[Gaaraz]

XBMC is my pride and joy. I've got it running on 2 ATVs and I have a centralised MySQL library running on my media server. So good being able to start watching something downstairs, stop it, then resume it upstairs. Probably the best couple of hundred bucks I've ever spent.

How does this compare to Plex?

[Dunlop]

wow this thread came at the perfect time. Just swapped out my wife's PC for a laptop and was planning on experimenting with learning how to do a HTPC.

Anyone have a reccomendation for a cheap HDMI videocard? The card on the PC right now is only DVI

[.nimrod]

wow this thread came at the perfect time. Just swapped out my wife's PC for a laptop and was planning on experimenting with learning how to do a HTPC. Anyone have a reccomendation for a cheap HDMI videocard? The card on the PC right now is only DVI

The video signal is the same between DVI and HDMI, so you can just get an adapter. You only have to get the audio somehow to your speakers.

[Dunlop]

The video signal is the same between DVI and HDMI, so you can just get an adapter. You only have to get the audio somehow to your speakers.

yeah I know, I figured just picking up a new card would be cheaper/easier.

I have a DVI to HDMI cable lying around, I'll start at least messing around sans sound

[diffusionx]

advanced launcher can be setup to use .lnk files, there are some links in the op to explain the process. if you want to automate things totally you can actually just tick the box saying "place a shortcut on my desktop" when installing a steam game and point advanced launcher to your desktop folder.

The problem is that Steam shortcuts are *.url, not *.lnk.

I actually got GameBrowser to work with Steam without issue so I'll probably just use that. I find XBMC inscrutable.

[zephervack]

As someone that just built a Zotac ID 80, this thread is very relevant, thanks OP, hope this little machine runs 1080p with no problems streamed from Wi Fi from a Windows Share.

[zephervack]

XBMC is my pride and joy. I've got it running on 2 ATVs and I have a centralised MySQL library running on my media server. So good being able to start watching something downstairs, stop it, then resume it upstairs. Probably the best couple of hundred bucks I've ever spent.

Please tell me more about this, is it difficult to set up? I have a Tv in the basement, another one in the living room and another in my room and this would be a game changer for me.

[br0ken_shad0w]

Oh man, XBMC must be my most-used homebrew ever. A modded Xbox was really great and versatile.

I finally retired mine a year ago thanks to its aging hardware not able to play HD content. But what a run it was!

I've used PS3 Media Server afterwards, but it's not the same. This topic will be relevant once I setup my HTPC.

[jim-jam bongs]

The problem is that Steam shortcuts are *.url, not *.lnk.

hmm I just tested this out using the same technique as .lnk files (i.e. use explorer.exe as the launcher and tell it to launch .lnk and .url files) and it worked fine. to be honest, not long after making this thread I took a long gaming break so I'm a little rusty on the specifics.

[catfish]

No laggyness noticed, but my TV is 1366x768 plasma, and I don't tend to collect 1080p videos because of this. Currently on RC2 of this: http://www.raspbmc.com/ and it's not quite there yet - still using a keyboard for control instead of my RC6 remotes. I do plan to give it another go when I'm back in town with RC3 as it look like it support direct CEC control, albiet in an alpha state. The only thing that I'm worried about there is if my TV's remote is going to provide enough buttons, but I haven't found a comprehensive list of buttons provided by the CEC standard. Fair warning, I've been hacking XBMC since about 2003 or so, and was running the linux variant on my own pre-alpha builds, so I'm a bit more tolerant of issues with new platforms, but I've successfully had girlfriend friendly installations for the past several years.

thanks and good to know.

I've been an xbmc person since it was on the original xbox I think, don't mind a bit of fighting with it. I'd actually be looking to put this in our spare bedroom. My old TV is freeing up soon and if I could make 2 rooms with fully functioning media centers from my network storage for 25 bucks, that's worth some trouble.

[LordAlu]

Hmm, can anyone think of a way I can capture the input of a controller whilst in an emulator? I've installed XBMC to use with my TV and popped my GBA emulator on there (the idea of doing the FFV4JF on the TV was strong!). Using the ROM Game Collection program I can choose a game and launch it fine, which takes me into the full-screen emulator, where I use my wired 360 controller to play. However I can't exit without pressing Alt+F4 on a keyboard (which then takes me back to XBMC). I need to find a way to take pressing the XBox button in the middle of the pad and giving the Windows command for Alt+F4, but at the same time the emulator is taking the inputs from the pad so I'm unsure how I could do it!

[diffusionx]

Okay! I got it to work. My question is: do I need to scrape for each (PC) game individually? because that's what I had to do to get the art and info for all my games.

[Blimblim]

Hey guys. I've used XBMC on my original Xbox for a long time (I was even a contributor of a few patches and streaming stuff to XBMP, the project before XBMC), but I switched to stand-alone media player (popcorn C200) a few years ago and now that's it getting a bit old and more and more files are encoded with 10bits H.264 profiles (forever unsupported by the current standalone players, and might not even be supported in the future Sigma based chips), I'm looking back to XBMC.
My issue is that I don't want to lose all the stuff that made a standalone player so nice to use, mainly the fact that I can put it on/off (or deep sleep) by pressing a button on the remote. Yeah, I'm lazy like that. I've looked a bit and I can't seem to find a reliable way to do this with a multimedia BT/Radio (PC would be in a place where IR would be highly annoying) remote on a HTPC.
Anyone know of such a product? It's basically the only thing I need to go back to the world of XBMC :)

[LordAlu]

Hey guys. I've used XBMC on my original Xbox for a long time (I was even a contributor of a few patches and streaming stuff to XBMP, the project before XBMC), but I switched to stand-alone media player (popcorn C200) a few years ago and now that's it getting a bit old and more and more files are encoded with 10bits H.264 profiles (forever unsupported by the current standalone players, and might not even be supported in the future Sigma based chips), I'm looking back to XBMC. My issue is that I don't want to lose all the stuff that made a standalone player so nice to use, mainly the fact that I can put it on/off (or deep sleep) by pressing a button on the remote. Yeah, I'm lazy like that. I've looked a bit and I can't seem to find a reliable way to do this with a multimedia BT/Radio (PC would be in a place where IR would be highly annoying) remote on a HTPC. Anyone know of such a product? It's basically the only thing I need to go back to the world of XBMC :)

You could use the Playstation 3 BD Remote, it's Bluetooth?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Rigbacq3o

[zbarron]

You could use the Playstation 3 BD Remote, it's Bluetooth? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Rigbacq3o

That's what I'm using for mine. I set up eventghost to open XMBC on startup as well as automatically pair it and open both PS3blumote and XMBC-Flix-o-Mate for better use in the Netflix add-on. I also have my Wiimote permanently paired to my PC so when I launch Dolphin I never need to leave XMBC.

I'm using the default skin because it seems the most efficient and easy for my wife to use. Are there any just as usefull ones that look a bit slicker in Advanced Launcher with games?

[TouchMyBox]

Hey guys. I've used XBMC on my original Xbox for a long time (I was even a contributor of a few patches and streaming stuff to XBMP, the project before XBMC), but I switched to stand-alone media player (popcorn C200) a few years ago and now that's it getting a bit old and more and more files are encoded with 10bits H.264 profiles (forever unsupported by the current standalone players, and might not even be supported in the future Sigma based chips), I'm looking back to XBMC. My issue is that I don't want to lose all the stuff that made a standalone player so nice to use, mainly the fact that I can put it on/off (or deep sleep) by pressing a button on the remote. Yeah, I'm lazy like that. I've looked a bit and I can't seem to find a reliable way to do this with a multimedia BT/Radio (PC would be in a place where IR would be highly annoying) remote on a HTPC. Anyone know of such a product? It's basically the only thing I need to go back to the world of XBMC :)

OpenELEC plus a windows media centre remote over here. Works like an absolute dream, with the touch of a button on the remote, the machine (shuttle atom+ion unit) wakes up from ram suspend. That said XBMC only recently added proper support for 10bit videos, so it's going to be a while until OpenELEC gets support for that.

Automatic updates and never having to see a command line or any GUI external to XBMC makes it as close to an "appliance" as possible. If you need to move files or change a config file, you can SSH to it, or you can see the user folder with everything you would need via a CIFS share.

As far as remotes, there are a few RF remotes such as the Boxee one and that nyxboard remote which work with openelec and xbmc in general.

[PwnCakes193]

My friend just got a Raspberry Pi and put XBMC on it. He shares his videos over the network and he says it runs amazingly, and is basically a 30 dollar XBMC machine. Is there any way to stream a game to the Raspberry Pi from a regular PC?

[Dina]

Hey guys. I've used XBMC on my original Xbox for a long time (I was even a contributor of a few patches and streaming stuff to XBMP, the project before XBMC), but I switched to stand-alone media player (popcorn C200) a few years ago and now that's it getting a bit old and more and more files are encoded with 10bits H.264 profiles (forever unsupported by the current standalone players, and might not even be supported in the future Sigma based chips), I'm looking back to XBMC. My issue is that I don't want to lose all the stuff that made a standalone player so nice to use, mainly the fact that I can put it on/off (or deep sleep) by pressing a button on the remote. Yeah, I'm lazy like that. I've looked a bit and I can't seem to find a reliable way to do this with a multimedia BT/Radio (PC would be in a place where IR would be highly annoying) remote on a HTPC. Anyone know of such a product? It's basically the only thing I need to go back to the world of XBMC :)

Sleep on your windows machine (XBMC also has a sleep function) with Wake-on-USB works wonders if you are using a RC-remote with usb-connector. I use the Conceptronic Remote but there are others which work well also.

Works also with Wake-on-Lan, if you want to use your smartphone connected to your wi-fi to wake up your system.

[Henry Jones Jr]

So I got XMBC up and running on my new computer. The thing is really a wonder. It's quick, clean, and does a great job sorting and playing all types of media.

But I am have some xbox360 controller related problems. If the controller is not already on when XMBC starts up it wont work at all. Is there a way to make it work even if I turn the controller on AFTER XMBC is running?

When I'm watching a movie or TV show, the controller shuts off after not being used for ~15mins. When the controller shuts off, XMBC crashes instantly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jim-jam bongs]

My friend just got a Raspberry Pi and put XBMC on it. He shares his videos over the network and he says it runs amazingly, and is basically a 30 dollar XBMC machine. Is there any way to stream a game to the Raspberry Pi from a regular PC?

you might be able to use VNC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRqSOjtCuVI

So I got XMBC up and running on my new computer. The thing is really a wonder. It's quick, clean, and does a great job sorting and playing all types of media. But I am have some xbox360 controller related problems. If the controller is not already on when XMBC starts up it wont work at all. Is there a way to make it work even if I turn the controller on AFTER XMBC is running? When I'm watching a movie or TV show, the controller shuts off after not being used for ~15mins. When the controller shuts off, XMBC crashes instantly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

sadly I have the same problem at startup, except that xbmc doesn't crash when the controller turns off. if I had to hazard a guess I'd say that it could be the 360 "helper" app popping up to alert you that the controller has turned off which is causing your crash, but you can disable the notifications in the settings.

[itxaka]

Game library view. This was created by assigning a launcher for explorer.exe as though it was an emulator, then pointing it to a folder of Windows .lnk (shortcut) files. From now on any shortcuts I drop in that folder will be added to my games library when I restart XBMC.

Can you explain it further? It's the only thing that keeps me from using XBMC. Way too many games to add them one by one.


I wonder if there is a way of searching for installed games (In the add/remove registry, check if the link are steam:// and add them automatically. I guess that addons being python is fairly easy, maybe I should try to do something like that.

[jim-jam bongs]

Can you explain it further? It's the only thing that keeps me from using XBMC. Way too many games to add them one by one. I wonder if there is a way of searching for installed games (In the add/remove registry, check if the link are steam:// and add them automatically. I guess that addons being python is fairly easy, maybe I should try to do something like that.

advanced launcher is an extension which originally began life as a way to launch roms for emulators. as a consequence it's designed around the idea that you specify a "launcher" (i.e. the emulator) and point it at a folder of files (i.e. the roms).

the thing is, .lnk and .url files (shortcuts and bookmarks respectively) both open with explorer.exe, which then executes the application you are launching. as such, you can add C:\Windows\explorer.exe as a launcher and point it to a folder of shortcuts and bookmarks (i.e. steam games). whenever you start xbmc it will automatically scan that folder for new launchers.

the simplest way to configure it would be to let steam and anything else chuck a shortcut/bookmark on your desktop and use that as the "rom" folder for your explorer.exe launcher, then it should automatically scrape box art and other data next time you restart xbmc (or tell it to check for new roms).

[dsk1210]

Installed xbmc over the weekend, beautiful set up with it, used individual advanced loaders for my games so I could set my steam and origin games up easy. All my hd movies look amazing with blueray covers and synopsis, and the tv shows with a detailed description of each episode.

Unfortunately I am having the problem with xbmc crashing when the 360 controller times out, I notice a few of us are having this problem, anyone found a solution yet?

Thanks for this thread it, it kept me busy all weekend, just need to sort out the crashing controller issue.

[dsk1210]

Not having any luck fixing the controller crash.

Is there another stable version that does not have this problem?

Surely this is a huge problem for a media player that Is used for movies, tv and games, I can't understand why there has not just been an update to the 11 Eden version with the controller fixed.

Love the xbmc, it is something that I have always wanted and never even knew it existed till I seen this thread.

[onQ123]

XBMC for Android app revealed; source code available now, beta APKs soon (video)

Surprise surprise, after popping up on the iPad last year, XBMC developers revealed tonight that they've created a version of the media center that runs as an Android app. Currently the team has it stable on the Pivos XIOS DS set-top box, and posted a video (embedded after the break) showing it running on a phone and a tablet. Of course, the different varieties of Android hardware audio and video decoding is mostly a software only affair, but universal hardware decoding is in the plan. The truly dedicated can dig up the source code right now, but APKs for beta testers are promised "in the coming weeks." According to the blog post, it currently includes a community member created touch oriented skin and hopes to have more available before any version of this hits Google Play officially.

I can see this being used on the OUYA console.

[wetflame]

Is anyone using this on the Raspberry Pi? It seems like a great, low-cost way of setting this up for just watching video content, but I don't really know a lot about it. Anyone have any experience with it?

[bigdaddygamebot]

This seems really impressive.

I remember talking to a guy a few years back who said he was using his crystal Xbox as a media hub after some "tweaking".

So...basically...

I install this on one of my consoles and use that as the liase between my PC and my television?

I'm assuming if I use my old xbox, the picture will not be as nice as if I ran it through my 360?

...and sorry about the Captain Obvious stuff...: /

I'm super-new at this.


UPDATE

Alright...I'm figuring it out.

Pulling all my music and television files now. Pretty slick.

I have a "dual monitor" setup with my television as an extension of my desktop. When I have something playing on the television through XBMC...when I click on something on my computer monitor, XBMC minimizes. Not a huge deal. Just don't screw with my computer when watching something but being able to multi-task would be nice?

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Barkley's Justice]

Hey, has anyone used a CPS3 emulator with Advanced Launcher?

I'm trying to use Nebula's old emulator:

http://nebula.emulatronia.com/

I can't figure out the command line arguments to load the roms into Advanced Launcher?

Perhaps I'm "doing it wrong" and there's a newer CPS3 emulator out that works well with AL?

[Barkley's Justice]

Have you noticed a FPS drop when launching games with the XBMC interface running in the background? I use XBMC on an Ubuntu home theater machine right now, but I don't use it for games at all. I spent a ton of time setting up my desktop to match some of the masterpieces in the desktop thread over in off-topic. Then I booted up a game that I couldn't quite max out and noticed I lost nearly 10 FPS on average because of all the rainmeter and fences shit running in the background. I don't want to go through that again.

I'm running an Atom-based HTPC. I see a slight hit running a few emulators launched from Advanced Launcher inside XBMC (such as ePSXe or the slightly more taxing Neo Geo games, like Metal Slug). That's mostly from XBMC eating resources. On an Atom rig like mine, each process counts.

But overall though -- and mind you I stick to mostly old school emulators (Capcom CPS1/2, SNES, Genesis, etc) -- there are no problems.

[mattp]

refocus is a really nice skin i've been using for a while http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-focus/

in case anyone hasnt seen this
still one of my favorites

[kinn]

Not having any luck fixing the controller crash. Is there another stable version that does not have this problem? Surely this is a huge problem for a media player that Is used for movies, tv and games, I can't understand why there has not just been an update to the 11 Eden version with the controller fixed. Love the xbmc, it is something that I have always wanted and never even knew it existed till I seen this thread.

Any update on this issue?

[jim-jam bongs]

my controller crashes have been fixed by switching back to the default skin and enabling debug level 3 in the advanced settings.

- go to %AppData%\XBMC\userdata
- create a file in that folder called advancedsettings.xml
- add the following to the file:

<advancedsettings>
<loglevel>3</loglevel>
<splash>false</splash>
</advancedsettings>

for some reason a lot of crashes are fixed by enabling debugging. someone needs to take a long hard look at their error handling.

[Canis lupus]

Guys how do you get the media server in XBMC working? I want to stream media from my htpc to other devices, it sees the video and music folder but when I open it, there are no files to play.

[Senaxx]

I have a XBMC setup for a few years now. Started with XBMP on the original XBOX and then switched to XBMC. When the HD era broke and the good old XBMC couldn't handle HD files I had to switch.

First I ran a few pc's with xbmc on it, untill the first AppleTV arrived. Meanwhile tried a popcorn hour for a while but that was just not it, gui was laggy and library functions where nonexistent.

But now current config:

1. Mac Mini 2009 with 4GB ram, running XBMC for over a year now for downstairs in the main living room.
2. aTV2 on the 2nd TV with XBMC for upstairs.

My central QNAP 559 NAS delivers all the content to both boxes trough the wired network with a centralized MySQL library. Positive is both devices turn off after about 30 minutes of no use and have a i can use the tiny small apple remote to control everything.

I've been looking for a device that can replace my Mac Mini 2009 with a more low consuming device but currently there are no real devices that also has the butter smooth peformance as a Mac Mini 2009.

A very nice skin that got my attention last night is: reAlaska: Focus Dark




Source: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=134006

[AbandonedTrolley]

Having a slight nightmare with my HTPC, built one on the Fusion chipset which unfortunately XBMCBuntu doesn't play too nicely with out the box. Need to do some reading up to sort out the video playback but currently it's horrendous. However it's a driver issue and not hardware as when running Win7 and XBMC everything is smooth.
Have also noticed that since changing to BT Infinity and going through the Home Hub 3 my buffering times are a lot worse and sometimes even stops mid movie. Looks like I will be buying a different router at some point.

[immortal-joe]

I've hit one of those technical snags with no solution in sight - literally 6 hours of continuos tinkering.

I downloaded an add-on to XBMC called Rom Collection Browser, sure many have heard of it or used it.

All emus work fine, except for Mame. I've set things up with offline scrapping, and the mame emu I'm using is MameUI64, latest version.

By itself, the emu works wonderfully - through XBMC, while all roms show up fine, trying to load any of them reveals an error that says "Failed to load Direct 3D device".

The frustrating thing is, I've searched through the entire wiki, and asked all over, nobody is offering a solution. Tried multiple Mame emus, all fail to load roms through XBMX, but still work fine by themselves.

Help?

[kinn]

my controller crashes have been fixed by switching back to the default skin and enabling debug level 3 in the advanced settings. - go to %AppData%\XBMC\userdata - create a file in that folder called advancedsettings.xml - add the following to the file: <advancedsettings> <loglevel>3</loglevel> <splash>false</splash> </advancedsettings> for some reason a lot of crashes are fixed by enabling debugging. someone needs to take a long hard look at their error handling.

Thanks. Will give this a try when I get the chance.

[dsk1210]

my controller crashes have been fixed by switching back to the default skin and enabling debug level 3 in the advanced settings. - go to %AppData%\XBMC\userdata - create a file in that folder called advancedsettings.xml - add the following to the file: <advancedsettings> <loglevel>3</loglevel> <splash>false</splash> </advancedsettings> for some reason a lot of crashes are fixed by enabling debugging. someone needs to take a long hard look at their error handling.

Just tried that just now, still seems to be crashing if i knock the 360 controller off.

:(

[Canis lupus]

Wait, you can use the 360 controller to navigate? Cool, never use my iMon remote anyway.

[dsk1210]

Wait, you can use the 360 controller to navigate? Cool, never use my iMon remote anyway.

Yeah the wireless one works fantastic, but crashes xbmc if it switches of with inactivity.

[Canis lupus]

Yeah the wireless one works fantastic, but crashes xbmc if it switches of with inactivity.

Gonna try it out, I dont use the xbox controller exactly, I use ds3 with a 360 profile in motioninjoy.

[tamaster92]

Anyone know of a neogaf add-on for xbmc? I'd love some sort of native client for it.

[Birbo]

Lifehacker has what looks like a good article on building a cheap HTPC today here.

This is something I've been dreaming of doing for years. For someone who has never put a PC together, how intensive is this? And is the better speced CPU they suggest plenty good for gaming, or would I be better off looking into another option?

[Shambles]

Question that seems like it should have an obvious answer that I am overlooking.

I am using the XBMC android app and trying to get it to play all my songs in random order. When I go into the "Listen to Music" there are icons on the bottom of the screen that allow me to sort the music in different ways. I can list by album, artist, genre, compilations, and by file directory.

I don't see any way to sort by song title, nor any way to get to a quick 'shuffle all' function. What am i missing?

[Emperor Bohe]

what is the cheapest possible build I can get for XBMC? I've been running XBMC on my original Xbox but I think it's time for an upgrade (my original xbox is starting to act up...)

I don't need something fancy. as long as it can play movies in HD and can run emulators of really old 90's games then I'm good. any recommendations?

edit: I want something around the price range of an AppleTV. Should I just wait until someone jailbreaks the AppleTV 3? If so, what features will I miss out on from going HTPC?

[harSon]

I finally took the plunge and built an HTPC running XBMC. My dad had given me a few computers that his job was throwing out (they're pretty much 6 months to a year old at the most, and have the power to run new games at extremely high settings), so I used one for a gaming computer and the other I used to make the HTPC. He also gave me 8 1TB hard drives, so I threw 4 of them into the HTPC for a Raid configuration. I have a sound card and MCE remote on the way from Amazon, which are the only things I'm missing to make this thing a reality.

So far I have installed a new theme (Alaska), changed the home screen/Icons to suit my needs, have imported most of my movies (still need to do television shows), have gotten Netflix and Hulu to work (I'm using Advanced Launcher to launch the Windows Media Center Netflix Plugin and Hulu Desktop Application).

I have everything scraping perfectly fine. Playback seems great thus far, although I haven't tested subtitles so I'm not sure how it handles that yet. The only thing I really need to do is to get PC games, Steam and some Emulators running. Anyone have a link to some guides?

I do have a few questions though. As it stands now, I was able to stick Netflix and Hulu to the desktop by adding the Advanced Launcher to my favorites, and placing it on the home screen through the Theme Customization window. It's almost seamless, but after clicking on Netflix/Hulu, it brings me to another screen where I have to click on the application that Advanced Launcher is launching. Does anyone know how I can place the Netflix/Hulu application onto the Homescreen, and not Advanced Launcher?

And is there any cool features that I haven't described above that I can be taking advantage of?

Kind of sucks that stuff like HBO Go doesn't work, but I may do something like have Advanced Launcher launch a browser with HBO Go as a homescreen. I've been messing around with this idea, but I can't seem to get the browser to launch in fullscreen mode every time (I tried Kiosk mode, but it doesn't save the Login information...) Any ideas?

I'll post some screenshots of my setup in an hour or so.

[harSon]

Here's what I have so far.

Here's my home screen using the Alaska theme. I didn't like the stock Icons, so I borrowed some Icons from Windows 8 Metro:



Here's what the movie and television show folder looks like thus far:




My Settings Menu:


I'm using Advanced Launcher to launch the Netflix Plugin within Window's Media Center, it's pretty much seamless:


I'm also using Advanced Launcher to launch the Desktop Hulu Application:


My games hub with a bunch of emulators:

[catabarez]

If I use Netflix and Hulu on this will it also stream surround sound?

[jim-jam bongs]

I do have a few questions though. As it stands now, I was able to stick Netflix and Hulu to the desktop by adding the Advanced Launcher to my favorites, and placing it on the home screen through the Theme Customization window. It's almost seamless, but after clicking on Netflix/Hulu, it brings me to another screen where I have to click on the application that Advanced Launcher is launching. Does anyone know how I can place the Netflix/Hulu application onto the Homescreen, and not Advanced Launcher?

it depends on the skin, but usually the menu/homescreen editing options are under skin settings.

Kind of sucks that stuff like HBO Go doesn't work, but I may do something like have Advanced Launcher launch a browser with HBO Go as a homescreen. I've been messing around with this idea, but I can't seem to get the browser to launch in fullscreen mode every time (I tried Kiosk mode, but it doesn't save the Login information...) Any ideas?

most browsers accept a url as a command line argument, so what you could do is create a browser shortcut to launch using explorer.exe, set it to open maximised, and then add the url to the run command.

edit:

just tried this out on my work pc and it was fine, should work the same with an explorer.exe launcher:

If I use Netflix and Hulu on this will it also stream surround sound?

we don't have hulu and netflix where I live, but if you do it the way harSon describes above it should just use the regular plugin for WMP, so if it supports surround you should be sweet.

[Earendil]

Does this have blu ray support?

If not, what blu ray software do you guys recommend?