Home server: media center

    Because a file archive is stored on the home server (video, music, photos), I wanted to
    implement a media center for viewing content using a TV / monitor directly from the
    server.

    Linux Media Center Software Solutions


    Elisa



    a media center written in Python, which makes it easy to extend it with plugins. There are plugins
    for watching videos from YouTube, photos from flickr, Picasa, listening to streaming
    SHOUTcast radio . Pretty nice design, something similar to the Apple FrontRow. Because It is based on
    GStreamer, that is, support for most popular media formats, but for example, for some reason I
    didn’t want to read VOB files from DVD, although it showed a preview. Management is possible both from the keyboard
    and from the mouse (very convenient in the case of a wireless mouse), there is also integration with LIRC to
    control the remote control, you can configure and use the touchscreen. The configuration takes place mainly in the
    configuration file, through the menu you can
    just change topics. For the initial setup, you just need to add the directory addresses in
    which the media files are stored in the [xmlmenu: locations_builder] section , the locations variable
    should take the form of a python array with the paths: ['file: /// stuff',
    'file: /// home / ftp / incoming ']
    , the
    configuration file is created in ~ / .elisa / elisa.conf after the first run. This
    media center has a huge number of settings, but all of them are in the configuration file.
    For example, there is such an interesting feature as synchronization with F-Spot.


    XBMC



    A very interesting media center, originally written for xbox, but later ported to Linux,
    Mac OS X, Windows. It has many beautiful themes, and a large number of ready-made scripts. The scripts
    are Python code and WindowXML (a framework for creating
    an XML-based GUI ). Among the scripts there are both simple plugins for services, and rather complicated
    applications, for example, an email client, a variety of games. There is support for DVD, including something
    like a menu. Keyboard, mouse control (because the cursor is your own and quite
    large, using the mouse is quite convenient), you can also use LIRC. All settings
    are in the menu, and there are quite a lot of them, except for the settings through the standard menu there is a web interface,
    but I could not use it. There is support for subtitles, beautiful visualization of the current
    song, there is synchronization with Last.fm. In general, this media center left a very pleasant
    impression of the completed product, but sometimes there are stability problems.
    Attention: in the current build under ubuntu problems with screen resolution, you need to
    use the SVN build.


    MythTV



    Probably the most famous media center for linux. Quite a heavyweight decision, because ubuntu
    pulls a lot of dependencies. Able to work with a TV tuner, record transmissions.
    A MySQL database is required. Keyboard and LIRC control, no mouse control.
    It is quite difficult to configure, but it has support for DVB cards (satellite TV, cable,
    etc.). Supports distribution to multiple servers, video encoding. In fact, a
    rather redundant solution, as it seems to me, because Video recording / encoding is easily adjustable
    by crown. It has a large number of plugins.


    Installation and setup


    Initially, we need an X.org server, as initially in ubuntu-server it is not:
    apt-get install xorg
    

    Next, install the media center you like:
    apt-get install elisa (xbmc / mythtv)
    

    note: for XBMC you need to use a
    third-party repository , preferably with
    SVN builds, as in the usual assembly there is a problem with the screen resolution.
    We create a
    .xinitrc file in the user's home directory from which the media center will be launched and write to it:
    exec elisa (or xbmc / mythtv)
    

    Now you need to configure the X to automatically start from under the user, without asking for a
    password, for this we add a line in /etc/rc.local to exit 0 :
    su - username -c startx
    

    If an X error occurs : user not authorized to run the X server, aborting. when
    loading, then you need to change the X11 settings:
    dpkg-reconfigure x11-common

    And let anyone run the X11 server.
    Attention: since Since this is a potential security hole, you need to prohibit remote
    connections to the X11 server.
    That's all, now the media center starts automatically after a reboot.


    Other articles in this series: Xen-based virtualization , proxy for SIP
    cross-post from my blog

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