Does open source power your entertainment media center?

No readers like this yet.
No readers like this yet.
open source button on keyboard

Opensource.com

Open source media center solutions have really taken off in the past few years, and there are now many more approaches to using both open source software and open hardware to power entertainment on your television. If you're consuming media with the help of open source, we're curious: how are you doing it? Are you running Kodi (formerly XBMC), MythTV, MediaPortal, or something similar on a custom-built machine? Or are you going slim and using a specialized Linux build on top of the Raspberry Pi? Or are you doing something else entirely?

So let us know, readers, what open source solution do you use to help power your entertainment media center?

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
233 votes tallied
I use a Raspberry Pi, running something open on top
37% (87 votes)
I use XBMC (Kodi) or similar, on a proprietary device
27% (62 votes)
I have a DIY machine, running open source software
22% (51 votes)
I got MatchStick by Mozilla
3% (6 votes)
Other (tell us in the comments)
12% (27 votes)

Results

Tags

Comments

17 Comments

I use Plex Media Server running on Fedora 21.

I use a Minix box (Android on a RockChip board) http://linux-rockchip.info/mw/index.php?title=Main_Page / http://www.minix.com.hk/

I'm old fashioned. Regular old laptop running Fedora + VGA cable + audio cable.

actually no for one reason, anydvd.
no opensource equivalent.
so win7 ultimate box running Media Portal, Plex, playon-playlater, and Serviio

Running Kodibuntu on a slimline custom PC.

MYTHBUNTU.... Its the Best!

MYTHBUNTU.... Its the Best!

I'm just using a low-powered Acer laptop running Linux Mint and using Firefox to access the streaming channels. I had to use the latest version of Flash for windows to get some channels to work. Flash loaded and runs under Wine just fine - amazing.

I have a chromecast stick plugged into my TV and it's open source... I am pretty sure my TV and bluray player have open source on them too, but haven't verified.

I'm running Plex on a CentOS server and have several LInux based clients, including laptops, tablets, Rokus and a smart tv. All of the clients use Linux or Android.

Mythdora ...

mythtv on ubuntu

I use Plex Media Server running on Fedora 20.

Kodi on Raspberry Pi. Works great!

Kodibuntu running on an old Dell intel dual core machine with an Nvidia GT 210 card.
next project is to put that machine into a less conspicuous case with an LCD in the DVD drive bay.

all content is pulled across a gigabit network connection from my home built 12TB NAS (running CentOS with ZFS)

At home I have an amazing Intel NUC mini PC running Fedora. VLC serves as video player for local media, and nowadays Netflix works very well with Google Chrome browser.

The NUC is connected to a 24" monitor for normal usage and to a 55" TV for movie watching - both via HDMI. My NUC came with Intel i3 4010U CPU running at 1.7GHz. I also installed 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD disk, which were not included in the package.

Fedora can also share the local media via DLNA to other televisions in the house, no need for separate media server anymore.

At work I run... well you can guess. :)

Hardware: Sapphire Pure White E350 Amd Dual Core / 8GB Ram (Way too much in my opinion) in Mini-ITX Case / Sony Home entertainment center "Optical" HD Audio / HDMI to 55" LED LCD.
Software: [Stable] OpenELEC 5.0.4 (x86_64) PXE Boot from Debian Linux server.

What surprises me is there is not much users making use of OpenElec?
OpenElec since I have discovered it, have had the advantage in performance and compatibility with any hardware. It's small, 100mb or less and installs in 1-2 minutes, depending on your src and dst. OpenElec libs or add-ons are compatible with the full range of Kodi (XBMC). The Microsoft Remote and or Xbox remote worked without any issues.

Enough about OpenElec, Since using this type of setup for me media center needs, I have not turned to any other distro or all-in-one solutions. This system runs until you want to upgrade it, I ran OpenElec 0.9 for years before upgrading and still there was no format I could not play, it just blew me away. No crashes, no funny stuff, just working every time.

Interesting seeing all the other different uses and I acknowledge that there are a variety of needs for each user and that is why there are so many in use.