Forum.HaveTheKnowHow.com

Hello,

I have set up my server, and notice in software, it has MythTV, which seems more aimed at a TV card.
I live in Taiwan, but am American, so for me, the TV here is horrible...

The way I have made my adjustment to this is by finding a good torrent site and downloading the TV shows and movies I like.
I know, piracy, but not many options in a country that does not use your language...

I have played with Boxee on Windows, and love how it automatically fetches my Metadata and organizes my programs.
I have tried to get boxee onto my server, but it appears the two do not agree, at least I could not get it to install.

I am wondering if there is something like that for ubuntu.

For reference, here is the ideal system:
I have media files on separate NAS system, feeding to my server (Still trying to get this part to work so I can free up my normal PC HDDs...)
The server fetches the metadata for all my programs, or I could just tag them myself if I knew how.
I can then stream said programs to Windows Media Player (Unless there is something better for this that will play all my different codec?).
Smart programming would be great, so it can remember where I left off of a particular movie/episode/season.
Multiple computers and/or VMs would have their own "channels" that would allow each machine to maintain it's own playback (Smart programming) settings.

This is my current ideal setup. I know some may be doable, some maybe not. Basically, I want to create my own IPTV for home use.

Anyone know the ideal software for ubuntu and/or windows (If it is better to veer away Windows Media Player)?
Or maybe a combination of software for doing this type of setup?

Thanks in advance

XBMC is a beautiful thing! It was originally built for linux, but is available for windows as well. I think it's in the main repositories for ubuntu as well, though I don't find myself using ubuntu anymore.

Hope that helps.

If you can point a Windows machine at the shared files, Ember Media Manager is an awesome piece of metadata software. It's very flexible. The original developer stopped working on it, but it got picked up as an open source project afterward, here, so just ignore all the topics you see about it being gone if you search for it. It stores the metadata with the files, so the data's there for good as long as the files are. Unfortunately, it does make the folders look somewhat cluttered if you're browsing from windows explorer or ubuntu's file manager.

XBMC is also a great choice for a media center front-end. (So, it's on a separate machine, one that streams the media from the server, and would be great for a HTPC plugged into a TV and operated by remote.) But if you just want a media player, rather than an 'environment', VLC media player is the way to go. It will play literally any file type you can throw at it. (I wouldn't be surprised if it could play .txt at this point. :P ) XBMC takes some customization and getting used to, but if you get into it, you can make an amazing looking and very efficient setup. XBMC does some of the stuff you mention, like track what you have and haven't watched. I'm not sure if you can have separate watched/not watched settings for multiple machines. Each machine might quite possibly remember where it left off in the middle of individual files, I've never tried it with more than one.

Not wishing to "nit pick", but in the interests of this been a factual and informative forum:
XBMC was originally developed for the original Xbox, hence the name Xbox Media Center.

Before been re-named, it was previously know as Xbox Media Player.

XBMC been developed for Linux is true to a certain extent, as we all know the best hacking tools are mostly Linux based and the original Xbox was hacked using Linux tools, well at least for the software side.

Nonetheless XBMC was originally developed as an Xbox program or should I say app

I still have old Xbox's running XBMC

As pointed out in another post on this forum I also have HTPC running XBMC-Live, no other operating system is installed and I can use my 'droid phone as an remote control.

Andy

Plex is another option.

Plex is very similar to XBMC (I believe its origins lie in developing XMBC for the Mac platform). I choose Plex over XMBC simply because there is a plex app that can be installed on samsung 'internet' bluray players and TVs, allowing me to stream to devices I already had at home. I am not aware of a similar xmbc app for samsung products.

Another option might be Myihome - there is a linux version, that I believe can 'drive' a plugin of YAMJ (yet another movie jukebox), although I much prefer Plex.

Mike

Thanks for the heads up mike.

I think I will stick with XBMC-Live as it is a standalone OS and the Android app is free unlike the Plex app which is £3.10

Myihome looks interesting, I downloaded it but so I have not got it working, that'll be me a Linux noooooooooooob

Andy