How To – Extending XBMC Above And Beyond

In a previous post, I revisited using Ubuntu 12.04 and Linux in general as an HTPC.  While there were some advanced steps I took, I asked myself, can this be easier?  Can all of what I want fall under a unified interface?  Having toyed with the OUYA console a fair bit, I remembered Advanced Launcher, which is coincidently, also available for XBMC.  What this turned into, was a simple way to launch any web link to a video stream or Linux program.  This enabled me to use XBMC entirely as an HTPC solution without a need to escape XBMC itself.  Read on for me!

How-To: Setting Up Google’s Chromecast Under Linux

Finally received my Google Chromecast media steamer.  What a nifty little device for 35 dollars.  Simple easy installation right?  Of course!  But…not supported for Linux you say?  Bah…We’ll see about that.

Media Center Awesome-Sauce: Plex Media Center

http://www.plexapp.com/

I recently came back to this software after many years of being on XBMC and moving fully to Linux, and I was blow away.  This software is the bee’s knee’s, the macaroni’s elbow, the cream of the crop, the king of Kong.  Plex is a centralized media server that is highly portable, scalable, and reliable.  It will run on almost anything and its transcoding ability is quite literally the best I have come across.  Interested?  Read on for more:

The List: The Top 5 Media Center Programs for Linux (2013)

I thought I would share my thoughts on my exploits with the popular Media Center Solutions for Linux. While none of them are perfect some come very close. Please keep in mind these are my opinions and you do not have to agree with me, but I feel my points are pretty spot on as of 09/13 , the current month and year. Some of the points made are with my personal experience with the program while one is based off a review, as I had trouble installing it. Please feel free to comment or use the “Contact Us” page at the top of the site.  I would LOVE to hear any other suggestions for media center software if you have them.

~Enjoy!

Updated 2013-09-29

30 Days of GNU\Linux: Day 10 – SUCCESS! Plex Media Server FTW

I am ecstatic today.  I have successfully setup Plex Media Server on Linux after a bit of sweat and elbow grease.  Turns out it took not only permission changes, but a carefully made symbolic link.  The full details on how all this was setup, plus and update to the Top 5 Linux Media Servers post will be coming down the pipe tomorrow.  Right now 2 TB of data is being transferred back over to my server drive.  Plex is perfect* at trans-coding (if you allow it to, but tomorrow in my detailed summary, you will see what types of media it prefers and just what quirks to look out for.

I am head over heals happy with this.  What this means is with a Roku box and a home computer running Plex Media Server (as a backend), the Roku is the 1 stop shop for all media center.  Too bad XBMC never made a Roku app, would have loved that.  The Roku is truly the one stop shop, once you get the right apps on it.

Till tomorrow!

-Professor