legooolas ([info]legooolas) wrote,
@ 2007-01-29 12:57:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Current mood: chipper

Things and stuff.
A conversation at work led me to thinking about the different options for media PCs, and what would be best/easiest/most-competent to set up properly for when we move house.

Options:

- Apple TV thing
- Xbox stinky thing
- Linux PC running something (MythTV?)
- Windows PC running something



PS: I'm going to try and blog a bit more often, and to use my phone's mystical camera-based powers to take pictures of things I find amusing, such as seeing a van with "KING LIFTING" on this morning (http://www.kinglifting.co.uk/) and immediately thinking it needed an apostrophe to make it 'king lifting :P Maybe this should encourage me to improve my photoshop skills :)


(Post a new comment)


[info]matryx
2007-01-29 01:49 pm UTC (link)
Personally - as far as a media PC goes it'll just be the easiest when it comes down to actually making the thing. (Which will likely be a windows pc). I haven't seen any performance difference worth noticing between apples/linux/windows so I suppose the tradeoff will be convenience versus cost :)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]legooolas
2007-01-29 02:14 pm UTC (link)
I already have a suitable spare PC (and pretty quiet[1]), and it's got Linux on at the mo. I'd rather use that if it ends up being a PC as that's what I'm most competent with, but I've noticed that there are a whole bunch of other devices (Hauppauge MVP, Apple TV etc) and I guess the first thing to decide is how much functionality I want from it :)


[1] I got a bit obsessed with silencing my PCs a while ago, and noise is probably more of a concern than having a superduper fast machine to do the media-type things :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]dunos
2007-01-29 02:18 pm UTC (link)
The Apple TV thing looks like it will have a good interface and if you keep all your media in iTunes it would be great. However it does limit you to iTunes and until someone hacks it doesn't look amazingly good value for money. Probably the easiest to use and very little set up or configuration required.

Xbox I have no experience with. My main questions would be how easy is it to use to browse a large library of media stored on networked drives. Could a five year old use it? Does it require syncing or complicated set up? Would you be limited to having some sort of windows machine somewhere controlling it all?

Linux PC. Most configurable but for me it would come down to the interface. If the interface could all be controlled via a remote without having to resort to running for a keyboard then yea great. You could also use it for other stuff like running your network or webserving or whatever which is a bonus.

Windows PC running something. Again an interface issue. Is it going to crash? Can you use it for other things at the same time? Is it overkill? Are you going to need an expensive and more powerful machine?

Mac Mini. This is probably my personal favourite if I was going to set up a media PC. Good interface from Frontrow. Configurability from the geek point of view. It can do other things at the same time like the linux machine.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]dunos
2007-01-29 02:22 pm UTC (link)
I think I also wanted to sum up with...

For me it is about the convenience and the interface. I wouldn't want to spend 5 minutes messing about each time I wanted to watch a movie or play a song or something. Point, click, done.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]legooolas
2007-01-29 03:14 pm UTC (link)
Oh yeah, I feel much the same -- but Windows fills me with dread, and I was having trouble with TV out things in Linux. WigglePig should be making me a VGA->SCART RGB adapter, which can allow any old video card to drive an RGB SCART telly at perfect PAL resolution, as long as you can get the card to output at 50Hz and interlaced 768x576 (and faff with the overscan and that, but it should be ok). This should be about the best possible quality without a super-new telly and using DVI/HDMI.

Apple TV being tied to iTunes appears quite annoying, r.
The same sort of thing was the problem with the Hauppauge MVP, which I pondered at a while ago, as that has some arbitrary windows software you run on a PC to stream stuff to it.

I think once I get the TV out working nicely I'll check out the available options on both Windows and Linux :)

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…