My Old Laptop.....Media Center?

[thebrandon]

So I have this older IBM T41 laptop that my son has decided to rip all the keys off of. The battery is worn out, the screen is a bit dark, and overall its in pretty rough shape so I was thinking maybe I could just use the vga out and plug it into my tv and make it a little media center pc. I was hoping for suggestions on how to go about this. Should I use mediabuntu or just ubuntu with something like boxee? Also what is the best way to get remote control on the tv. I have a ps3 and I know that there is a way to get the controller to work but I dont want to be controlling the ps3 and laptop simultaneously! Mainly I am looking for something that might fill in the gaps where my ps3 lacks like possibly watching mkv files through my media server or even just playing a snes emulator.

[Pollox]

It seems you've already considered the option of just using your PS3. Do note ps3mediaserver can transcode videos on the fly so they'll play on your PS3 (I'm assuming you're familiar with the ability to stream videos from your computer to your PS3), so that would deal with your mkv issue. There are a lot of great media center apps for ubuntu. XBMC is a great one, and can even run as its own OS (no Ubuntu needed), so perhaps that might be a good option if you're concerned about keeping your install lightweight and just want to do video. Otherwise, I'd say do an Ubuntu install (so you can play your emulators on the tv) and then install something like Boxee, XBMC, Moovida, Mediatomb, whichever for easier viewing of videos with a remote. Perhaps it would be worth investing in a wireless or bluetooth remote just for the laptop, although a wireless mouse would probably work fine too. Hopefully that gives you some ideas. Have fun.