From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 8 18:39:06 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 63B381065674 for ; Sat, 8 Nov 2008 18:39:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 27A818FC14 for ; Sat, 8 Nov 2008 18:39:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDSK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id mA8Id43N013308 for ; Sat, 8 Nov 2008 10:39:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2008 10:40:26 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1933 Importance: Normal X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]); Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:39:05 -0800 (PST) Subject: Question on creating a video server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:39:06 -0000 Hi All, OK, I'm just asking for opinions here on some application software. Like most people we have a nice big 21" TV set that will be obsolete in Feb. I have been thinking about replacing this with a big screen TV set but the prices on them are still way, way way out of my budget (I just can't see spending $500 for a TV set, sorry!!!!) I can pick up really high quality, large, old-style video monitors from a computer surplus place near here for next to nothing. I'd like to setup a PC and put a HDTV tuner card in it for over-the-air HDTV broadcasts, and use that as a TV. We also have a ton of DVD's and I'd like to rip these to video files and put them on the PC. Then when anyone wants to watch a movie they just watch it off the PC. I've already started doing this under Windows and it works great - it's even better since I can remove all those movie previews that the studio wants to force you to watch. Has anyone done this with FreeBSD and open source software, and has recommendations on what hardware to get and what software works with it? PREFERABLY cheap - since ultimately we likely will get a big screen TV set once the prices fall. Ted