My old Mythtv box died. It had a good run. It was 850mhz Duron with 512megs of PC133 ram. The mainboard is completely fried from the weather. It seems like it is almost impossible to find a motherboard that takes PC133 now. My budget is kind of tight these days. I don't feel like putting down $300 for new ram, cpu, and motherboard. I was wondering is there any media streaming box that will work Linux. I know there are tons out there that will work with Windows box, but I am not seeing anything for Linux. If it can play quicktime video (since most podcasts are apple video format), it would be a plus.

Thanks again.

XBMC

I heard about XBMC for a while. My main issue is XBOX original is becoming over 5 to 7 years old now. Since XBOX is a PC, the physical hardware people are selling as used has aged a lot. I know you can easily pick one up for less than $70. Also, at 733mhz/32meg Intel Celeon has issue handling more larger size video files that have more bitrate. I will look into XBMC in the future again when they finally port everything to Linux.

I hadn't considered (and never tried) HD video on the Xbox. Certainly DVD quality is no problem.

The thing is built like a tank, and on a modded box the hard disk can be replaced. I figure if I only get 12-18 months out of it I am well ahead. It also replaces the CD/DVD player, so you can simplify your home-ent. setup a bit.

I also looked at media players from Netgear, D-link and the like. Perhaps if you can download the user manuals you can figure out what they can do.

I do love XBMC's interface. It is probably the prettiest media center out there. I wish MythTV looked that good. I can't wait for them to port everything to Linux. Since it is Linux, it is probably going to be one click install with the OS. I think XBMC will shake more grounds once they ported to Linux.

By the way, for now I found a simple solution. Since some of us already have coaxial lines running in the house from our cable companies, I had an idea. I configured my Nvidia video card to run in two separate displays (not Twinview). I took the s-video out to the video input of VCR. I also placed an audio splitter from my sound card, one going into my mixer and another one going to audio inputs of my VCR. I set the VCR to display inputs only on the channel four instead of playing internally. Many VCR has this option. The coaxial out of VCR is running back to the TV. I bought a coaxial splitter at RadioShack for $4 to split the coaxial line. Now, when I turn on the channel four on my TV, it is displaying the screen two of my computer (screen1). I installed oxine (xine OSD frontend) and using it to view and listen movies, podcasts, music, etc. I have a pretty good mouse that can work from 25 feet away. Now, I can use the mouse to control display two, which is my TV. This is a simple fix for me until I figure out and investigate on a new media extender.