*nix questions from a real noobie

[robphelan]

*nix is almost completely foreign to me.. i think i tried to get DSL up and running on an IBM Netvista thin client (on a CF card).

other than that, no experience.

I need help understanding some things:

1) compatibility - if I wanted to set up a video server to stream vids to my modded xbox, can *nix do this?

2) Can *nix play .avi/.mpg/original DVDs etc.. files?

I'm assuming yes to all of the above as long as I can find the appropriate codecs/players - but i don't even know where to begin looking.

thanks for the input.

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: robphelan
*nix is almost completely foreign to me.. i think i tried to get DSL up and running on an IBM Netvista thin client (on a CF card).

other than that, no experience.

I need help understanding some things:

1) compatibility - if I wanted to set up a video server to stream vids to my modded xbox, can *nix do this?

2) Can *nix play .avi/.mpg/original DVDs etc.. files?

I'm assuming yes to all of the above as long as I can find the appropriate codecs/players - but i don't even know where to begin looking.

thanks for the input.

yes it can.

1. I know MCE has some software that is special, but if you aren't looking for that, it's all just file sharing, using Samba (which isn't too tough...especially with SWAT)

2. Yes, I do it all the time. Finding codecs can be hard sometimes, but it's not too bad, especially if you stick to a popular distro, where there will be guides and links. mplayer plays lots of stuff.

 

[w3stfa11]

Ubuntu has an easy-codec installation for those file types. Once you start playing, say a DivX file, it'll prompt you if you want to install the codec for it. It's really easy and straight-forward.