.
Re:XBox (Score:2)
Disclaimer: Being totally unfamiliar with Xebian, everything I spew now might be totally incorrect.
Under the 2.6 linux kernels you can control the swap behaviour by changing the value in
Re:XBox (Score:2)
Re:XBox (Score:2)
thanks for the handy hint. I've always hated 2.4's disk caching, swap happy, slow-in-the-morning, vm.
mini-itx (Score:2)
Personally, I would set up one of these with an 802.11g card and network boot.
Try the Meadia MVP (Score:1, Informative)
Here are some links to get you started.
http://knoppmythwiki.homelinux.org/index.php?page= MediaMVP_LinuxHOWTO [homelinux.org]
http://www.byopvr.com/displayarticle191.html [byopvr.com]
http://www.shspvr.com/forum/index.php?h=0&pf=0&c=9 [shspvr.com]
MythTV + Diskless (Score:1)
Re:MythTV + Diskless (Score:2)
Re:MythTV + Diskless (Score:2)
Re:MythTV + Diskless (Score:2)
The way USB / SD / memory cards are going, that is probably the best option.
I just priced 1 GB SD cards around $100.
Ideally you could put your DVD images on the backend Myth machine and have a totally silent front end Myth box.
Try MoviX2 (Score:2)
Perhaps also run it on this ASUS [asus.com] motherboard and casing combo.
Should be a snap.
You might try (Score:2)
Another vote for the XBox (Score:4, Informative)
Here's some handy links:
Check out the forums on XBox-Scene [xbox-scene.com] and for XBox Media Center [xboxmediaplayer.de] (XBMC) for useful tips rom the thousands of XBox enthuiasts out there. Good luck!
Re:Another vote for the XBox (Score:2)
a long video cable. (Score:2)
simple.
effective.
works.
or just mod a xbox.
if booting from cd is an option (Score:1)
http://www.geexbox.org/en/index.html
i've no experience with it yet, but heard good things about it so it is on my todo list.
Actually, I did this recently (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Forgot to link (Score:1)
xbox: any way to remote the video (firewire/DV)? (Score:2)
in the windows world (sigh) you can run a firewire controller and a converter box on the far end, that handles the video (composite or svideo) both in and out. I use a canopus box but there are many such 'media bridges' that go from firewire to video.
so I wonder - can you do this with the xbox? it seems everyone is recommending the modded xbox. fine - I
Re:xbox: any way to remote the video (firewire/DV) (Score:2)
Try a Phillips DVP642 (Score:1)
It plays pretty much anything I throw at it. Dvix, xvid, mp3's and they can be on cd or dvd. I burn some stuff I want to watch or listen to onto RW's, watch it, and enjoy. It comes with a remote. For $70 it might be worth a shot. If it meets everything you
Do you have a wireless PDA? (Score:2)
For windows, this is soooooo easy. (Score:1)
1) Get an IRMan IR receiver if your computer does not already have one.
2) Get Girder
3) Download windows media player girder hooks
4) Using ANY remote, beam the codes you want in for each function (play, stop, etc)
5) VideoLAN/VLC player plays ALL formats with built in codecs. Although it does not have girder hooks, you can stop with spacebar, and it is easy to set girder up to send a space bar with a specific IR code. (So I can pause/unpause, which is all