Contrary to me my friend wanted to use Windows at the base of his HTPC. Essentially this left us with two options: The open source MediaPortal or Vistas Media Center. While undisputedly having fewer features the latter promised to be simpler to set up, use and maintain. One of the features I love about MythTV is that you can always …
Hardware
CPU Most if not all processors these days are fast enough to decode HD videos and do some sharpening if supported by a recent GPU. Running at least one virtual machine adds a bit to the envelope. Also the machine was to be able to rip and re encode Bluray titles along the way. Getting a processor that is clocked …
Planning a Windows HTPC
When speaking of HTPCs everyone wants the same. Powerful, easy, stable and foremost quiet. My friend Peder Pfister and I set out to accomplish this for his needs. You can see below what those were. Prerequisites already in place were the following components: speakers: Teufel Theater 5 THX Select 5.1 AV receiver: Pioneer AV Receiver VSX-AX4ASi projector: Sanyo PLV-Z5 1280x720p …
Backup with BackupPC
A backup only makes sense if it is done automatically and easy to use. Otherwise one usually postpones it or forgets it at all or restores are nearly impossible. For Linux in particular, there are tons of free backup solutions. Some simple tools that are powerful yet not so simple to use on their own like tar or monsters like …
Linux and Bluray
I bought myself a Playstation to watch Bluray movies. But every once in a while I thought it would be nice to be able to make backups and put them in the MythVideo library just like DVDs. Due to AACS present on Bluray discs this was a bit complicated. However I found a solution that seems reasonable for me and …