Beast/Cheapest TV Streaming Solution? - Page 3

The thing keeping me from that is that mine is used as a home server as well, with a boatload of RAID storage and a whole bunch of other things running behind the scenes. Everything there needs to be *nix.

XBMC is awesome though.

It's because Netflix uses Microsoft's Silverlight rather than Flash. Which means you must use Windows or a Mac, and nothing else. Netflix could use Flash, which works on any Linux OS. Maybe Micro$oft bribed them?

It's a DRM issue with the content owners. Their DRM solution works with silverlight (and apparently not yet with the linux copy moonlight) so they require windows or osX...and MS is probably not going to release a linux version of silverlight anytime soon. What is annoying is that a lot of those set-top-boxes or smart TVs actually have a linux kernel in them and netflix is fine with pumping content to them.

Honestly, I think it is stupid. Everything on netflix already has a perfectly good pirate torrent floating around. If I wanted to pirate a TV show that was on netflix, I would just head over to TV-Torrents, and download everything at once...and then I would download all of the episodes from the current season that have already aired but won't be on netflix for a year. Nobody is pirating the content from netflix, because it shows up sooner in other venues--and piracy is a race where there is no second place.
There isn't much need for tough DRM on a netflix stream, so why not open it up to linux users?

It won't generate a ton of money (they will get some subscribers...but not millions), but there are enough programmers out there who would do the work for free, that just releasing the specifications would be all it takes to get a working linux version.

Are you looking for something HiFi, surround sound, deep bass, or just a little more oomph compared to the built in TV speakers. Budget?

It's a DRM issue. I usually just run windows in a VM to get around it. Apparently there is now a Wine port of Silverlight that will work; have yet to try it though.

$50 won't get you much of anything tbh. I was thinking depending on the outputs on your TV perhaps you could get a D-Class T Amp and some solid bookshelf speakers off of craigslist.

*edit* If you have a heapdhone output on your TV with volume controllable by your remote then this is a T Amp that you could get

http://www.amazon.com/LP-2020A-Lepai-Tripath-Class-T-Amplifier/dp/B0049P6OTI/ref=pd_sim_e_1

and power something like these

http://www.amazon.com/Dayton-B652-2-Inch-Bookshelf-Speaker/dp/B002RMPHMU/ref=sr_1_2?s=aht&ie=UTF8&qid=1359495564&sr=1-2

Otherwise you will need some kind of home audio receiver, which will be more $, that has it's own remotely controlled volume.

Or this soundbar system when it's back in stock

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-CSS2123B-SoundBar-Cinema-Speakers/dp/B007B5WHTE/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&rps=1&ie=UTF8&qid=1359496167&sr=1-10&keywords=soundbar
Edited by whiteslashasian - 1/29/13 at 1:50pm

head out to the supermarket and look for a guy in a white van. he sells amazing speakers in your price range.

Thrift store for sure.

I know a couple of stores around here that usually have decent speakers. nothing fancy, but something better than a TV speaker for not too much $$. You could even just get computer speakers and hook them to the headphone jack.

If you get regular speakers, an amp like w/a suggested would work. I have one with the same amplifier chip, but I bought an ebay model for a few more bucks that looks a lot nicer and is almost the size of a pack of cards.

Otherwise, there are often a lot of old home theater receivers on craigslist or at the thrift store. People are throwing them up to upgrade to units with HDMI hookups. You can hook up an audio out/headphone jack to the RCA inputs on one of these and use it just fine for audio.
This way, you get a remote control which might be more useful than adjusting the volume with the headphone jack.