This summer I'm looking to building an HTPC with Linux(also a dual boot for Windows). I haven't used Linux before so I'm expecting this to be a learning experience.

I'm having trouble figuring exactly which hardware companies support Linux and vice versa. I know what capability I want my HTPC to have, but I'm not sure which brand of hardware I need to get.

Long story short, I need help figuring out exactly what I need for an HTPC and then exactly what I need for it to run on Linux...

I've done a fair amount of research online(arstechnica articles, reading this forum, etc) but beyond that, I'm pretty lost.

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

Although AMD (ATI) is catching up, it's still best to go with nvidia for video. I prefer an AMD cpu because they have separate L2 caches for each core, whereas Intel's are shared. As for mobo chipset, I'm not sure how well the newest AMD 790G is supported, but the nvidia nforce chipsets are well-supported. All hard drives are supported, but I recommend seagate. All optical drives (including blu-ray & hd-dvd) are supported, but I'm not sure about burning a blu-ray. I think you can put data on one, but not make a movie disk that will play in another blu-ray player. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong. ;)

As for tuners, it's going to depend on what your tv source is. I use firewire from a couple of cable STB's.

Wireless adapters will give you trouble, so if you need that, be sure to do your homework and try to find one that works with a kernel module (as opposed to ndiswrapper).

My hardware picks:

BioStar GF7025-M2- on board SPDIF out, DVI, VGA 7000-class Nvidia, no need for video card or sound card
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=GF7025-M2&cat=MBB

X2 5000-BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103194

Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64- silent, awesome cooling capabilty with heat pipes
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185125&Tpk=freezer%2bpro%2b64

G.Skill 2x1GB DDR2 800Mhz- I don't like rebates, and this goes on sale to $34.99 occasionally, abot the same as rebate deals after shipping/postage/hassle

If you don't mind rebates, plenty of OCZ/Crucial/Corsair 2x1GB deals on newegg and elsewhere
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

For DVD RW drive, I would stick with Pioneer, Samsung, or BTC

Cases are a subjective thing- I tend to use cheapies and put in power supplies with 120mm fans for low noise

http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=CAS

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PS550E12&cat=PWR

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category.aspx?Category=9&name=Computer-Cases

For a Mac Pro look, try

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164060

I like to use a 120mm inlet fan and 80mm exhaust fan, or two 80mm inlets and one exhaust- I like to run an over-pressure arrangement.

As far as general principles go-

Stick with Nvidia 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx series GPU's- no need for higher on Linux yet.

AMD CPU's are generally the better performance/price (lowest price for equivalent performance).

Nvidia chipsets on the motherboard for AMD CPU's are well supported and solid- someone else can speak to Intel.

Arctic Cooling fans/coolers are extremely well engineered for the money, made by Swiss designers who appear to understand mechanical, acoustics, and air flow physics.

No need for more than 2GB RAM at the moment, but at these historical lows, it's worthwhile to stock up ;) RAM has historically behaved like stock price, and those 2GB deals could double in 6-18 months- or not.

Whatever big name hard drive is on sale - Seagate, WD, Maxtor is fine. Be sure it has adequate clearance for cooling or have a fan blow over it.

Use fan speed controller(s) to minimize fan speed and noise.
http://www.xoxide.com/evercool-pci-fanspeed-control.html?productid=evercool-pci-fanspeed-control&channelid=FROOG

http://www.xoxide.com/sunbeam-pci-fan-controller.html



Use fan inlet filters to control dust

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999208

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811999206

Thanks for the recommendations!

I was reading on arstechnica that if you're using linux you'd need to get a faster processor, while if you're using windows you can get two medium speed processors.

"At this time, chipset onboard HD acceleration seems to be limited to Windows; Linux drivers are in their infancy at best at the moment. This breaks the CPU needs of the all-in-one HTPC box into two options: the hardware-assisted route, where a dual-core CPU as slow as 1.5GHz would do the trick per SilentPCReview, or the software-only route that a Linux-based front end is going to have to take, which needs something along the lines of an Athlon 64 X2 5200+."

If I'm using Linux, am I going to have to get a video card for HD playback, or is there a configuration for Linux supported chip sets to handle it through a motherboard with integrated graphics?

The on board video of the BioStar 7025 would be fine for any HD- 1080p/1080i/720p.

The limiting factor, per your arstechnica reference, is the CPU.

Even though I spec'd the X2 5000BE, you might want to get an X2 5400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103242

or X2 5600 to give yourself some "headroom".

I think Linux video drivers will get HD acceleration within a year or so, but it doesn't hurt to have the fastest CPU you can afford- it makes all your programs run faster, and really helps with intensive jobs like video editing/reencoding/MP3 encoding, etc.

With current CPU speeds and prices, it's not a big deal. At worst, you could spend $150 on a X2 6000.

Horse pucky. HD playback doesn't take that much power. In fact I used an old Duron 1600 for some time. Any modern MB with onboard Nvidia video will work. And any X2 CPU will work fine. Even an X2 3600+. I just bought a couple of combo MB/AMD X2 4200+ at Fry's for $59 each. They work fine, but it only had VGA out. Fine with me since my hdtv's have vga in. You'll have more problems deciding on the tuner cards to use, depending on your source, which you didn't mention. And remote to use. I use cheap (under $25) HDTV tuners for ATSC and cheap remote recievers ($5). All works fine for me for OTA ATSC.

Horse pucky. HD playback doesn't take that much power.
HD playback isn't only ATSC video and TS streams... try that Duron on a Bluray file :eek:

Jim

As others have already mentioned, Nvidea currently has the best support for HA. But I wouldn't use just the video HA issue for selecting cpu speed. If you intend to do any trancoding of video whatsoever, you'll want as much cpu as you can afford, otherwise you'll be looking at transcoding times that are slower than real-time.

BTW, I'll also warn you that you should limit yourself to a single optical drive if at all possible. I have 3 in my system and it wreaks havoc with over 75% of the applications out there. Half the apps will only work with a drive that is mounted as "cdrom0" and pointed at by the "cdrom" link. Another 25% can handle more than 1 drive, but they all handle it differently and require manually entering either the mount point or the device name (and thus you have to manually change it everytime you use a different drive). Only about 25% of the apps out there handle multiple drives without any hassles.

Re: CPU and HD decoding, I was thinking about worst case 1080p x264. OTA ATSC has far lower CPU requirements due to MPEG2 encoding and low bit rates.

Worst case scenario would be 1080p x264 mkv encodes from BluRay or raw BLueRay h264 rips.

As for tuner card, I recommend the Kworld 115, which has a remote and does QAM/ATSC and NTSC for $60 shipped at newegg.

The Packard Bell Fast Media IR remote with serial port receiver works great for me, no more than $10 on ebay- search "fast media remote".

As others have already mentioned, Nvidea currently has the best support for HA. But I wouldn't use just the video HA issue for selecting cpu speed. If you intend to do any trancoding of video whatsoever, you'll want as much cpu as you can afford, otherwise you'll be looking at transcoding times that are slower than real-time.

BTW, I'll also warn you that you should limit yourself to a single optical drive if at all possible. I have 3 in my system and it wreaks havoc with over 75% of the applications out there. Half the apps will only work with a drive that is mounted as "cdrom0" and pointed at by the "cdrom" link. Another 25% can handle more than 1 drive, but they all handle it differently and require manually entering either the mount point or the device name (and thus you have to manually change it everytime you use a different drive). Only about 25% of the apps out there handle multiple drives without any hassles.

Good points. The video transcoding of even DVDs could use as much CPU as you can afford to minimize job time- even simple DVD Shrinking and DVD to mobile media player encoding like mkv's avi's, mp4's etc.

I never used more than one DVD-ROM/Writer drive on any XP machine (which I don't use any longer), either, so it's not an issue for me in Linux. I don't know what the point or purpose of having more than one DVD drive in a PC would be- copying from one optical to another directly is a recipe for bad burns. I always copy a disk (CD/DVD) to hard drive first before either writing to another disc or doing any further processing.

Another trick I use to make any power supply silent is to take apart the housing- just a few screws- BE SURE THE POWER SUPPLY IS UNPLUGGED! :D

Then disconnect the fan power connector from the PSU circuit board, which is almost always a removable connector. At worst, it might have an adhesive to make it stay connected to the fan power pinout header.

Then I route the PSU fan power connector wire out the hole where all the other power leads are routed through.

Then connect the PSU fan power connector to a fan speed controller and turn down the speed of the PSU fan until you can't hear it.

I like using PSU's with 120mm fans to keep airflow high enough for cooling at low RPM's. I've had good luck with this one, which has a removable fan power connector (some PSU's hard wire the fan power and ground to the PSU circuit board)-

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PS550E12&cat=CAS

HD playback isn't only ATSC video and TS streams... try that Duron on a Bluray file :eek:

Jim
True, and I wasn't suggesting he buy one either.:-)

Umm... PSUs aren't really something you'd want the uninitiated to be digging around in, even unplugged they can still kill you if you're unlucky.
Capacitors can store a charge for a fair while.

Umm... PSUs aren't really something you'd want the uninitiated to be digging around in, even unplugged they can still kill you if you're unlucky.
Capacitors can store a charge for a fair while.

Good point- I was going to refrain from posting for the safety reason.

An alternative would be to get a PSU with a variable speed fan (temperature controlled) or with a fan speed control built in, usually a dial on the back.

An alternative would be to get a PSU with a variable speed fan (temperature controlled) or with a fan speed control built in, usually a dial on the back.

Or one with a 120mm fan. I just bought 2 of them about a month or 2 ago and they are almost silent compared to dual 80mm fan models I've used.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817709012

Or one with a 120mm fan. I just bought 2 of them about a month or 2 ago and they are almost silent compared to dual 80mm fan models I've used.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817709012

That doesn't look like a very good PSU. Remember, you get what you pay for (if you're lucky). A larger fan is a good idea, as turning down the fan speed could make the PSU run hot and cause the capacitors to fail.

I have heard that Corsair and SeaSonic are good reliable brands. I picked two that look good, and they are pricey too.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151057
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

The next time that I am looking for a new PSU, I will get something like one of those.

You should also plan wisely when selecting a case. For example, I went with the Silverstone LC20-S (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163066) for a number of reasons:

1. It matches my 2 STB's (Motorola DCH6200 (http://developer.motorola.com/products/settops/dch6200/)) and speaker system (Logitech Z-5500 (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=us,en)).

2. It has a side vent for my PSU's (Thermaltake TR2 RX W0134RU ATX12V Ver2.2 550W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153059)) super-quiet 140mm fan.

3. It has room for 6 internal hard and 2 external optical drives. Plus, the internal drive mount is cushioned and there is room to place fans in front of the drives, if necessary.

4. There are no case fans, so my Zalman 9500A (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223) can double as a case fan without the extra noise.

EDIT:
5. It has an external 3.5" mount for my card reader.

That doesn't look like a very good PSU. Remember, you get what you pay for (if you're lucky). A larger fan is a good idea, as turning down the fan speed could make the PSU run hot and cause the capacitors to fail.
.

Not to get into a long PSU discussion or debate, but in the 100's of PC's and media PC's I've built for myself and others since the late 80's (just so others know where I'm coming from), the only issue I've had with the "no name" or low cost PSU's has been they stop working- just dead, with no harm to the PC/motherboard. If it happens, it's usually after 2-3 years of use.

At the low price of the LogiSys I linked or the Sunbeam wnewell linked to, if you get 3-5 years out of the PSU, you probably want to toss it anyways due to new power connector standards, increased wattage desired, dust accumulation, and fan bearing wear (unless you are tech-savvy enough to replace a PSU fan and/or clean its innards- see earlier saftey warnings).

I've used "high end" PSU's like the Silent Power Antec's and other Antec models, and have had several go out almost as often. The problem is, when the Antec's have gone out, they've fried the motherboard with them :(.

As far as thermals go, the temperature-sensor equipped Antecs I've tried (450W, 480W, 500W) have run for hours without turning on their fans or just runs them on low speed, while watching a movie on A64 equipped media PC's! This tells me that even a low speed 120mm fan would be fine cooling, i.e. no fear of turning down the fan speed in a PSU, IMO. Unless Antec's temp control sensors or algorithms are faulty ;)

IME, the temp differences between no airflow and the airflow produced by a low RPM fan (~1200-2000 RM depending on fan diameter) is significant, judged by CPU/GPU/motherboard reported temps, while less temp change is observed as you increase fan RPM. This tells me that most fans run too fast, with factory fan speeds set too often at 3000-4000 RPM or higher.

All that said- avoid the A-Power brand of cheapie PSU's ;) They've failed the most and/or had quality control issues too often for me.

I got my power supply info from BadCaps.net (http://www.badcaps.net). They even have a section dealing with PSU's:
http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

I did a quick search for Sunbeam, and came across this post by jonnyGURU (http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showpost.php?p=48316&postcount=36)
Another interesting use of Teapo caps in PSU's: Typically low end Andyson units use Fuhjyyu. You'll find them in Hiper and Sunbeam units. You don't typically hear about cap failures despite the use of Fuhjyyu caps because the PCB layout allows for good airflow and they use a decent fan (high CFM while still low noise). Aerocool wanted to use the same platform for a "low-noise" unit. The fan's CFM's would essentially be cut 50% to 75% at the lower RPM's. All of the Fuhjyyu's are switched out for Teapos for "longer life at higher temps."

He doesn't really say it is bad, but don't mess with the (cooling) airflow. Bye the way, jonnyGURU has a web site where he reviews power supplies, so he has some knowledge on the subject.
http://www.jonnyguru.com/

One of the things all of the BadCaps.net people agree upon is that DEER PSU's are crap. Do not ever buy one.

If (when) the capacitors on a PSU go, it then will fry your mobo. Is it really worth saving a few bucks?

My hardware picks:

BioStar GF7025-M2- on board SPDIF out, DVI, VGA 7000-class Nvidia, no need for video card or sound cardVery tempting, I almost put my order in for one...but, does the onboard graphics support component output? I'm thinking yes, but I want to know for sure. Also, is there a similar alternative that has more PCI slots?

I don't believe the Biostar 7025 supports component out- no component adapter was included.

Check the manual-

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/mb/content.php?S_ID=292

Most current HDTVs- and most panels and RPTVs from at least the past 4-5 years- have VGA and/or DVI and HDMI ports, so there is no need for component.

In my 3+ year old Windows PC, I had the 480W Antec PS fail (the 5V power dropped to 4.4V, so it wasn't a hard failure). I replaced it with an (on sale) CoolerMaster Enermax 550W unit (with a 120mm fan). I noticed that the PS fan is a lot quieter and does a better cooling job than the 80mm one on the old PS. It looks like the PS fan that CoolerMaster used was made by Arctic - one of the quieter ones (at least it has the correct fan blade design for quiet operation).

PS -- jonnyGURU has a link to a CoolerMaster Real Power M700 series which seems to be good also.

You should also plan wisely when selecting a case. For example, I went with the Silverstone LC20-S (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163066) for a number of reasons:

1. It matches my 2 STB's (Motorola DCH6200 (http://developer.motorola.com/products/settops/dch6200/)) and speaker system (Logitech Z-5500 (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=us,en)).

2. It has a side vent for my PSU's (Thermaltake TR2 RX W0134RU ATX12V Ver2.2 550W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153059)) super-quiet 140mm fan.

3. It has room for 6 internal hard and 2 external optical drives. Plus, the internal drive mount is cushioned and there is room to place fans in front of the drives, if necessary.

4. There are no case fans, so my Zalman 9500A (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223) can double as a case fan without the extra noise.

EDIT:
5. It has an external 3.5" mount for my card reader.

For $50 less, the Antec NSK 2480 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129034&Tpk=nsk2480) is a smaller case that looks much more like an A/V component and will fit in A/V racks as it is about the size of a stereo receiver. It comes with 2 120mm case fans that can be run at low, medium, or high speeds - saving you the cost of having to buy a separate fan. My initial tests have indicated that running the fans on low keeps the CPU temps within a couple of degrees of running at medium and is almost silent. It has numerous vents and space for a 3rd fan. I mated it with a microATX board that has integrated video and SPDIF, so I still have 4 empty PCIe slots.

I also wanted dual boot Windows Vista capability or simply the option to swap it to a Vista MCE box, so went with a Core 2 Duo E4500, 2x1GB DDR800 ($20!), WD Caviar 750GB drive, and HDHomeRun for dual ATSC/QAM recording/viewing capability and possibility of streaming HD directly to my Windows PCs in my bedroom office. Here's the thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=917531) on my setup.

ok, i want to add a blu ray player this computer. I found a motherboard that has 8 channel integrated sound and an ATI chipset that's also integrated.

The reviewers say that getting the video out through hdmi is pretty easy, but the sound might be a little more tricky - I can live with that.

I've been looking at blu-ray drives and everyone talks about how they are really demanding on the computer's hardware(requires 3.2 GHz, etc)

First of all, are these requirements true? My impression from this forum and other places is that HD playback more demanding than average, but you don't to have top of the line hardware to do it.

So, if I get a processor that runs at 2.4 or 2.5, will I be able to use my blu-ray drive with it.

One of the LG drives that I looked at says it's compatible with only Windows. Could I use something like Wine to run Windows compatible drives on a Linux computer?

And one last thing, when I finally order all these parts and stick them in a case and hit the power button, what exactly happens next?

There won't be an OS on the computer, so I'll obviously have to either download Linux and burn it to a CD or order it through the mail. Are the install instructions that I'm hoping would come with a Linux download sufficient to get a new computer off the ground? As in, drivers, etc to get all the hardware talking to each other properly...

Thanks for your help guys.

here's the url for the motherboard i found. it won't let me post it in the original message because i didn't have three posts yet....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135075

ok, i want to add a blu ray player this computer. I found a motherboard that has 8 channel integrated sound and an ATI chipset that's also integrated.

The reviewers say that getting the video out through hdmi is pretty easy, but the sound might be a little more tricky - I can live with that.

I've been looking at blu-ray drives and everyone talks about how they are really demanding on the computer's hardware(requires 3.2 GHz, etc)

First of all, are these requirements true? My impression from this forum and other places is that HD playback more demanding than average, but you don't to have top of the line hardware to do it.

So, if I get a processor that runs at 2.4 or 2.5, will I be able to use my blu-ray drive with it.

One of the LG drives that I looked at says it's compatible with only Windows. Could I use something like Wine to run Windows compatible drives on a Linux computer?

And one last thing, when I finally order all these parts and stick them in a case and hit the power button, what exactly happens next?

There won't be an OS on the computer, so I'll obviously have to either download Linux and burn it to a CD or order it through the mail. Are the install instructions that I'm hoping would come with a Linux download sufficient to get a new computer off the ground? As in, drivers, etc to get all the hardware talking to each other properly...

Thanks for your help guys.

There is no way to play a blu-ray movie thru a linux system via LG drive - unless you burn the movie to a blu-ray disk yourself and it has no copy protection or something along those lines. Everyone playing BD via HTPC are using windows with PDVD and there is another one or two programs that supposedly work but PDVD is the one everyone seems to be using. Also, I understand you can get around the HDCP requirements, using windows, with AnyDvd HD but it too has issues. You can't use wine to do any emulation - not that I am aware of, but if ripped and copy protection removed you *should* in theory be able to do it. I've a friend who has ripped/backup a few titles to a usb drive and we tried them on my system and they played perfectly (after some tweaking) but I am not sure that any others would work - IOW YMMV.
That being said, I got some homemade movies that are AVCHD @ 1080p and I would recommend at least 3ghz or better to play them without hiccups in linux. There are no hardware accelerators that work in *nix world with x.264 and only a few in windows - at least that I am aware of.
Lastly, installing a *nix OS is relatively easy, download the disk, burn and go. Setting it up for higher-end video is an entirely different beast - it's not like you down load drivers from the manufacture, they don't exist for the most part. I am not using anything special at all in my system except it overclocks very well and I can match the performance of the windows boxes with a lot simpler and cheaper hardware but IMHO it is not as easy. If you read the HTPC windows board you can see the issues those guys have with H.264 material and they have a lot more horsepower than I use so what you been reading it somewhat factual but not entirely ;)

By "PDVD" I'm assuming you mean Cyberlink's PowerDVD. Is that correct? Some members aren't always familiar with some of the acronyms.

BTW, it was my impression that you can copy a Blu-ray DVD from a BD drive to a HDD file (using the latest HD compatible Linux version of NERO HD Burning software, for example). Then the HDD copy can be played using a Linux program. Am I "full of it" or is that true?

I also believe that a 3GHz CPU isn't needed either, just a good dual core CPU (AMD or Intel of at least 2.4GHz) and at least 1GB of ram. This is based on the many threads by members that have played h.264 HD movies (at 1920 x 1080) with their Linux PCs.

I personally don't really care, since I will be getting a stand-alone BD player to play commercial BD movie DVDs.

ADDENDUM: I just read another thread, and a 3+GHz CPU helps, but a fast HDD interface is much more important.

See http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1038325 for one of them.

There is no way to play a blu-ray movie thru a linux system via LG drive - unless you burn the movie to a blu-ray disk yourself and it has no copy protection or something along those lines. Everyone playing BD via HTPC are using windows with PDVD and there is another one or two programs that supposedly work but PDVD is the one everyone seems to be using. Also, I understand you can get around the HDCP requirements, using windows, with AnyDvd HD but it too has issues. You can't use wine to do any emulation - not that I am aware of, but if ripped and copy protection removed you *should* in theory be able to do it. I've a friend who has ripped/backup a few titles to a usb drive and we tried them on my system and they played perfectly (after some tweaking) but I am not sure that any others would work - IOW YMMV.


DVD Fab HD Decrypter is officially supported by the vendor on Linux under Wine

http://www.dvdfab.com/download.htm

It can rip BD's to hard disk, removing all protections- no need for HDCP hardware.

Just start playing the first file while it's ripping, I assume, though I haven't tried it myself. MPlayer should play the files.

I never used AnyDVD when I used Win either, only DVDFab if I needed protections removed. I now use DVDFab on Linux for DVDs- no BD drive yet.

By "PDVD" I'm assuming you mean Cyberlink's PowerDVD. Is that correct? Some members aren't always familiar with some of the acronyms.

BTW, it was my impression that you can copy a Blu-ray DVD from a BD drive to a HDD file (using the latest HD compatible Linux version of NERO HD Burning software, for example). Then the HDD copy can be played using a Linux program. Am I "full of it" or is that true?

I also believe that a 3GHz CPU isn't needed either, just a good dual core CPU (AMD or Intel of at least 2.4GHz) and at least 1GB of ram. This is based on the many threads by members that have played h.264 HD movies (at 1920 x 1080) with their Linux PCs.

I personally don't really care, since I will be getting a stand-alone BD player to play commercial BD movie DVDs.

Yes, PDVD is PowerDVD, sorry about not mentioning it. As far as what I've tested, it is the video that is the greatest problem in displaying H.264 encoded video. Some of the Blu-ray streams video bit rates hit 40mb/s and that is way past mpeg2 OTA which it no more than 17mb/s. The VC1 codec which is used on HD-DVD has a bit rate of less than 26mb/s or so (that I've scene or heard reported). So, the HDD is really not pushed that much but the video card is pushed the hardest. There is no video hardware acceleration for linux that I know of and that is why I would recommend 3.0ghz+ chip - it is the minimum or you will see macroblocking, etc. I know I've tested this on three different systems both intel and amd and I did not get to smooth playback until I crossed the 3.0ghz line when overclocking and I started all chips at 2.2hgz
Yes, a dedicate hardware player will playback BD disks the best and the same said for HD-DVD!

DVD Fab HD Decrypter is officially supported by the vendor on Linux under Wine

http://www.dvdfab.com/download.htm

It can rip BD's to hard disk, removing all protections- no need for HDCP hardware.

Just start playing the first file while it's ripping, I assume, though I haven't tried it myself. MPlayer should play the files.

I never used AnyDVD when I used Win either, only DVDFab if I needed protections removed. I now use DVDFab on Linux for DVDs- no BD drive yet.

As I noted, you can not play any BD/HD-DVD directly without removing the copy protection on linux based systems which means you must rip it to the hard disk or network and use some tool to remove the copy protection. Anydvd HD will allow the playing of a disk *without* removing the copy protection on a windows based system if using PDVD or one of the other HD players even without HDMI!
Also, I wasn't aware that DVDfab worked that well under wine but it currently won't rip a BD+ blu-ray disc (anydvd hd does).
Also, mplayer works very well at playing back these ripped streams but it takes some serious tweaking for stutter free playback and no macroblocking. Lastly, truehd, dts-hd, e-ac3, etc streams do not playback on mplayer and you are limited at 1538kbs pass-thru on your spdif audio output.

Yes, that's true (no lossless audio). I don't think you can get that under Windows :eek: either. That's one of the big reasons I'm getting a stand-alone BD player. I want the lossless audio to go with my 7.1 channel audio system and my 106" screen/projector video.

Background "Nonsense" -- Even my "quiet" PC (no water cooling) is a little audible, since it sits right next to me (my new one, hopefully, should be quieter). I also don't have to hassle with the decrypting process, etc. (lazy I guess, and that could change). It's nice to have that capability, but not necessary for my lifestyle. I do want the capability though, and I do use my PVR-250 for saving some of my recorded SDTV tapes and Laserdisc shows. I also got a KWorld HDTV115 for the occasional recording of OTA HDTV, for special occasions.

I do want to see if I can read/copy the MPEG4 (core 5.1 channel DD audio, if used) HDTV programs that I've recorded on my eSATA (2 - 1TB) drives connected to my DirecTV HD20 DVR (it uses a Linux OS). One is full and I'm working on filling up the second one. If I can read them, I will likely invest in a Blu-Ray DVD (writeable) Drive to record them on (if my dual-layer DVD drive won't cut it).

If worse comes to worse, I can buy :( the new Hauppauge HD PVR since the HD20 DVR will output HD video over its component video outputs. Unfortunately, in addition to the extra cost, that would be a slow (real time) process both of which I would like to avoid.

As I noted, you can not play any BD/HD-DVD directly without removing the copy protection on linux based systems which means you must rip it to the hard disk or network and use some tool to remove the copy protection. Anydvd HD will allow the playing of a disk *without* removing the copy protection on a windows based system if using PDVD or one of the other HD players even without HDMI!
Also, I wasn't aware that DVDfab worked that well under wine but it currently won't rip a BD+ blu-ray disc (anydvd hd does).
Also, mplayer works very well at playing back these ripped streams but it takes some serious tweaking for stutter free playback and no macroblocking. Lastly, truehd, dts-hd, e-ac3, etc streams do not playback on mplayer and you are limited at 1538kbs pass-thru on your spdif audio output.

Just to clarify for others, AnyDVD is a systray driver for optical drives that removes protections in real time on Windows, so it *does* play the disk while removing protections, i.e. you just don't have to rip first. It's essentially "ripping" in real time.

If AnyDVD can rip BD+, I'm sure DVDfab will figure out how to do it soon, too ;)

I've seen discussions elsewhere that the newer DTS and DD codecs are being worked on for a future mplayer release. Most people rely on legacy DTS and DD audio compatible with their current receivers and processors, anyways. My ears can't tell the difference between the new codecs and legacy compatible ~1500kbps DTS or 640kbps DD (both used for file server x264 mkv rips of HDDVD and BD) anyways ;)

My ears can't tell the difference between the new codecs and legacy compatible ~1500kbps DTS or 640kbps DD (both used for file server x264 mkv rips of HDDVD and BD) anyways ;)

I think the difference is the addition of the extra 2 side channels (7.1), which, at his point, only works with analog speakers. So, I'm happy to stick with 5.1 over optical spdif. Like you mentioned, the 5.1 tracks are included in br/hdvd disks for compatibility.

I don't remember what they're using, but I've read elsewhere that people are ripping br/hdvd disks in Linux quite successfully.

I think the difference is the addition of the extra 2 side channels (7.1), which, at his point, only works with analog speakers. So, I'm happy to stick with 5.1 over optical spdif. Like you mentioned, the 5.1 tracks are included in br/hdvd disks for compatibility.

I don't remember what they're using, but I've read elsewhere that people are ripping br/hdvd disks in Linux quite successfully.

Here's a guide using dumpHD

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/BluRayAndHDDVD

...for those of us who've been in the media formats game since the 80's through Beta, VHS, SVHS, LaserDisk, VideoCD, DVD, analog cable, etc, plus building media PC's for over 10 years, you gain a certain perspective.

If they want SO *hard* to keep you from using/viewing their product (AACS, BD+, HDCP, 5c, encrypted satellite and digital cable, Macrovision, CGMS-a, disabling component outs or down rezzing, etc, etc), you finally ask yourself- why do I *want* their product?

Reminds me of the motto of the great state of New Hampshire- Live Free or Die!

In the context of the A/V and media PC hobby, it's

Live Free = liberty & right to use and control the data/audio/video flowing through your computer, cables, receiver, display

or Die = don't use or "kill" the format/program/OS that takes those liberties from you

;)

doesn't all this step on anyone's toes from a legal prospective? Unlawful entry barrier to an industry or anything?

to sum up, what i'm hearing is that building a blu-ray linux box, at this point in time, is going to be extremely time consuming and frustrating because i'll have to jump through all the manufacturer's hoops - HDCP, copyrights, drivers, etc?

i read the wiki on HDCP, and it seems like a pretty simple system, just 22 different codes that can be broken through a little linear algebra program in C or something? has anyone done this? Just written a little program that cracks HDCP to output on a linux machine?

doesn't all this step on anyone's toes from a legal prospective? Unlawful entry barrier to an industry or anything?

to sum up, what i'm hearing is that building a blu-ray linux box, at this point in time, is going to be extremely time consuming and frustrating because i'll have to jump through all the manufacturer's hoops - HDCP, copyrights, drivers, etc?

i read the wiki on HDCP, and it seems like a pretty simple system, just 22 different codes that can be broken through a little linear algebra program in C or something? has anyone done this? Just written a little program that cracks HDCP to output on a linux machine?

The bottom line for BD on Linux- rip the disc to hard disk first using DVD Fab or dumpHD. The only discs you might not be able to rip yet are BD+ protected discs, which are only a small subset currently. I am certain the Linux rippers will be able to handle BD+ as well as the Windows tools like anyDVD sometime in the next 6-12 months, but this is only a guess based on experience.

Play the rips with mplayer

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=813063

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html