Ubuntu Installation :: Low-specs Media Center .. WM To Use?
Jun 9, 2010
I've been thinking of turning my old computer into a media center for a while now (it was running Ubuntu Server 9.10). I recently bought a new 23inch screen so.. out with the server, in with the media center! (currently Xubuntu but running on LXDE as it's a lot lighter) My problem: The computer barely manages to play 720p videos on XBMC (on ..... or totem/vlc it's just impossible with breaks, lag and constant freezes).. I used the debug function of XBMC and guess what.. a 720p movie takes my cpu to a constant 100% usage!! =X
So here's my question.. what distro or 'buntu flavor would you advise me to use?? I thought about a minimal install but don't want to try it just yet..
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Apr 18, 2011
I have a ViewSonic Windows Media PC. Would it be possible to get Ubuntu on it and get all of the information I need for the drivers that I'll have to somehow install to make it work on Ubuntu? I was going to work on an ancient POS but I can't get it to boot from USB and I have no CD-ROM for it.
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Jul 27, 2010
I've just finished installing the software on the box. I've made it a dual-boot but want to set the default to Windows XP Media Center so my grandson can work with it. I want to change the boot configuration file but the documentation show working with menu.lst file but I can't find it. How do I make the changes without blowing grub out of the water?
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Jan 31, 2010
So I've got old components from my previous computer I'd like to use to build a media center. Here's what I have:
Case
550W PSU
MSI K8NEO 4 Platinum MOBO
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Apr 20, 2011
I'm looking for some advice for setting up a media center, which will be hooked up to my flat screen TV. I think I've got most of the technical bits figured out with an Acer with 4 gigs of memory. What I need are some words of wisdom about choices for software and the like:
Is it worth the trouble to install Boxee or XMBC, or to play music and videos using VLC, etc.? I realize I won't be able to stream Netflicks without Boxee, but I haven't decided if that's a breaking point or not. Do I want to connect the computer to the TV screen directly through HDMI, or connect the computer to my receiver, which is already hooked up to the TV? I'm cheap enough to want to take advantage of the receiver, but I'm also wondering if sound quality will be better, since it's connected to my speakers and the TV just has internal speakers. Remote. Do I want to try and figure out how to use one of the several remotes that I currently own, or is it just easier to buy a computer-compatible remote?
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Aug 9, 2010
specs for an old desktop to run ubuntu?
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Jan 1, 2010
I'm trying to put together a home media center from some old hardware I have. I'm looking at running something like Mythbuntu, Freevo, or Boxee. The computers accessing it would be a couple Ubuntu PCs and a Mac. I'm also wondering if there are good class-compliant (that is the term, right?) audio interfaces for multiple outputs.
What I am trying to set up is a media server to store media (mostly mp3s, some movies) that I will access over the network, which is a combination of wireless and wired. I'd like to have controls in each room for what's playing on separate speakers in different rooms, and the volume. It'd be nice to be able to output from my main desktop, also. This will take some time to put together, so I'd like to start with a good foundation. I found this comparison pretty helpful, by the way:[URL]..
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Feb 11, 2010
i am using ubuntu media on a desktop for all of my multimedia needs and i just installed jaunty (alt install) on an old gateway solo laptop(266 mhz and 186mb ram) to use as my controller/remote using desktop sharing, the problem is the laptop can't keep up with the desktop and everything is all jerky (especially watching dvds). So here are the questions, what can i uninstall from the laptop to make performance better and/or is there another option short of buying a wireless keyboard/mouse (I'm poor and use what I have(besides i like having an up-close display for text and stuff)).
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Feb 12, 2010
I'm trying to set up Ubuntu with Boxee and MythTV as a media centre. I'm currently stuck at displaying a picture on my TV screen. I only have an Intel onboard graphics chip, and so I bought a VGA-to-TV box to convert the signal. This is USB powered and has VGA in, S-Video, Component and VGA out. I have it connected to an external monitor by VGA and to the TV by component cable into a SCART adapter (along with a mini-jack to phono cable from the sound card).
I was hoping that the box would handle the settings for the TV screen, but all I'm seeing are flashing lines of colour, so I'm guessing I have to change the settings. Eventually, I want to get the TV to be widescreen, but I'd like it to work first! I have created an xorg.conf file and put in three extra modes.
- first, an 800x600 VGA to PAL TV converter from [URL]... - second and third, two resolutions generated by the calculator, based on the SwitchResX settings for my MacBook to connect to the same TV. Now I'm sure you want to see a whole load of settings from my machine, but sadly I don't know what settings you'll need to see.
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Aug 27, 2010
I am trying to build a media center for music for me and my roommates to use. Basically I want to build a system just for playing music. Idealy (dare i mention itunes in here) I would love a computer just just booted into itunes(orsomething like it (or better) that just was for playing music.
I plan on buying a computer, like a tiny desktop (i dont want to take up a lot of room) with a huge hard drive just for holding music, and needs usb drives/cd drive for loading music onto it (or just a usb drive). Then get a small screen, not huge with a remote that does not run on wife. Also would like a keyboard on the remote if possible.
Anywho whats a good media center, and can I boot just straight into the media center? I would like support for; browse by artist, album and just song name. Also I would like to be able to make playlist within it, and it needs to be able to support a massive amount of songs.
desktop computers to use for this project and remotes that I could use? Also how would you suggest the best way to go about doing this? I would love if it booted straight into the media player. Internet is not a huge deal to me, might connect to internet once just to grab album artwork. So a media player that auto fetches artwork too would also be nice.
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Apr 19, 2011
I have a pretty powerful computer and GPU that I'd like to fully utilize.I've been using Linux for the better part of 10 years and I'd like to know (as I can't think of a way) how I can use a single PC as a desktop AND a media center.My vision would be to essentially have to separate workstations on one PC. My desk monitor will be station one (desktop) and my TV will be station two (media center)... both should work independently of each other as if neither knows the other exists.
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Jun 6, 2011
I want to measure the system load on my Ubuntu media center computer. What commands and utilities are available? I've explored the w, top, iostat, and uptime commands. Anything else I could use?
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Oct 11, 2010
I've been looking around for the past week, but I have yet to find anything yet that provides a media center solution using Ubuntu + Xbox 360, comparable to Windows 7 + Xbox 360.
I want to drop Windows 7 completely on my media PC, and just use Ubuntu (or Linux Mint). I've tried ushare, XBMC, Moovida, and a few other apps. Either they don't support sharing, or it's difficult to configure, or it is a cheap looking solution.
Is there no way to use my Xbox 360 for a smooth media center experience, similar to how it functions as a Media Center Extender for Win7, while replacing Win7 w/ Ubuntu?
I'm even open to commercial Linux solutions, I'm just hoping to be able to drop Win7 if possible..
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Jan 6, 2011
I got it into my head to change the graphics card in my Ubuntu 10.04 media center. I removed my old ATI card and installed a new ASUS ENGT 430. I tried to uninstall the ATI drivers and associated software prior to this but obviously I didn't get it all. When I boot into X it takes me in under low graphics mode. I've tried rebuilding my xorg.conf. I've installed the driver from the ASUS site and nothing.
I decided to swap in my old ATI card and obviously I've not cleared all the ATI artifacts as the low graphics mode that machine first booted into was at the high resolution that I was running previously. I uninstalled all Nvidia software but now I'm not even able to get the old ATI software to work. Jockey sees the drivers after I install them through the Software Center but they're not really working. XBMC won't start for GL reasons.
What do I need to purge all graphics drivers and install the nVidia driver? I've got a feeling if I started from scratch I could get it to work but I seriously don't want to reinstall everything. I've worked hard to get my XBMC config just so and I don't want to lose everything
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Feb 6, 2010
I have recently put Ubuntu on a friend's computer. I can access the windows partition and everything through Ubuntu. When I go to restart, his Windows XP Media Center Edition is in the boot loader's list but when I go to boot into it all I get is a black screen with a flash _ at the top left. It then just continues to sit there. I was wondering if maybe GRUB was looking in the wrong spot for the OS.
Before I installed Linux he was having problems with Windows XP, which is one reason why I switched him to Ubuntu. For some reason his computer was booting his HP Recovery partition instead of his Windows partition on start up. I was hoping by putting Ubuntu on and using GRUB as a boot loader I would be able to load Windows and Ubuntu side by side as it is on my machine. Windows still doesn't work though I hope people can help me out. I know this isn't really an Ubuntu question but I was unsure where to post boot loader questions.
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Dec 10, 2010
I am trying to setup a temporary media center because the one I was using died. The computer I have to work with is a crappy old computer and its only purpose is going to be a middle man between a server I have for movie storage, and my TV. I don't want to spend any money right now because I'm working on building a MythTV system at home, so until then I'm trying to setup this temporary solution. The computer I have to work with is a Dell Optiplex GX150, everything stock.
I'm looking for a distro that is light enough to run on this machine without any problems (about a 1 gighz processor and a 1/2 a gig of ram), can display movies just fine, and must be able to support 1080 resolution. I've tried Mint 10, but that's way too top heavy, as is Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04. I also tried gOS which displayed the resolution just fine, but was WAY too resource intense for this machine... Just clicking on the menu took 5-10 seconds same as with Mint.
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Jul 19, 2010
Has anyone had experience building a dedicated multimedia center? I know Its going to be ubuntu based and probably run xbmc. I've seen a pc case to use but I dont know if the remote control for it can work under ubuntu or any other distro. Has anyone had success making a remote control for an ubuntu based media center work?
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Jan 11, 2011
I have an old Pentium III 600mHz 512mb RAM pc currently running XP & would like to try to resurrect it as a usable pc running Ubuntu or a variant.After trying the main website & despite searching the forums (although not every page of the 3k that turned up), I can't find recommended processor specs anywhere other than Wikipedia.
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Jan 17, 2010
I'm about at wit's end trying to figure out how to get Fedora 10 (can't go upgrade past that version, due to no more support for the integrated Radeon S300 graphics) on my HP Media Center desktop to resume after suspend- or to disable suspend, or anything that will prevent the computer from hanging after a period of inactivity. I have tried various combinations of noapm, noacpi, s4_nohwsig, etc., etc.; nothing helped. Actually, noacpi might have helped, I don't know, because disabling ACPI somehow disables internet as well, and I'm not willing to pay that price.I went into the CMOS RAM setup (both before and after updating the BIOS to the latest version), and the only Power options available were "After AC Power Failure," "WOL in S4," and "XD (Execute Disable)."Does anyone perchance know the magical solution to make the problem go away, aside from reverting to Windows?
P.S. The specs:
Dual-Boot XP / Fedora10 with GRUB bootloader
PentiumD 820(S) DC 2.8 GHz (800 MHz FSB, Socket 775)
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May 23, 2010
i have geforce 8800 gts, ubuntu 10.04 when i don't install nvidia drivers movies plays great ( including HD) but programs (games,media center) does not play well at all choppy when i do install the opposite is correct movies plays choppy but all other progs plays great.
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Feb 24, 2010
When i try to copy files from my samba server (Ubuntu 9.10) to my windows seven media center, the speed is extremely slow. So slow that is better to download 100mb file from the internet, than from my lan. And on my lan, every card and switch is at 1000 mbps speeds on cat5 cables. And from XP or other linux machine
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Mar 21, 2010
I have been having some issues with Ubuntu 9.10 and I think my computer isn't compatible, how can I be sure though?
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Apr 22, 2011
I have seen a bunch of pictures of peoples Desktops, and I notice that a lot of them have the CPU usage and other stuff on the side of the screen. An example is :[URL]
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Apr 3, 2010
Intel Celeron processor 400mhz
96mb ram
ati rage mobility 4mb video card
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Oct 28, 2010
I would like to find out the specs of the computer, however I did build the computer from components myself so I can't google anything to find out specs.
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May 27, 2011
I installed it, and it's not letting me connect to the Internet. I don't really know what specs and that you need to know.
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May 19, 2010
My Friend and I have a similar spec PC apart from mine has 4GB DDR2 his 2GB DDR2 and Mine quad core 2.3Ghz and his Dual core 2.3Ghz.... Both on a fresh 10.04 install with Grub2
Bootchart beats mine by about 10sec why?[Files Attached]
Edit files here: (Attached got resized)
Mine : [URL]
Friend : [URL]
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Mar 29, 2011
What is the recommended system specs in order to be able to run Unity with no problems?
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Oct 24, 2010
I got an old laptop from my brother, it has ubuntu 6 on it right now. The computer is real old, complete with a windows 95 and pentium II sticker on it. I'd like to put a new install on this but first I would like to find out how to check the hardware specs like processor and ram so i can choose what to install. How can i do that?
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May 5, 2010
How can I find the detailed specifications of my hard drive? I installed VMware player and created a Win7 VM guest.Performance is pretty bad.Heard that VMware player is not built for SATA drives, but I don't know what type I haveAm interested in using VirtualBox, because it has support for SATA drives, but, again, I am not sure what type of drive I have. Just need to know the specs on my hard drive so I know what type of VM software to install/run/enjoy
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