Linux Media Server
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| penguinist Sep 13, 2014 5:49 PM EDT |
Quoting:Because it's Linux I can do all these things. I'm with you 100%, Carla, on using a Linux box as a media server. Virtually any hardware will do as long as it has hdmi out, wifi, a usb connector for your big external drive, and a modicum of CPU/GPU power. (I see that the 5TB external drives are getting reasonably priced.) I finally retired my aging Western Digital media box a year ago and am now using a $150 Chromebook (converted to run a full Fedora/xfce installation, of course) and I am happy as a clam. One thing I did that has been incredibly handy was to set up a shared vnc access to the tv screen. Now a single click on a custom desktop icon on any of our notebooks will pop up the living room TV and I can interact with it using the notebook's full keyboard/mouse. This has to be the ultimate TV remote. It feels like I'm "projecting" my notebook display onto the TV. Believe me, it's much faster to select a movie or some music by quickly navigating a File Manager, compared to what we used to have to do with dozens of clicks on an old-style "remote control". I do have something on my wish-list, though. I'm not feeling a sense of urgency about it, but I am moving in the direction of an upgrade to a large screen 4K/2160p TV, so I've made a rule for myself that I'm not buying any more media peripherals unless they support 2160p. Unfortunately the only small device I have that supports 2160p on its HDMI port is my Lenovo ultrabook, and that device is just too expensive to hide under the TV cabinet, so I'm still looking. And there is really no need to upgrade the TV to 2160p until I have a Linux media server that supports that resolution. Maybe next year the time will be right for that. Oh, by the way, that old Western Digital media box still sits off to the side. Its sole remaining function is connecting us to Netflix. |
| tuxchick Sep 14, 2014 5:43 PM EDT |
I love the VNC trick. My original plan was to find a programmable TV remote, and there are good ones that work with Linux, but a keyboard is so much easier. I'm having some adventures with my new 5.1 receiver. I got it because my old one doesn't have HDMI. I think it must have some special copyright cop feature on its HDMI channels, because when I play my ripped DVD movies the quality looks degraded, and some of them won't play at all, but give a wrong region encoding error. My TV has two HDMI ports, so I can bypass the receiver if I need to. I have some testing to do, but my preliminary assessment is Oh Yay Dirty Tricks Again. |
| Koriel Sep 14, 2014 6:34 PM EDT |
My family use the shared vnc trick with our homemade (cobbled together from various bit of old hardware) Linux media server so my wife has the laptop on the sofa to control the TV and do her writing/blogging, while I use Remote Ripple on the tablet. Its all very decadent :) |
| tuxchick Sep 14, 2014 6:37 PM EDT |
OK it's not Dirty Tricks Again. I guess I can't blame evil copyright cops for everything. Some of my videos look cruddy because I used DVD95 to compress them. XBMC does have a problem with the region encoding, though. They play fine in VLC. |
| tuxchick Sep 14, 2014 6:39 PM EDT |
The best kind of decadence, Koriel :) |
| Koriel Sep 14, 2014 9:48 PM EDT |
Thought I would add, that actually HDMI isn’t really necessary either but is nice, my output is DVI hooked to the TV via a DVI to HDMI cable as my old graphics card doesn't have HDMI out. The audio goes via standard 3.5mm jacks to phono connections on the TV from the SBLive 5.1 card on the PC. |
| penguinist Sep 15, 2014 12:27 AM EDT |
koriel wrote:Its all very decadent :) I know, I feel the same way. We Linux users are a privileged class, and the others have no idea what they are missing out on. I almost feel guilty for not running out and telling more people. Shivers go up and down my spine when I think about how elegant the shared TV screen concept is, and you can't buy it (yet), you can only get it if you are running Linux at home. I wonder which company will be the first to file a patent application on what we are doing... |
| CFWhitman Sep 15, 2014 9:50 AM EDT |
At the moment I have my movies (mostly DVDs) ripped to files on my file server in one room of the house and I access them with XBMC (only for the sake of convenience; they can be accessed through an NFS, Samba, or SSH file share as well) from other places in the house (where the televisions actually are). I'm running XBMC through a Cubox-i on my television. I can use the HDMI port for sound, or I can pipe it to my stereo through the digital optical out. I can also access the movies with XBMC on a Raspberry Pi hooked to another television. New devices would be easy to add to other TVs other than a shortage of HDMI ports on one set. Of course XBMC lets me stream various things off the Internet as well. To supplement this I have Netflix available. Just by chance I have three ways to access Netflix through my main TV. The TV itself is a Yahoo powered smart TV, so I can use the Yahoo Netflix app. My Blu-ray player (which it turns out I don't use that often - see below) can get Netlix. Finally, I have a Chromecast, which of course can be used for Netflix. I find that the Chromecast controlled by an Android device is my preferred way to access it because it doesn't start playing the next episode of a show automatically (I don't like that "feature"). The Yahoo app is significantly better than the Blu-ray Netflix app. I have various ways to hit YouTube or DailyMotion if I want to. My smart TV has an Amazon Instant Video app to access my Amazon Prime account stuff if I want to use that., but I find that most of that content is available on Netflix as well. Edit: I meant to add that on my main TV I can control XBMC (or my Blu-ray player) with the TV remote through HDMI CEC. I also have a wireless keyboard that I tend to use for certain purposes, but the remote works great for general viewing. The Cubox-i also has an IR receiver and a Bluetooth chip, so the right remote or something like a Wiimote are also possibilities for controlling it. As for Blu-rays, I find them a pain. They're not even easy to use on Windows (not that I've tried that much), much less Linux (though I can play most of my older ones on Linux). I quickly found this out and I prioritize DVD copies of movies because of it. That is, I might pay a couple of bucks extra to get a Blu-ray thrown in (then again, I might not), but I have to have a DVD copy of any new movie I buy. If I have to choose between a DVD and Blu-ray (as with a certain recent release of a big movie), I choose the DVD. I want an unencumbered copy to put on my server and possibly use on portable devices, some of which run Linux. I don't believe that purchasing the rights to stream a movie on a proprietary service is actually buying a movie, so I never do that. If I "buy" a movie, that means to me that I actually have a copy of it, and generally that I should be able to watch it on any device I choose. |
| gus3 Sep 15, 2014 11:32 AM EDT |
Raspberry Pi + RaspBMC + StreamZap USB remote + USB hard drive= Pure Bliss |
| JaseP Sep 16, 2014 9:09 AM EDT |
Like CFWhitman, I don't buy (or rent) Blu-rays, only DVDs. Either 720p or 1080p playback is over-rated when you are slightly near-sighted (plus most TVs under 42" aren't true 1080p capable anyway, but 1366x768 native, and interpolated). I use Hulu+ (or direct to the network for some shows) for most serial stuff I want to watch. I have no cable TV (only cable broadband) & would use a MythTV setup for over the air, but get no signals in the Dagobah like place I like. All TVs are connected to HTPCs, and I will eventually switch to ARM powered devices/boxes for that, when they are up to the task (& I have the money to replace them). Controllers are Riimotes with full keyboard/touchpad and IR remote on the flip side (best controller you can use on an HTPC in my opinion). Playback is through VLC (or Chrome for web-based TV stuff). several of the machines are spdif optical out capable, but I don't have the surround system connected up currently (surround sound being somewhat of a waste in a smallist house). I will be staying away from "Smart" TVs because they have very limited support lifespans, unclear firmware, and (from what I've read) gaping security holes in their software implementation... It's set-top boxes and dongles for me in the future (as ARM powered TV is concerned). |
| hkwint Sep 17, 2014 4:39 PM EDT |
Raspberry Pi + RaspBMC + StreamZap USB remote + USB hard drive= If you have an Android phone, you can use it as WiFi-remote I read. |
| gus3 Sep 17, 2014 5:04 PM EDT |
Working on that! I do enjoy using the desktop browser as a remote. :-) |
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