Linux Media Centre Tips

As you may be aware, I created a Linux Media Centre recently using a retired PC and Linux/XBMC.

Steps:
1. Installed Mandriva

Mandriva is my personal favourite Linux version. As I had a machine with low memory, a reasonable swap partition was necessary.

There were some headaches regarding a wireless card and some other stuff that I related previously.

2. Added the PLF repositories

So I can actually play most formats :) http://plf.zarb.org/

The easiest way to do this is via easy.urpmi: http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/

3. Messed around for ages

XBMC wasn't in the default repository for Mandriva 2010.0, so I spent a fair bit of time seeing if there was an easier repo alternative. I spend a fair bit of time with Banshee for music and Xine for video, but this was hardly a proper lounge-room/party experience.

4. Installed XMBC

Since XMBC wasn't in the main repos, I installed it using the following:

sudo urpmi --searchmedia Backports xbmc

Info on all distro installation methods can be found here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Installing_XBMC_for_Linux

Then I set up auto-login and changed the default window manager to XBMC and...


5. Started using XBMC

XBMC is a really wonderful media centre. After setting up media locations I tested everything out and got great playback on music, video and DVDs. There is also a web interface for control, or an Android App.

My phone has become my remote control :)

6. Added content

I wanted the linux media centre to be a storage and playback hub for digital content, including usage as a video jukebox for parties. So I downloaded a bunch of youtube clips with the following method. Note that this was done on a different machine, then uploaded to the media centre over samba.

* Downloaded clips with the Firefox add-on DownloadHelper. The videos were all in .flv format - I didn't use DownloadHelper for conversion as I have had mixed results with this before.
* Converted all the videos to xvid .avi files using WinFF. This is a cross-platform GUI for ffmpeg and it makes conversion really easy. To keep the display size consistent and frame-rates high, I added an 800x600 16:9 format in the advanced options before starting.
*Uploaded the files using Samba. Samba is a network share server for Linux that interopes with Windows easily. It is probably easiest to set up by going into the Mandriva Configure panel and then Network Sharing. if you share the folder you have selected for videos in XBMC, any videos you upload to the server will be ready for you to watch in XBMC.

I have since done a bit of work on the lounge room and hope to upload some video shortly. It includes multiple screens, some lightwork and decor, and what I am cheekily refering to as a Distributed Speaker System.