Media Center IV

Now that the media center is working perfectly we can't resist fiddling about. A new barebones SFF (small form factor) dell gx 280 came our way from Vfxweb, (where i've happily shopped for many years). Socket 775, DDR2, pci-e, sata, pci and lots of USB ports in mint condition for about $30. From the parts box we pull out a P4 2.80 ghz, a 40 gig sata drive, and 1.2 gig of ram and a Nvidia quadro 290 video card which gets converted to a low-profile bracket. We try a 3.4 Ghz P4 but the fans immediately go into full speed mode - need to get a new tube of thermal paste . Boot up with XBMC live cd via an external USB optical drive and it runs perfectly.

I set up some of the shared libraries from Windows 7, no need to set it against the media server yet. The quality of the picture is excellent.

If i run ethernet to the front living room the ancient Zenith 29" professional TV (with VGA input!) could make itself useful when analog broadcast television finally dies. Or i could put in a wireless card, but the problem there is making sure it works with Linux, wireless chip vendors are very bad when it comes to linux support. I am also not so sure about overloading the 3 wireless routers with video traffic. Best to stick to wired, that location used to have cat 5 wire a dozen years ago when DVD players cost $1000 and a giant tower PC with a DVD-ROM and IR keyboard/mouse fed video to the new Zenith 29" TV.

The attraction of putting a media center client there is the display is perfectly orientated to the couch, and high usability of the HCI (human couch interface) is our design goal. A horizontal position is considered preferable to a vertical one in HCI circles.

However, the windows remote did not get detected when i plugged it in. I know it was setup ok when i last used it with the acer revo so will have to look up my notes how i configured the item. When i press the remote the IR lights up and it works fine plugged into a windows 7 box so it is a driver issue - maybe i need to have it plugged in when the system boots.

The only problem is that the install option from the live CD seems to fail with the video display not working. Since this disk is from 2010's project i should download a more recent copy.

I'll do it tomorrow...