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[PhoncipleBone]

I have an old xbox already. I was thinking of soft molding it but I also want hulu Nd whatnot on the tv. So is the only way to get a scan line converter?

 

[Kamakazie!]

From what I've read in the past, it sounded more like it was how ATI works with DXVA and how it doesn't work at all for VDPAU rather than it being specifically XBMC. Not sure how well its progressed but it still sounds like a current problem so for now I've told people to just get an NVIDIA card if they want GPU decoding. Better safe than sorry for now unless there's a pressing need to get ATI. Given you're already commited to ATI, I hope it really isn't as bad as some people make it sound like it is. Since you're doing gaming, it sounds like you have a CPU that could handle the video anyway so it's probably a non issue for you. Good luck.

Seems as though the 10.4 Catalyst drivers may fix this problem?
At least if they are talking about the same issue here as mentioned above. Seems so anyhow.

http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/ati-dxva-2-0-h-264-profile-5-1-16ref-frames-decoding-80927/index3.html

Makes me even happier with my 5770 purchase (even if the issue is unlikely to be a problem for me for the foreseeable future).

 

[GodfatherX]

so i think ive finally decided to convert my studio pc into a media center but also use it as my studio pc. Here are my current specs:

Amd Athlon X2 3200+
2GB Corsair XMS DDR
EVGA Radeon 7800GT
500GB Western Digital HDD

I'm keeping the cpu unless I can find an affordable upgrade that works on this socket mobo, upgrading the ram with another 2GB of the same XMS, and thinking of upgrading the gpu to a 9800GTX, and I'm trying to decide if I should go for a 1TB or a 2TB drive. This will be used primarily as a HTPC running Win7, although I would very much like to Hackintosh it. I assume with the dual video outs I can se a dvi to hdmi adapter for my 1080p hdtv, and keep my normal dvi connection to my pc monitor. I do use this pc for studio/production use and some occasional gaming (mainly Valve games, most of my gaming is done on the 360/ps3/wii).

mainly posting here to see if im headed in the right direction and looking for better suggestions

 

[Wraith]

so i think ive finally decided to convert my studio pc into a media center but also use it as my studio pc. Here are my current specs:

Amd Athlon X2 3200+
2GB Corsair XMS DDR
EVGA Radeon 7800GT
500GB Western Digital HDD

I'm keeping the cpu unless I can find an affordable upgrade that works on this socket mobo, upgrading the ram with another 2GB of the same XMS, and thinking of upgrading the gpu to a 9800GTX, and I'm trying to decide if I should go for a 1TB or a 2TB drive. This will be used primarily as a HTPC running Win7, although I would very much like to Hackintosh it. I assume with the dual video outs I can se a dvi to hdmi adapter for my 1080p hdtv, and keep my normal dvi connection to my pc monitor. I do use this pc for studio/production use and some occasional gaming (mainly Valve games, most of my gaming is done on the 360/ps3/wii).

mainly posting here to see if im headed in the right direction and looking for better suggestions

Wont this be loud as hell, particularly after adding a 9800? Might be a concern.

 

[GodfatherX]

As of now it's about as loud as my tv+360 and my home theater easily drowns it out, not sure if the 9800 would add a lot of noise or not

 

[Schrade]

Here's a new entry to the wireless keyboard list for HTPC:

SiTouch Mini Wireless Keyboard

http://www.sitouch.com/

Features
-Wireless 2.4 GHz with USB receiver
-Integrated touch pad
-Custom function keys with multimedia shortcuts
-Built in Laser Pointer
-Full QWERTY layout
-Rechargeable Li-On battery USB port
-Backlit Keys

Support Platforms:
-Windows® 2000
-Windows® XP
-Windows® VistaTM
-Windows® 7
-Macintosh OS® X Tiger
-Macintosh OS® X Leopard
-Macintosh OS® X Snow Leopard
-Linux Debian 3.1,redhat 9.0, Ubuntu 8.1, Fedora 7 and later
-Sony PlayStation®3
-Microsoft Xbox 360®
-Nintendo Wii

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Ok I must be stupid, but I cant get the Aeon skin to actually add any of my movies to the movies list. I add the the folders they are in but it never adds it. Its driving me crazy. Any help? I have the filepath setup correctly its just not doing anything. ugh.

 

[Odious Tea]

Make it run a scan. It should be in a context menu somewhere, I think. I use Alaska, so I'm not too privy on the specifics of Aeon.

Context menu is launched with 'C' by default, I think.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Make it run a scan. It should be in a context menu somewhere, I think. I use Alaska, so I'm not too privy on the specifics of Aeon.

Context menu is launched with 'C' by default, I think.

Nevermind, found it

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

It seems Zotacs new box is showing up

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/3...op_quick_look_and_undressing_video/index.html

Dual Core Atom and ION2

 

[Stumpokapow]

So, here's a strange thing.

I run XBMC on a Macbook which is hooked up to a TV. It works fine. I run XBMC on an AppleTV. It works fine. Last night I took my old eeepc which isn't really in use right now and decided to set it up with XBMC for the spare room. I set up all my network shares for video library mode and started it on a scan.

... overnight, it managed to scan maybe 50 episodes of television. That's it. It got through 30 Rock, the few seasons of Ally McBeal that I own, and the first half of Arrested Development. It seems to be doing one every 10 or 15 minutes or so. I tried stopping the scan and restarting it a few times, and it consistently did this.

It's not a thetvdb.com issue because my other two XBMC boxes added a new season I just ripped no problem. It's not a wireless issue because when I put the eeepc right next to the router it's not going any faster. I can't imagine it's a processing power issue because even being an old eeepc, the processor usage still isn't going above 20% or so.

Why the hell would it be indexing my library so slowly? Anyone else run into or fixed this?

At this point I'm better off writing a scheduled task that fetches a library file from one of my other boxes every night, I was just hoping to not have to do something like that.

 

[taylor910]

I would like to find some software that can pull up a virtual keyboard on a touchscreen pc and be used across all programs, ie music player, browser, etc.

This is on a windows pc. Any help please? suggestions?

 

[Cheeto]

This is on a windows pc. Any help please? suggestions?

Windows comes with an onscreen keyboard... I don't have any experience with it, but you may want to look into it. If your touch screen is basic mouse emulation you should have no problems.

 

[The Chef]

I think I bought a lemon.
My Zotac MAG is starting to really act up. Lags for a split second when scrolling through movies. Beeps a ton when I boot it up - a quick search shows basically that *beeps* on startup aren't good. They either mean bad RAM or something. And just this morning I try and watch a movie and then when I hit Stop it freezes completely. I have to hard-boot my machine.

This blows. I think I may return it.

 

[Cheeto]

I think I bought a lemon.
My Zotac MAG is starting to really act up. Lags for a split second when scrolling through movies. Beeps a ton when I boot it up - a quick search shows basically that *beeps* on startup aren't good. They either mean bad RAM or something. And just this morning I try and watch a movie and then when I hit Stop it freezes completely. I have to hard-boot my machine.

This blows. I think I may return it.

Aw that sucks, was it working well for awhile before doing this or did it start right out of the box?

 

[The Chef]

Aw that sucks, was it working well for awhile before doing this or did it start right out of the box?

It seemed to be working fine for a while. The past few days its really been sucking. :/

 

[Odious Tea]

So, here's a strange thing.

I run XBMC on a Macbook which is hooked up to a TV. It works fine. I run XBMC on an AppleTV. It works fine. Last night I took my old eeepc which isn't really in use right now and decided to set it up with XBMC for the spare room. I set up all my network shares for video library mode and started it on a scan.

... overnight, it managed to scan maybe 50 episodes of television. That's it. It got through 30 Rock, the few seasons of Ally McBeal that I own, and the first half of Arrested Development. It seems to be doing one every 10 or 15 minutes or so. I tried stopping the scan and restarting it a few times, and it consistently did this.

It's not a thetvdb.com issue because my other two XBMC boxes added a new season I just ripped no problem. It's not a wireless issue because when I put the eeepc right next to the router it's not going any faster. I can't imagine it's a processing power issue because even being an old eeepc, the processor usage still isn't going above 20% or so.

Why the hell would it be indexing my library so slowly? Anyone else run into or fixed this?

At this point I'm better off writing a scheduled task that fetches a library file from one of my other boxes every night, I was just hoping to not have to do something like that.

Why aren't you just using something like Ember Media Manager to scrape your stuff? That way it's all in the folder and XBMC reads it right from there and doesn't have to fetch anything itself.

 

[Polari]

Here's a new entry to the wireless keyboard list for HTPC:

SiTouch Mini Wireless Keyboard

http://www.sitouch.com/

DealExtreme have something that looks identical for $66. They also have this:

:lol

 

[The Chef]

Discovered my Zotac Mag only beeps on startup when I have a USB keyboard and mouse hooked up. Seems like it doesn't like those.

But some weird stuff just started happening. I restart, run XBMC and everything seems fine. However, the second I watch a movie and then try to pause, or exit he movie the whole thing locks up. Every time.

And even when XBMC isn't locked up and I try to close it completely, it refuses.

Any ideas wtf could be going on with my setup?

 

[Cheeto]

Enable debug mode and post the log

 

[The Chef]

Enable debug mode and post the log

Sorry, how do I enable debug mode? Is it in XBMC or for Ubuntu?

 

[Lonely1]

Here's a new entry to the wireless keyboard list for HTPC:

SiTouch Mini Wireless Keyboard

http://www.sitouch.com/

Features
-Wireless 2.4 GHz with USB receiver
-Integrated touch pad
-Custom function keys with multimedia shortcuts
-Built in Laser Pointer
-Full QWERTY layout
-Rechargeable Li-On battery USB port
-Backlit Keys

Support Platforms:
-Windows® 2000
-Windows® XP
-Windows® VistaTM
-Windows® 7
-Macintosh OS® X Tiger
-Macintosh OS® X Leopard
-Macintosh OS® X Snow Leopard
-Linux Debian 3.1,redhat 9.0, Ubuntu 8.1, Fedora 7 and later
-Sony PlayStation®3
-Microsoft Xbox 360®
-Nintendo Wii

Um..., that or Novo Mini? Help me decide, GAF, nOW! (Good wii use is a must)

 

[Marty Chinn]

Um..., that or Novo Mini? Help me decide, GAF, nOW! (Good wii use is a must)

I love my DiNovo Mini, but that other one looks good too. The one drawback, unless I haven't figured it out yet, is it doesn't seem like the DiNovo Mini has F keys but that one looks like it does.

 

[The Chef]

I think I have a bad external HDD. I can see all the files and everything on it but now when I play a movie it locks up, or doesn't show picture at all. Very weird.

I'm going to keep trying to trouble shoot this before I decide to send it back or get a new external.

 

[The Chef]

Hey Martin,
Did you have any problems with multi-channel audio through HDMI on windows 7?

I ended up putting 7 on instead but thats one of my big problems so far.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Hey Martin,
Did you have any problems with multi-channel audio through HDMI on windows 7?

I ended up putting 7 on instead but thats one of my big problems so far.

Not that I recall. I can't switch at the moment since the TV is in use, but I believe Dolby Digital and DTS work fine through XBMC. Are you just getting pro logic?

 

[Cheeto]

Sorry, how do I enable debug mode? Is it in XBMC or for Ubuntu?

Its in XBMC... I believe its somewhere in the system screen... Check here:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Troubleshooting

 

[The Chef]

Not that I recall. I can't switch at the moment since the TV is in use, but I believe Dolby Digital and DTS work fine through XBMC. Are you just getting pro logic?

I figured it out. Had to change XBMC to be Nvidia HDMI Audio and now I get DTS.

New problem!
I think it still has to do with the external Hard Drive but now that I switched to Windows 7 when I watch a movie off the external My Book it is VERY laggy.

Im going to try and copy a video to the HD and see if it plays it fine.

Its in XBMC... I believe its somewhere in the system screen... Check here:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Troubleshooting

Thanks Cheeto,
ill check it out.

 

[danootz]

Is the Acer Aspire 1600 acceptable for 1080p video? Newegg reviews seem OK...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103228

If not, any other suggestions at $200 price point or below?

I've been thinking of building/buying an HTPC for months. Could this mini desktop be good enough? I like that it's cheap and according to many it can run high def stuff.

It's either this or continuing to hold out till Boxee Box comes out. :T

 

[The Chef]

OK So I copied a movie from the external and placed it on the desktop and tried playing it in XBMC. Same problem, SUPER laggy. Audio plays fine but the video is like a slideshow.

Its almost like its acting like it has no ram. I checked the system monitor and when I have nothing open, just idling it reads that im using 700MB of ram. Does that seem high?

 

[mm04]

Any advice as to what Blu-ray playing software to get for my PC? I came in pretty ignorant on the situation and am now realizing the OEM software my lite-on came with is not going to cut it. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ovid]

So I just discovered the Logitech TouchMouse app for the iPad and I have to say that I'm truly amazed. What a cool app. Perfect compliment to my HTPC (I abandoned my laptop in favor of an iPad a month ago). Now I don't have to use my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse when navigating on my HTPC. The only things I'll need now are my iPad and my Windows remote. I love technology.

 

[Marty Chinn]

So I just discovered the Logitech TouchMouse app for the iPad and I have to say that I'm truly amazed. What a cool app. Perfect compliment to my HTPC (I abandoned my laptop in favor of an iPad a month ago). Now I don't have to use my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse when navigating on my HTPC. The only things I'll need now are my iPad and my Windows remote. I love technology.

What front end are you using and why aren't you using a remote instead? A mouse cursor shouldn't be needed for navigating your HTPC unless you're using a web browser or something like that.

 

[Ovid]

I use Windows Media Center and use the remote that came with my PC (press the green button...lol). I only use the keyboard and mouse when I'm messing around with audio and display settings in Vista. Getting the keyboard and mouse outta there will make my set up look nice and clean. One remote and one beautiful iPad.

BTW, I never browse the web on my HTPC.

 

[Cheeto]

Or one remote...but whatever, however you justify the ipad purchase is your business

 

[Ovid]

Or one remote...but whatever, however you justify the ipad purchase is your business

I love my iPad. It's the only thing I use for the net now. It's pretty much always at my side when I'm home so having it replace my keyboard and mouse is a added bonus.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Any way to build a Ubuntu HTPC? Would there be any benefits?

 

[Marty Chinn]

Any way to build a Ubuntu HTPC? Would there be any benefits?

Yep, there are easy ways to do it. XBMC Live runs on Ubuntu and has a fairly simple auto install. I'm running Ubuntu with XBMC for my HTPC but not the Live version since I wanted dual booting. Works great and is light weight and fast. Only problem is some things aren't trivial to setup.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

And presumably games support. Is Steam on Linux?

 

[Cheeto]

And presumably games support. Is Steam on Linux?

Almost

 

[taylor910]

Windows comes with an onscreen keyboard... I don't have any experience with it, but you may want to look into it. If your touch screen is basic mouse emulation you should have no problems.

Welp, Im an idiot. Thanks

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Almost

Just saw that thread. :lol Talk about timing.

 

[The Chef]

Wow I am so frustrated. I have been trying to get this thing to work for nearly 2 weeks now.

Here goes:

1. Got the Zotac Mag, installed Ubuntu and everything was working PERFECTLY. Audio, 1080p playback was smooth, everything worked without a hitch. It was this way for about a week.
2. One day all of a sudden, playback locks up when I hit pause, XBMC crashes all very weird issues. I thought it was the external drive but when I copied a movie to the zotac hd still same problem. It seems to play SD crap fine at this point.
3. Installed windows 7 - Video playback in XBMC for 1080p now incredibly laggy, audio seems to play fine.
4. Went BACK to Ubuntu. Downloaded Ubuntu 10 and got it setup again last night. This HAS to fix it, I mean I'm just going back to bare bones. Nope, video is still incredibly laggy.

So long story short, it was working beautifully when I got it, but decided it didn't like that so now it sucks at playing 1080p video.
Im so bummed out. I think I will pack it up today and send it back and try to figure out another solution.

 

[evlcookie]

I started messing around with XBMC yesterday, so far i like the presentation. I added the aeon skin and selected a source for tv shows under the video section. However nothing shows up when i select tv shows from the main menu, tells me to go back to the video section and add it.

Also is anyone ripping their own blurays for use with xbmc. If so, how are you going about it? Are you just dumping the iso, encoding the video to save space or taking the movie uncompressed in a particular format?

 

[ThatObviousUser]

Do any of your guys' HTPCs have Blu-ray drives and/or DVR capability?

 

[neoanarch]

Do any of your guys' HTPCs have Blu-ray drives and/or DVR capability?

No bluray but mine is setup as DVR.

 

[Ovid]

Do any of your guys' HTPCs have Blu-ray drives and/or DVR capability?

Blu-Ray and DVR capability for me.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

So the question becomes, why isn't there a company making these perfect machines available to the consumer/layman?? Like Dell* or something.

*

Spoiler

Not making any statements about Dell's quality.

Edit- To get DVR working you'd have to get some kind of adapter or something right? And it'd have to be on the channel in question? Would it work with DirecTV?

 

[neoanarch]

So the question becomes, why isn't there a company making these perfect machines available to the consumer/layman?? Like Dell* or something.

*

Spoiler

Not making any statements about Dell's quality.

Edit- To get DVR working you'd have to get some kind of adapter or something right? And it'd have to be on the channel in question? Would it work with DirecTV?

Microsoft has the best DVR software IMO and its just a matter of getting a decent video card. Dell actually lets you add a device as an option on most of their desktops. Plus the zino line is the perfect form factor for a dvr.

WMC will let you connect to your box from cable or satellite but the recording will be analog and SD.

I canceled my cable and just get the OTA broadcast. There are a few cable card options for the PC if you want to get the encrypted digital/premium channels on your PC.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

OTA broadcast? Could you explain that?

And what's MS's DVR software called?

Sorry for the many questions. This whole concept is very exciting.