n00b-Friendly Ubuntu Media Player for HTPC?

February 22, 2008 2:30 AM

Is there a n00b-friendly media player for Ubuntu that would work well on a set-top-box set up for broadcatching?

I have Ubuntu set up to broadcatch using Miro, and I'm looking for a GUI or media player that can easily be controlled with a remote. I don't need to be able to record live TV. MythTV is very intimidating and I can't seem to get it to work. Ditto Freevo. I'd like something that can play movies, view photos, and play music ideally. The closest I've found is Oxine. Anything that can be installed via the package manager or add/remove applications would be best.

Thanks!

posted by mamessner to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

I don't have any immediate suggestions, but keep an eye on XBMC - they're working on a linux port, and the Xbox version is brilliant for exactly what you ask.
posted by pocams at 8:09 AM on February 22, 2008

Best answer: Take a look at Elisa. You'll need to add the repository, but here are some simple instructions.

I've got it installed on my desktop but haven't really used it much. The tricky part is editing the config file to point to your media.

If you've already got the remote working, I think it should be fairly trivial to get it working for Elisa (though I've never done anything with remotes). The instructions are at the bottom of that last link.
posted by natabat at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2008

Response by poster: Elisa is perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. I'm still struggling to get the remote to work, but I have it serving up videos that Miro is downloading, as well as music from the music folder and from Shoutcast, and photos from the photos folder and Flickr. And it was really easy to set up, too. You only needed to point to locations in the elisa.conf file with older versions.

Thanks for the tip!
posted by mamessner at 11:45 AM on February 23, 2008