XBMC Right for the job?
#1
Question 
I'm having quite a time thinking of the right questions to ask here so let me just try this:
I want a five room set up, each with its own user experience that consists of archival access at the hub and the ability to search various internet communities for media (and play conveniently). Am I looking at five set top boxes, can we be minimist about all this, is XBMC what I want?

Am currently working with Acer Aspire Revolution.
*why do people seem to prefer linux for this sort of stuff?
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#2
define "ability to search various internet communities for media"
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#3
Predicate Elect Wrote:*why do people seem to prefer linux for this sort of stuff?

For me, it just seems more stable (this may be perceived). It just seems to do what you tell it, and when things go wrong, I'm not trawling through Window after Window simply to find a checkbox that magically became unticked etc...

My Myth boxes (server & clients) have been on and running now for around 2 years - the only time they were rebooted was when we had a powercut - I now have UPS so that won't happen again. I can't imagine a Windows box being able to stay up without trouble for that length of time.

As to your first question, I would say, Yes! XBMC is the right tool for the job - I have a similar setup (3 clients, one Myth backend server, and 1 2tb NAS for films/music/pictures), but am using Myth; the problem with Myth is (for me at least) MythMusic. MythMusic just isn't very good (slaps own head at this understatement), whereas XBMC IS very good when it comes to music.

So...to browse "internet communities for media", although I'm not entirely sure what you mean, I would use XBMC as you could write your own Python scripts to do what you are asking, and that's if one doesn't already exist.

Of course, if you want 5 clients, then the MK1 Xbox is now very cheap, and runs XBMC and seems to do everything that you want from it (apart from LiveTV the last time I tried it - although that was a couple of years ago on an xbox, so it may be useable by now, I simply don't know.)
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#4
There are a few reasons why linux is the most popular option:

1. VDPAU - by dropping in a 512 MB nVidia 8XXX or later (including standard PCI versions), almost any box can decode full HD h.264 video withotu breaking a sweat. This allows for much smaller, low power, processors to be used, hence the popularity of the ION platform (Acer Revo, Asrock ION, Zotac Mag etc).

2. Set top box functionality - with Linux being so modular and configurable, things like XBMC Live or an "XBMCbuntu" provide a seamless set top box experience (XBMC boot slash screen and all). I just put my computer in and out of S3 suspend with the power button on the remote and it give an "always on" experience with very low power consumption in standby.

3. Cost - while as a linux noob, it took some extra time to configure the first machine, there are tone of great tutorials and even install scripts for doing so. When doing a bunch of boxes, the savings of going to a free operating system an be substantial (and that money can go to the XBMC dev team, hopefully). Luckily, Asrock and Zotac are providing bare bones machines without the OS (otherwise, MS still get their $25 or so tacked onto the system cost, regardless of what OS ends up on it).
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#5
I mean some type of browser that will accept an input search (virtual keyboard/whatever) from the remote and toss back giganews, usenext and rapidshare results in a pretty way that can then be selected for play or save and so forth, I want it as a one step process.
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#6
I would suggest searching for plugins / scripts.

Here is one that might be of interest:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=64887

Alternately, there is a webkit based internal web browser being developed by MOTD2K that could potentially be used to browse particular site etc.
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#7
Thanks for the responses, going Linux with Myth on the server and XBMC for the frontends, going to pick up more ram for the hub... I guess lol.

... I c TOS, will post in new thread
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