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[Fatalah]

If so, how did you do it? Seems like a fun weekend project, I've got an old computer that boots up really slow with Windows XP.

I know there's an Ubuntu server edition... Maybe regular Ubuntu is a little easier to configure for a regular guy like me?

 

[The_Inquisitor]

I considered it. But then again I thought the power consumption would suck along with performance. I believe HP came out with a line of cheap computers that suited that need. You could also get a cheap mac mini and mod it to act like an apple tv.

But that's not what you want of course.

Try this link.

http://rubbervir.us/projects/ubuntu_media_server/

 

[Blackface]

Just build a small atom based machine. Lower power consumption, in expensive and easy to use.

I would suggest Windows Home Server over Ubuntu though.

 

[ShowDog]

I tried this, but couldn't set up networking correctly between XP and OSX. I tried many tutorials, but the damn XP box would never behave like it should and I couldn't figure out why. I'm pretty good with computers, but the particulars of networking still manage to confound me regularly when I'm forced to troubleshoot. Power usage was another downside to the experiment.

 

[Ceres]

It's not really a media server but my desktop is set to share all my music and other random folders so we can access them on the network with our laptops. I actually just saw the 120-day free trial of Windows Home Server and considered it but I don't know if I want to pay for another operating system.

 

[Gallbaro]

I am using windows 7 beta, its networking features are pretty good. But alas we know nothing about what you mean to do with media server, as in TV, Music, Pictures, Internet TV, Videos.

And I pray to Allah it was not me who started you down this path.

 

[thatbox]

my old desktop is my only desktop

 

[Ecto311]

Streaming the the xbox has me happy for now. I was going to make a media server type but I just leave my normal computer on most of the time and stream it to the 360.

 

[aoi tsuki]

i've got an old Athlon XP1700+ that runs Ubuntu as a living room media server/web kiosk. i really did it for shits since i wiped XP off the drive to put it on another machine and had Ubuntu running so well on it. It definitely consumes more power than it needs to, but 98% of the time it's just acting as a remote file server.

Before that i had a Pentium II 400MHz laptop performing the same function. :lol

Can't really tell you how i did it, but there's a number of Ubuntu networking guides out there. i'm sure Windows Home Server makes it painless, as file sharing between XP, Vista, and Ubuntu has been a pain, but i really wanted a *nix box in the house, and i'm not putting out for a Mac just yet.

 

[Pachael]

I've used my old P4 and turned it into a media server - it's on Media Centre XP but hooked up with a TV tuner and to the big TV, so there's automatic programming of shows I like and there's even MCEBuddy on it to convert the shows to PSP format for on the go watching. I also use it for media sharing (music, TV) and occasionally gaming (TF2 big screen is not bad)

That said, the biggest problem I face with it is space, as 250GB is really small these days.

Power's an issue but I'm not that willing to start over, though if I did it would likely to be Atom based.