Linux based HTPC OS - eAR Media Center OS

gtg465x

2[H]4U
Joined
Jun 23, 2005
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So I just stumbled upon this and thought a few people might be interested. The OS looks very polished and well laid out. Check out the screenshots too.

http://www.earos.dk/

I'm downloading now...:)
 
Pretty neat.. I might throw it on the test rig this weekend and see how it goes.
 
How is everyone doing on the testing this product.

Does it have support for full HD (1080p), and does it support blu ray playback.
 
Wow, looks cool. I'm downloading now also.
I'm thinking of building a new Linux HTPC instead of streaming through my Xbox which is a pain.
 
/subscribed

I want to hear a few opinions before I go and throw this on a 2nd hard drive for testing.
 
Unless you're willing to give up full afternoons to troubleshoot even basic issues for yet another linux distro then skip it. For HTPC's, you're far better off with Windows.
 
Unless you're willing to give up full afternoons to troubleshoot even basic issues for yet another linux distro then skip it. For HTPC's, you're far better off with Windows.

Do you work for MS or something? Knoppmyth, mythdora, and mythbuntu have all been proven to be as simple as a few point and clicks to get running. They work out of the box and accept most any hardware. Don't be so quick to assume only a windows environment is easy to setup and use.
 
Have we gotten .mkv's to play in Linux yet through a single front end controllable by remote? Do we have support for 7.1 output/passthrough? Do we have working hardware acceleration? From what I understand Nvidia's Purevideo HD is part of certain codecs used in PowerDVD and Totalmedia Theater.
 
Do you work for MS or something? Knoppmyth, mythdora, and mythbuntu have all been proven to be as simple as a few point and clicks to get running. They work out of the box and accept most any hardware. Don't be so quick to assume only a windows environment is easy to setup and use.

Yes...you are right, those systems are easy to install. However, so is breathing. The features that people are looking for and the ability to quickly change are not things are easily spported by the Linux Distros.

I understand the whole Linux thing...but support + community > free
 
Have we gotten .mkv's to play in Linux yet through a single front end controllable by remote? Do we have support for 7.1 output/passthrough? Do we have working hardware acceleration? From what I understand Nvidia's Purevideo HD is part of certain codecs used in PowerDVD and Totalmedia Theater.

All the HD content I have on my myth setup are .mkv's and they play just fine with my frontend controlled by remote. Didn't have to do a thing, ready to go out of the box. 5.1 passthrough is supported, not sure about 7.1 yet. There is working acceleration via XvMC, but only for mpeg-2.

But thats not really the point. General is just crapping on "linuxes" as he puts it, and basically saying its all useless garbage. For some people windows will work better for others, myself included, mythtv is preferred. Doesn't matter what you choose, but trying to dissuade people from trying a linux distro when it sounds like he hasn't ever tried one himself is pretty silly. And it doesn't take an "expert" to get things going in linux, I can personally attest to that. and lastly, for some, its just fun to have a diy project.
 
All the HD content I have on my myth setup are .mkv's and they play just fine with my frontend controlled by remote. Didn't have to do a thing, ready to go out of the box. 5.1 passthrough is supported, not sure about 7.1 yet. There is working acceleration via XvMC, but only for mpeg-2.

I really need AVC acceleration. There has to be some way to get it working.

I'm waiting for the Intel G45 board for 7.1, don't know if Intel has linux drivers for it or not.

What front end are you using? Which myth?
All the videos I play are on my server and I just play them on my HTPC.
 
"to get running"

That's great. Most people want to do more than just get a machine running. They'll be using an HTPC for years. Getting it running is great, but when you try to do anything out of the box you end up wasting a ton of time learning whatever distro specific syntax, issues, programs with no front ends, etc.

"and basically saying its all useless garbage"

They're not useless garbage. Just not ideal for a setup that's meant for entertainment purposes. When you want to spend an afternoon watching movies and you end up trying to troubleshoot whatever distro specific problem you're having you'll see what I mean. The $80 for windows is well, well worth it. One of the linuxes might be a great HTPC for a linux zealot, but for a regular user, it's far from a good solution. You can pretend otherwise, but there's a reason why linuxes are free, but almost nobody wants to use them.

"Knoppmyth, mythdora, and mythbuntu"

Exactly. Why make 20 different distro based myth combinations. You end up trying to troubleshoot an issue about myth, but end up with distro specific solutions, syntax, applications, driver formats, etc.

Suggesting linux to someone who's not a hardcore linux user is basically cruel. People forget that time is worth something and a used copy of Windows doesn't cost that much.
 
General, I guess I should have been much more specific when I mentioned it was simple "to get running". In about 30-40 minutes with mythdora it does everything I need it to do. I can watch and record live tv. I can rip dvds to the hard drive and view them or just watch from the dvd. I can listen to my music. I can set up recordings by category, name, etc. It will auto-detect commercials and remove them if I want. It will auto-transcode my recordings to reduce space. It is running and running well. I am not just talking about booting to the desktop. All of that is out of the box. Installation asks me a few questions about my remote, how I want to boot into mythtv and then I select my tuner and thats about it. Sounds pretty tough, I know. Is there something more it should be doing?

To me mythtv is just as ideal as windows mce. And no I don't "know what you mean" as I have actually used mythtv for almost 2 years and this was and is basically my only venture into the linux arena and it was not hard at all. I am a regular user, besides I thought this was the [H]ard forum, not a message board for complete newbs.

Heaven forbid there are options out there! I guess some people don't like to have everything dictated to them. With different groups constantly working to make things better, its no wonder mythtv ends up with a better and more rich feature set than windows offers. I am a total linux newb and it is pretty much the same as getting around in windows.

The fact is that windows mce has some good features, but don't act like all the features that can be had in windows MCE come in an out-of-the-box install. You have to download drivers/codecs, tweak settings, mod things to get the most. Some of which come by default in a mythtv install.

And I just want to apologize to the OP for getting off the subject of eAR OS. I think I might give it a whirl and see how it goes.
 
Dictated to me? It has nothing to do with what is dictated to me. I would actually suggest Windows XP for an HTPC which clearly isn't what MS is dictating these days. I'm glad you have had success with a linux distro, but there are plenty of others who won't. Try running a newer Via based motherboard with linux. It likely won't work. Sometimes you won't even have the option of it available in the latest kernel if they're still working on it.

Need to change/fix anything? I hope you like command line and good luck figuring out the linux file structure. Want a driver? Is it in the right format for your distro? Will the conversion tool to make it so work? Want to research the problem online? You have to find not only the correct answer, but you have to make sure it works for the distro, front end, kernel, file system and command syntax that you're using. It's far from easy and far from quick.

I'm looking on Craigslist and finding XP Pro for around $50. It's a much more supportable solution. All of the hardware you want to use will work on it. New devices, such as the Hauppauge PVR HD, will not work on linuxes at all. You'll get frequent driver updates and few features added to your hardware and finding support is easy. Also, any utilities you want to run on it will be written with end users in mind. This means, they'll have a front end. Even if you only value your time at $5 an hour, it's easy to spend 10 hours trying to do something in a linux distro. I've spent easily that much on each of getting support for a motherboard, installing a driver for a video card and getting an extra application like Hamachi to work.

An HTPC is about convenience and the enjoyment of bringing media together in one location. Unless you're looking for a linux project to learn linux, it's not the ideal platform for an HTPC. Linuxes might be free, but there's a value to time.
 
Unless you're willing to give up full afternoons to troubleshoot even basic issues for yet another linux distro then skip it. For HTPC's, you're far better off with Windows.

EarOS is basically Ubuntu with a custom frontend. Any guides for Ubuntu, will also work on Ear. Plenty of community support on ubuntuforums. So its not really "yet another linux distro"
 
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