sam9s HTPC Project! powered by XBMC!!

[sam9s]

Guys time to update ....... added another feature .....

1. To be able to boot/power up my my HTPC from remote/on my couch, rather than hitting the power button.

This can be achieved using a very nifty utility called Remote Launcher ...... basically its a tool that enables you to launch applications remotely on your PC via your Android phone. There are other loads of similar applications that do the same, but what I found with this one was the "Wake ON Lan" support, plus the interface is neat and it actually works like a charm.

Few things that needs to remembered is your hardware should support WOL which in today's scenario most of them do. Second your PC should be in hibernate mode. Third your network should have a static IP. To make it work just put the IP of your HTPC/LAN Card and the MAC address of the same, and that's it. Press WOL button on your android application and it powers on your machine right from your couch .... . Check out a small video I prepared to show you the same .....


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMzaH3bvZm8&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]

 

[manniraj]

Hi All,

I am thinking of getting a UPS for my htpc build. There are frequent power failures in my area and we have the power backup in the apartment thru a generator but it comes up with a delay of 5 to 10 min. So can you all suggest me a good UPS that I can use with my HTPC. And can I configure the power saving option in my HTPC running on win7 to shutdown automatically once its on UPS with a time frame. Also can I use a surge protector socket for the UPS or should I use the direct plug. Currently I am using a surge protector extension box with my HTPC.

Thanks in advance..

 

[srinisundar]

Sam,

Just had some problem with my NAS(Western Digital), suddenly i could not view two folders which contains sorted out movies according to language( in NFS mode ). I have more than 20 folders, i could view the same contents in NFS mode..

But I could view the same 2 folders and is visible in upnp mode in xtreamer & by twonky media player thru PC.

I restarted( 10 times atleast)/updated NAS to latest firmware.. Nope no use..

Any suggestion..

Update:

Digged some more folders and some other internal folders(all video files) too NOT visible in Network shares thru xtreamer but could view thru UpnP mode... So files are there in NAS ultimately but not visible.

Another update:
Browsed thru my computer thru My Network Places and my NAS is visible there and browsed it, but the two folders are there inside files are not visible.

Once again browsed thru MY Network Places where my NAS media server inbuilt(twonky) icon will show as Upnp device and the files are visible and i could play directly in my PC.. Funny.

 

[sam9s]

Very Generic situation here, tough to spot like this, which OS (NFS) are you using for your NAS ... ????

 

[srinisundar]

Hi Sam,

Putting exactly the spec as mentioned below in the link. I never changed anything or added any software to it and the sharespace is accessed by windows xp based PC and connected with Linkys Router WRT 320N + Linksys WRT 54G(this i will change it occasionally, since the router get heated and gets hanged/freezed-some issues). Thru Router connected the Popcorn hour + xtreamer (wired). Access by pc will be wireless.

Western Digital ShareSpace Specs (8TB) - Network Storage - CNET Reviews

 

[manniraj]

Hi

I have enabled (playercorefactory.xml file modified) to play mkv,avi... video files from xbmc as an external player thru mpc-hc. Now the problem is that when i click on stop button of my universal pc remote while playing in mpc-hc it does not get back to xbmc but stays in mpc-hc with a blank screen. But the same works fine to get back to xbmc when the video is finished completely without me stopping it manually. What would be the reason?? Please advice..

 

[gevarghe]

Guys time to update ....... added another feature .....

1. To be able to boot/power up my my HTPC from remote/on my couch, rather than hitting the power button.

This can be achieved using a very nifty utility called Remote Launcher ...... basically its a tool that enables you to launch applications remotely on your PC via your Android phone. There are other loads of similar applications that do the same, but what I found with this one was the "Wake ON Lan" support, plus the interface is neat and it actually works like a charm.

Few things that needs to remembered is your hardware should support WOL which in today's scenario most of them do. Second your PC should be in hibernate mode. Third your network should have a static IP. To make it work just put the IP of your HTPC/LAN Card and the MAC address of the same, and that's it. Press WOL button on your android application and it powers on your machine right from your couch .... . Check out a small video I prepared to show you the same .....

Dunno if you've checked but on the XBMC remote app, you can power up the PC from hibernate/sleep (not actually sure which mode my desktop goes into - maybe it's the hybrid mode) using the "Turn on my XBMC..." option that shows when it can't connect to XBMC... Can't verify it right now cos haven't got XBMC on my latest Win7 install

 

[sam9s]

Hi All

I apologize I couldn't reply the queries on my thread. The thing is I went petty busy with my NAS setup and configuration, the past 1 week has gone in extreme research and setup for my NAS. Its finally up and running, but I still have to add quite a few features and hardware to make it a true 24x7 NAS. I initially thought to start the thread with what I current have but then decided against it. I will only share my D.I.Y when its perfectly complete and ready per my standards. So we gotta wait for a week more or so.

Sam,

Just had some problem with my NAS(Western Digital), suddenly i could not view two folders which contains sorted out movies according to language( in NFS mode ). I have more than 20 folders, i could view the same contents in NFS mode..

But I could view the same 2 folders and is visible in upnp mode in xtreamer & by twonky media player thru PC.

I restarted( 10 times atleast)/updated NAS to latest firmware.. Nope no use..

Sri is this resolved. You still haven't told me what OS is your NAS running, is it windows or Unix/Linux based. The way you have described looks like something to do with permissions.

Hi

I have enabled (playercorefactory.xml file modified) to play mkv,avi... video files from xbmc as an external player thru mpc-hc. Now the problem is that when i click on stop button of my universal pc remote while playing in mpc-hc it does not get back to xbmc but stays in mpc-hc with a blank screen. But the same works fine to get back to xbmc when the video is finished completely without me stopping it manually. What would be the reason?? Please advice..

Well I do not use, PC remote, nor have configured MPC-HC. I use my android XBMC official remote and TMT5 for my BD ISOs . But let me tell you, its supposed to behave that way. With me as well, if I just stop the movie in between by pressing the stop button, the movie stops but the TMT5 player stays there only. Its only when I close TMT5 (by hitting the cross button of the window) the script takes me back to XBMC. If this is the same way your MPC-HC is behaving then you got it all right. Else let me know the exact behavior.

Dunno if you've checked but on the XBMC remote app, you can power up the PC from hibernate/sleep (not actually sure which mode my desktop goes into - maybe it's the hybrid mode) using the "Turn on my XBMC..." option that shows when it can't connect to XBMC... Can't verify it right now cos haven't got XBMC on my latest Win7 install

Nope I could not find any setting that can switch on the PC from hibernate/sleep or off mode via XBMC android remote. I might be missing here, I agree, so I request you to show me the exact place in XBMC remote where this setting is hidden. Better share a screen shot. OR , you might be using a different XBMC remote, coz there are quite a few floating around. I am using the official one. It looks something like below...

 

[manniraj]

Hi All

Well I do not use, PC remote, nor have configured MPC-HC. I use my android XBMC official remote and TMT5 for my BD ISOs . But let me tell you, its supposed to behave that way. With me as well, if I just stop the movie in between by pressing the stop button, the movie stops but the TMT5 player stays there only. Its only when I close TMT5 (by hitting the cross button of the window) the script takes me back to XBMC. If this is the same way your MPC-HC is behaving then you got it all right. Else let me know the exact behavior.

Hi sam i figured thru avsforums that it should behave like when i hit stop button in mpc-hc it should actually return back to xbmc. I was able to do that by going into the options keystroke and set exit to Media_Stop. Hurray it works like a charm and the only drawback is that i cannot resume in mpc-hc where i stopped just like in xbmc. I came to know that the latest version of mpc-hc this simple but imp feature has been left out. Thanks..

 

[sam9s]

^^ Well I guess its better the other way. If I just stops the movie, it should stay at the player itself, so that I can (if I want) change the options of the player. Its only when I close out the player I should be sent back to XBMC, which is how I have configured my script. But if you want it that way and also have found the way to do it......... perfect . What else one can want ....... ..
Also with TMT5 I can resume from where I stop. Thats a player feature, nothing to do with XBMC. One more thing if the script takes you back to XBMC the moment you stop the movie in MPC-HC, there is no way you can configure your MPC to resume from the same point you stopped. For that you have to stay at the player itself. Like with TMT5, when I stop the movie, it stays at the TMT console only, and when I click on play...... TMT asks me if I wanna resume from the same place.

 

[kaptan]

Hi Sam, tell me a graphics card which can do 3d and give HD audios DTS MA and DD Tru HD via HDMI. I am planning to use my PC as HTPC. Right now I am using asus board(dont no model), 1 GB Ram DDR2, AMD Processor(equivalent to Dual Core)

 

[manniraj]

^^ Well I guess its better the other way. If I just stops the movie, it should stay at the player itself, so that I can (if I want) change the options of the player. Its only when I close out the player I should be sent back to XBMC, which is how I have configured my script. But if you want it that way and also have found the way to do it......... perfect . What else one can want ....... ..
Also with TMT5 I can resume from where I stop. Thats a player feature, nothing to do with XBMC. One more thing if the script takes you back to XBMC the moment you stop the movie in MPC-HC, there is no way you can configure your MPC to resume from the same point you stopped. For that you have to stay at the player itself. Like with TMT5, when I stop the movie, it stays at the TMT console only, and when I click on play...... TMT asks me if I wanna resume from the same place.

I wanted it that way and it works for me so i am happy. But regarding the stop and resume i think it is the built in feature of the player for example TMT5 i think you can stop and exit the player and when you try to play the same file again it would give you the option to resume where you stopped earlier as the player will keep this in the memory. And there is no need to stay put at the player. I can see this feature in xbmc standalone player. Even after i exited from the xbmc it still gives me an option whether to play from first or resume from last playback.
I think if i configure to play the videos instead of mpc-hc to tmt5 i think i can still use the stop exit and come back to xbmc and when i try to playback the same file i think it should give the option of resume. I came to know from the mpc-hc forums that they have removed this feature in the latest release.

 

[sam9s]

Hi Sam, tell me a graphics card which can do 3d and give HD audios DTS MA and DD Tru HD via HDMI. I am planning to use my PC as HTPC. Right now I am using asus board(dont no model), 1 GB Ram DDR2, AMD Processor(equivalent to Dual Core)

The one I am using, (nVidia GT440) does 3D like a piece of cake and all HD audio bit streaming as well.

 

[kaptan]

Wat is the cost of nVidia Zotac GT440 ?

 

[sam9s]

I dont exactly, remember but its around 4000.

 

[manniraj]

Hi sam

One quick clarification. Is gt430 similar to gt440 when coming to playback 3d and hd audio bitstreaming without any gaming and just for htpc purpose. When i checked the comparison in google it is mentioned in most of the sites that gt430 is more than sufficient for the requirements that i have mentioned above. Also does gt430 consumes less power that gt440 for hd video playback.

 

[Gijo George]

Hi Sam
I'd like to assemble an HTPC with the Silverstone LC10 cabinet. Waiting for the stock since its expected only towards the end of August or 1st week of Sept in PrimeABGB.

Could you advise on a suitable motherboard for the i3 2100 3.1 processor? I have the P8H67M Pro in mind. Besides movies and music its pretty much usual stuff, browsing, downloading, bit of photo editing etc. I am NOT into gaming. Yet.
I'm assuming I won't need a dedicated Graphics card with the above Processor and MOBO even for 1080p videos. Correct?
Thanks

 

[Vishu_fbd]

Asus H67 Pro is is good choice with onboard graphics n audio fits to the T for HTPC.

 

[sam9s]

Hi sam

One quick clarification. Is gt430 similar to gt440 when coming to playback 3d and hd audio bitstreaming without any gaming and just for htpc purpose. When i checked the comparison in google it is mentioned in most of the sites that gt430 is more than sufficient for the requirements that i have mentioned above. Also does gt430 consumes less power that gt440 for hd video playback.

I think the only difference is the memory. Apart from that I think 430 should also be sufficient, not sure about the 3D though. Google and see if any one has shared his personal experience with 430

Could you advise on a suitable motherboard for the i3 2100 3.1 processor? I have the P8H67M Pro in mind. Besides movies and music its pretty much usual stuff, browsing, downloading, bit of photo editing etc. I am NOT into gaming. Yet.
I'm assuming I won't need a dedicated Graphics card with the above Processor and MOBO even for 1080p videos. Correct?
Thanks

H67 chip set supports Intel HD2000/3000 graphics and is more than sufficient for casual HTPC needs. Full HD bitstreaming @1080p is fully supported. Intel HD graphics supports 3D as well, but not as good as a dedicated GPU. My personal experience was that we had to struggle a lot to get a decent playback of 3D ISOs on frame sequential mode.The usual SBS mode played fine. But the internal GPU was struggling a bit when it came to frame sequential mode. For GT440 it was piece of a cake.

 

[bungdung91]

I am using Windows 7 x64 ulti for the moment, but I dont load explorer, instead guide windows to load XBMC even before explorer loads, making it boot faster. How ever the idea of XBMC live is also not bad, but if you plan to use Live I will recommend another product based on XBMC live only, its called Open ELEC. Its basically based on XBMC itself and acts as live as well, but is been customized to give a
better experience. I have tried it and I would definately suggest it above XBMC Live!.

About BluRay..... are you asking about Bluray ISO or Discs, for Disc I actually already have Pana BD60 BD player. For ISO I use the combination of Virtual Clone Drive and Total Media Theater5. A small script tells XBMC to mount the ISO in my drive and TMT5 to play it, so that I get for HD audio. Checkout my video.



Yep I have the subtitle and lyrics plugin. Radio I havent tried yet, but will definitely give it a try

This is a pretty awesome setup! I've been on Mac Mini + Plex + Drobo Pro setup for the past 3 years... one of the most stable systems ever. I just add cheap Apple TV's to every additional TV in the house and we're all done, Currently have 4 tv's setup