Shinebox Driven Development: Ditching Dish (How I stopped paying for TV)

Goal #8 of my 2009 Goal List was ditching paid TV and using the internet to resolve those needs. Yesterday I placed the order to cancel my Dish Network subscription and plan to utilize a Gateway M-1624 laptop that my father-in-law dropped. As my luck would have it, he broke the screen but the rest is still intact, including the HDMI out which I am using on my HDTV in the living room.

I started out with a Mythbuntu install and added Boxee, but I could never get the HDMI audio working. I aborted that install and opted for Ubuntu because of the better GUI audio tools (and I not going to using any DVR functionality, anyway). Yes, there is a Boxee Windows version but it is a closed Alpha stage right now (although I did see it on mininova.org). I am going to go from memory here, I got this working a couple of days ago, but it should be close.

1. Install Ubuntu (mine was version 8.10)

2. Update Ubuntu (I had 245 items to install) & Reboot

3. Enable the proprietary drivers (Mine is ATI X1200) & Reboot

4. Install Boxee, per their website

5. Disable the desktop effects (Compiz bad for Boxee)

6. Remove pulseaudio, Install esound

sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio
killall pulseaudio
sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install esound

7. Update Sound Settings

Entire Section Ripped from this website:

http://www.mandladventures.com/2008/11/03/ubuntu-810-hdmi-sound-configuration/

For your system to play sounds through your graphics card’s HDMI port, you need to tell Ubuntu to use the graphics card sound system VS your motherboard’s. This is the intuitive change. Go to System > Preferences > Sound. On the Devices tab, change all of the options excluding sound capture (e.g., Sound Events, Music and Movies, Audio Conferencing, and Default Mixer Tracks) to HDA ATI HDMI ATI HDMI (ALSA).

The next sound change is less intuitive; it requires you to double click on the speaker icon in your top panel to bring up the Volume Control menu. On this menu, change the Device drop down list option to “HDA ATI HDMI (Alsa mixer) and then select the Preferences button near the bottom right. On the preferences menu, check the IEC958 Switches track to be visible and then close the preferences screen. Back on the Volume Control screen, you should now have an IEC958 option on a Switches tab. Check this option and close the Volume Control menu.