A fun project that you can do with open source software and some carefully chosen hardware is to build yourself a media centre PC. This is a very different computing experience from a desktop or netbook, it can stream content from the Internet to your TV, act as a PVR, be a jukebox and stream media files to devices such as Internet radios in your home. When you connect a computer to your TV though you need a very different user interface to control it compared to a desktop or a netbook, everything must be visible and usable from ten feet away from the screen, content and functionality navigable by a simple remote control, and even content must be different, more video and audio focused and less text heavy. On Linux systems we're really lucky in having a wide range of media centre software options, popular choices include Boxee, MythTV, XBMC and Freevo. The problem is that these tend to run on top of desktop versions of Linux and certain functionality requires that you exit "set top box" mode and use a desktop or the command line.
For example Mythbuntu is a great remix of Ubuntu that is designed to run on your set top box, in it programs that appear in Ubuntu but aren't related to media centres (e.g. OpenOffice) are removed and some utilities have been added to help set up your system for use with MythTV. Once you have Mythbuntu set up your computer will boot straight into MythTV giving you a pretty good set top box experience. However, there is a problem that if you want to do certain tasks such as connect to a network or update software packages you must exit to a traditional desktop and run utilities that were designed for use with a mouse and keyboard.
Another example is the system I have where I am running Boxee on top of an Ubuntu Netbook Remix installation on my Acer Aspire Revo nettop. This generally works really well, you can even add applications inside Boxee that are designed to use the made-for-tv user interface functionality that Boxee provides. This enhances the the set top box experience, but when it comes to certain tasks such as connecting to a network and package management you have to exit Boxee and work with the operating system. I use Netbook Remix here as some parts of the design actually work quite well with a TV, the large icons and the automaximising windows work well when you are sat a distance away from the screen, but sadly you can't control the interface with a remote control, a keyboard and mouse are required.
When I was developing the Open University application for Boxee I really got a feel for how different TV-friendly interfaces are from desktop interfaces, the difference is as great as between desktop and mobile phone. This combined with the problems above has made me think more about what could be done to help with a set top box experience, is there a parallel here with netbooks? These introduced some challenges for user interface design that made traditional desktop user interfaces under perform as a good computing experience. Innovations such as the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface made these machine much more pleasurable to use.
If someone designed an "Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix" what would it look like? Would it make sense to integrate functionality such the ability to connect to wireless networks and update packages directly into software such as Boxee though plugins, or would it be better to design something like the Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface for TV with everything usable with a few button presses on a remote control? The interface would need to be extendable to meet new functionality requirements such as being able to connect to mobile broadband networks, or a set top box provider might want to include functionality for their customer to manage their account. The software installation process could be redesigned as most of the packages are designed for desktop use, your could have something like the large icons of the Jolicloud application installer to highlight applications designed for media centre use. It might be that some of the answers to these questions could be found in existing designs, the large icons and layout of the Netbook Remix interface might be a good starting point to a STB Remix interface.
I like having a computer running open source media centre software in my living room as I feel it enables me to explore the whole idea of what it means to connect your TV and home stereo to the Internet. It is a really different experience of Internet use to just using your computer. My Internet radio treats DAB, FM and Internet radio in much the same way, and it is strange but using devices rather than a browser to access Internet content just feels very different. Having a version of Ubuntu for set top boxes might be a really nice base to build a media center system on and to make it feel more natural to use as a set top box, similar to how you would use other set top boxes. I suppose this might also make it more appealing to people who say that they don't enjoy using computers, or associate it with work, but will quite happily come home and use an interactive TV system! Of course it doesn't have to be Ubuntu, it could be a different distribution, but this is an area where open source software is the only real option, proprietary systems wouldn't be able to provide the openness or flexibility to provide a system that could grow and change as the concept of the media centre set top box grows and develops.
*** Update 19th August 2009 ***
This blog post was discussed on the Ubuntu UK Podcast episode S02E11, details are here: http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2009/08/19/s02e11-slipback/
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
I too have pondered such a device. Something that "just works" out of the box would be smashing.
Unfortunately it's difficult to compete on price with other STB manufacturers. Take for example my current freeview STB (a Humax PVR-9200T) which is a few years old now and was about £200 new. It would be quite difficult to price up a machine with storage, network, remote etc for a similar price point. I appreciate that you can run a frontned mythtv box on a real budget, but have a bulkier backend box to do the recording, but for a STB to sell well IMO it needs to be stand-alone.
For example it's possible to get an ATOM 330 based Zotac ION board fairly cheaply, then you need to add in the cost of the case, remote, pci TV card and son on. Of course you could omit the PCi TV card completely if you went for just the boxee approach of watching only streamed and downloaded programmes. However the competition can do live TV pausing, recording of multiple TV channels and so on, so that's what you're up against.
So if you can't compete on price the other option is compete on features. MythTV is of course more feature rich than my Humax, but the question is, if it's that good surely people will already be selling hardware with MythTV pre-installed.
"However, there is a problem that if you want to do certain tasks such as connect to a network or update software packages you must exit to a traditional desktop and run utilities that were designed for use with a mouse and keyboard."
You could SSH in from somewhere else and do it :)
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Hi Alan,
I got a Revo for £150, that's not a bad price! I know what you mean about the Humax boxes, I've got the Freesat one, and it does (mostly) deliver a "just works" experience, but being a geek and an experimenter that isn't really enough for me, I like the cutting edge nature of Boxee and the concept of hooking your TV to the Internet, and for the first time I think we're at a point where the cost of such experimentation isn't prohibitive (only a couple of years ago if you bought a media centre PC you'd have to part with a lot more cash). SSHing into the box and running it that way can be great, and treating it as a server is a good approach, but I am wondering if it is time for an alternative approach, what can be retuned, remixed, rethought to build an operating system experience designed for a TV? It would be an interesting design challenge if nothing else.
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Been considering this myself.
You don't mention LinuxMCE? Any reason?
M
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Hi Martyn, I knew there was one I missed out! Yes LinuxMCE is another really interesting project in this area, one I keep meaning to investigate more (I've only seen a video about it so far but it looked impressive). I think there are probably some other Linux media centre projects I've missed out too.
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Interesting article.
I too have pondered this for many years. I have a nice (PVR style) PC case sitting under my desk still from an aborted project a couple of years ago.
To offer something *better* or superior to the Humaxes (we have one too), I think a full Set-top remix is a great idea. But jeez you need some stuff. I'd want a usable web browser, email client, twitter feed etc. All controlable from my chair with a remote. Perhaps a good deal of the work going into the low-res netbook stuff could help with this.
I came across Anjal the other day: http://blogs.gnome.org/sragavan/2009/03/18/announcing-anjal-the-new-mai… Which looks like a decent start for a potential email interface.
Why not create a team/project on Launchpad and get some blueprints started?
It would certainly make an interesting project.
Al
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Hi Al,
It would be an interesting question as to how much would be done by the STB Remix and how much would be done by the media centre software itself, e.g. Boxee or MythTV. Boxee already has the start of a Twitter client in one of its apps. For web content there is the added issue that most web pages were not designed for the screen, so it might be an idea to have something that instead of presenting the web page as is, could take the RSS feed of a web page and turn it into something that would look more like digital teletext (i.e. larger writing, simpler page layout, less on each screen etc).
If there is enough interest it might be fun to put together some blueprints on Launchpad just as a starting point for people to discuss this idea.
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Great idea. As others have pointed out the pile-them-high and sell them cheap offerings from Sky and others are stiff competition in the domestic area, however I think there is a great opportunity for Free software media centres to be popular in smaller hotel chains, B&Bs, ships, seatback TVs in aeroplanes and other places like that. There are real opportunities for funded development projects if the overall solution fits. At the moment MythTV/Mythbuntu trusts the front end a bit too much. There is no real concept of security and being able to give the front end users the freedom to do interesting things without messing up other people using the system. Right now any front end can delete any recording or anything in the media library and there is no way to manage the options available at each front end, or even a robust way to set the parental controls level for a front end.
I think what I am after is a system with loads of flexibility and freedom at the back end and a structure to control and manage the front ends, at least to the point where they can't hurt each other and they can be easily wiped and reset.
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
This is a great article, but I wouldn't forget about the browser. I like Boxee (and its coming installed our new hardware) but there are still times you want to access things that are outside the reach of its plug ins. There are tweaks needed there too, because I'm convinced the browser isn't going away anytime soon.
Re: Is it time for an Ubuntu Set Top Box Remix?
Very true, I quite like the browser that is part of MythTV as an example of a browser on the big screen. Initiatives like YouTube XL make it more compelling to have a browser on a set top box too.