We have been supporting more than 28 project ideas in the net culture labs during the last two years. Three of them converged to a home media suite, which we could present to telecom operators this week.

Nowadays our digital devices have an entropic behaviour: we loose control, where our music, photos and videos are stored and can be retrieved. Due to legal and bandwidth restrictions, we do not want to store all at some portals in the Internet. So we have them on USB sticks, memory cards, DVDs and harddisk. Sharing media within all family members can be a major logistics task.

One approach is to set up a server, which manages all our media and gives access to individuals by various channels. But doesn't a server consume a lot of power and makes noise?

The solution we came up is:

1. Hardware is built with extra low power components, with undervolted CPUs and fans, which you do not hear, if they really need to cool down, 1 TB hard disc, green labeled, built into noise reduction case.
2. Operating system based on Ubuntu 8.10 on an 8 GB USB quick-stick
3. MythTV home media server software, allowing to record TV programs in advance (simply by entering keywords like "Bond", recording all episodes which are ever broadcasted on any channel on your satellite dish or IPTV channels), with full connectivity to Web, WAP and your local home network, allowing other clients to watch movies, listen to your music database or see photo slides.

We have done some modding and patching to all components in the last weeks and could showcase a perfect home media center consuming only 22 W in idle mode. YOu can connect your flat screen with HDMI and it is capable to handle full HD and surround audio. It is easy to use and can be easily maintained through Ubuntu's package manager.