Media Directors
Media directors are PC devices, connected to the Linux MCE Core through your home LAN, which playback the audio and video managed by the LinuxMCE system. A single PC on the network can be a combined ("hybrid") Core and Media Director, or you can have one dedicated Core and multiple Media Directors. (Of course, you can have one hybrid Core/Media Director with additional peripheral Media Directors, as well.)
While a dedicated core can be hidden in a closet or somewhere, each Media Director is generally attached to a TV or entertainment center. As such, it has requirements similar to a Home Theater PC (good graphics and sound cards, low noise, low heat production).
In general, the Core (or hybrid Core/Media Director) does a lot of the functions of a home theater PC for the entire system, so that a Media Director by itself does not need all the functions of a high-end home theater PC.
While most high-end home theater PCs are suitable for use as Media Directors and are ideal as a hybrid Core/Media Director, in general there are several customised systems that can be found (or built) far less expensively for use as individual Media Directors.
Generally your other AV devices are connected to your media director. In the LinuxMCE admin panel, the A/V devices are specified first, before adding settings for the media directors. This is done because the Core keeps track of the controls and settings of all devices centrally. It is possible to netboot Media Directors from the Core, so all settings for all Media Directors and devices are stored in the Core.
| Generic PC | Other Media Directors |
