Chris Sussmann

An update to my home theater setup. Mine has become very dynamic. I started with a combination of Windows Media Center, Boxee and Hulu Desktop. But the built in applications of my Samsung television are quite good. There is Netflix, Hulu+, a Plex client, and much more. And as you probably know, Boxee has gone a different direction and no longer supports the Boxee Media Center software.

So a while back I installed Plex Media Server on my Ubuntu server. PMS gives me DLNA support, media trans-coding, and fantastic media information scraping. Also I cleaned up my home theater PC. It still runs Windows Media Center as my DVR. I ditched the Boxee and Hulu Desktop. And installed the Plex Media Center. To extend the power of the Plex Media Server, I have installed clients on my mobile devices. This allows me to take my complete media collection where ever I go. No need to move files on and off before trips.

Plex also offers a service called MyPlex. It gives me a web interface to my server. I can manage and stream files from my browser anywhere. I can also add links to videos to my queue. If I see something while mobile that either I don’t have time or bandwidth for, I can add it to my queue and view it when I return home.

To wrap up, Plex gives me even more access to my large media collection. Windows Media Center is still the best DVR for me. And my Smart TV gives me access to all of the popular internet content.

But all of this said, I just got a Raspberry Pi. I have been messing around with RaspBMC and it’s incredible what a little $35 Arm based computer can do. More on that later…