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Thinking of making the plunge into Linux for HTPC, what's possible?

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JustinChase:
I'm running my Living Room HTPC off of my unRAID server in a windows8 VM and it works great.

I just installed another/new Video card (nVidia GT720) in the server with the intention of creating another VM for the bedroom, and had planned to install Windows 8 (maybe windows 10) in that VM, but am wondering if it might be time to try/use MC in Linux for this project.

I mainly control the HTPC with Theater View, via Gizmo; it's easy and the wife understands and can use this method.  I'd like to do the same/similar with the bedroom HTPC.  I don't know if Theater View is working/available in Linux and if not, what is the 'preferred' method to control it as a 10 ft interface?

I've toyed with Linux a few times, but have no preference or allegiance to any particular distro.  It seems Debian is preferred, so that's what I'm planning on starting with.

Any thoughts suggestions before I move forward?

mattkhan:
There is no theatre view for Linux atm, jremote/gizmo does work though.

mwillems:
Other key features missing from linux: no TV tuner support, no web viewing of any kind, no audio loopback of any kind, and no robust multi-monitor support (i.e. if you use a smaller second screen as a control interface fullscreen can sometimes get flaky). That and the absence of theater view makes it hard to use as a "classic" HTPC right now.  

If TV tuners aren't in the mix, MC for Linux works pretty well as an MC server (assuming you don't use DVD .ifo rips).  It also works pretty darn well as a headless network streaming audio endpoint (controlled by Gizmo or JRemote).

But there's too much missing for conventional HTPC usage (at least in my opinion).  

BryanC:
I would love to ditch Windows completely, but I don't think it's quite there yet for me. No theater view is a dealbreaker, plus there are ever-ongoing issues with stand-alone graphics performance on Linux. I think that the 4.3 kernel is supposed to really improve the open-source nVidia drivers, so that might be a good starting point if you want to dive in. It is still a ways out for Debian (testing), but will probably land in Fedora 23.

mattkhan:

--- Quote from: BryanC on August 31, 2015, 09:30:04 am --- I think that the 4.3 kernel is supposed to really improve the open-source nVidia drivers, so that might be a good starting point if you want to dive in. It is still a ways out for Debian (testing), but will probably land in Fedora 23.

--- End quote ---
It looks more like a refactoring exercise than substantial improvements in performance. Is there a good reason to use nouveau over the nvidia driver?

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