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Thread ID: 121403	2011-10-24 21:13:00	Linux media centre	gary67 (56)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1239586	2011-10-24 21:13:00	What are the thoughts around using a Linux distro for a media centre, would love to use win7 media but simply don't have the funds for another licence. All I need is something relatively simple as I won't be using a tuner card. It will be primarily watching DVD's maybe Bluray later on and will be installed on some older hardware namely an Athlon with 1Gb RAM	gary67 (56)
1239587	2011-10-24 21:45:00	What are the thoughts around using a Linux distro for a media centre, would love to use win7 media but simply don't have the funds for another licence. All I need is something relatively simple as I won't be using a tuner card. It will be primarily watching DVD's maybe Bluray later on and will be installed on some older hardware namely an Athlon with 1Gb RAM Oh and music also photo's, preferably something that looks and feels a bit like windows	gary67 (56)
1239588	2011-10-24 22:00:00	Works brilliantly for all of the above except bluray - support for BR is still a bit iffy, as the encryption scheme has needed to be reverse-engineered (basically the same approach that resulted in DeCSS/libdvdcss a few years ago). Note that the hardware you're proposing may be incapable of decoding a high-def h264 stream in realtime (depends which Athlon you're talking about), unless you have a graphics card that can be used to handle the actual decoding - so BR support may also require hardware upgrades. Test it before going shopping though, you may be pleasantly surprised.	Erayd (23)
1239589	2011-10-24 22:01:00	What about the live version of XBMC?	CYaBro (73)
1239590	2011-10-24 22:05:00	What about the live version of XBMC?XBMC is probably ideal for what Gary's after, although not the live version - installing it properly may be a better bet.	Erayd (23)
1239591	2011-10-24 22:11:00	Yeah definitely wanna go with XBMC, its easy to use and should do all you want :-) Try the Live version first, then look at installing it on ce you've given it a quick run and are happy with it	Chilling_Silence (9)
1239592	2011-10-24 22:12:00	Just been away to check and it's actually a Semperon 3000+ 1.61Ghz on an Asus mobo M2N-MX and i'm thinking of sticking something like an Asus 5450 fanless 1Gb GDDR3 GPU in it. I have that GPU in my main machine so that I can run 2 monitors and I like the card, quite and unobtrusive. Installing is not a problem as I have upto date images of all my computers. So does XBMC need installing on an existing distro? or is it standalone?	gary67 (56)
1239593	2011-10-24 22:27:00	It's standalone, its the Xbox Media centre that was developed then ported to PC, simple interface intended for exactly what you want. I tried it myself and it looked promising but it didn't like the audio device on the old board I was using. It's free so worth a look.	dugimodo (138)
1239594	2011-10-24 22:32:00	So does XBMC need installing on an existing distro? or is it standalone?It's not standalone (i.e. you need an existing system to run it on), but there are several media distros based around it that include it as part of the core install. It's standalone, its the Xbox Media centre that was developed then ported to PC, simple interface intended for exactly what you want. I tried it myself and it looked promising but it didn't like the audio device on the old board I was using. It's free so worth a look.Dugimodo, XBMC is an application, it's not a distro in its own right (and therefore is not standalone) - it needs an existing install in order to run.	Erayd (23)
1239595	2011-10-24 22:42:00	Odd, I swear I downloaded an iso of it and it was, maybe it was more than XBMC after all. Obviously if people are referring to a live version there is a bootable version around including all you need. I think I've seen a windows application version of it but what I had was a linux based install with no desktop or other apps, just XBMC. Edit: Looked it up, what I had was the live version which is based on Ubuntu and can be installed.	dugimodo (138)
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