next »

[eden]

This weekend I used yum to install MediaTomb http://mediatomb.cc/ and uShare http://ushare.geexbox.org/.  MediaTomb was something like 19MB along with 73MB for VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-fedora.html. uShare was like 56KB.  MediaTomb can transcode files so unsupported formats play on things like Playstation 3s and Xboxes.  uShare does not transcode.  MediaTomb was a bit challenging for me to configure, uShare was easy. 

I used a Zowii ethernet to usb adapter and cabled my connections between the XO, the router, and a Playstation 3 because I tried it over wifi and the picture on the TV was blocky and choppy.  With MediaTomb I could play almost any format but the quality of the image depended on whether it had to transcode (using vlc).  For example, a flv file played but sounded like the Chipmunks were singing.  I did some searching and didn't quickly find a lot of info on how to adjust that.  And of course, the XO has a 433MHz processor and only 256MB of RAM.  I didn't expect HD quality. 

uShare served up mpg files that I can't even play nicely on the XO itself because they are too big for the onboard video to handle.  The image on the TV from the Playstation 3 was smooth and clear. 

Both media server programs served music as well.

I had the XO connected with a usb cable to an external hard drive.  I had the thought that I could leave the XO on as a home media server/file server because it is low power, noiseless, and doesn't get too hot, and the battery serves as a kind of UPS device in case of power failure.