CincyInDC Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 anyone made this decision (I envision an answer from Elflocko or Montana)? What I can see from testing the "free" (my time is not worthless, so no, Linux is not free) alternative is that it works flawlessly in about 50% of the instances I'm keen on it to work. It's great for recording, storing over-the-air programs, but as an internet video player (read: flash SUCKS) / play the videos of dubious origin I already have it's less than good. This is more or less the same hardware I've used under Windows to play these things in the past. South Park streaming from official channels in full screen is one example I can't really get past. It just blows on Linux, despite driver upgrades. I also have some mkv files which are quite high quality and played fine on Windows but on Linux are a lost cause. I'm about ready to bite the bullet and spring for Windows 7/media center and be done with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 The only reason I even have a Windows PC in my house is to run my Playon Server and stream stuff to my PS3. Sometimes you just use what works.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 Oh, and buy a Mac... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted May 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 mac schmack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MULLY Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 [quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1306127037' post='994143'] mac schmack [/quote] I don't know, man, I've been using PC's since Windows' birth. I thought I'd give Mac a try and bought one last week. In all honesty, I'm fucking lost, but I can just tell this is going to be so much better. MULLY I stand by my earlier Starbucks comment though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 I still haven't settled on what the best approach is. My best friend swears by his MythTV. In my instance, I didn't want to have another machine running all the time and our space is small...so hiding it would be a problem. I've looked at doing something like a WD Live! which I think is supposed to do youtube and handle a huge range of files. I wasn't that impressed with the interface though. I've also chatted with go about an AppleTV, but I'd love to here some input from others. What I'm using right now is just my notebook (Inspiron 1520, running Win 7 - the machine is probably 3-4 years old). I haven't had any issues running 7, but I also don't use media center. I've got a s-video cable running out of the back and audio out of my headphone jack. Is it ideal, no. But I haven't had any issues using VLC or Windows Media player. Occasionally VLC won't show the video, in that case I've just use Media Player. We pretty much run anything off of it. In our next home, I'd like to do something different, but time, money, space-wise, what I've got works for what I need. Don't know if that helps or not. I'm getting to the point where I don't want to fuck with things too much to get them to do what I need. Ultimately, I'd like to have my machines backup via my home network...and have my movies hosted on the network. On a side note, I did pick up a used Macbook - Wife is using it and seems to like it just fine. That said, it only has a 160gb hard drive. Most likely that is getting a larger drive and there is a good chance I'd dual boot. And on another side note. Linux Mint still works out of the box for me...or course I haven't tried it with the TV :-) I may have to try it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 I am thinking about buying an apple tv for $99, rooting it and installing XBMC. A couple guys i work with/used to work with did this. Can play any format you throw at it(including mkv) and 1080p out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 [quote name='Ben' timestamp='1306178935' post='994231'] I am thinking about buying an apple tv for $99, rooting it and installing XBMC. A couple guys i work with/used to work with did this. Can play any format you throw at it(including mkv) and 1080p out. [/quote] What generation? Can you root it with both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted May 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 I ordered windows 7 OEM (Englisch version, which was a treat to find in Chermany); I'll test Media Center on the "tv computer" and report back. I've been considering upgrading my gaming pc anyway (from winxp pro x64), so if this doesn't take, I'll use the license for that machine. Mac/apple tv is not an option since I'm using "I already own it" hardware here. Thanks for all the input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted June 3, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 so I've been using Windows 7 Media Center for a while now, and where Mythbuntu fell short this does not. Fullscreen flash is great. mkv-file movies greater than 6gb start to choke on the system, but that's not terribly surprising (maybe I shouldn't be so forgiving here). Where this machine really falls short is the whole Windows 7-ness of the system. Basically, the system now suffers from bloat. Out of nowhere either Windows or perhaps the virus scanner decides it's time to do some maintenance, and movie watching starts to suffer (digital tv is more or less ok since there's no decoding). Considering there's 4 gigs of ram in the system (only 3gb usable despite a 64-bit OS...grr), I would have expected disk thrashing never to be a problem. Not really the case, even when I'm not playing a movie. Since the disk is an ATA133 (yes, it's old), throwing a SATAII SSD at it might work wonders, even if it doesn't solve the fundamental problem. It would at least be faster and quieter when it thrashes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 3, 2011 Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 The current second generation. Jailbreak it, then ssh in and install XBMC. Apparently it can run boxee also if you like that better. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHL-0i42UUU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHL-0i42UUU[/url] [quote name='Montana Bengal' timestamp='1306179355' post='994236'] What generation? Can you root it with both? [/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted June 3, 2011 Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 [quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1307102547' post='995813'] so I've been using Windows 7 Media Center for a while now, and where Mythbuntu fell short this does not. Fullscreen flash is great. mkv-file movies greater than 6gb start to choke on the system, but that's not terribly surprising (maybe I shouldn't be so forgiving here). Where this machine really falls short is the whole Windows 7-ness of the system. Basically, the system now suffers from bloat. Out of nowhere either Windows or perhaps the virus scanner decides it's time to do some maintenance, and movie watching starts to suffer (digital tv is more or less ok since there's no decoding). Considering there's 4 gigs of ram in the system (only 3gb usable despite a 64-bit OS...grr), I would have expected disk thrashing never to be a problem. Not really the case, even when I'm not playing a movie. Since the disk is an ATA133 (yes, it's old), throwing a SATAII SSD at it might work wonders, even if it doesn't solve the fundamental problem. It would at least be faster and quieter when it thrashes. [/quote] Strange, this sounds about like the machine I've been using - I haven't had any issues. What are you running for anti-virus and what else is running in the background? On a side note, I'm running Avast![quote name='Ben' timestamp='1307106757' post='995843'] The current second generation. Jailbreak it, then ssh in and install XBMC. Apparently it can run boxee also if you like that better. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHL-0i42UUU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHL-0i42UUU[/url] [/quote] Can you restore it to 'normal' if you jailbreak it? I'm wondering if it breaks and there is a warranty issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 3, 2011 Report Share Posted June 3, 2011 [quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1307102547' post='995813'] so I've been using Windows 7 Media Center for a while now, and where Mythbuntu fell short this does not. Fullscreen flash is great. mkv-file movies greater than 6gb start to choke on the system, but that's not terribly surprising (maybe I shouldn't be so forgiving here). Where this machine really falls short is the whole Windows 7-ness of the system. Basically, the system now suffers from bloat. Out of nowhere either Windows or perhaps the virus scanner decides it's time to do some maintenance, and movie watching starts to suffer (digital tv is more or less ok since there's no decoding). Considering there's 4 gigs of ram in the system (only 3gb usable despite a 64-bit OS...grr), I would have expected disk thrashing never to be a problem. Not really the case, even when I'm not playing a movie. Since the disk is an ATA133 (yes, it's old), throwing a SATAII SSD at it might work wonders, even if it doesn't solve the fundamental problem. It would at least be faster and quieter when it thrashes. [/quote] Faster HDD wouldn't hurt at all. Might I also suggest scheduling scans for early morning or during the day whilst away? And I'm not sure if you have all of your video in a central location, but I'd also recommend putting in an exclusion for that directory in your AV to prevent it from scanning while the OS is reading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted June 4, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2011 ASRock 790GX motherboard (socket 939) 4 gb ram Athlon 64 2GHz (one core) integrated ATI Radeon HD 3300 (this could be part of the problem...not enough getting offloaded to the graphics card) media located on a quiet external 1TB USB drive I'll try temporarily disabling the virus scanner (AVG Free). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Montana Bengal| Posted June 5, 2011 Report Share Posted June 5, 2011 FYI - Loving Apple TV2 with XMBC installed. The jail-breaking was kind of a pain, but seems to work well. We have netflix setup (mind you we don't have cable). We have a pretty crappy DSL speed but that doesn't seem to be affecting much at all. I picked up a refurbished one from apple. Next up is converting my DVDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted June 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Found the bottleneck...it was the ATI on-board video. Got a SATAII hard drive and boot time is now less than half of what it was, but it didn't help during playback. Added a GT440 (Asus fanless video card) and viola, no more bottleneck. Now I wonder if Ubuntu/MythTV would be better now...probably not since Adobe hates Linux, but I might try a live CD later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 [quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1307480942' post='996453'] Found the bottleneck...it was the ATI on-board video. Got a SATAII hard drive and boot time is now less than half of what it was, but it didn't help during playback. Added a GT440 (Asus fanless video card) and viola, no more bottleneck. Now I wonder if Ubuntu/MythTV would be better now...probably not since Adobe hates Linux, but I might try a live CD later. [/quote] Flash is OK if you're using 32-bit Linux. Just install the PAE kernel and you're good to go for up to 64 GB of memory... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted June 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 ...and the tv card isn't supported yet. [attachment=851:trollface.png] "Problem?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 [quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1307482448' post='996464'] ...and the tv card isn't supported yet. [attachment=851:trollface.png] "Problem?" [/quote] D'OH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 [quote name='Elflocko' timestamp='1307482246' post='996461'] Flash is OK if you're using 32-bit Linux. Just install the PAE kernel and you're good to go for up to 64 GB of memory... [/quote] I am using the 64 bit "beta" flash on Fedora 15 x64, works pretty well. I thought everything was going to html5 anyway........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 [quote name='Ben' timestamp='1307541820' post='996565'] I am using the 64 bit "beta" flash on Fedora 15 x64, works pretty well. I thought everything was going to html5 anyway........ [/quote] That'll probably happen right around the time everyone migrates to IPv6. And the 64-bit flash *works* ok, they're just really slow with the updates and have a habit of killing it and bringing it back. BTW, if you're a fan of Fedora and aren't married to 64-bit you might want to take a look at [url="http://fusionlinux.org/"]Fusion Linux[/url]. It's nice if you don't want to spend time recompiling the kernel just to get your trackpad controls back... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 [quote name='Elflocko' timestamp='1307545444' post='996578'] That'll probably happen right around the time everyone migrates to IPv6. And the 64-bit flash *works* ok, they're just really slow with the updates and have a habit of killing it and bringing it back. BTW, if you're a fan of Fedora and aren't married to 64-bit you might want to take a look at [url="http://fusionlinux.org/"]Fusion Linux[/url]. It's nice if you don't want to spend time recompiling the kernel just to get your trackpad controls back... [/quote] This is actually the first time I have tried fedora/red hat in years(other than servers as work). I have always been a debian man in the past. I wanted to play with Gnome 3(Gnome Shell) though and fedora seems to have the best implimentation of it. I was surprised that all my hardware worked no problem. I usually have issues with my USB Headset. Setting up my nvidia drivers was easy, just had to add the repo. I have seen no lag at all in gnome so far. Will check out fusion next time I get bored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CincyInDC Posted June 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 Debian, huh? Try out Ubuntu Unity and have an ice pick handy to stab yourself in the temple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
|Elflocko| Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 [quote name='Ben' timestamp='1307546229' post='996579'] This is actually the first time I have tried fedora/red hat in years(other than servers as work). I have always been a debian man in the past. I wanted to play with Gnome 3(Gnome Shell) though and fedora seems to have the best implimentation of it. I was surprised that all my hardware worked no problem. I usually have issues with my USB Headset. Setting up my nvidia drivers was easy, just had to add the repo. I have seen no lag at all in gnome so far. Will check out fusion next time I get bored. [/quote] I'm really worried about gnome 3; worried that they're going to fuck it up like they did KDE. I used to be a KDE fan until version 4, then went to gnome after seeing what an abortion KDE had become. If gnome 3 is crap I guess I'll have to move on to XFCE. And I've always liked Debian for the desktop and Fedora\CentOS for servers; just always found yum a better package manager than apt for the server applications. That and if I'm running Debian on my workstation the possibility of sending a damaging command to RPM server is greatly reduced if I get my console windows confused...[quote name='CincyInDC' timestamp='1307546372' post='996580'] Debian, huh? Try out Ubuntu Unity and have an ice pick handy to stab yourself in the temple. [/quote] Yeah, that too. I'm afraid gnome 3 = Unity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_B Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 [quote name='Elflocko' timestamp='1307545444' post='996578'] [color="#FF0000"]That'll probably happen right around the time everyone migrates to IPv6.[/color] And the 64-bit flash *works* ok, they're just really slow with the updates and have a habit of killing it and bringing it back. BTW, if you're a fan of Fedora and aren't married to 64-bit you might want to take a look at [url="http://fusionlinux.org/"]Fusion Linux[/url]. It's nice if you don't want to spend time recompiling the kernel just to get your trackpad controls back... [/quote] It's funny because it's true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.