Moovida

Earlier I wrote about Elisa, the Media Center application that later was renamed Moovida.

If you want to give Moovida a try, Ubuntugeek.com has recently posted an article with a installation guide (using the PPA) for this free media player that plays all your files – AVI,mp3,MKV,DivX,MOV,MP4.

Source: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/moovida-free-media-player-play-all-your-files-avimp3mkvdivxmovmp4.html

No More Elisa

Today I wanted to visit the elisa.fluendo.com and I was very suprised to discover that I was being redirected to www.moovida.com

The big news is that Moovida 1.0 has been released. Moovida is what used to be called Elisa, with more coolness in it. There's a new interface which is suppose to be super slick (haven't tried it yet).

Did you know? I didn't!

Check it out here: http://www.moovida.com/

MythTV 0.22 Will Rock You!

This might be old news to you, but I've totally missed it. MythTV 0.22 Will Rock You!

This is not an actual screenshot from MythTv 0.22

I think it's been almost two years since I tried MythTv, and my experience wasn't exactly pleasant. Patrick Wagstrom (that wrote the post in the link above) highlights many of the points, I would bring up myself.
The one thing that is bugging me most about MythTv is certainly the lack of bling (which is still an issue today). Back then all the manual configurations would also make me give up halfway through the installation.
Today, I dualboot Ubuntu / Vista and run MS MediaCenter which fits my basic needs. Actually, the first open-source project I ever got involved with was MediaPortal, which only runs on top of Windows.

I'm still waiting for a slick and user-friendly Linux replacement, and I really really hope the near future will bring that. On this blog you might have read about Elisa . I am an Elisa lover! It just works, has very frequent releases and is super slick. Elisa has currently no TV support, but it is planed for later releases. Though this might still be far away, I'm really looking forward to this feature landing.

Back on the topic of this blog post. The news Patrick Wagstrom posted has made me reconsider MythTv and now I will have to take the next release for a test drive. The biggest change in the 0.22 release of MythTV will probably be the new MythUI library with all new capabilities.

Read more here:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/MythUIDemoTheme
http://patrick.wagstrom.net/weblog/2008/12/11/why-mythtv-022-will-rock-you/
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Release_Notes_-_0.22

Elisa Media Center Appliance

James Willcox has created a media center appliance with SUSE Studio to see how hard it would be. The appliance is based on openSUSE 11.1, and boots right into the excellent Elisa Media Center. You can download the image here. The tarball contains one file, which you can ‘dd’ to a USB storage device. On the first boot it will do some one-time setup like repartition and resize the disk, install NVIDIA or ATI video drivers (if appropriate), and setup X. Essentially SUSE Studio is a web interface which allows you to build your own customized version of SUSE. You can select packages, do some configuration, and even add your own branding.

What can you do with SUSE Studio?

* Create a tuned server appliance, containing your application and just enough operating system components
* Spin a live CD or DVD with just the packages and software you need
* Create a ready-to-run VMware virtual appliance
* Create a live USB key and carry your Linux system with you wherever you go
* Build a hard disk image for preloading onto hardware
* Install from your live CD, DVD or USB key to your hard drive

Download Elisa Media Center Appliance


Source: http://snorp.net/

Elisa Job Offer

Elisa is entering in a new growing phase and they are looking for talented engineers to join their team. Several positions are open. Read the full news for details.

Elisa is an open source cross-platform media center connecting the Internet to an all-in-one media player. It features an intuitive interface with a professional look and feel which can be easily used with a standard TV remote control.



Job offer: python engineer UI orientated, backend or web developement.

Elisa is a free and open source media center working on Windows and Linux. The goal of the project is to provide software that lets the user enjoy their multimedia content in an easy and user-friendly way, on a television or on a computer monitor. It organizes the media collection and gives rapid access to watching videos, pictures, and listening to music while simultaneously interacting with contextual information and services. Elisa features a very animated, interactive user interface whose success depends on good usability and aesthetics.

On the technical side it relies on 3D hardware acceleration to provide inexpensive and fluid user experience. Although Elisa is written in Python it uses a handful of base libraries written in C, such as GStreamer for media playback, Pigment, its graphical engine, which in turn uses OpenGL to take advantage of the graphical hardware.

Elisa has been in development for over 2 years and is close to its first stable release. The company will enter a new growing phase, and we are looking for talented engineers to help us become a leader in media experience.

Motivation and a genuine will to create a usable and useful piece of software for everyone are the keys for a successful applicant. Severals positions are opened :

UI development:
* Build an innovative user interface with OpenGL
* Create new 3D effects and visualization mode

Web development:
* Manage the software and the community website
* Build web services to improve Elisa
* Build internal procedure and company intranet with the management

Core and plugins integration :
* Add new services to Elisa
* Help contributors to create and integrate new plugins in Elisa
* Work on Elisa's core

Our internal organization creates opportunity to change from a position to another during the development process. The working language is English.

Please send your resume to: lionel@fluendo.com

source: http://elisa.fluendo.com/news/31/