Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 I've been spending some time recently working on my home theater setup and am curious to see what you guys had done for your own setups. Here's mine... Automation software: SABnzbd Sickbeard CouchPotato Presentation software: XBMC Hardware: Gaming PC in office does the downloading and file handling Synology 411j NAS stores files Laptop in living room hosts XBMC and connects to TV Logitech K830 keyboard for controlling laptop from the couch I will eventually build a dedicated HTPC to replace the laptop and also take over the automation software, but making this setup work for now. Are you using your setup for anything other than playing media? I was considering installing some ROMs to play older console games. Look forward to hearing about other systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krambo Posted July 8, 2014 Share Posted July 8, 2014 Can I just ask.. Is the laptop you use connecting to your TV one that has decent display capabilities? For instance does it have to have like HDMI output to display 1080p res on your TV and such? Just assuming the laptop isn't just the go between to provide the network capability? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 8, 2014 Author Share Posted July 8, 2014 Can I just ask.. Is the laptop you use connecting to your TV one that has decent display capabilities? For instance does it have to have like HDMI output to display 1080p res on your TV and such? Just assuming the laptop isn't just the go between to provide the network capability? Cheers The laptop does have HDMI out. I was using my xbox 360 for playing files up until a few weeks ago, but got tired of fighting with file compatibility and what not. Also wanted to give XBMC a go and I like it so far. I also previously tried a WD Live TV for playing files, but it was just too finicky for my liking. I do also have a Chromecast I can use with my Synology apps from my phone, but its not a very smooth experience yet and also has some file type restrictions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted July 9, 2014 Share Posted July 9, 2014 I have a networked PC in my TV room with 4 hard drives and 3 external drives, plus 3 more media drives on my office PC. I originally wanted an interface but its too long winded so I pick the film I want to watch straight from the drives, its a bit of a ball ache since I have to look through 10 drives but I am used to it. I use the electrical circuit for networking (Devolo) and it works well enough to stream 1080p films from the Office to the TV room. Very occasionally a film will stutter but thats rare. When that happens I move it to an external hard drive. Next step will be a NAS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 9, 2014 Author Share Posted July 9, 2014 I have a networked PC in my TV room with 4 hard drives and 3 external drives, plus 3 more media drives on my office PC. I originally wanted an interface but its too long winded so I pick the film I want to watch straight from the drives, its a bit of a ball ache since I have to look through 10 drives but I am used to it. It really depends on how much customization you want to put into your interface and how picky you are. Straight out of the box, I was pretty happy with XBMC. I've made a few tweaks here and there to suit my own personal preference, but it's perfectly usable as a fresh install. With 10 drives, I would venture to say you could benefit greatly from it. Just add each drive as a source and it will do all the work of compiling everything to one central access point and give you all the extra info it scrapes from the internet about each movie or tv show. I have 1,319 movies in my collection and my wife will constantly go through the list and ask me what each one is about... like I remember. Happily, I don't have to answer her questions anymore, XBMC pulls up the movie cover and synopsis for each movie for me. I also like that it keeps track of your "Watched" status; especially handy for TV show episodes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 I am giving XBMC a try. It looks ok, just need to figure out how to make it see all the drives as one drive, then it will be a real step forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 10, 2014 Author Share Posted July 10, 2014 I am giving XBMC a try. It looks ok, just need to figure out how to make it see all the drives as one drive, then it will be a real step forward. Depends on how you have your media dispersed over each drive. You can either add the entire drive as a source or a particular folder on a drive as a source. So, for instance, if you have *only* movies on the "V" drive, you can add the entire V drive as a movie source. However if you had V:\Movies, V:\TV, and V:\Documents, then you'll only want to add V:\Movies as a movie source and separately add V:\TV as a TV source. Once you've added all your drives and/or folder sources, it'll scrape through the drive and populate your library. Depending on how big your collection is, that may take a while. Once it's done just go to "Movies" or "TV Shows" in XBMC and all your media will be there in one list, respectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted July 11, 2014 Share Posted July 11, 2014 Made some more progress today. I see it created new menus for movies and TV Shows. Just need to clean it all up now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 Just need to clean it all up now. That's been the tedious part for me so far. Many of my movies were not labeled in a way that XBMC could figure out which movie it was. If you're missing movies, check your log file and it will tell you what movies were not added to your library due to not being able to get info. Most of mine were due to incorrect titles or misspelling of a word in the title. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krambo Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) I recently purchased a google chrome cast....http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/chrome/devices/chromecast/index.html kinda turns your tv into a smart tv, I am then able to stream content from my Nexus 7 tablet, youtube netflix etc...and any local media I am able to access the USB stick plugged into my router which has films etc on that I can stream through chromecast via DLNA. I can also access media on my PC and stream that through the same app...AI Cloud. Few teething problems with file formats, some files need transcoding which I will take a look at soon. This just seems a cheaper solution than a smart tv at the moment with moving out Edited July 14, 2014 by Krambo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchman~SPARTA~ Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 How are you finding the Chromecast Kram? We're not big tv watchers so are looking to ditch our virgin box and go a cheaper route, maybe just get Netflix for the stuff we do like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krambo Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 To be honest Watchy i've not had much time to look at it yet. Trying to get my head around the DLNA stuff and the apps. It streams fine here without any lag/buffering/stuttering on fibre from router and PC though what i did try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaiSan Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I use an XBMC install with I-Stream http://www.xunitytalk.com/site/istream.html on my Android HiMedia Q5 II I'm in the process of setting up a HTPC as I managed to get hold of a Sony Vaio TP1 http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/sony-vaio-tp1-living-room-pc-core-2-duo-t5600-1-83ghz-2gb-ram-300gb-hdd-vista-home-premium/ Brand new for free so we'll see how that goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 Pretty harsh review on that Vaio, Dai. Haha, but can't beat free, no matter how well it performs. I'll have to watch the vids for that flavor of XBMC tomorrow, I'd probably end up sleeping on the couch if I started them on my phone while the wife is asleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeno~SPARTA~ Posted July 15, 2014 Share Posted July 15, 2014 To be fair in the sum up it was only criticized for price (that is seriously overpriced) and shovelware. As you said Jay you cant beat free and Dai can strip the system to its base (windows) and rebuild it with the software he wants, it looks good. I have too much gear in the TV room PC XBox 360 XBox One Bluray Amp TV I will eventually look into getting into getting it down to the Amp, TV and one other thing. If the XBOne can stream from the network I could scrap the rest and hide a NAS somewhere (eventually will probably never though because of my overwhelming desire to be lazy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter~SPARTA~ Posted July 15, 2014 Author Share Posted July 15, 2014 If the XBOne can stream from the network I could scrap the rest and hide a NAS somewhere (eventually will probably never though because of my overwhelming desire to be lazy). The 360 can stream from DLNA sources, I would guess the One should be able to as well. That would be a weird feature for them to remove in the next generation. You can always test from your PC and find out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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