Non Volatile Technologies Pty Ltd, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Non Volatile Technologies Pty Ltd

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA 2227 (ABN 96 078 508 264) Ph:+61 2 9016 4695

"Helping others to have a future assures our own."

Home Theatre PC-base Entertainment System (HTPC)

Over-Arching Objective
There was a superior objective in pursuing this project in that it would provide a means by which the general populace could be introduced to the wonders of Open Source Software. (To learn more see our "About" page.)

General

The HTPC provides a low cost High Definition digital TV capable of recording many channels of free-to-air TV at the same time. The system is totally based on the Ubuntu Linux Operating System and an Open Source Application called MythTV. It typically comes with a high quality surround sound system and so produces excellent "theatre-like" quality sound. The system is also to be capable of performing a wide range of tasks associated with home entertainment such as:

Playing Video DVDs and CDs
Playing high fidelity surround sound music downloaded from the Internet or on commercially available media like CDs
Providing Internet Telephony.
Providing news services.
Providing a full range of common applications one would expect of a home PC such as:

web-browsing (using any one of a number of popular browsers such as Chrome & Mozilla)
email (using Thunderbird or Evolution)
office suite applications (using OpenOffice) to provide a:

wordprocessor,
spreadsheet,
drawing package,
presentation package, and
database

Whilst being useful in the everyday home, the HTPC, because it packs so many features into one appliance, is seen as being particularly useful in townhouses and units where space is at a premium. One of the attractions of this "all-in-one" system was that it would remove the need to have a large number of confusing and difficult to use remote controls. Instead the system would be controlled using a keyboard and mouse pad to navigate through and select from easy to understand on-screen menus.