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OpenELEC 7.0 is a Linux-based operating system built around Kodi media center

Have an old PC lying around that you don’t use much anymore? You might be able to connect it to a TV and turn it into a media center. There are a lot of ways to do that, but one interesting method is to install OpenELEC. It’s a Linux-based operating system that’s built around the […]

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Audio over HDMI comes to Intel Cherry Trail PCs running Linux

Computers with Intel Atom Cherry Trail processors generally offer better performance than models with older Bay Trail chips. For example, the 2nd-gen Intel Compute Stick with an Atom x5-Z8300 outperformed the 1st-gen model with an Atom Z3735F chip in pretty much every CPU and graphics speed test I could throw at it. But there’s one area […]

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Lilbits 315: Ubuntu on everything

Ubuntu Linux seems to be having a moment. Or a bunch of moments, really. The developers at Canonical have been working for years to bring the popular Linux-based operating system to new types of devices, and a few weeks ago pre-orders opened for the first Ubuntu tablet to support “convergence,” allowing you to switch between a desktop […]

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WeTek OpenELEC Box is a $91 Kodi media center

OpenELEC is a Linux-based operating system designed to basically run one app: the Kodi media center. You can install OpenELEC on a PC to turn your computer into a multimedia device with a full-screen user interface for watching movies, streaming online video, listening to music, and performing other tasks. Now the folks behind OpeneELEC have teamed […]

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Alternatives to Windows Media Center (Make your own Home Theater PC)

Want to turn your PC into a digital video recorder and media center box? For more than a decade Microsoft has made that by offering Windows Media Center. But when Windows 10 ships in the summer of 2015 it won’t include Media Center. The good news is that there are still some good options available […]

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OpenELEC 5.0: Linux-based OS focused on Kodi 14 media center

There are plenty of ways to turn a PC into a media center, but one popular (and powerful) option is to install Kodi, the application formerly known as XBMC. Kodi presents a full-screen, remote control-friendly user interface for navigating music, videos, photos, and other content. It also supports plug-ins that let you stream content from […]

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Lilbits (5-14-2014): Mozilla adds DRM to Firefox, isn’t happy about it

Want to use your web browser to stream video from services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and BBC iPlayer? You’ll need to put up with the DRM (Digital Rights Management) features used by those services — content owners want to make sure you don’t save or redistribute videos, watch them in countries where they don’t have redistribution rights, […]

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OpenELEC 3.0 released: Light-weight OS brings XBMC to more devices

OpenELEC is a Linux-based operating system designed to support the XBMC media center application. It basically turns a PC into a media center which brings audio, video, pictures, and more to your TV. The OpenELEC team has released version 3.0, which is based on XBMC 12.1 and which includes versions which support the Raspberry Pi […]

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Arctic releases a tiny $229 Linux PC designed for XBMC

Arctic is now selling a small form-factor desktop computer with an Intel Atom processor, AMD Radeon HD graphics, and a Linux-based operating system designed to support the XBMC Media Center application. In other words, for $229 you can pick up a low-power computer with an open source media center, the hardware to handle high-definition video, […]