Media PC frontends?
 

Hiya, guys. I'm trying to set up a book computer as a media PC. No preferrence between linux and XP, but I do have two catches to this setup:

- It won't be hooked to a DVR/PVR card; it will just play downloaded ---- off the 'net and stuff I rip elsewhere on my LAN, so EPG and supported vid cards means little to me.
- PC is connected to a 32" tube screen with SDTV aka 320X240 resolution. 640X480 resolution with big fonts makes this doable, but it's a pain to operate sometimes; I want a big button simplistic media GUI I can playback music and movies on.

I'm thinking one of the car PC front ends is the ticket, but wanted feedback since I'm a multimedia n00b.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

MythTV has gotten great reviews, have you looked into that?

It has PVR functions but can also just be used as a frontend to play your files with big buttons.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I'm kinda hesitant to fool with linux, despite my original statement, because I'm totally unexperienced in linux, but there is no time like the present, I suppose.

PS - myHTPC.net has a Windows variant of MythTV, looks interesting. I have some stripped down flavors of XP that install off a 180 MB .iso and occupy 42 MB of RAM, pretty snappy on the older P3s and VIA stuff.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Most of the car ones have more carlike features like a big fat GPS button and some other ---- I can't remember.

There are ones like SageTV and others for windows but they cost money. Perhaps a torrent exists, but give linux a shot! It's easy and you won't feel like such a noob anymore.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I took a spy photo of JD's LAN

http://www.bleacheatingfreaks.com/fi...nice%20lan.jpg

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

It's....incredible.... it's like.... like a nerdopolis! All hail JD and his nerdopolis!

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

JD, throw out that 32" and buy a fine 50" plasma from me for a grand. Then play all your stuffs in 1280x720. I'm also looking for a media frontend for the htpc we're gonna use with the 120" projected 1280x1024 screen ;D so people make some suggestions!

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I use Snapstream products with much success. True that I am using there BeyondTV PVR Software the most, but they offer a "Beyond Media" product too. Here is the sales pitch from teh website.....

Beyond Media is a perfect addition to your Beyond TV home theater PC. Beyond Media is a DVD player, a music player, and a photo browser--an all-in-one media player that will take your entertainment PC to the next level.

Beyond Media lets you…

Access all your photos, music and videos from one, user-friendly interface
Access movies on-demand with SnapStream Spotlight
Access weather information and Caller ID
Have fun with photo slideshows
Watch DVDs with Dolby 5.1 channel surround sound
Sort and browse your music by genre, title, artist and keyword
Seamlessly integrate & access Beyond TV
Beyond Media provides a complete solution that brings all of your digital media files together into an organized, manageable and easy-to-use menu that you can see and control from the comfort of your couch.

And the link - http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondmedia/

Craig

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Pfffft, jago/Torgan, I only have seven computers plus the roomate's makes eight. ::)

I am sorely tempted, but it's famine in my wallet right now. I've been paid in parts for my last two tunes, not many people have money so soon after xmas so tuning is slow, and my regular job barely pays my bills this time of year. I have some trade of top notch car ---- to offer, dunno if that's remotely what you want, but check your PMs.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

use .NET to write something with huge buttons and yoink a windows media player control or whatever you need to play your files. If you want to run linux, you're going to have alittle more hassle trying to set your system up to play the media types that you want, unless you're using an automatic RPM installer like YUM or something. Its a learning experience though, and free.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Mediacar/Roadrunner or Frodoplayer all work real good. http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=60

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

take the fun out of coding your own :(

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

If I code anything I'd want it to be a little more sophisticated than a GUI for existing software to do ---- there are already multiple solutions for.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Not that I mind perspectives or interesting thread hijacks, so feel free to argue your point.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Thinkpad dont play movies so well, does it JD? lol! ;D

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

JD, I've did this about 6 months ago to my home system. Its really cool when you get a wireless keyboard, mouse, and game pad. The only negative is that I'm only running 720p not 1080i. I had a hell of a time getting a good video card for cheap that had DVI and worked at true TV resolutions. I ended up writing a xp GUI and setting DVD movies to auto play when the dvd is inserted. I think the many people will move in this direction in the future. I kinda wish I had a a faster computer for 1080i, but hell its hard to beat a free computer. I also got a optical audio card from walmart and a 700watt sony sound system 5.1. My media PC is 1ghz with maybe 256 of ram hooked up to a 52" HDTV. I might have 1,200 in the complete system at most. I shopped the sales in ----.

Good luck, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. You can do upverting and ---- if you get into the details and take the time. My next addition is going to be that wireless adapter that lets you to use xbox 360 controllers on the PC. I had some computer wireless controllers, but they sucked.

I got a portable car navigation system for Xmas that I've already hacked to play mp3s and movies. I think thats how I'm going to do my car PC when I get time. No wireless though :-(

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

They play them fine as long as you don't have a lot of bloatware installed, and aren't doing anything in the background. XP is buggy like any flavor of Windows, but one of my T20's can play movies for ~5 hours before they start to glitch a little and need rebooting. ;)

Well, I'm using the old tube screen and an external Black Box VGA to TV converter box I was given, so it handles all that for me. The 2.0 P4 box I have hooked the the TV now has a FX5200 vid car that does a halfassed job with coax output control... as soon as a video player launches the screen sizing gets all wack-ass and you have to hunt 1-2" outside the borders of the screen for _ [] X controls. Some people think (and have commented) the old tube screen is ghetto, but I flagrantly don't give a ----; from across the living room my kid might notice a loss of resolution but my eyes suck just enough that it really doesn't matter to me.

:)

Love you guys.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Get a copy of Windows XP Media Center edition. I run it on my media PC and its pretty solid overall.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Since someone brought up CarPC interfaces, and Joey likes them too, I'll ask a threadjack question. Which CarPC Front end do you guys like the best? I'm looking at a Voom PC case and Motherboard for one of our projects, and am thinking that if if the touch screen is going to replace most of the center console, then I'll need a front end that can cleanly integrate a radio, a cd player (just in case I don't have it as an MP3 on the hard drive yet) to replace the displaced components. It also needs to be able to run 3rd party apps.

The computer will need a radio card, and I'll also need some kind of CD/DVD drive that can be located a distance from the computer itself. Computer on the trunk, and cd dvd in the dash under the touch screen display.

It might also help if the front end source was available, and was written in .Net (C# or VB). But not necessary.

Any suggestions?

Thanks JD~!

Craig

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I cant argue with the conveince of a pre scripted gui.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Inqy, you sure Win Media Center isn't going to be deathly slow on an 866 Mhz P3, or can nlite be used to gut it to bare essentials?

Craig, I haven't gotten either of my CarPC projects off the ground with a CarPC media skin on it; in fact the book PC I want to use for media is the original version. I'd follow Bizzar's advice above as he's had his for over a year now and I believe he's tried a couple different flavors.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

haha was just ------- with ya JD. I'd still be rocking my monster of a 32" flat screen crt clocking in at about 180lb and barely fitting in an entertainment center designed for a 36" with an ass so big I had to alter the faux wood cardboard crap on the back. Only reason I have HD is because I can get it cheap.

I thought about using Windows Media Center Edition, but I don't know how well it will run. My oc'ed athlon 2400+, 1gb ram, 256mb radeon 9600 don't play 1080p too well, kinda choppy. Hell, 720p isn't exactly smooth, even after a fresh format. I'm going to mess with the overclocked settings for the video card, proc, and ram to see if maybe they're set too high (or need more voltage) and maybe that'll explain why my comp freezes even after a new format.

I looked into that MythTV thing before, looked pretty promising. I don't want to mess with Linux because I have all the great games with windows, the 360 control (best PC control IMO), the emulators, good media players, etc that I want to play on the projector, even though I'm sure linux will run smoother/faster. Also, I don't know a damn thing about Linux and don't want to learn. I might just try the windows media center, format the comp again, only install what's necessary, tweak the overclocked crap, throw in a tv tuner, and be done with it.

Maybe a carpc front end would be good since they're pretty compact?

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I wasn't thinking of you when I said that. The guy who might pick up your 50" is the bling-master, and he and a friend were trying to be nice about it but failling miserably the last time they were at the house. If I had an ego I imagine I'd have been pissed, but it was funny watching him realise he'd made an indirectly rude comment and pause for a second before he remembered who he was talking to, and that I don't give a ----. If it costs more than $5, or I can't trade a bunch of ---- I got for free for it, I don't care about it. :)

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Im just givin you hell. ;D
You deserve it and stuff.

T20 doesnt look too bad where im at, still kickin it with the busted ass compaq (pre-hp)
:'(

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

JD...

As i work on the MS Media center devices team here at ms... I can assure you that on anything less than 3.2GHZ HT proc w/ a gig of ram its gonna be a pig. You can run it on a 2.4, thats stripped down... but At least 3.2 Ht is optimal. It would work however. Just not on a 866 MHZ machine.

A "few" of my vista test machines here at work:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4.../home/cell.jpg
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4...me/Picture.jpg

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

i sees me a monitor with 360 dashboard.

sold someone a widescreen 20" the other day and realized it had component inputs, wish i woulda kept it to rig up in a car. ----. oh well.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

ya that bigscreen in the background actually has the media center "extender" bits embedded in the device. HP has a model on the market, the hardwareis included, but the firmwareisnton tghe units yet... Thats what we are developing.the cool thing is that when you buy a new device (ie TV, DVD player, Zune, etc.), you have everything needed. You wont have to usean external extender such as the xbox, 360, or various settop boxes... So in short, the tvswill have the front end gui....BUILT IN.

prettysweet, we got some cool toys ....

BTW i have a few FM/NTSC Tuner/capture cards laying around too... the cool thing is that the extenders dont use the PC video to render.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

I mainly stuck to Roadrunner as it has literaly hundreds of skins to choose from. You can even download a skin editor and make it look like whatever the hell you want. The most recent PITA I have been working on is linking my bluetooth phone to the sob. So, when I am listening to music, watching a movie or have the TV playing, it mutes the sound and incoming calls ring in through my speakers. So far, it dials out and thats as far as I have gotten. Damn this Nokia!

FYI all the frontends I have tried support external aps with a few mods to the script. Very simple. I even use my Microsoft Streets and Maps for GPS through the Roadrunner frontend.

Re: Media PC frontends?
 

Sweet! I have Microsoft Streets and Maps 2006! I'll never get lost wandering around my living room again.