Media Centre suggestions

phill106

Hi, going to install ubuntu 10.10 on spare laptop and use it permanently connected to tv to play videos etc. Other then the restricted software which i will put on, anything I should definitly put on it?

Vlc to play media
vnc to connect
dyndns so i can connect from outside (once i have it researched)
torrent program to download my iso's...
anything else I am missing?

wobbles-grogan

You could try writing a little application so you can control what you want to play from your smart phone? :-)

But other than that, its sounds complete enough to me! I've been researching media center's for a while and im torn between buying one or using a linux box to do it. Di you do any research on buying a pre-made one at all?

docentore

have you tried XBMC instead of VLC? there is XBMC live distro based on Ubuntu

phill106

No, while i can see the attraction, I couldnt justify the price. The laptop was free as it had a broken screen acer 5720z
All i had to do was bang a large harddrive in it and i was sorted

phill106

docentore wrote: »

have you tried XBMC instead of VLC? there is XBMC live distro based on Ubuntu

Thanks, ill try that too!

Stuxnet

if your hooking up to tv give Element OS a whirl, its based on Ubuntu, with all the codecs etc you'll need, and a 10 foot interface, vlc and xbmc all included, much better option, if your not gonna use laptop as a full time laptop
and can be controlled from an android phone as mentioned above !!

http://www.elementmypc.com/main/index.php

phill106

Ok, its all up and running. Not sure if the dyndns is working, will check that later. xbmc looks nice, running it now, thanks!
Regarding vnc though, I think im missing something basic. I can connect in from internal network fine.
On the modem i have nat setup as following

192.168.1.2 is the internal ip address of the computer i wish to connect to. Putting in the external ip address of my network into vnc and trying to connect fails. What obvious point am i missing
thanks

ronkmonster

phill106 wrote: »

Ok, its all up and running. Not sure if the dyndns is working, will check that later. xbmc looks nice, running it now, thanks!
Regarding vnc though, I think im missing something basic. I can connect in from internal network fine.
On the modem i have nat setup as following

192.168.1.2 is the internal ip address of the computer i wish to connect to. Putting in the external ip address of my network into vnc and trying to connect fails. What obvious point am i missing
thanks

Firewall on server? Can you connect with local ip address?

On some hardware you can't access your own external IP from your own network. You might need someone outside to test it

phill106

ronkmonster wrote: »

Firewall on server? Can you connect with local ip address?

On some hardware you can't access your own external IP from your own network. You might need someone outside to test it

I have now disabled ufw which is apparently the default firewall.
I can indeed connect locally using 192.168.1.2

ronkmonster

If you still cannot connect with external ip, you'll need to test with another internet connection. is there a gui on the server with a web browser?
You could try this http://canyouseeme.org/ from it with one of those ports.

phill106

Others can access your computer using the address 109.xxx.xxx.xxx or media.local.
Looks like it should be accesible?
Checked from another connection. still fails.

ronkmonster

It might be that you need to use another connection to test it.

phill106

ronkmonster wrote: »

It might be that you need to use another connection to test it.

Tried it from elsewhere, no good. Confirmed ip before i did it, as it has changed since then. Takes about 20 seconds to fail