is there any version of linux that can do this, or a program that can... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/wmx/mcedemo.asp
I've been told that SuSE is a good distro for media... I'm not sure if there's remote support in linux, but if you have the skills, there is IR support, so you COULD make your own...
Almost every Linux distro comes with media apps to do that. The only difference betwen Mdia Centre and normal XP is that it is more focused around media (ie can't do **** all else) and it has insane copyright bull**** protection painted so thick it could kill a moose. XMMS, and Xine will handle all your video/audio media needs, as for digicams I forget what Redhat has, but there are others around. It's all a matter of pickign a distro that appeals to you (or building one yourself ) and then installing only what you need ot create a nice stream lined system that's fast efficient and does what you need. Liek Ubermich said, SuSE is considered the media distro, otherwise I'd say Gentoo or LFS for really small and fast install, or Redhat if your not sure exactly what you want to do.
Maybe you know how to do this, kargin, but how would you get an interface that was more streamlined to media and not much else unless you logged in as another user or sommit of the sort...?
By removing all the junk you don't need. This is of course assuming a dedicated media box of course. So obviously your not going to need any servers, or networking (unless the mahcine is going to stream from other machines) you won't need any games, debuggers, or programming apps. All you need are the core system files, X, and of course the media apps. Of course if you ahve no dedicated box, you could : 1/ simply amke teh desktop environment very clean and hide everything away that you don't ned for the media bits 2/ have another user with a similar set up to 1/, except that's all they would have access to, all teh rest wouldn't even show up for them. EDIT: Buggery, nwo I'm int eh mood to play with Linux, the fact I've got a new distro coming in from you at this very moment doesn't help either. But 've got no drive space for it . . . . And I'm going to bed in a few minutes cuz I gotta work tomorow, oh so early. . . . EDIT AGAIN: God I'm tired, I'm not even going to try to correct that post, it's too horrible, I'm sure you guys can figure it out.
ive played around with linux and freebsd, but would be fare from calling myself compitent in a unix based system... (though i would like to be just dont have the comp to do so) can you set it up where it auto logs into a user, i would hate to have to get out a key board just to log in to watch tv or a dvd
I'm not really sure. . . . . . I've never tried, but then again, I've never cared about trying. I believe you can. I think it might even be an option in the install for most popular distros. If not I'm sure you could make a script to do it. Or jsut leave the bloody thing running 24/7. Being a media box it doesn't need to be a Barton 3200+ or anything, so quiet small cooling solutions would be plenty, and with it running Linux, well, rebooting Linux is a bad idea period. It really doesn't like to, which is why it was built to stay active for years on end.
yeah i plan on making a pc like this http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/blueplate/ or some thing like this http://www.apple.com/xserve/design.html well, what specs do you think would be the best for a media pc they have mini itx's from i believe 300khz to 1ghz... i would like to keep this cheap, so please help me out thanks for all the reply's btw...
Well a rig that would be capable of easily playign DivX, WAVs, DVDs, MP3s, etc anything from about an 800MHz to 1000MHz would be plenty, about 256- 512 MB of RAM, and a decent video card, something a la the GeForce 2 Radeon 7000 area would be more than plenty, and shold still able to be had around at a decent price. Those are pretty good guide lines I find. Cheers and good night.
here are the mini-itx specs http://www.viamainboard.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81 it has everything you need (so the pc will be really cheap) these boards are made for media applications, they have onboard video, 5.1 sound, built in processor, and what not so, it has mpeg 4 decoders and all that good stuff, the one above is for a 933mhz and only $136(u.s.)... sorry, dont want to turn this into a project log or anything.. so the consinces is SuSe??
Personally I'd give SuSE a try, it's considered the media distro, so should be more built for what you want. Also Ubermich is currently trying it out, so you can bounce help and ideas and experience off eachotehr then too. It's really good to have someone else working on a distro on their machine, I know me and my one buddy do it all the time, bounce ideas and help off eachotehr and we've had a good llot more success and definately more fun. Remember, mocking is much more hilarious if there are more to witness it Of course we'll all be here to help you in general knowledge.
