Just wondered how people use their computers at home.... besides Bexpats and other forums etc.

In the last 36 hours, I've set up the Daughters Linux eeepc as a media center... bloody working beautifully as well, Wireless connected to my TV then VGA in.... can run any media I like, via a linux version of VLC media player. Not the best interface in the world, but damn fast... a lot faster than the WDHDTV but not as pretty..although I'm sure there are programs to make it look "nice" . I've actually got a library of over 1,000 movies and countless gigs of music and photos. The Logitech wireless Keyboard and mouse actually worked on the damn thing straight away which amazed me.... anyone that has worked a little bit with linux will know why So I know owe the daughter a Windows laptop.... which is fine by me. Although it's made my WD HD TV redundant dammit.

With my main Home PC.... finally got the sons PSP working with downloaded games..... fixed up the wifes Nintendo DS again with some downloads... and worked out how to rip "MY" DVD's on the fly after trying a hell of a lot of programs..... without sound synch problems... DVDFAB Platinum for the protection (couldn't get Slysofts anydvd to work on my machine properly .......registration problems ) and AOA to Avi converter actually rips without sound synch problems. So those using AGK for ripping to avi can give that the flick.

Also sent a couple of emails of to the folks during this time.

So how do you use your computers.

I use my PC as a Computer in the same way that I use my mobile phone as a phone

I am not clever enough to do much else. I have tried, but I get lost. Can't even connect my PC to my daughters, even though they both go through the same Netgear Modem Router.

I'm setting up a home media network. I've been steadily installing Cat6 around the house as the renovations have progressed and next year I am planning to get a central media server and NAS. I hope to have a media center PC up and running soon. I recently installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit on my main PC and I have been very impressed with it's media center. The PS3 sees media center as a server (Vuze as well) and you can stream to it via wireless. So I use the PS3 as the main media source for my TV upstairs at the moment. I am planning a wall-mounted touchscreen PC in the kitchen as an entertainment center - the very latest HP Touchsmarts coming out soon look great. I use my Asus eeePC netbook to watch movies and TV shows in bed.

It's great fun planning and setting all this up!

I've built three PCs; one for my wife, one for myself and an HTPC for the lounge. Built logs for the last two machines are here and here. I am planning to build a download box in the near future. All three computers are connected to a wired LAN via PoE plugs.

What's the deal with CAT6? Does it represent much of an improvement? Would I see better performance if I started using it, and if so, where can I buy it? Still on CAT5 here.

I switch in on and bang randomly on the keyboard. I'm hoping one day it will explode, but so far, I have been mightily disappointed....

you're talking about your computer, right?

Good to hear about folks having positive experiences with Linux. I was always a bit skeptical myself, and had loads of problems getting OpenSUSE up and running originally, but now I have to use it on a day to day basis, I don't look back, and I can easily say it's my OS of choice.

Have a powerful desktop machine running LinuxMint Gloria that I use for work simulations, a laptop running OpenSUSE 11.1 that is awaiting an OS upgrade and an HP netbook running Mint also.

Planning a media machine - probably running XBMC , but finding a low power box with an Nvidia GPU and DVI output is proving to be quite difficult.


S

Looks like a few of us tinkering with the technical side of things, with media being the driving force.

Anyone managed to get XBMC working with EEEPC Xandros version of Linux.

I had Linux mint as a dual boot on my main home PC, but damned if I could find a use for it. With the EEEPC I'm forced to make linux work... Bloody frustrating as all hell at first, but now I'm getting the hang of it. Especially the fact that the main problem is non working installations rather than anything I'm doing. Took me ages to find a copy of VLC that would work with Xandros.

There are so few people actually doing this, that you only ever get to hear of them on the net. Would be great to see Amazulu's system working. Edit... BTW play tv for Playstation comes out on Nov25th in Aus. Playstations version of Tivo. I came damn close to buying a new Sony tv with the Pstation deal just on the back of that. Now that I've got the EEEpc doing some of that job, I can put it off for a while now. I'll explore other web based methods during the meantime.


My main bug bear at present is that Filmon HD with the links from the BBC and ITV wont work in Linux. Does anyone know of a browser based system via firefox that will bring in BBC and ITV shows live ? I dont want to resort to using the windows emulator Wine.... I could never get it up and running anyhow

The keyboard is good for the 1 year old to hammer and the mouse flies off the table quite well. He uses the printer as a pretend cooker.

Fixing/Upgrading Linux all day at work so home Win7 (MSDN copy) Laptop is just for downloading/surfing. Haven't bothered to play with any media centre software. Just use vlc and stick the vga/headphone out of the laptop straight in to the LCD when we want to watch something.

I'm not sure if it has better performance than Cat5 - maybe an IT expert can enlighten us? Cat6 is capable of running gigabit ethernet but I think Cat5 can too. I went for Cat6 for futureproof reasons - I only want to have to install it once! I reckon both will be faster than what you are running at the moment. I bought mine on Ebay. You can buy it at most computer shops but it can be expensive - $1.50+/metre. I paid about $0.30/metre on Ebay. You get a lot of guys buying 305m rolls of the stuff and selling the leftovers online.

Depends how old the cat5 is - most newish cable is actually cat5e which can do gigabit speeds. I think companies only use cat6 because its rated/certified for gigabit use.

I only use cat5e and all our new servers/switches at work are gigabit. Its got to be a lot of constant data flow to notice any difference. When transfering a movie from one PC to another it will not make a lot of difference.

Most of my home downloads are limited by the internet (10meg ish) so no point having cat6/gigabit swithes at home. Wireless G is plenty fast enough for my home use.

I'm installing network cable because I find that wireless can be unreliable. When it works properly it is fine but I find that it can drop in and out for no reason - which is a pain. Maybe the construction and size of my house has something to do with it but there you go.

Playing the media player game at the moment. egreat / xtreamer / wdtv live / hdpc which one. Everytime I look at old pc for xmbc I find the graphics card is not good etc. Thinking about setting up an old PC with openNAS to host the Tb of movies/music.