Boro

iTrader: (1)

I fancy having a go at building a media centre PC and linking it to my TV.

I've decided on XBMC cos it looks like it will do that job.

Anyone done this and what do you think of it?

tarmac terror

iTrader: (2)

I have - XBMC is a cracking bit of gear.

I have a small PC in the TV cabinet, with the VGA output to the TV and the audio feed out to my home cinema system.

I have two nfs shares set up on my NAS and use an internal wireless connection to stream music or SD video to XBMC. I have built mine on Ubuntu 10.04 and have no plans to upgrade, easy to set up and it just works.

Had tried a lot of other media centre systems before settling for xbmc - in my opinion there is nothing better at the minute.

stiscooby

Yep, I have done this too. Works well

I have mine running on a HP Micro Server. A few months back they were doing £100 cash back on them (they might still be doing the same?) so ended up costing about £140 I think from memory? Then stuck some extra RAM in it and a few 1Tb hard drives, loaded Windows Home Server on it so I can also use it as extra storage/backups etc as well as XBMC.

I also stuck a graphics card in it which has a HDMI port so I just have that plugged into my AMP and get video/sound out through that.

Markus

I've got XBMC running on two devices, one is my original xbox, which I had mod chipped as I wanted to use XBMC, it's connected to my AV amp, which in turn is hooked into the TV, so it'll handle DTS / Dolby Digital content.
Upstairs I've got an original AppleTV which is modified and also runs XBMC, it's hooked directly to the TV via interconnects, so no DD / DTS but I'm not bothered about that upstairs.

They are both connected to power line ethernet adapters and access the media drive hooked up to my iMac in the basement. At some point I'll get a NAS and they'll connect to that, but the setup works well enough for me at the moment.

acstua

iTrader: (1)

Could use Boxee which was originally a fork of XMBC

I've the boxee box, tis very good
with an unRAID Box for my store

P1Drifter

iTrader: (7)

this is what i use for my xbmc box http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ion%20330.asp
i also have a small nas box and the network with a few terabytes in would also recommend openelec.tv over a straight xmbc install

mart360

Just tried openlec....

installed, but hangs on startup.... need to do a bit more investigation methinks

Mart

P1Drifter

iTrader: (7)

did you get the correct build for your system ?

DonNedly

iTrader: (10)

I have had two original xboxs running xbmc linked to the pc for a few years now.
Works well.

Super cheap way of having a media centre. I paid £10 for one of the xboxs and got the other free.

P1Drifter

iTrader: (7)

xbox's wont play HD content tho

DonNedly

iTrader: (10)

i don't have the bandwith to download HD anyway as i live in the middle of nowhere.

Littleted

Don youve just solved my issue.

I have an old xbox upstairs thats modded is it easy to upgrade like by just popping CD in or can you advise me how i can flatten it for just XBMC ?

The one i have is the one controlled through the power button double tap engages the chipset

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

For the price I'd recommend the N36L HP Microserver as already mentioned above. They are still doing the £100 cash back so it can be had for £120approx after discount.

I have mine running WHS 2008, Sabznzbd, Couch Potato and XBMC.

Great setup - downloads stuff in the middle of the night, it automatically gets sorted and is made available in the house for streaming to my ipad or iphone (via Plex) or to the TV via XBMC

Only thing missing is a remote/small keyboard to control XBMC (altho' have the XBMC COmmander app on the phone)

Check it out! There's a lot of talk on AVForums on this and I think also on HotUKDeals !

HTH

Jai

Markus

If it's mod-chipped then do you have an alternate dashboard, for example, evox? If so, you should be able to boot into that and FTP over XBMC.

If you don't have another dashboard then grab AID (Auto Installer Deluxe) and boot from that and it should have a copy of XBMC on the disk so you can install it, probably want to upgrade it to a newer version though.
To get AID, have a look here and here

DonNedly

iTrader: (10)

Thats the way
grab yourself a remote too while you are at it and you can sit on your sofa scrolling through movies that are on your PC through your TV, it goes and gets runtimes,synopsis,dvd covers, trailers etc from the internet. It must be the most cost-effective way to do this.

mart360

I took the generic i386 build

it does the install, and then says folder not found on boot... (its a sata drive)

changing to a IDE drive, it says there is no partition on the drive


Mart

Markus

What you need is either the full XBOX dvd remote and receiver thing (plugs into a game port), or, if you can get it, just the receiver if you have a fancy all-in-one learning remote, as it usually has the xbox as a device it knows about. I know the logitech harmony remotes I've had certainly have the ability to control the xbox. Ok, not all the buttons on the xbox remote are mapped to the harmony, but for playback of media it works very well.