Building a Linux Media Centre

[Akdor 1154]

Hi all,

I'm looking in the near future to build a media box. Software-wise I don't really know yet but I'm going to investigate MythTV and possibly a Myth distro... to be continued.

Anyway at this stage I'm pondering hardware - especially around the fast booting I'd want for this sort of box. I've read a little about LinuxBIOS - would buying a supported mobo be useful or useless if I want to get to login in an inordinately short amount of time? I've also heard a little about ASUS (I think) having some sort of quick linux booting functionality on some of its mobos, is this marketing shit or is it useful? Is it locked to a specific kernel? Do I know what I'm talking about?

As far as graphics are concerned, do integrated chips have hardware acceleration to play HD DVB broadcasts? I'd prefer to stay integrated if I can due to noise/cost; fglrx seems to be getting very, very good recently as well and I'd like to support AMD for their efforts in linux compatibility, compared to where ATi was, they're kilometres ahead. Can you get integrated ATi chips for desktops or am I stuck with Intel? Do these have DVI or HDMI out?

As for sound, is it possible to get optical outs on integrated chips or do I again want a dedicated card? Do the optical outs have the same interference problems as most analogue outputs I've ever used? Any recommendations? Would an external box be useful?

What's the state of fancy media centre case functionality and linux support?

[RDProgrammer]

Originally Posted by Akdor 1154

Hi all,

I'm looking in the near future to build a media box. Software-wise I don't really know yet but I'm going to investigate MythTV and possibly a Myth distro... to be continued.

There is a Linux Media Center distribution built around Kubuntu. Google LMC.

Originally Posted by Akdor 1154

As far as graphics are concerned, do integrated chips have hardware acceleration to play HD DVB broadcasts? I'd prefer to stay integrated if I can due to noise/cost; fglrx seems to be getting very, very good recently as well and I'd like to support AMD for their efforts in linux compatibility, compared to where ATi was, they're kilometres ahead. Can you get integrated ATi chips for desktops or am I stuck with Intel? Do these have DVI or HDMI out?

I would assume that for most uses a non-integrated card would be far superior

Originally Posted by Akdor 1154

As for sound, is it possible to get optical outs on integrated chips or do I again want a dedicated card? Do the optical outs have the same interference problems as most analogue outputs I've ever used? Any recommendations? Would an external box be useful?

I have an ASUS mobo with integrated optical audio ports that are crystal clear and sound great with no interference.

Originally Posted by Akdor 1154

What's the state of fancy media centre case functionality and linux support?

Newegg has some nice looking cases (cubes) that are quite and some have a fancy little LCD in the front panel for things like CD track, etc.