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• Launchpad entry: none yet

• Contributors: Sébastien GRIPON

• Packages affected:

Summary

This specification describes the Ubuntu Media Center Software (aka UMC).

This effort, which is supported by the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMediaCenterTeam Ubuntu Media Center Team], will try to bring the Ubuntu paradigm (easy to install / use / update, beautiful artwork, feature rich and complete, ...) to this area.

It will only address the distribution part, that is to say an Ubuntu based system with multimedia features and out-of-the-box personal media center. Another [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MediaCenter/SoftwareSpecs Spec] will address the creation softwares included in this distribution.

This specification also supersed the [https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuMediaCenter UMC previous attempt] done by Sébastien Gripon. This one is still kept for the comments.

Rationale

Ubuntu Media Center is available as a standalone distribution. The corresponding live CD exists in two versions :

• The light version is based on fbdev for dedicated appliance that needs a quick boot and with which not many packages are needed. This version can be installed on an hard disk for media center purpose only.
• The standard version is based on the Ubuntu Live CD. This version allows the user to switch to a standard desktop for working with other Ubuntu applications. This version is intended to be used for the installation of the Ubuntu Media Center distribution on hard disk.

It should be interested to also make UMC available for embedded systems like set-top-boxes. But this is probably another project !

Use cases

- Evann installs a "Ubuntu Media Center" distribution. Media Center packages are installed automatically, configuration is done during the system installation process : media files places (movies, music...), hardware configuration (TV tuner, remote control...). When the system boots, the Media Center is automatically launched (To be defined : maybe two different entries in Grub can be used to launch directly the media center or not).

- Celia wants to test the Ubuntu distribution and she wants her distribution to integrate a multimedia center for all the movies, music and pictures she has. She can use the "Ubuntu Media Center Live CD".

- Noam has a standard Ubuntu installed. He wants to move to "Ubuntu Media Center" : additional packages are installed and configuration is done after package installation.

- Nans owns an old PC that he wants to turn into a media box plugged on his TV set. "Ubuntu Media Center light" distribution allows him to have all the power of Ubuntu for the only Media Center Use.

Scope

Design

The core of UMC (umc-core) is available as a meta-package that includes the media center software and all required tools. This core is able to work on any UMC version: UMC Live CD, UMC light Live CD, installed UMC and installed UMC light.

The milestone 1 of UMC will be a standard Ubuntu distribution with the umc-core meta-package. A fresh installation of UMC provides :

• A fully functional Ubuntu distribution
• A functional Media Center Software
• A properly configured and functional remote control.

Implementation

Code

Data preservation and migration

Switching from Ubuntu to Ubuntu Media Center should not be a problem for data preservation. Only additional packages are installed and the migration is quite similar to a migration to KUbuntu for example.

Unresolved issues

BoF agenda and discussion

CategorySpec