As far as Home Theatre PC (HTPC) software goes, there are not a huge number of players in the software only market. Of course every Digital Tuner card comes with some flavour of Windows software, but that isnt all that usefull if you want to run a true HTPC network at home.

There are some fantastic *nix variants available, most around the same core.
Knoppmyth
Mythbuntu
MythDora 

These are all of course built around the ever popular MythTV, however are all in LiveCD versions so that there is little to actually setup or compile. ( This is a very good thing as MythTV can be difficult at best to setup)

But now there is another player on the scene, has the playing field changed?

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It is an old addage, but it is too too true.

Nothing earth shattering has happened, so breath a sigh of releif there, but I lost the home server on the weekend. Well it was a pretty devastating even to the kids.

The OS disk of my centos 5 based server went tits up for some reason known only to itself, and refused to reboot.

So that took the details of the software raid array with it, and now I am 1TB of data lighter.

That isnt quite true. There is still a chance, albeit a small one, that I can get the data back, I just havent been brave enough to try and rebuild it yet.

Basically that is 800gb of TV and movies that has been lost to the ether. (all recorded off TV of course. OF COURSE)

I guess a backup would have been a wise thing to do, but when you splash out for 4 x 320gb discs to build a 1TB array, backing it up is actually a bit daunting.

Should I have built 2 arrays?

That wouldnt have helped because it was the controller (software) that failed so I would have had 2 dead arrays.

I knew the risks and I took a calculated risk considerring that it *was* a raid 5 array.

Lose a disk and pop in a new one for self healing….. right?

<sigh>

1TB external USB 2 single disks are now <$200 AUD so I guess that having one of them as a backup would be wise idea, but that is where you start to think crazy thoughts.

Hang on, I can get 1TB disks now for the same as what I paid for the 320gb’s. For $400 I could replace the aging 320gb drives with 1TB drives and get a 3TB array. How cool would that be?

And roll on the backup issues once again.

Is it just me or does no-one really get it still in regards to what High Definition realy is?

OK, so maybe it is just me, but I could have swarn that there is a load of TV’s being advertised out there as HD that are not in fact, you know, HD.

I think that this all stems from the US market and their use of NTSC ( or Never The Same Colour ) as we used to call it in video production

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So the Australian Federal Government is *still* going at it to implement a country-wide, compulsory, ISP level, Internet filtering solution. This is incredulous for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it plainly just doesnt work, another that the majority of Australians just dont want it.

The big problem is that not enough people are interested enough to make enough noise about it.

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Buz word of the 2008’s – Media Center PC or Home Theatre PC (HTPC)

For those who havent partook of the greatness that is a HTPC here is a quick run down of all that you are missing out on, as well as the options that are available.

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Being the techno-geek that I am, I *have* to keep up with the latest technologies and, to be honest, being and early adopter sometimes is a hard road to follow.

I plonked my cash on the counter pretty much right away on the switch-on of the Digital TV system here in Sydney, and have been pretty much underwhelmed ever since.

Picture break ups, audio pops and induction noise are all issues that anyone relying on Digital TV in Sydney has just had to come to live with, but why is it so?

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Australian TV viewers really have it tough when it comes to Electronic Program Guide (EPG) info.
For some reason the TV networks have all decided that it is not applicable for them to release an EPG so that viewers using PVR’s or Home Theatre PC’s can schedule recordings.

See, I would have thought that it would have been in their best interest to release this info so that people would watch the shows that they air, but I must be missing something.

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Heores, back, on tv, must, watch, more.

Seriously how frigging good was that for a first episode? It had everything.
Man am I happy to have Heroes back.

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Yes the long wait is finally drawing to a close and we will see Heroes season 3 gracing a blue cable near you.

The official airdate is September 22nd in the USA so expect to be tuning in to channel BT in Australia on Tuesday the 23rd . I havent looked up the timings, but I assume that it will be as usual an overnight torrent Tuesday night.

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