2010-01-16, 22:59
I read alanwww1 great piece in the stickies and it got my appetite whetted!
I'm currently evaluating the various OS offerings for home media centres and have slowly circled into XBMC, but need some additional info that I cannot find. Let me describe what I am trying to acheive;
Some background:
1/ I have a good Sony TV (Bravia KDLZ5800). I want to create a home media centre based around that. It has hdmi inputs galore, vga and pc component inputs + a lan connection. I already tested nero media center as a DLNA source and that worked, not so XBMC however. :-(
2/ I am a long term Linux user, my business and home run on it.
3/ I know next to nothing about media centers, home theatre etc.
I'd like to acheive an integrated media center using XBMC running on Linux. I haven't bought a machine to run it yet. I do have a spare NVidia Quaddro FX1700 graphics card sitting around that (from what I have seen in the linux support section) will be good to use as it supports OpenGl 2.1
My question are then;
What would be a good machine to use? It only needs to run XBMC + internet browser. Alan mentions the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H motherboard. Is there a PC I can buy that has it in already - building my own PC is not where I want to be :-}
I am considering using the Western Digital MyBook 3 (USB 3, 2 TB storage) for mass storage. Is that sensible or shoudl I just use SATA drives in the PC?
What peripheral card should I be using to get best quality sound ?
How do I link up sound and video for best effect into the TV from the PC? Excuse me if I am fuzzy on this, but will hdmi give me sound and video? If so, do I not bother with the Quaddro card.
What is the best TV Card to use (accepting Satellite input for the UK). Or do I just connect a virgin/freeview box in (and how?)
Is there anything else I need to consider (sound system, other peripherals, remote control etc.)
TIA
I'm currently evaluating the various OS offerings for home media centres and have slowly circled into XBMC, but need some additional info that I cannot find. Let me describe what I am trying to acheive;
Some background:
1/ I have a good Sony TV (Bravia KDLZ5800). I want to create a home media centre based around that. It has hdmi inputs galore, vga and pc component inputs + a lan connection. I already tested nero media center as a DLNA source and that worked, not so XBMC however. :-(
2/ I am a long term Linux user, my business and home run on it.
3/ I know next to nothing about media centers, home theatre etc.
I'd like to acheive an integrated media center using XBMC running on Linux. I haven't bought a machine to run it yet. I do have a spare NVidia Quaddro FX1700 graphics card sitting around that (from what I have seen in the linux support section) will be good to use as it supports OpenGl 2.1
My question are then;
What would be a good machine to use? It only needs to run XBMC + internet browser. Alan mentions the Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H motherboard. Is there a PC I can buy that has it in already - building my own PC is not where I want to be :-}
I am considering using the Western Digital MyBook 3 (USB 3, 2 TB storage) for mass storage. Is that sensible or shoudl I just use SATA drives in the PC?
What peripheral card should I be using to get best quality sound ?
How do I link up sound and video for best effect into the TV from the PC? Excuse me if I am fuzzy on this, but will hdmi give me sound and video? If so, do I not bother with the Quaddro card.
What is the best TV Card to use (accepting Satellite input for the UK). Or do I just connect a virgin/freeview box in (and how?)
Is there anything else I need to consider (sound system, other peripherals, remote control etc.)
TIA
