Project/Media Center
From Drexel Smart House
Media Center
A Media Center could be a sub-project of Media Distribution. A media distribution system can have zero, one, or more media centers to host various media types: video, music, VOIP, etc.
Technically speaking, a media center could be broken down into 3 components:
- Hardware
- Operating System
- Software
Hardware
Many (probably most) related OS/software will run on standard PC hardware. While some software requires specially customized hardware such as TiVo. It seems like going with standard PC hardware is a better idea as it's going to be much easier (and legal) to customize for our own needs.
Open Source OS/Software
The open source community offers quite a few different OS's and software packages for this, here is a few:
- LinuxMCE (OS + software) is much more then just a media center; it also offers home automation, home security, telecommunication and a bunch of other things.
- Ubuntu Media Center (OS + software) is a new project still in early development. Unlike LinuxMCE, it is only a media center.
- MythTV (Software) could be thought of as the open source counterpart to Tivo. It is available in various pre-packaged OS + MythTV packages.
- Elisa Media Center (software) is another open source counterpart to TiVo. Graphically it looks very similar to AppleTV
When choosing which package to go with, we must consider future support. Both LinuxMCE and Ubuntu Media Center are based on Ubuntu which appears to have a good financial backing as of now.
