A clever group of whippersnappers have got the right idea when it comes to home entertainment, namely, LinuxMCE-based systems that don't break the bank but offer a pretty stacked feature set. Fiire, a company which manufactures and sells modular media boxes and remotes aimed at unifying your
media center has a few items it'd like you to see. The whole shebang is based around the FiireEngine, a $799 box that acts as a central hub to your media world, and features an
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, RAID support for six eSATA drives (for a total capacity of 6TB), and an
NVIDIA 6200 graphics chipset. The system has DVI, VGA, component, and S-Video outs, but strangely no HDMI -- which might be a deal-breaker for some. The Engine is meant to be accessed through the company's FiireStations ($499-899), set-top boxes or wallmount units that stream media from the FiireEngine to any location you want, using low voltage processors and a frugal selection of hardware. Finally, to control the open-source system, the company offers the FiireChief ($149), a multi-function remote which can "follow" a user from room to room, allowing you start a video in one spot, move to another, and have the players automatically switch locations. All in all, a fairly interesting package from a somewhat unknown company, though how integrated the system is remains to be seen, and the lack of HDMI support is a little troubling.
posted Aug 15th 2007 11:12PM
While the Fiire hardware is definitely cool, you can try out LinuxMCE on your own hardware. The software is pretty awesome, even if it's still a little unpolished. The flexibility of the design (it's a fork of Pluto http://www.plutohome.com) is really cool. You can add support for almost any hardware with an open interface (with varying amounts of work). It has support for light control, media control, etc.
The demo video is here and is worth a watch: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Screenshots
http://www.linuxmce.com
Pity the interface is ugly as all hell...
No HDMI? pfft...not worth it
DVI + optical = HDMI. It's just two cables versus one.
Hate to point out the obvious, but the reason there is no HDMI support is the hardware here is just a standard PC box. I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any (cheap) HDMI output cards yet. so I wouldn't act overly surprised that it's missing...
You're mistaken. Many cards have HDMI now. Even cheaper models.
You're right, I see that now, should have done my research... That's kinda cool actually...
Additionally, DVI pretty much IS HDMI from a protocol standpoint, except DVI has a different plug and doesn't carry sound. As long as the DVI port supports HDCP, it should be fully HDMI compatible with the addition of a cheap cable or adaptor.
HDMI also supports 10-bit and 12-bit color. DVI does not.
As sad as it is, without DRM support a Linux box can't realize it's potential. Legal premium content will never be available for this thing.
If you're going to let legalities keep you from putting your media where it belongs, you must think your politicians are what, competent?
No such blasphemy here. If you must buy DRM'ed stuff, there will always be a way to remove that crap and own your media.
Who the hell said anything about buying?
I'm talking about subscription services. You know, like cable TV? HBO, Vongo, Netflix, etc. The kind of thing that can't even exist without DRM?
dvi=>hdmi cable...problem solved..
Sorry bud, it's not that simple.
First of all, DVI has a smaller color depth than HDMI can carry.
Secondly, this is for high-end multi-room use. Think of an LCD or plasma mounted on the bedroom wall. Or out by the pool. Or in the kitchen. It doesn't have an optical input. And it certainly doesn't have an AV reciever with 5.1 speakers hooked up to it. How do you get sound to it if the "Fiirestation" isn't located nearby? Only option is to run analog audio to it. And that's a shitty option. Having audio over HDMI can solve logistical issues.
Is it a huge deal? No. But if you're investing thousands of dollars to have a high-end multi-room home theater setup like this - I'd be really pissed if I was stuck with DVI.
sean...you probably shouldn't invest in one of these...guy
Exactly what Chase said, I don't think the lack of HDMI is really much of a problem considering a simple DVI to HDMI cable and an audio cable will do fine. If no HDMI is a deal-breaker for you then you probably aren't looking at a box like this anyway.
but can it play doo-, no wait, can it play XBMC? no? then I don't care.
It probably can play doom. I don't know what the other thing is.
Brilliant idea though, seeking out things you don't care about and declaring it...
XBMC is presently being ported to Linux, so it probably can play XBMC.
well, then it's much better to run xbmc on a $700 linux machine then a $100 xbox... :-p
The software is the open source: www.plutohome.com. While in theory it is a great solution... we spent considerable resources working directly with Pluto to impliment this exact solution. As of February of this year this was an utter unuseable P.O.S. The video these guys demo probably took 3 weeks to actually configure the PC. Honestly, the compatibility with hardware etc is very very poor and limited. Execusion on the software is very poor... UI is a joke... support is out of Eastern Europe and this is when we were working direcly with the company... can't imagine how far up shit creek an actual user will be.
Sorry... truth hurts
Hey, it could be worse. They could have used windows.
Mom, is this a cruel joke? I put in that blu-ray disk you got me and WHAM! The screen goes blue... Hey, what are those little words?... Memory.. access violation... at... SU628UF7H15...
Dang.
OK, reformatted the internal hard drive... Invalid license number? What the heck?
apparently from what V said, no it couldn't be worse ethan. windows media centre works better than what he describes. which is sad, cuz I expect more from all things linux, but whatever. thanks for the insight V.
I'm 100% certain V isn't really a Pluto customer because we've never had complaints like he mentions. But, here in this open forum, I'll say "V", if you post a reply with the invoice number(s) for whatever goods or services you claim to have obtained from Pluto, I'll see to it your purchase is refunded immediately. If we don't make good on that promise you'll be able to expose us by posting whatever receipts you have to a blog. The other dead give away that "V" isn't legit is that he says 'hardware compatibility' is bad. It's widely known that Linux doesn't have the driver support that Windows does so the first thing we always do a customer is get them the proper hardware configuration, and once they have it, the system is installed in running in less than 30 minutes. This is all irrelevant anyway because the article is about Fiire, not Pluto, which runs LinuxMCE and not Pluto.
Wish they would just sell the case.
These Fiire LinuxMCE products sound very interesting. The vid is great. Are there other outfits making these LinuxMCE appliances?
We're a UK based company and an LMCE integrator/installer and we will be launching our Dianemo product in a few weeks. Dianemo is not a fork of LMCE but adds additional functionality/features targeted at the European market. See here http://www.dianemo.co.uk