Arch Linux

tladuke

Member

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 176

brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

I'm sick of XBMC, Boxee, etc.

By media center I mean file browser and mplayer full screen.

Here's what I'm looking for:
I have a keyboard attached to the HTPC right now, but I need an easier, prettier way for other people in the house to start videos.( They can't be typing like cd /videos;  mplayer legal_video.mkv; I don't want the cat to walk across the keyboard and delete /root or something either. ) I just want to be able to use the arrow keys to browse to a file and then hit enter and see fullscreen video. Eventually I'll turn bluetooth or LIRC back on and use a wiimote or apple remote. I can do all maintenance through ssh.

What should I use for a window manager / desktop environment ? Do I need one? I guess ability to show a background picture is nice. I guess being able to switch to another app for music might be nice. Openbox?

What should I use for a terminal (or gui) file browser, that will not be able to edit anything and will launch mplayer. And can be blown up on a  TV and not look crappy?

For playing videos, mplayer seems to use a little less CPU than VLC (both with vdpau) which is nice. I think I like it better anyways. VLC has a built in ncurses browser, but it's pretty awkward.

there's mplayerstart in aur which is supposed to set all the settings you need for you and gives you resume.

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,734

Website

Re: brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

Using mythvideo in community/mythtv

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AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

DmA

Member

Registered: 2011-08-26

Posts: 5

Re: brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

Cross-post? https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=106245

Simsor

Member

Registered: 2012-08-13

Posts: 3

Re: brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

Hello,

I just wanted to say that I've thrown together a little NCurses-based movies manager: https://github.com/simsor/moviesmanager-curses
It's not really advanced yet, but it does the job,  let me know what you think :-)

ronnylov

Member

Registered: 2010-12-21

Posts: 65

Re: brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

This might be what you look for: http://mymediasystem.org/
It is in AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=15712

I have not tried it myself but it looks like a nice light setup that you can expand according to your needs.

tladuke

Member

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 176

Re: brainstorm an Arch-ish media center

Tried to yaourt in mms but it didn't compile.
I feel like I should just be able to configure openbox and a couple other things and get what I want. Haven't messed with it in a while. Will look in to simsor's too...