How do I turn my FreeBSD desktop into a set-top box?

[Ben Woods]

On 18 October 2015 at 05:47, Dave <freebsd01 at dgmm.net> wrote:

> On Saturday 17 October 2015 17:04:42 Aryeh Friedman wrote:
> > Any ideas? (What hardware and stuff out the ports collection).... please
> > keep hardware limited to anything available in a computer superstore like
> > MicroCenter (not special order or web only)
> >
>
> Have a look at MythTV and Kodi.
>
> ...
>
> In particular, my non-technical wife can easily handle Kodi using her
> tablet or smartphone as the remote with the Kodi Remote App.


I personally use a plexmediaserver backend media storage / database on the
home network and install plexhometheater on the Home Theater PC. This would
stream the content over the home network, which works well over wifi, but
the plexmediaserver and plexhometheater could easily both be installed on
the 1 machine (the Home Theater PC).

I am the port maintainer for plexhometheater, but am not in any way
affiliated with the project. I like the way the plexmediaserver handles the
media metadata, and track what you have watched, and for TV series shows
you the next episode you haven't yet watched ("on deck").

You could also use a emby-server backend server, with any UPnP playback
software. Kodi is good.

Regards,
Ben