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Hi Ian,

Fantastic tutorial! I can't wait to build mine. I have a few very rudimentary questions before I start, though. I have also read about VortexBox, XBMC, MythTV, and Squeezebox. Will your media server do everything those offer to do, or is it compatible? In other words, do I need to get one or more of those in addition to building this NAS? I'm not new to Linux, but I'm new to NAS and the terms "backend," "frontend," etc. Do you configure your NAS as both frontend and backend? Does it automatically rip media? Can your system provide a nice menu on network-aware TVs?

My goal is to build a media server that can serve up all my music and video to any computer and TV in the house. I have two network-aware LG flat screen TVs and three computers. This will include ripping the CDs and DVDs.

BTW, my main desktop is Linux Mint Debian, running on a ThinkPad Edge E420s (quad Intel i5-2410M CPU) with 8GB RAM, and I dual-boot Windows 7 Professional. I plan to make this server accessible from both the Linux and Windows systems for flexibility.

Thanks for providing such great information.

Hi there,

My guide focuses mainly on building a headless server (ie. the backend). It has no pretty front-end, and no keyboard or mouse attached, the idea being that you can hide the server away from your "entertainment area" and use various "clients" (front-ends) to interact with it over your network. These front-ends can be anything from a web browser on another computer to something like a media streamer which uses a front-end built into the streamer. So, taking your Squeezebox for example, you could use a smartphone, a squeezebox controller or a web browser as the front-end to control your music stored on your server.

It's obviously possible to install pretty front-ends on the server and control your server directly. This would necessitate having a screen, keyboard and possibly a mouse attached to it.

It is also possible to rip CDs directly on it although the best ripping programs tend to be windows-based and so you'd probably need to run a copy of Windows "inside" the server (as a virtual instance). I rip my media using my desktop computer and then copy the file(s) over to my server. Once there they are then available to my various clients.

Is this helping?

There are a couple of threads on this forum that you might wish to have a read through. Search the forum for "xmbc" and have a read.

Basically, most things are possible, it's just a case of deciding your ideal setup and then taking it from there.

I'm obviously happy to help where I can although after reading this you might be going back to the drawing board.

In terms of your network-aware TVs, these tend to have their own front-ends built in and "simply" pull content from any storage device on your network, such as a headless server/NAS or a desktop/laptop computer. When I say "simply" I mean "with a lot of head-scratching and false starts" because network-aware TVs tend to support a very limited set of codecs/file formats and so you might end up ripping the same media in several different ways inorder to get each of your TVs to play them.

Ian.

Very helpful. I'll use your guide to build the back-end, and will research the XBMC and other threads as you suggest. The only reason I need a GUI is for the TVs and my wife's (Windows) computer. I'm comfortable with the terminal. Thanks again!

No problem.

The TVs come with their own front-ends if you want to play music, videos or view photos. If you want to use an Internet Browser or write emails and the like using your TV then you'll need some sort of thin client attached. If you want to go there I may be able to give you some pointers as to how to achieve it.

Not sure why your wife would need a front-end to the server on her computer. Could you give me an example?

Ian.

Just that she likes nice menus to point and click. Maybe PuTTy and VNC will do the trick, as long as I can create an icon for her to just click on.

Hi, yes, VNC will do that in as much as it'll allow her to double-click on an icon on her windows machine and "remote desktop" onto the server. Once there she will see a nice gnome desktop (or whatever gui you install). What she then does from there onwards tho is another matter

I didnt want to create new thread found this tread for newbies so jumped to it.
I am very new to concept of media center. Basically I Want to build cost effective home enterainment solution. Like to create Dlink-Boxee kind of device from my unused HP laptop.
Following is the config.
– Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T5600(1.83GHz/2MB L2Cache)
– 128MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7200
– 2GB DDR2 System Memory.
– Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
– No tv tuner card
– two 500GB WD external drives(USB2.0) and 80 GB HDD.

What I want from this machine is to directly connect it to TV(using HDMI) and
1) It should be able to view video(most of the formats) in the external drives and mapped network drives (wifi).
2) Able to browse youtube video using remote ( while sitting on sofa viewing it on HD TV samsung ua40d5000). I need to procure a remote device.( suggestions needed)
3) If required able to surf internet, so as to see other websites offering HD Media. ( using remote in full HD TV).
4) Optional: to record the TV programs( is it possible to record programs by skipping ads?) play it later.

I am not sure how to proceed. Someone please guide me how to proceed.(I know very less about linux)

regards, Degree

Hi there Degree and welcome to the forums

OK, your ideas sound sensible and possible, although I'm not sure how you'd record TV Shows and automatically remove the ads without having a tuner card installed in your laptop. You'd probably have to buy yourself a USB tuner or somesuch.

I've never really used a computer attached directly to a TV so don't have any recommendations on remote controls I'm afraid.

What operating system do you have installed on your laptop currently?

Ian.

Thank Ian,
Yes I need to install separate TV tuner card. ( but currently recording the TV program is optional for me but other HD media and web browsing is non optional)
I am having XP on my laptop but thinking of changing it to linux ( mythbuntu as it is free).

There are already products in market ( WD Live plus) , Dlink Boxee and google TV.(every product has got limitations)
But I have got my laptop which has better/similar hardware than all these machines. I read about mythbuntu so came to know it could be used.
Has anyone configured his machine using Mythbuntu, and added remote/blue tooth/smart phone device to control your laptop?
If yes is it possible to browse web using it?

Hi degree.

Sorry Ian for jumping in but:

One solution would be to install mythbuntu and run XBMC, XBMC is awesome as a media centre PC the only draw back is it needs decent graphics for the frontend to run smoothly with HD content.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=MythTV

Hope this helps...

Good luck!!!

Andy