[NCLUG] mythbuntu?

[Brian Wood]

On Sunday, October 24, 2010 03:09:49 pm Rob Elsner wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> Overall Boxee works pretty well, http://www.boxee.tv/  Of course,
> Netflix is out (at least if you run it on Linux).

The Roku box actually runs Linux, but uses a special chip for the DRM. Boxee can do Netflix if you use PlayOn.

Basically you're correct, you have to use Windows/Mac, or a specialized chip, if you want Netflix, but IMHO it's worth it, 
they have a very good service.

I just shipped a machine to a friend in London, I'm going to try proxying iPlayer so I can watch it here, the BBC just has 
so much better stuff then you can get here. The potential problem is his employer (the BBC) may take a dim view of this.


> 
> I haven't had good luck with MythTV streaming any videos, youtube sort
> of works.  If you aren't looking for DVR functionality (with a TV or
> DVB-S tuner) you should probably avoid MythTV.  Mythbuntu has gotten
> significantly better and more stable, but I still run in to the
> occasional problem.  I have two OTA capture cards, and it performs
> fairly well.

The latest version of MythTV (0.24) has made great strides with streaming sources, of course, being the latest release, 
and only a few days old, there are still a few bugs, I'd wait a week or two if you want to try it out.

You might try JYA's repositories, he often has some of the wrinkles ironed out before the trunk version does, and he makes 
things like getting the correct nVidia drivers installed easy.

I agree that MythTV is not the best answer unless you want DVR functionality.

Boxee had some problems with 64-bit systems, are you running 32 or 64? On what hardware?

The BoxeeBox is now available, as well as many other options.

http://www.boxee.tv/

Too pricey for what you get, IMHO.


This one is getting a lot of talk, but so far I'm not impressed, too expensive, and I wonder about heat and noise:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/20/zotac-zbox-hd-id34-blu-ray-playing-nettop-reviewed-scores-well/



Right now using a Myka as a playback device, running PLayOn on a dedicated XP VM, using an NSLU2 as a dedicated Usenet 
downloader (hellanzb) and fileserver and running MythTV has pretty much saturated my video needs.

One potential problem is I fear watching Al Jazeera Engligh language news too much may make it difficult for me to travel by 
air, but their news seems a lot less like "infotainment" than the usual US crap that passes for "News". 

France24, RT (Russia Today), the BBC and others all seem to be better at "News" than the domestic producers.