Posted: 11/22/2010 4:43:38 PM EDT
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I don't have a TV. But I'm thinking about getting one. I don't want 25 different boxes of equipment under my TV. Friends have Xboxs, PS3s, WIIs, digital cable box, direct tv box, tivo, amplifier, dvd player, blueray player, legacy cd player.... God almighty make it stop please.
I have an old Core2 CPU that overclocks like a gem and can build up a 4TB server with a 1GB connection to my network for pretty cheap. Right now I am in the process of ripping my DVDs to one of my other systems so I can sell them on ebay to fund the new box and clear out some space. Plus if I put them on the network they'll be available to every computer in the house. I want to build a system that will handle 100% of my media... Or at least 95%, because I'm not sure if I can use a PC as a tuner for a satellite or cable box (can I?) Music, DVDs, Blurays, pictures, recording like Tivo does, watching TV, hulu, and all the other names I've seen thrown around the last few weeks. Who is using what to do this, software wise? I've seen Media Portal and XBMC. Heard of Boxee but haven't looked at it yet. Have Windows Media Center on my laptop but I'd really like for this software to be free, and perhaps even run on linux (not sure yet) Anyone wanna share what they're using? |
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Quoted:
<SNIP> Right now I am in the process of ripping my DVDs to one of my other systems so I can sell them on ebay to fund the new box and clear out some space. <SNIP> You might want to rethink that. Ripping your DVDs to a hard drive so you could sell the DVDs on Ebay would be a copyright violation IMHO. (not to mention a COC #4 violation here) Putting them on a media server so you could store your DVDs and protect them from harm is a kind of gray area. I've been thinking about building a media server myself. MaximumPC had two articles about build a media server. One for Windows and one using FreeBSD. Vulcan94 |
| You're right on the first account and my apologies, I hadn't even considered that, but you're absolutely right. And as far as the COC violation, apologies again, I will be brushing up on those now. I'll plan on keeping the dvd's boxed up in the garage. And it looks like Mediaportal is the best piece of software I've looked at so far for the task. |
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Satellite and cable boxes may be controlled via a device called an IR blaster, that often come with newer tuner cards.
Haven't done it myself, but you should be able to find information about Windows setups at http://thegreenbutton.com/default.aspx Blu-ray will probably be the biggest issue, with whatever direction you go. I see nothing else you want to do that should be a real problem for many media center solutions out there. I think Blu-ray should work, too, but you may have to play with solutions until you find one you like. At the moment, I use WMC7 and I'm VERY happy with it. |