<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt"><div>Thanks Chris. What OS and Multi Media applications do you use. Do you; access the Internet, burn media (such as TV shows) to DVD, rip to MP3, view photo's, edit home video, etc with this device? Do you use a wireless network connection and if so what brand of card/USB (I assume it's USB). </div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><hr size="1">From: Chris Debenham <chris@adebenham.com> To: bryn mitchell <bryn@mitchells.id.au> Cc: ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com Sent: Sun, 18 April, 2010 6:20:55 PM Subject: Re: media centre build I use an ASRock ION 330 for media centre duties (replacing a mac mini) Costs about $350 - just add disk and a usb tuner or two and you have a decent machine capable of playing High Def media via HDMI (I can play 1080p without too much issue - generally about 40% cpu usage when playing HD stuff - less for over-the-air HD stuff) It only takes one internal disk, but add an external drive if you need more space. On 18 April 2010 06:24, bryn mitchell <<a ymailto="mailto:bryn_mitchell@yahoo.com.au" href="mailto:bryn_mitchell@yahoo.com.au">bryn_mitchell@yahoo.com.au</a>> wrote: > > I am going to get / build a media centre. I could buy a MAC Mini which seems > just about ready to go out of the box or I could go thru the project of a > Linux equivalent. > I want to access the net, rip and play (thru a sound system) music, record > and replay digital TV, play DVD's / Blue Ray, etc thru a Panasonic Viera > wide screen plasma. > This is something I would be happy to spend a couple of weeks on and off to > complete but not a couple of months to get right. It also needs to work > right every time or it will fall flat with the missus and kids. > I have done some reading about Myth TV and it's variants and other > applications such as Boxee and XBMC but my real sticking point is hardware. > I got a quote from a local shop to build a box that would suit Win 7 and I > assume that would also be adequate for a Linux equivalent but the cost was > about $2500, about $1000 more expensive than a MAC Mini solution. For me, > the real seller of a Linux system would be to do it on the cheap but as I > said before I don't want to spend all my time (I am time poor) buying > hardware and then buying more hardware because it doesn't work or endlessly > trouble shooting a dodgy set up. > Ideally I think my best scenario would be to buy a used PC and just add > appropriate hardware such as a tuner card, graphics card etc but I don't > know what to buy (or for that matter where to buy). Also fan noise etc is > any issue I believe. > Interested in any opinions, > > Regards. > B. Mitchell > > -- > ubuntu-au mailing list > <a ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com" href="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com</a> > <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au</a> > > -- ubuntu-au mailing list <a ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com" href="mailto:ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-au@lists.ubuntu.com</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au" target="_blank">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-au</a> </div></div> </div>  </body></html>