XBMC

I planned on using my old PC to run the media center. The PCs specifications are as follows:

  • AMD Athlon X2 4200+
  • 1GB of ram
  • 160GB hard drive
  • ATI Radeon x850xt
  • Disco Case

The first thing I had to do was remove the components from the old Thermaltake case which was completely knackered. I have mounted the board into a ‘Disco’ case that was given to me by a colleague a few years ago. The computer wouldnt boot initially, it just started up the fans. After some messing around I realised one of my sticks of RAM was kaput.

Once finally booted I proceeded to install Ubuntu on the machine. I decided to go for version 9.10 rather than wait for 10.04 because the machine is only being used as a TV-PC and 9.10 is a good OS anyway. Once Ubuntu was installed I got all my updates seen to and then cracked on with installing XBMC. XBMC (Xbox Media Center) is a media center that started as an open source project for Xboxs, the project has now opened up to Mac, Windows and Linux. At first XBMC took some getting used to but once I got used to the navigation and the fact that I could turn librarys on and off I got the hang of it.

I installed Google Chrome on the machine so that the internet could be browsed on the TV. This has worked rather well as WebKit zooms into web pages quite well.