[mythtv-users] OT: I'm streaming Netflix on my Linux box

[jedi]

On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 10:57:43AM -0500, Willy Boyd wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 9:54 PM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 09:01:30PM -0400, Matt Emmott wrote:
> > > On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 6:33 PM, jedi <jedi at mishnet.org> wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > XBMC, in my opinion, is a much better front end for audio & video
> > than
> > > > Myth.
> > > > > The interface and usability are slicker and more usable than
> > mythmusic
> > > > and
> > > > > mythvideo as far as I'm concerned. But yes, it does not add much more
> > in
> > > > the
> > > >
> > > >     Well, how exactly?
> > > >
> > > >    We can corner some of the devs in a room and not let them leave
> > > > until they make some improvements... '-)
> > > >
> > >
> > > First let me say that I'm in no way poo-pooing on any piece of Myth or
> > its
> > > developers. The programmers have done a fantastic job with this product
> > and
> > > I don't pretend to know the first thing about programming. Not to mention
> > > they do it for no money and the only thing I've ever put money towards
> > other
> > > than hardware is a Schedules Direct subscription, andhave received a
> > > wonderful product in return.
> > >
> > > That being said, the look, feel and general UI of Mythmusic & Mythdvd are
> > > just terrible. XBMC looks nice, is very snappy and is (for the most part)
> > > pretty intuitive. It's still buggy, sure, but for the most part will
> > throw
> > > any video format thrown at it, be it an ISO of a DVD, Xvid / Flash / Mkv
> > /
> > > Quicktime / etc. On the audio side it plays all the happy formats you'd
> > > expect, offers a library option to index all your songs, will read iTunes
> > > DAAP data and playlists, and has some pretty nice fullscreen
> > visualizations.
> > > Oh, and it downloads the album art / DVD covers for all your media on the
> > > fly without need for a third-party scraper.
> >
> >     Beyond the just-in-time metadata management, I am not sure you've
> > identified anything beyond good looks that XBMC that MythVideo and
> > MythMusic doesn't already do.
> >
> 
> 
> First let me say, like the other poster, I have utmost respect for the
> MythTV devs and hands-down, the PVR functionality of Myth is top-notch and
> have served me extremely well for quite a few years.  I don't remember the
> first version I hopped on Myth, but numbers like 0.13 or 0.15 sound familiar
> (??)
> 
> But I also discovered XBMC just recently, and it has now completely replaced
> all but the PVR functionality on my mythbox.  I removed the menu entries for
> MythVideo, MythMusic, the optical dvd/cd entries, etc.  XBMC runs freakin'
> circles around Myth in that department.  I really don't want to offend but
> it is true.
> 
> And it's frustrating when some want to diminish improvements in an interface
> to just "looking pretty".

    Depending on how things are stated, that's any easy mistake to make.

> 
> The media "areas" in XBMC are built around sources.  It's quite easy and
> intuitive to "add a source" for music or videos right from the GUI.  That
> sound can not only be a local directory, but a SMB share, UPnP server,
> Shoutcast in the case of audio, and I think there are others.  I'm a pretty
> adept linux guy so all my network shares are defined in fstab, but this
> makes it so much easier for others to use.

    This is a good bit of information. It might plant the kernel of an 
idea in the right minds.


> 
> A source can also be a plugin that serves up content, and one of the default
> plugins that came with the OSX version of XBMC is one that lists Apple Movie
> Trailers, complete with all the metadata.  I promptly copied the plugin over
> the the linux boxin the livingroom and it works like a dream there, too.  (I
> can't honestly think of why it's included in one platform version and not
> all?).
> 
> Yeah I know about Mythstream and I've played with it.. played with options
> to do some of the above over the years... but it all feels like a big kludge
> compared to XBMC.
> 
> Music stays playing throughout the entire interface, with a really nice
> overlay dialog that shows cover art
> and current track, next track, etc.  Myth only recently started supporting
> this; I think the XBMC execution is better but at the least they're on par
> there.  As for video playing, you can also exit out to top-level menus and
> this overlay shows a miniture video player with the video playing.  Kind of
> like the Program Guide does in Myth, but again throughout the interface and
> for any video playing session (TMK).
> 
> I, like many others, have had no shortage of dvd viewing problems with
> MythVideo, and like many others, this is frustrating because I took out my

    Well, a lot of us quickly punt the internal player. You'll get no
argument there. I use xine and some extra bash mojo to deal with my
overstuffed virtual jukebox.

> real dvd player a long while ago to rely on this one "mythical convergence
> box" to do it all for me.  First I moved to a xml menu item for launching
> xine, and now I've thrown several movies at XBMC so far with not a single
> issue.  We'll see if this remains the case.  (Anyone know of specific movies
> that still give Myth the fits, speak up!  I'd love a good comparison test).

     I gave up on physical media as soon as I deployed MythTV, so that
has always been considerably less of an issue for me. Although, I have
had very few problems in general with DVD's. They usually come down to
poor build quality that causes problems across the board and the 
occasional arcos issue.

[deletia]

     Fresh ideas (with details) are always welcome.