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« on: January 23, 2008, 06:00:32 pm »
Hi,
I'm in the process of downloading the install DVD, and I'm fairly sure I want to use linuxMCE (the alternative is windows XP and a lot of faffing!)
Here's what I want to do....
I have a 250gig HDD already formatted with EXT3 (or 2 - I can't remember) and full of videos and music. I want to be able to plug this in on its SATA card and use it either as my home directory or just make it available somehow to the media centre and to my (wired) network. Randomly, this is currently sitting in an XP box running etx2fs to be able to access the files, as the original computer I was going to build this with got lightninged....
I have a basic homemade IR reciever - can I use this with linuxMCE?
The other thing I want to do is to be able to switch, by remote control, between two or three video inputs (VCR, PS2, maybe a sat box) seamlessly (most of my family aren't as technically minded as me, and they even get confused by the scart switch box I currently use to switch between these!!) I'm not sure quite how to do this - maybe a few cheapie PCI TV cards (I already have one, and they're quite cheap) or video capture cards with one input going into each... I'm open to suggestions.
I also think I read somewhere about being able to link up iTunes and linuxMCE. I use iTunes a lot on my mac, and it'd be great if I could share the music library and playlists.
So...is all this possible/easy? I've used linux a bit, and I'm OK with not-too-advanced command line stuff. As long as there are instructions somewhere I'm generally OK!