What *nix distribution for media playback on NUC?

Lil'John

Senior member
Dec 28, 2013
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Title sort of states it.

I have a NAS that will either serve up media(music and video) directly as a file(.mp3, .mp4) or using uPnP service. Full details of NAS are still being worked out.

I have a D34010WYK NUC on the way that will have a 240GB SSD. The NUC will only play movie or music content. It will do nothing else. No web browsing, no games.

So the question is what *nix distribution would do the best for media playback?

The last distribution I used was Ubuntu many years ago.
 

Lil'John

Senior member
Dec 28, 2013
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I'll start looking into OpenELEC.

So far, the install makes it seem like you sneeze and it is installed:eek:

It isn't quite clear yet to me. But it appears to allow playing of mp4(mp3) files directly. But I would need some sort of a plug in to play uPnP streams.

Forgot to add that it would be nice to be able to do Netflix/Hulu. Is this another plug in? Or out of luck?
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
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Forgot to add that it would be nice to be able to do Netflix/Hulu. Is this another plug in? Or out of luck?

Openelec is basically the Kodi OS, and what Kodi is (an open source media center) prevents it from playing nice with the Hulus and Netflixs of the world.

My personal advice is to let some other device do the Netflixing and Hulu. I have tried every configuration and there is no way to access Netflix that is as slick with a remote as what my Samsung Blu Ray player offers. These sorts of devices have a Netflix app made for that device, while on a PC at best you are forcing the desktop or Metro app to play ball with remote. It is the very definition of a hack, and can lead to poor usability for less sophisticated users. With a two device solution you can have the best of local media playback (Kodi) and the best of streaming media playback (Netflix, Hulu) with all the complication (switching inputs, etc) hidden behind a Logitech Harmony. It is the most wife acceptable solution I have personally found, and I have tried almost anything.

If you must have a single box to rule them all, a FLIRC plus either a properly configured Ubuntu with the Netflix Streaming Client or Windows running the Metro Netflix is as good as it gets.