This is a problem suffered by a 0.001% geek, so turn away if you don’t care about these things.
A year ago, I had a very simple setup:
Linux File server -----Xbox Media Center (a hacked xbox) ----- TV
But it wasn’t HD and I wanted something better, so in November, I bought an Apple TV.
So now I have to have:
Fileserver ---- (Something that plays iTunes that’s always on) + Something that converts to h.264 + TV to get a flat list of all the movies, and no way to seperate out the kid stuff from the adult stuff.
Just after that, the Xbox added Divx/XviD support(!), I look under the xmas tree at that white and green box and thing it could be my solution.
Okay, three days after xmas and some heavy hacking later, i’ve got:
linux file server - small spare computer with Windows XP media center edition - MCE SP2 Rollup - Windows Media 11 - Zune Player - Xbox 360
And my wimpy little 1.2 Ghz Duron just can’t keep up with Microsoft’s needs.
So I put iTunes on it and that kinda works, but I’m back to figuring out how to batch convert a TON of video…through a Duron…to get a flat list of movies.
The file server has some oomph, but I don’t want to install a Microsoft OS on it for this one supid need, and I couldn’t get OSx86 to see the boot device.
So. Lots of AVI/Divx/h.264 files, two video endpoints, and no joy.
I live out of a Mac laptop and take it with me…getting the Apple TV to stream from it means: pull out laptop, get apple TV to stream from laptop, WAIT 10 minutes while they negotiate my media library…
Any clues how to (preferably) get back to what I had with the XBMC with HD?