Cheap media center computer
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Joined: Feb 2009
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From: Leesville, Louisiana
Vehicle: 2001 Hyundai Tiburon
Cheap media center computer
Has anyone heard of XBMC LIVE? It's a fully functional media center computer on a CD. So XBMC started out as an origonal XBOX program for chipped XBOXs. It's evolved and become a Linux program with XBOX, Windows, and Mac being ports of the Linux trunk application. If you have a HD TV, i'd recommend getting this as an accessory.
My desktop works all day long watching TV like Dora the Explorer, Futurama and Sesame Street (aproximately 20 shows a day). It then shrinks the files down, renames them by show, season and episode. Then It transfers the files to the NAS repository, where the files sit until scanned into the XBMC library. The XBMC library then downloads official DVD covers, show, season and episode descriptions and also fan art. All these things are displayed onscreen from the guide which allows my 4 year old to pick out a show to watch.
XBMC scanned in and assigned graphics to all my music for me, then using LastFM makes recommendations of songs I'd like and plays them for me for free. I customize it using the love/hate button. I now have a radio station which plays music I like all the time. It can also play music based on custom tags I input from my remote control, which types like a cell phone.
It's come a long way since XBOX. I had an extra USB remote control laying around and I have a HD TV, so I bought a $300 computer at walmart which came with windows 7. I formatted it and installed XBMC Live. I am running XBMC Live 9.11A2 is still in alpha stages (pre beta). The current stable release 9.04 is available here http://xbmc.org/download/
The best thing about a LIVE distribution is that the operating system is included. This means you can download the CD, burn it, and run it on ANY modern computer. So, get a copy and try it out and if you don't like it, then remove the cd. If you do like it, run the install and format the hard drive and keep it. We could use some more beta testers so try the newest 9.11A2.
Go to www.XBMC.org and check it out. It's a very mature software and it's free!
My desktop works all day long watching TV like Dora the Explorer, Futurama and Sesame Street (aproximately 20 shows a day). It then shrinks the files down, renames them by show, season and episode. Then It transfers the files to the NAS repository, where the files sit until scanned into the XBMC library. The XBMC library then downloads official DVD covers, show, season and episode descriptions and also fan art. All these things are displayed onscreen from the guide which allows my 4 year old to pick out a show to watch.
XBMC scanned in and assigned graphics to all my music for me, then using LastFM makes recommendations of songs I'd like and plays them for me for free. I customize it using the love/hate button. I now have a radio station which plays music I like all the time. It can also play music based on custom tags I input from my remote control, which types like a cell phone.
It's come a long way since XBOX. I had an extra USB remote control laying around and I have a HD TV, so I bought a $300 computer at walmart which came with windows 7. I formatted it and installed XBMC Live. I am running XBMC Live 9.11A2 is still in alpha stages (pre beta). The current stable release 9.04 is available here http://xbmc.org/download/
The best thing about a LIVE distribution is that the operating system is included. This means you can download the CD, burn it, and run it on ANY modern computer. So, get a copy and try it out and if you don't like it, then remove the cd. If you do like it, run the install and format the hard drive and keep it. We could use some more beta testers so try the newest 9.11A2.
Go to www.XBMC.org and check it out. It's a very mature software and it's free!
