Media Center with your own hands

Foreword

Once, at a glass of beer, he told a friend about the idea of ​​creating his own media center from junk that he had accumulated at work.
Tasks that should be addressed:

• play any video
• sound 5.1
• silence in the studio
• LAN connection
• download torrents
• controlled by remote control
• sitting on the couch crawling on the internet with a wireless keyboard and mouse
• maintainability

It turned out that he had long wanted to collect such a miracle and is for this an old building from a dead karaoke.


A couple of weeks we met to share experiences.
')
And so, the creation of my friend!
Front view:

View from above:

Back view:

View as a whole:

Iron

• Core2Duo 2.4 / 2GB
• MCI MS-7529
• ATI RADEON HD4350
• WD3200AAJS
• self-made IR receiver for COM port
• part of the keyboard keys is displayed on the front panel

Soft

1. Windows xp
2. K-Lite Codec Pack
3. xbmc
4. IRLink

That's basically it.

Positive traits:

1. high download speed
2. reads almost everything
3. convenient and quick to set up
4. in case of failure of any part, it is easy to replace without napilling
5. IRLink gives you a good opportunity to control the system without a keyboard
6. Setup does not require deep knowledge of the system

Negative:

1. startup noise
2. 1080p movies slow down, only one core is loaded in the task manager
3. For the sake of speed, they sacrificed antivirus, in consequence of which there is no torrent rocking and the browser only IE6

In the case of antivirus, according to the author of the piece of iron, he does not need it. It is easier for him to connect a portable hard drive and roll up the image again.

The second option, mine due to the lack of a successful case, had to be plugged into the old system unit.

Front view:

Iron

• P4 3200 / 2Gb
• asus
• ASUS EN210 SILENT / DI / 512MD2 / LP (RTL) + DVI + HDMI <GeForce 210>
• BP noname, 120 mm
• AVerTV Studio 307
• Cooler for Zalman processor "CNPS7500-Cu LED"
• additional network, to work in router mode

Soft

• mythubuntu 10.04 up to ubuntu
• Tweakubuntu
• VDPAU support from PPA
• Transmission 2.01 of PPA
• xbmc from PPA
• Samba
• nfs
• Firefox 3.6.6
• Lirc
• openvpn
• apache2 + drupal

Almost everything is installed without unnecessary gestures. Typical set for a home computer, only xbmc is added to autorun.

Happened:

• work 24/7/365
• real ip allows you to safely get into the home grid via ssh or openVPN
• I download torrents and manage downloads via the Web or GUI remotely, slightly adjusting the config
• I distribute downloaded in LAN via smb
• for me nfs + gigabit switch, it is very convenient to mount to any place and quick access to the remote screw
• There are no problems with antivirus, viruses, everything works quite quickly
• VDPAU allows you to view 1080p without loading the processor
• remote mce hooks up in xbmc immediately, just stuck and use
• maintainability, you can change any item

In the plans:

• understand mythtv to use AVerTV Studio 307 and record TV programs
• stuff into a “convenient” case or move out of the room / hall
• assemble a self-made IR receiver and program the remote from a different BBK player DK929s
• buy tv 42 "

The server was very quiet. There are only two coolers in the case, they work at low revs.
While standing in the room, only a faint, barely noticeable rustling of the power supply is heard. If I do not find the case, then I will remove it behind the wall in the closet. And to the TV I will only bring out the wires: usb, mce and the power button.
I still do not see the minuses of such a system, everything is quite harmonious. All of the above is done without in-depth knowledge and reading configs, howto or learning logs. Only minimal experience with Ubuntu is required.

Microsoft MCE Remote

The console a week after the start of operation decided to disconnect. The remote came to life after closing the contacts "+" and "-" in the battery compartment.


If interested, then in the next post I will tell you how to set up your server in steps.