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[scissorfight]

So.

Guys.

What do you all use as a solution for games? I built a rig with solid specs and a ton of storage for media, PC games, and large, large quantities of classic console roms. It doesn't seem like XBMC has any real game support, but I know there are a bunch of MAME/multi emulator frontends out there. Any suggestions?

this is my only real problem with XBMC - there's no Games library. there's some work being tossed around on the XBMC forums but it doesn't sound like it's coming any time soon, if at all. as of right now XBMC works ok if you've got a few PC games, but for an actual library for emulators, it's a total mess.

there's various frontends out there, but none do a great job with the interface and none of them could really work seamlessly within XBMC. more importantly, none that i know of that will actually query some sort of games database and update your game info, screenshots, etc.

 

[Cheeto]

this is my only real problem with XBMC - there's no Games library. there's some work being tossed around on the XBMC forums but it doesn't sound like it's coming any time soon, if at all. as of right now XBMC works ok if you've got a few PC games, but for an actual library for emulators, it's a total mess.

there's various frontends out there, but none do a great job with the interface and none of them could really work seamlessly within XBMC. more importantly, none that i know of that will actually query some sort of games database and update your game info, screenshots, etc.

There is a game's library branch in the svn, people are working on it. You're welcome to contribute if it's something you'd like to see.

 

[scissorfight]

There is a game's library branch in the svn, people are working on it. You're welcome to contribute if it's something you'd like to see.

last i read (a few months ago) it wasn't making much progress.

what are they planning on using for a games database to query?

 

[Cheeto]

last i read (a few months ago) it wasn't making much progress.

what are they planning on using for a games database to query?

Not sure, there was talk of creating a new open source DB for it, but really scrapers are probably the smallest piece of the puzzle. Someone wrote a GiantBomb scraper, but really the application end needs to be ironed out before that's of any use. It does look like the branch hasn't had an update so the original proponents may have moved on or don't have time at the moment. Shame, but there's still hope that other people or the originals will pick it up and get it going again.

 

[Ecto311]

Has anyone wired up vent fans inside their entertainment centers? Last night our 360 red ringed (only 2 - according to Microsoft means it is over heating.) I bought a 120mm fan to put in the back of it. I was wondering if anyone has wired it to come on with the system so it isn't running all the time. I guess I could wire a switch into the line to the wall wart to power the fan if I really need to. I have a cooler from a buddy that had his 360 died but the fan attachment still worked. Does that thing come on with the system or run all the time? I could rip it open and wire it up to the fan on the entertainment center.

Any ideas?

 

[SuicideUZI]

Wow this could be a pretty sweet option for an HTPC.
Lets hope its around $250

yeah that does look pretty nice, I'm kinda surprised they fit a DVD drive in there also. ION 2 was one of the things I was waiting for before I got an HTPC so this might be the device I end up getting. Hope to hear some more about it at the CeBIt show.

 

[The Chef]

yeah that does look pretty nice, I'm kinda surprised they fit a DVD drive in there also. ION 2 was one of the things I was waiting for before I got an HTPC so this might be the device I end up getting. Hope to hear some more about it at the CeBIt show.

Definitely, I'm trying to make the absolute best of my money. May try and put together a fairly inexpensive media server now and then pick up one of these when its available.

 

[neoanarch]

Definitely, I'm trying to make the absolute best of my money. May try and put together a fairly inexpensive media server now and then pick up one of these when its available.

I'm sort of regretting jumping on the Ion one bandwagon too early if the ion 2 hits anytime soon.

But really the only issues I'm having with my build are linux drivers and boxee/xbmc issues. Everything runs great otherwise.

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

I think I'm gonna give a HTPC one more chance. If the ceton cards performs as advertised, I'm gonna get rid of my cable box and use MCE7/360 as my dvr solution. The TWC HD box sucks and freezes up a lot anyway so it's not like im missing much.

 

[Neodiablo22]

Does anyone have a recommendation for a USB TV Tuner that is compatible with windows 7 64 bit windows media center and can get clear QAM unencrypted cable channels? I've gone through two TV tuners so far that were suppose to be compatible but could only get analog TV when going through media center.

 

[Cruzader]

Anyone interested in this?

PM if you want to buy.

 

[Marty Chinn]

We shouldn't let this thread die =)

Anyway, I've realized that the problem with building a HTPC for the main room to now use HD content is you start to fragment what you can and can't watch in other rooms The Xbox upstairs can now only play the SD content so now I'm looking for a super cheap way to get XBMC and 1080p content upstairs. It looks like the Acer Revo 1600 and Zotac Mag are the cheapest choices at $199 and $249 respectively. Anyone have any experiences with either of these and XBMC? Is 1 GB of RAM enough?

 

[SuicideUZI]

I've been messing around with XBMC on my laptop lately to try to figure out what I like best for when I do get an HTPC, and I've come to the conclusion that I like the Aeon theme with the "low list" view the best.

This is the build of Aeon that I'm currently using:
http://github.com/temmi2000/aeon/commit/e100e4b99d3b3b280509601c0b053413c746c101

I'm not really sure which build of Aeon I should be using since there seem to be hundreds of them, but not all of them have the "low list" view

Anyway, I seem to be having some problems with pictures not showing up or not showing the right dimensions and was wondering if anyone could help.

I'm not sure how to post thumbnails on here so i'll just post a link to the image, here is a screenshot of the low list view of my root TV directory, for whatever reason it cant find an image for the space on the left:

http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...ZzJ-_LUb474TUJdI2EG9s-oaH8W/screenshot001.png

but if I go into the show folder then it can find one fine:
http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...7DdusHkpnKVAVGCx5fLv7-E79zH/screenshot002.png

if i change the root TV view to just a regular list then the image is stretched way out, but in the movie folder that same view seems to be fine and just shows it as a smaller image near the bottom in the correct dimensions:
http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...8Gw6WBCpzCB48wIX8zHlx0lbBsL/screenshot003.png

Thanks for any help

 

[scissorfight]

I've been messing around with XBMC on my laptop lately to try to figure out what I like best for when I do get an HTPC, and I've come to the conclusion that I like the Aeon theme with the "low list" view the best.

This is the build of Aeon that I'm currently using:
http://github.com/temmi2000/aeon/commit/e100e4b99d3b3b280509601c0b053413c746c101

I'm not really sure which build of Aeon I should be using since there seem to be hundreds of them, but not all of them have the "low list" view

Anyway, I seem to be having some problems with pictures not showing up or not showing the right dimensions and was wondering if anyone could help.

I'm not sure how to post thumbnails on here so i'll just post a link to the image, here is a screenshot of the low list view of my root TV directory, for whatever reason it cant find an image for the space on the left:

http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...ZzJ-_LUb474TUJdI2EG9s-oaH8W/screenshot001.png

but if I go into the show folder then it can find one fine:
http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...7DdusHkpnKVAVGCx5fLv7-E79zH/screenshot002.png

if i change the root TV view to just a regular list then the image is stretched way out, but in the movie folder that same view seems to be fine and just shows it as a smaller image near the bottom in the correct dimensions:
http://nqtcpa.bay.livefilestore.com...8Gw6WBCpzCB48wIX8zHlx0lbBsL/screenshot003.png

Thanks for any help

looks like this skin is checking for poster.jpg in the tv show directory, and if your library is anything like mine, that doesn't exist in either your tv show or movie folders. you probably have season-all.tbn in your tv show folders, though. if that is the case, do this:

go to program files\xmbc\skin\temmi2000-aeon-e100e4b\720p

make a copy of the 720p folder as a backup, then go into the 720p folder and replace poster.jpg with season-all.tbn in the following xml files:

DialogVideoInfo.xml
Includes_LowList.xml
Viewtype_Large_List.xml
Viewtype_List.xml
Viewtype_MultiWall.xml

reload xbmc and it should now show the season-all covers.

i first looked in the skin options and there didn't appear to be a setting to do this the easy way. the only one i saw changed it to use the wide icons (the one used in your 3rd pic).

 

[SuicideUZI]

I replaced poster.jpg with season-all.tbn in all the instances it popped up in those files, but it does not seem to have made any changes, still get the blank image placeholder at the root TV directory and if I change it to just "list" the image there is still distorted.

am I supposed to have an actual file called "season-all.tbn" in the root of my TV directory?

btw do you recommend a small and simple program for editing these xml files? I just used notepad but they are basically a big mess in notepad

 

[Marty Chinn]

I replaced poster.jpg with season-all.tbn in all the instances it popped up in those files, but it does not seem to have made any changes, still get the blank image placeholder at the root TV directory and if I change it to just "list" the image there is still distorted.

am I supposed to have an actual file called "season-all.tbn" in the root of my TV directory?

btw do you recommend a small and simple program for editing these xml files? I just used notepad but they are basically a big mess in notepad

Use wordpad instead of notepad. It'll keep the formatting correct.

 

[scissorfight]

I replaced poster.jpg with season-all.tbn in all the instances it popped up in those files, but it does not seem to have made any changes, still get the blank image placeholder at the root TV directory and if I change it to just "list" the image there is still distorted.

am I supposed to have an actual file called "season-all.tbn" in the root of my TV directory?

btw do you recommend a small and simple program for editing these xml files? I just used notepad but they are basically a big mess in notepad

season-all.tbn should be in each tv show's folder, along with a .tbn for each season of that show. you must have them because your 2nd pic is fine. this skin was looking for poster.jpg in the tv show folder.

i grabbed the build you linked to and those changes worked for me. try updating the library within xbmc.

 

[Kamakazie!]

Wait, so this thing is running on Windows? Please elaborate. Could I install something like Newsleecher/uTorrent on it and run it from there?

uTorrent is a common one. Install uTorrent, make it run as a service on startup & then manage it through the WHS-Connector Plugin or the fantastic WebUI addon which allows access through any browser on the network.

As an example, another piece of software I have setup to run as a service is MetaBrowser. I have it setup to monitor a folder which I drop media files in to and it renames & files them appropriately in my Videos folder & also scrapes info off the net from the relevant sources.

All i really need to do now is get sleep working on it (mobo isn't liking it at the moment) and setup Light-Out to make it sleep from say 2am / after backups automatically.


Following that, i'm evaluating MeediOS & MediaPortal to decide on one to use. I love XBMC & it's speed but there is a lack of add-on development & it doesn't support games which is essential for my setup now.
MeediOS is pretty much perfect in that sense but for some reason, the fanart switching on the Evolution theme (Aeon port) makes it lag like hell and this is forcing me towards MediaPortal which is a bit less elegant but has huge amounts of add-ons.

 

[SuicideUZI]

season-all.tbn should be in each tv show's folder, along with a .tbn for each season of that show. you must have them because your 2nd pic is fine. this skin was looking for poster.jpg in the tv show folder.

i grabbed the build you linked to and those changes worked for me. try updating the library within xbmc.

I dont know what I'm doing wrong, I tried updating the library and using a different build of Aeon but the TV section is always screwed up.

The way my files are setup I just have a folder called TV and in that folder are folders of the name of the shows like Lost or whatever and within those are either the episodes or if there are multiple seasons then Season 01, Season 02 and so on.

I do not have a season-all.tbn in any of them, I thought the point of scraping was so it finds all that stuff automatically for you. I don't have any extra files in my Movie folders either, but it finds all the proper artwork for movies without a problem.

Could you link me to the build of XBMC you are using? maybe that has something to do with it

 

[Kamakazie!]

I dont know what I'm doing wrong, I tried updating the library and using a different build of Aeon but the TV section is always screwed up.

.........................
............

Could you link me to the build of XBMC you are using? maybe that has something to do with it

The built in XBMC scrapers are pretty poor. Try an external scraper. Using XBMC only I couldn't get all the posters / fanart do download properly either.

The best 2 scrapers atm are imo:
- Ember Media Manager (Films only atm)
- Xyber's Media Manager (Film & TV but I only use it for TV as Ember is better for Films)

FYI, XBMC poster / fanart only works for me using this sctructure:

TV
> Series
>> Season-01.tbn
>> Season-02.tbn
>> Season-all.tbn
>> Season 01
>>> Episode 01
>>> Episode 02
>> Season 02
>>> etc. etc.

So the season posters are all in the Series folder NOT the Season folder. Fanart is also there, although at the moment I have 2 different locations for everything due to me evaluating multiple media centre programs, each requiring different artwork naming & location conventions (all I can say is thank goodness for the Library feature in Windows 7 making it easy to delete it all once i decide what software to go with!).

 

[dLMN8R]

Can anyone recommend an easy way to get iTunes purchases to run smoothly on Ion-based nettops?

I've bought a couple movies and TV shows on iTunes, but since my Revo's Atom CPU is horribly underpowered, and iTunes doesn't take advantage of GPU-accelerated video playback, it's totally unwatchable.

 

[scissorfight]

I dont know what I'm doing wrong, I tried updating the library and using a different build of Aeon but the TV section is always screwed up.

The way my files are setup I just have a folder called TV and in that folder are folders of the name of the shows like Lost or whatever and within those are either the episodes or if there are multiple seasons then Season 01, Season 02 and so on.

I do not have a season-all.tbn in any of them, I thought the point of scraping was so it finds all that stuff automatically for you. I don't have any extra files in my Movie folders either, but it finds all the proper artwork for movies without a problem.

Could you link me to the build of XBMC you are using? maybe that has something to do with it

looks like Kamakazie! covered it. you'll need the setup he described to get it working right, which is why i suggested you to check for the season-all.tbn file(s) before making the xml changes.

after running an external scraper you should be all set (using the edited xml files).

The best 2 scrapers atm are imo:
- Ember Media Manager (Films only atm)
- Xyber's Media Manager (Film & TV but I only use it for TV as Ember is better for Films)

i'm still using Media Companion...i'll have to check these 2 out.

 

[Mecha_Infantry]

Hey guys,

So I've decided to go all digital and ripping my blueys to the higest possible resolution (I'm anal like that). One I did was of Toy Story as an .mkv and it was noticably stuttery on my Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Dual Core. I then fed it to my PS£ that I use as a media server, but again it was choppy as fuck ...(mainly due to the fact PS3 doesn't naturally support MKV)

So I was thinking of getting a hTPC. now I LOVE Apple, but man, I don't think the base level 2.26 C2D will handle the 1080p output, nor has it got native HDMI output for sound (I don't have an amp, just a TV, so that annoys me as I wanted to run the wonderful Plex on it.

So I ran up a similary priced Windows based HTPC:

Qty Product Description QuickFind Cost (ex VAT) Line Cost
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 164047 £107.91 £107.91
1 x Antec Fusion Remote Veris Black MATX Media Center Case - No PSU 148791 £97.06 £97.06
1 x ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO 785G Socket AM3 DVI VGA HDMI Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard 170277 £59.05 £59.05
1 x MSI HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port Out HDCP PCI-E Graphics Card 189239 £115.51 £115.51
1 x Western Digital WD1001FALS 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM Caviar Black 146082 £66.15 £66.15
1 x Plexus Serial ATA 2.0 (SATA) 7-pin Cable (Red) 46cm / 18" 151963 £2.25 £2.25
1 x Corsair 1GB DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5 Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty 93557 £22.12 £22.12
1 x Antec 430W EarthWatts Green PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified 185176 £40.92 £40.92



Shipping £9.70
Subtotal £520.67
VAT £91.17
Order Total £611.84

Just wondering if anyone can check to see if this is good enough. I would like to keep it as cheap as possible, but I don't want to lose out on performance

Edit* I'm feeding the .mkv to a 32" Sony TV (if that matters)

Cheers

 

[Clipjoint]

Hey guys,

So I've decided to go all digital and ripping my blueys to the higest possible resolution (I'm anal like that). One I did was of Toy Story as an .mkv and it was noticably stuttery on my Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Dual Core. I then fed it to my PS£ that I use as a media server, but again it was choppy as fuck ...(mainly due to the fact PS3 doesn't naturally support MKV)

So I was thinking of getting a hTPC. now I LOVE Apple, but man, I don't think the base level 2.26 C2D will handle the 1080p output, nor has it got native HDMI output for sound (I don't have an amp, just a TV, so that annoys me as I wanted to run the wonderful Plex on it.

So I ran up a similary priced Windows based HTPC:



Just wondering if anyone can check to see if this is good enough. I would like to keep it as cheap as possible, but I don't want to lose out on performance

Edit* I'm feeding the .mkv to a 32" Sony TV (if that matters)

Cheers

Needs more RAM, but everything else looks good.

 

[big black woman]

Hey guys,

So I've decided to go all digital and ripping my blueys to the higest possible resolution (I'm anal like that). One I did was of Toy Story as an .mkv and it was noticably stuttery on my Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Dual Core. I then fed it to my PS£ that I use as a media server, but again it was choppy as fuck ...(mainly due to the fact PS3 doesn't naturally support MKV)

So I was thinking of getting a hTPC. now I LOVE Apple, but man, I don't think the base level 2.26 C2D will handle the 1080p output, nor has it got native HDMI output for sound (I don't have an amp, just a TV, so that annoys me as I wanted to run the wonderful Plex on it.

So I ran up a similary priced Windows based HTPC:



Just wondering if anyone can check to see if this is good enough. I would like to keep it as cheap as possible, but I don't want to lose out on performance

Edit* I'm feeding the .mkv to a 32" Sony TV (if that matters)

Cheers

Have you tried mkv2vob for your ps3 media serving needs?

 

[prodystopian]

Does anyone know if more cablecard tuners will come to market anytime soon? Hauppauge was supposed to release one, but it doesn't look like they have and AMD seems to only have an external solution.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Hey guys,

So I've decided to go all digital and ripping my blueys to the higest possible resolution (I'm anal like that). One I did was of Toy Story as an .mkv and it was noticably stuttery on my Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Dual Core. I then fed it to my PS£ that I use as a media server, but again it was choppy as fuck ...(mainly due to the fact PS3 doesn't naturally support MKV)

So I was thinking of getting a hTPC. now I LOVE Apple, but man, I don't think the base level 2.26 C2D will handle the 1080p output, nor has it got native HDMI output for sound (I don't have an amp, just a TV, so that annoys me as I wanted to run the wonderful Plex on it.

So I ran up a similary priced Windows based HTPC:



Just wondering if anyone can check to see if this is good enough. I would like to keep it as cheap as possible, but I don't want to lose out on performance

Edit* I'm feeding the .mkv to a 32" Sony TV (if that matters)

Cheers

You wanna go NVIDIA over ATI for a HTPC. Also is this only for HTPC usage or are you going to be doing other things with it? If it's just a HTPC, you can do it for much cheaper.

 

[The Chef]

Im still waiting on that Shuttle XS35 to act as my HTPC but god damn I was expecting a price/release date by now. :/

 

[Marty Chinn]

Anyone looking for a cheap complete system that'll do 1080p, this is only $250 w/ free shipping. I think I'd get it for the bedroom if it wasn't for the tax in CA.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

Promo Code: EMCYRNY44

 

[The Chef]

Anyone looking for a cheap complete system that'll do 1080p, this is only $250 w/ free shipping. I think I'd get it for the bedroom if it wasn't for the tax in CA.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ickDeals&cm_mmc=AFC-SlickDeals-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

Promo Code: EMCYRNY44

OK, your my hero. This thing looks quite impressive.
Since there is no OS on this thing I may need to review what you said about installing Linux again.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I'll add mine.

My goals

* ALL hi-def media from a network source, played flawlessly, no skips stuttering or bullshit
* that's all my goals

so I got this

for

Antec Micro Fusion 350 - EC LP                         1	€ 80.22	€ 80.22
 Asrock M3A785GMH128M 785G / SB710 AM3 mATX	        1	€ 58.88	€ 58.88
 AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9GHz AM3 Box	                1	€ 46.44	€ 46.44
 WD Caviar Black 640GB 32MB 7200rpm SATA	        1	€ 47.48	€ 47.48
 Kingston 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL7 DIMM	       1	€ 44.62	€ 44.62
Verzend/afhaal-kosten:	     € 0.00
Subtotaal:                            € 277.64
BTW:                                    € 52.75
Totaal:	                           [B] € 330.39[/B]

couple that with about 2 days of fucking with linux to get xbmc running on it, probably the entire day to get the remote working and I got a whole working system for 330.

What I don't have yet is any kind of DVD or blueray drive, despite having the space for it. Unsure if I need it though.

I guess this would convert to american roughly 1-1.

Can someone beat this price (with my goals in mind) ? I'm curious if I did it cheaply. Advice from brainstew and the excellent folks in the gaming PC thread.

My only complaint with my system is I now have a retarded LCD screen on the above. this is because linux is harder than successfully launching a rocket though. Not due to the case being bad.

Case has integrated 350watt powersupply.

EDIT: I saw some people put 4Gb Ram in their boxes. Absolutely NOT REQUIRED. Can save money there.

XBMC is also a WOW front end.
DOUBLE EDIT:

Mecha_infantry my post is probably particularly relevant to you. Your box is waaay overspecced to be a media PC IMO. You could be gaming on that. You'll notice on mine I'm using the integrated graphics on the motherboard. Also I have an Athlon X2 processor. It's more than enough. The computer is quite snappy. If this is going under a television you really don't need to go anywhere near as fancy as what you specced.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I'll add mine.

My goals

* ALL hi-def media from a network source, played flawlessly, no skips stuttering or bullshit
* that's all my goals

so I got this

for

Antec Micro Fusion 350 - EC LP                         1	€ 80.22	€ 80.22
 Asrock M3A785GMH128M 785G / SB710 AM3 mATX	        1	€ 58.88	€ 58.88
 AMD Athlon II X2 245 2.9GHz AM3 Box	                1	€ 46.44	€ 46.44
 WD Caviar Black 640GB 32MB 7200rpm SATA	        1	€ 47.48	€ 47.48
 Kingston 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL7 DIMM	       1	€ 44.62	€ 44.62
Verzend/afhaal-kosten:	     € 0.00
Subtotaal:                            € 277.64
BTW:                                    € 52.75
Totaal:	                           [B] € 330.39[/B]

couple that with about 2 days of fucking with linux to get xbmc running on it, probably the entire day to get the remote working and I got a whole working system for 330.

What I don't have yet is any kind of DVD or blueray drive, despite having the space for it. Unsure if I need it though.

I guess this would convert to american roughly 1-1.

Can someone beat this price (with my goals in mind) ? I'm curious if I did it cheaply. Advice from brainstew and the excellent folks in the gaming PC thread.

My only complaint with my system is I now have a retarded LCD screen on the above. this is because linux is harder than successfully launching a rocket though. Not due to the case being bad.

Case has integrated 350watt powersupply.

EDIT: I saw some people put 4Gb Ram in their boxes. Absolutely NOT REQUIRED. Can save money there.

XBMC is also a WOW front end.
DOUBLE EDIT:

Mecha_infantry my post is probably particularly relevant to you. Your box is waaay overspecced to be a media PC IMO. You could be gaming on that. You'll notice on mine I'm using the integrated graphics on the motherboard. Also I have an Athlon X2 processor. It's more than enough. The computer is quite snappy. If this is going under a television you really don't need to go anywhere near as fancy as what you specced.

Well you could do that for $199 or $159 refurbished with an Acer Revo. A Zotac Mag for $250 for a bit more capability such as wifi built in. So could be done cheaper, but that's not to say you didn't do well. Clearly you went CPU to push for content and there definitely are advantages to that. Nice thing about the Acer Revo and Zotac is you know they'll be quiet based off their design.

Welcome to the club =) Which skin are you using in XBMC?

 

[Cheeto]

So is the Acer Revo a good pick for an extension box for the bedroom? The TV in there is only 720p and I don't need wireless.

 

[Marty Chinn]

So is the Acer Revo a good pick for an extension box for the bedroom? The TV in there is only 720p and I don't need wireless.

I think so from what I've been reading. I've been heavily considering it for the bedroom machine given how cheap it is. It still has an ION in there so it should handle up to 1080p. I think by default it has only 1 gig of RAM though so you might need to update the RAM. I've been waffling on if I should wait for ION2, or spend a little more on a Zotac which is more capable. Heh oddly enough, one reason I've also been hesitant is I don't like the diamond shape look to it too but that's not too big of a deal given how cheap it is. I think if I saw the $159 sale again, I might just do it. It'll definitely play 720 video with XBMC without breaking a sweat though.

 

[rykomatsu]

So I was thinking of getting a hTPC. now I LOVE Apple, but man, I don't think the base level 2.26 C2D will handle the 1080p output, nor has it got native HDMI output for sound (I don't have an amp, just a TV, so that annoys me as I wanted to run the wonderful Plex on it.

So I ran up a similary price

C2D E8400 w/ CoreAVC codec...I've been able to decode every h.264 1080p video that I've thrown at it...dont' think you need to go that high spec. Hell, even my Phenom 9500 (the bugged one) w/ CoreAVC decodes every h.264 1080p without stuttering at all.

 

[The Chef]

I know you were having some issues with Linux for your build Marty. Did it end up being a huge pain in the ass to get it all working out OK or did you end up just using windows?

 

[Marty Chinn]

I know you were having some issues with Linux for your build Marty. Did it end up being a huge pain in the ass to get it all working out OK or did you end up just using windows?

Trying to remember what my issues were.... heh, I should just read the thread to recall. =) I must have either got them all worked out or they were minor enough that I didn't bother to fix them since I've been running in Linux 24/7. I reboot to Windows every now and then to try something, but other than those rare cases, I'm almost always in Linux and it runs pretty stable.

 

[The Chef]

Cool. The only concern I have with that Zotac is in the reviews people mention that in using Win7 HDMI doesn't output multichannel - just stereo. I'd like to find out if Linux on that Zotac would have any audio issues like Windows obviously does.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Cool. The only concern I have with that Zotac is in the reviews people mention that in using Win7 HDMI doesn't output multichannel - just stereo. I'd like to find out if Linux on that Zotac would have any audio issues like Windows obviously does.

Oh, I wasn't aware of the problem with HDMI multichannel support in Windows. I found a thread that said they got their Zotac MAG to work with multichannel audio in Linux by using this guide:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=59877

 

[The Chef]

<3

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Welcome to the club =) Which skin are you using in XBMC?

So far the default one seems best tbh. got any tips?

Also, the music interface I find.... clunky somehow. Don't seem to be able to get back to 'now playing' if I wander round the menus.

I tried a few other skins and didn't like as much as the main one. gimmie some tips please!

I went with standard components on mine as I want to be able to upgrade if needed. Thismight be paranoid though.

 

[Cheeto]

So far the default one seems best tbh. got any tips?

Also, the music interface I find.... clunky somehow. Don't seem to be able to get back to 'now playing' if I wander round the menus.

I tried a few other skins and didn't like as much as the main one. gimmie some tips please!

I went with standard components on mine as I want to be able to upgrade if needed. Thismight be paranoid though.

I like transparency for a skin, and the TAB key brings you back to the now playing screen by default if you don't want to wait for the timeout. This of course can be mapped to any keyboard, mouse or remote key

 

[scissorfight]

another transparency user here (though i modified it a bit). i really like the fanart list view it has, as i'm not a fan of views that just use the album/dvd covers with no list that everyone seems to love.

catfish, you might want to check out http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Global_Keyboard for other default key mappings.

 

[The Chef]

Well I didn't get that newegg one yesterday so when I went to order it today the coupon expired. SUCK!

 

[dLMN8R]

Can anyone recommend an easy way to get iTunes purchases to run smoothly on Ion-based nettops?

I've bought a couple movies and TV shows on iTunes, but since my Revo's Atom CPU is horribly underpowered, and iTunes doesn't take advantage of GPU-accelerated video playback, it's totally unwatchable.

Anyone?

:-(

 

[Marty Chinn]

Anyone?

:-(

If you're in Windows, try Media Player Classic or one of the latest SVN versions of XBMC.

So far the default one seems best tbh. got any tips?

Also, the music interface I find.... clunky somehow. Don't seem to be able to get back to 'now playing' if I wander round the menus.

I tried a few other skins and didn't like as much as the main one. gimmie some tips please!

I went with standard components on mine as I want to be able to upgrade if needed. Thismight be paranoid though.

I've been using Aeon lately. It's pretty flashy looking but can take a little bit of work to get it looking the way you want it. Here's some pics from my setup:

 

[BBQMan]

Very into doing a HTPC Would these specs be god enough for one?

Win7
Q6600 at stock speeds
9800GTX
4GB DDR2 RAM
Striker II Formula

this is my current rig I will be buying new parts soon core i7 etc as my gaming rig and was wondering if my current rig would make a good HTPC

 

[The Chef]

Looks so good Martin.
I found that Zotac MAG on Amazon for $250 so Im gonna grab it.

Edit: Ordered! Get it on Saturday - gotta love Prime.
Im hyped - I've been wanting to do a build since this thread was started. Now time to research what to do for when I get it.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Looks so good Martin.
I found that Zotac MAG on Amazon for $250 so Im gonna grab it.

Edit: Ordered! Get it on Saturday - gotta love Prime.
Im hyped - I've been wanting to do a build since this thread was started. Now time to research what to do for when I get it.

Don't want to totally burst your bubble but that Zotac isn't the same as the one on Newegg. Amazon has two models. One at $250 and another at $299. Can't remember what the difference is offhand but at least memory if I recall. If you're aware of that, all is good so I hope I didn't drop any surprises on you.

 

[f3niks]

Loving this thread. I will post pics and info of my set up later. I "Frankensteined" a HTPC with the parts from my old workstation. It's currently running Windows7 with XBMC (AEON Skin) after a failed attempt at trying to customize Windows Media Center.