manojcmenon wrote:
> --- In [email protected], Brad Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> I had resolved to rewrite my home entertainment system in python as
> a way to learn it.. funny, it's
>
> Can you rephrase that ?
>
> Do you have some sort of OpenSource version of "Windows XP Media
> Centre Edition" ?
>
> If you do, we would love to hear how you put it together. Along with
> some photos perhaps.
>
Manu's writeup is very good for the Sat portion (which I don't tend to use
much)..
I have all (and I mean *all*) my DVD's, a load of cds and mp3's all sitting on
a pair of storage
servers. My head unit is an Athlon XP 2800+ with 3GB of RAM (the 3GB is no
relation to the home
theatre task but more that I edit huge pics in gimp). No hard disks. PSU has a
120mm "silent" fan
and the CPU cooler is a modified thermaltake unit with a very slow speed fan
strapped to it.
It's got a Matrox G450 Dual head card in it of which one head goes to the 15"
monitor and the other
to my DLP projector. An SBLive card provides the SPDIF output to the Harmon
Kardon Surround sound
system so I get Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS passthrough (and I avoid the crappy
D/A and analog section
on the PC hardware).
The whole thing is driven by a StreamZap IR remote through LIRC and some custom
hacks and I have a
pair of serial port IR transmitters for the Surround Sound and Projector to
save me getting off the
chair to turn it all on and off.
The rest of the system is a cobbled together hack of xine and mplayer mostly.
The mp3 jukebox is my
own creation from years ago. It all works in text mode coz I've been too slack
to pretty it up, but
it's a series of "dialog" based menus mainly that are driven from the IR remote.
Xine allows complete DVD playback with menus and special features, and all my
dvd's on the system
are complete rips with no recompression or editing. I also have the obligatory
list of divx, avi and
vcd rips.. any video that is not a complete dvd image requiring menu navigation
is all handled by
mplayer.
Xine also handles the CD's.. I have all my cds dumped raw onto the system and
then apply flac to
them. Xine plays back flac files nicely, so I have xine configured with a basic
visualisation to
play my cds for me. (I'm a quality freak so I avoid lossy compression like the
plague if I can)
In there is also my Sat card ... I don't pay for a subscription service yet (I
don't watch it
enough) but I have a simple setup where I just choose the channel I want and
away it goes..
The whole lot displays on a 9' screen and it's all positioned pretty optimally
for the surround sound.
All the noisy bits are locked out the back in their own little server room.
29 Hard disks, 6GB of ram and 3x2Ghz procs.. it's a pretty serious home
theatre..
I'm running out of storage so I'm thinking about another server.
The big advantage over MS MCE is I can make it do what I want and of course
100+ day uptimes..
--
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability
to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable
for their apparent disinclination to do so." -- Douglas Adams
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