Spec me a linux?

Colbaker

Colbaker

Colbaker

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Joined
8 Dec 2004
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Paignton, Devon
Hi all,

Am looking for a good powerful version of linux (free) with suggested free software for the following tasks...

Media Center interface
Able to playback .mkv, .xvid/divx, Bluray content.
antivirus
video editing
dvd ripper/converter
Binaries downloader and unpacker (like grabit)

What do you guys suggest?

Oh and i am a Linux newbie.
 
xbox media centre

install codecs

antivirus - dont need

video editing - dont know

dvd ripper - dont know

binaries - sabnzbd

I suggest ubuntu, opensuse or mandriva for you sir. Go read up on them
 
Cinelerra is probably the best free video editor for Linux, which isn't saying much. As above you don't need a virus scanner. There's ClamAV if you want to scan for Windows viruses before transporting a potentially-infected file to a Windows box.

XBMC is quite nice and should play back all that jazz out of the box. Blu-Ray is a non-starter on Linux, just like the Mac. So it goes for proprietary encrypted formats. Boxee is a semi-proprietary fork of XBMC with all sorts of nifty Web 2.0 jazz baked in. It's the new hotness. I'm quite liking it.

Handbrake is an excellent DVD encoder. The 64-bit version, though CLI-only, is more than twice as fast in my testing. It takes advantage of multithreading to use multiple cores or multiple processors effectively. What it doesn't do, AFAIK, is crack DVD encryption. I have been using DVD Decrypter in Wine for that.
 
Colbaker said:
Media Center interface
Able to playback .mkv, .xvid/divx, Bluray content.
antivirus
video editing
dvd ripper/converter
Binaries downloader and unpacker (like grabit)

What do you guys suggest?

Oh and i am a Linux newbie.
Click to expand...

Hi Op,

I would recommend Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty as a base. It's nicely put together - shame about the awful ATI proprietary GPU drivers for version 9.04 though!! :cool:

You need something like SMPlayer I think for hardware accelerated video playback and a half-decent interface.

If you don't have an Nvidia GPU you probably need one... :mad:

For video editing/DVD ripping: use Wine to run the Windows version of DVD decrypter, imgburn and MeGUI, etc. under Linux. Wine in repositories is at about version 1.1. Follow the noob friendly instructions on the WineHQ website to get the newest version. Definitely the best GNU package out there and really easy to use (it either works or it's broken generally)!! :cool:

Here's a link with Linux and Windows equivalent software.

Blu-ray playback... Uhmm not sure about that... Full HD x264 is a done deal though (with an Nvidia GPU anyway)...

Get back to us when you get stuck!!

Bob
 
eXor said:
Great program. Is there a Blu-Ray equivalent for Linux?
Click to expand...

Is there a Blu-ray ripping program for Windows??!!

Well yes (AnyDVD HD) and I've tried it but the whole Blu-ray scene is in it's infancy still... It's got a free trial but it's not freeware.

You'll be able to rip all but the newest Blu-ray discs (they keep changing the copy protection) to your HD with that anyway and it works quite well in Windows XP. But whether AnyDVD HD works in Wine is another matter.

Like I said before I think Blu-ray playback maybe a non-starter under GNU/Linux - so this discussion maybe somewhat academic!!

Bob
 
this ati driver thing could be an issue as i am running an ati hd3450 hdmi card to my hd tv, is this going to be an issue?
 
Probably. Apart from the general crapness of linux video there is the added feature of ati not having any decent hardware acceleration yet.

Media Center interface - XBMC, Boxee, MythTV.
Able to playback .mkv, .xvid/divx, Bluray content. - No problems except for Bluray. No chance on that front.
antivirus - No need.
video editing - You will need to research to find something that fits your needs.
dvd ripper/converter - You will need to research to find something that fits your needs. Something+Handbrake or FFmpeg probably.
Binaries downloader and unpacker (like grabit) - You will need to research to find something that fits your needs. http://www.lottanzb.org/ maybe.

Short answer. You need a very upto date media player and an Nvidia card for best performance and you wont get it all running straight away.
 
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I can confirm the ati and Linux, Jaunty in particular, is a right royal PITA for a newbie such as myself.

However this afternoon I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my main PC (Q6600, 2GB RAM, 8800GT) and it's absolutely brilliant. The Compiz effects are out of this world (yeah, I know, I'm late to the party). It even installed my Samsung printer automatically. Had to work out how to stop X to get the nvidia driver to install but it's all in the learning curve and went without a problem - unlike trying to get my 4850 to work on the spare computer. I can't believe it's taken me this long to give Linux a proper chance, although I've had a Mac for a few years so that's my excuse.

Only regret at the moment is installing the 32 bit version. BTI's comment reminded me. Is there a lot of difference between this and the 64bit version?
 
theheyes said:
Only regret at the moment is installing the 32 bit version. BTI's comment reminded me. Is there a lot of difference between this and the 64bit version?
Click to expand...
Nope, it looks identical. Some programs runs faster on 64-bit, but only a few. It's a good experience, especially now that Adobe has given us Flash 10 64-bit for Firefox. Wine even works nicely on 64-bit as long as you have the 32-bit libraries installed (you'll need 'em for FAH anyway ;)).
 
WINE seems great - I tried it at work with imgburn and it worked fine. Good to know theres not much difference between the 32 and 64 versions. I won't be upgrading the RAM soon beyond 4GB anyway simply because it's all running fine with 2GB.

As for FAH, I'm not sure I'll be installing it as this is my main box that I do actual work on and even though SMP was quite stable it did occasionally fall over and I wouldn't like to risk it. The machine actually used to be my dedicated folder (hence the Q6600) - shame to waste it but needs must! ;) I'm sure it will come out of FAH retirement at some point, but by then I think CPUs might be well and truly eating GPU dust so it might not be worth it. :(
 
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