Is linux viable for HTPC OS?

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Elf_Boy

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Have a second system from old parts. I built the system originally to give me two things, a dedicated file server with better bandwidth then USB attached drives on a router and so that I had a real second system to learn and practice linux.

Now that we have a 46" TV (santa was kind) I am adding a third role, provided it isnt incompatible with the first two. Can I also set it up to be a HTPC. Right now it has a DVD drive for $20 it is easy enough to get a BlueRay drive for it.

I put mint on it. It plays Pandora real well, we hosted Christmas dinner this year and the old home theater system, 5.1 sound, is clear and crisp even with the realtek on board. I have a PCI based SB X-Fi, it would not for any reason I could figure out or understand output to the center/sub though. I could drop an older SB Audigy 2 but I recall those having some sort of sub woofer issue as well.

Or, of course, I could pick up a THX certified sound card.

Thoughts and comments?
 
Boxee is also Linux native. But you will need a NVidia 8400 or better video card for the OpenGL support.
 
It's an intellectual property issue. The powers that be haven't licensed any legitimate decryption libraries for Linux, it may change and it may not.

The evil hackers will make it work regardless, but as we all know they are evil and cannot be encouraged to destroy the world any more than they already have. I recently saw a Linux HTPC play a BluRay beautifully, but I burst into flames and had to run away to extinguish myself.
 
No streaming netflix.

BR ripped to .mkv might play in Linux. I don't have any direct experience.

DXVA may be a problem depending on the format. What cpu/gpu are you using?

edit:
teh google says VLC will play mkv's.
 
You can play a ripped Blu-ray in linux no problem. But it's sure a lot easier and considerably faster to just put the disc in.
 
Hardware acceleration works great on AMD and nVidia, haven't tested Intel myself but word is that is all good too. Codec support is pretty complete in XBMC, I use it as my HTPC interface exclusively. Netflix and Bluray are the big omissions as far as I can tell, but neither of these things is a deal breaker for me. Netflix is welcome to build a Linux client any time they feel like it, and Bluray playback is very close to being seamless, albeit by methods that are illegal almost everywhere.
 
Ruiner said:
No streaming netflix.

BR ripped to .mkv might play in Linux. I don't have any direct experience.

DXVA may be a problem depending on the format. What cpu/gpu are you using?

edit:
teh google says VLC will play mkv's.
Click to expand...

Phenom x4, the original one with the TLB problem and a GTX 280, 6 gigs of ram.

I havnt gotten around to dicking with Wine as yet. Can anything like Divx run in the wine environment? I know I will want to get Steam running on this machine as well.
 
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I balk at such claims that certain methods to play discs YOU own are "illegal". If you own it, you can do whatever the hell you want with it. This is the ONLY reason for the push away from physical media...control from big brother.
 
We have an Xbox 360, will it support 1080p? (*edit* 1080p for netflix)

We also have a stand alone BR player so that may not be so much an issue.

Tell me more about Boxee. The FAQ on the boxee site just says that it has lots of free content with some premium services... I didnt see details of either.

*edit* I would prefer to stay with linux as a learning experience for me, I do however have a licence for Vista 32/64 available should I decide to go that route. We have three "7" machines in the house none would want to sit in the living room by the TV however.
 
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grimster said:
I balk at such claims that certain methods to play discs YOU own are "illegal". If you own it, you can do whatever the hell you want with it. This is the ONLY reason for the push away from physical media...control from big brother.
Click to expand...

eh, you own a license to play the content. You do not own the content.
 
Yeah, you do. It's on the disc, you can do with it what you please. It's already been established many times legally that it's not unlawful to break encryption to be able to copy something for your own personal backup if you own the original. The public owns the content of "art" more than anyone else. If not, then why bother? Art is not for profit. These "artists" who demand profit for their work are laughing all the way to the bank with your money.
 
It's not even about your rights to the content as such anymore though. It's the actual circumvention of the copy protection that makes you a terrorist.

If what you're really looking for is a Steam gaming machine, you're not going to want Linux. Wine works pretty good these days, but it will not run every Steam game. I suppose something like divx might work, though I'm not sure why you'd want it, there's plenty of native video players for Linux. http://appdb.winehq.org/ is the place to check for Wine compatibility.
 
The DMCA tyrants even allow an exception for circumventing encryption to make a person backup. I do understand what you're saying. Yes, they are tyrannical, but I don't, never have, and will never listen to them, because possession is what matters to me. I dare them to come take what I own because I rip it.

If the Linux crowd was to actually develop good tools for ripping and encoding, and good players, I would not hesitate to go over to that camp. That's the only thing stopping me. I don't really care for emulating things when I have a flawless way of doing what I need in Windows.

They have MakeMKV for Linux. Maybe that would be worth a shot looking into. Once ripped, there shouldn't be a player in Linux that doesn't support what you rip. The only thing you'll have a tough time with is DTS-HD Master, but TrueHD simply being MLP, that's supported already in libav.
 
I'd say if your good with linux yes. If your new to linux no. It can probably do everything you need it too but will likely take a few extra googles to complete the mission.
 
grimster said:
Yeah, you do. It's on the disc, you can do with it what you please. It's already been established many times legally that it's not unlawful to break encryption to be able to copy something for your own personal backup if you own the original. The public owns the content of "art" more than anyone else. If not, then why bother? Art is not for profit. These "artists" who demand profit for their work are laughing all the way to the bank with your money.
Click to expand...

lol, you own a piece of plastic, not the actual content. Get off your high horse. If you disagree with the current law and system then talk to your representative and attempt to get it changed.
 
I have used linux and mythtv for my HTPC OS since 2004. Looking at my statistics I have recorded 3521 episodes.

Number of shows:
211
Number of episodes:
3521
First recording:
Sunday May 30th, 2004
Last recording:
Thursday December 29th, 2011
Total Running Time:
7 years 6 months 30 days 9 hrs 20 mins
Total Recorded:
5 months 18 days 4 hrs 46 mins
Percent of time spent recording:
1%

I do not have any blueray players (recorders ...) in my house so I never get blue ray media. I have used a few regular dvd but not many. I have a couple of backends (boxes with tuners) and now I am using 1 frontend hooked to the main backend and also streaming video to a wireless media player.
 
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F me. I haven't owned a DVR for a year to even get to those stats.

Too many Tivo's, Moxi's, MC's, and Comcast DVR's over the years.
 
I am running openelec which is a fork of xbmc for embedded or stand alone devices. They have an x86 ISO works fantastic on my old evga 630i ( nvidia 7150 HDMI) with an e6300 and 2gb ddr800 running off an old repurposed 40gb laptop drive

Streams 1080p bluray mkv rips from my whs without any jitter or lag
 
Elf_Boy said:
Phenom x4, the original one with the TLB problem and a GTX 280, 6 gigs of ram.

I havnt gotten around to dicking with Wine as yet. Can anything like Divx run in the wine environment? I know I will want to get Steam running on this machine as well.
Click to expand...

You're fine for hardware then, and can even run Cuvid MadVR.

If you're also thinking gaming, just go Windows. I've never had a success with wine that was worth the time and trouble needed to get there.

off topic:
'Get off your high horse....:'
Really? What can one individual do other than throw a few bucks at the EFF. The content industry throws big big bucks at lobbying. Who are they going to listen to?
 
grimster said:
It's already been established many times legally that it's not unlawful to break encryption to be able to copy something for your own personal backup
Click to expand...

Which case # exactly set this precedent?
 
As far as I know that used to be the case, but the DMCA specifically made it an offense to circumvent copy protection. Shameless wikipedia plagarism:

In the United States, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") has implemented the treaty provisions regarding the circumvention of some technological barriers to copying intellectual property.

Circumvention of Access Controls

Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states:

No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

The Act defines what it means in Section 1201(a)(3):

(3) As used in this subsection—

(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

Thus, if there is some "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work", it is illegal to circumvent that measure. However, Section 1201 creates several exceptions to this rule, and the Library of Congress is empowered to create additional exceptions.

Distribution of Circumvention Tools

The Act also prohibits the distribution of tools that enable a user to circumvent access controls or controls that protect a right of the copyright holder.

I'm in Canada, and our government, obviously in the interest of their electorate as usual, has decided to play along and wants to pass something similar, but as of now I'm pretty sure I am still ok to do what I please as long as I don't distribute copies.
 
I agree with you Dust, i'm not aware of any actual court case overturning it.


I'm aware cheap WAREZ and torrent sites all pop up the disclaimer to only download stuff you have a physical copy because the backup is legal... but it's complete BS.
 
The new Eden build of XBMC (still in beta) will play Blu-Ray ISO's natively. It is enough for me to probably switch from MC7 w/ Media Browser over to it.
 
Does it? Nice :) I've been using it for months and I haven't even thought to try. This is a pretty good step forward for out of the box.
 
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