XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux, OSX, Windows, and the original Xbox.

Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers, XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making it available in more than 30 languages.

To install XBMC on ubuntu 9.10 you need to do the following in a terminal window

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 91E7EE5E 318C7509

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xbmc

The playstation 3 remote control uses bluetooth and is pretty cheap (€25,00) if your PC doesn’t have an onboard bluetooth device you also need a BT dongle (about €10,00)

The cool thing about bluetooth is that you don’t have to be in line-of-sight with the PC ; I think it’s way cooler than InfraRed.

How to get the PS3 bluetooth remote working in ubuntu;

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=60713

If you’ve never worked with ubuntu (or linux) before this may not be for you, but there’s also a windows version, a Mac version & even a Live version. Check all the flavours here ;

http://xbmc.org/download/

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