UI Recommendations for Media Center-Type Nano-ITX

[kfoss]

Good day all,

 

I've recently put together my most recent pet project which is a Nano-ITX computer complete with WiFi and TV tuner. My intent was to have this little computer attached to our second LCD TV in the rec room to allow guests and family at Xmas to surf, watch TV, watch movies, etc.

 

I've installed Mandriva 2010.0 and this works well running KDE even on the Via C7 1.5GHz CPU. I've given some thought and have tried Enlightenment E17 as it claims to be relatively configurable.

 

My goal is to have a UI that allows people to complete the above mentionned tasks without needing to feel confused over learning a new OS. I've noted some installable applications/UIs such as Moblin which is in the right category. However, Moblin 2.0 is really slow and almost impossible to use.

 

I prefer to use something that runs on top of Mandriva 2010, and not a brand new OS. The TV tuner and WiFi both need specifically compiled drivers and I don't want to mess with some optimized distro with no ability to build from scratch.

 

Any recommendations?

[Artificial Intelligence]

Try XMBC. It's SDL based and can run on every OSs

 

http://xbmc.org/

 

I can recommend this theme for it: http://xbmc.org/skins/aeon/

Note that mouse is disable in it, so it goes through remote control or keyboard.

Edited November 27, 2010 by Artificial Intelligence

[kfoss]

AI,

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try, though I've dismissed it in the past since XBMC doesn't really support Via/S3 graphics.

[Artificial Intelligence]

Canola Media Center: http://www.techdrivein.com/2010/07/canola-media-center-works-surprisingly.html

 

Or check the list of media centers: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/using-your-linux-computer-as-a-media-center-part-1/

Though it's 2 years old.

Edited November 30, 2010 by Artificial Intelligence

[paul]

I'm a big fan of XBMC .. I have one in my lounge .. it's awesome :)

[ianw1974]

It would be OK if it worked. Just installed it on my system, but every AVI just flashes black and blue, sound is OK though. No idea how to fix it :/

 

EDIT:

 

never mind, render method to basic fixed it :)

[kfoss]

Just burned the XBMC Live ISO. Will try it when I get home after work.

[kfoss]

Just burned the XBMC Live ISO. Will try it when I get home after work.