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My Media Centre setup
http://www.hawthornevillager.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22862		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  RobB [ Mon Dec 14, 2009 8:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: My Media Centre setup
Zeeshan Hamid wrote:
Making it its own thread since so many people had asked about this (sorry it took a year to actually make a video of it :))

video #1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5P5DkUF0Rg
video #2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E8rdJm1W7k

I have 5 PCs at home that are able to use this centrally stored data using the same UI (XBox360 has a built-in extender too that I can use to do the exact thing).


You sir need to acquaint yourself with mymovies (http://www.mymovies.name) , WAAAAAAAAAAAY better film management, I'm currently using 3 seperate HD tv's (and a switched drop down screen/hd projector) each with their own MyMovies based media center, media located on a central server with 7 tb of films... and before anyone goes on about pirating, they are NOT pirated, all are legally purchased (or donated via a nice brother who works for Warner Bros ;-) ), but all legitimate backups under fair use law. Full HD (most BR but some HD DVD as well cuz I jumped on that bandwagon) where applicable.. and a fancy lil online portal of my collection as well (http://c.mymovies.name/robont), well the ones I've got in so far anyway. God I could go on for hours on the subject... Media Center is SUCH an underrated product...
Author:  Heather&Chris [ Mon Dec 14, 2009 9:19 pm ]
Post subject: 
...and yet your Hydro bill is *still* less than ours... ;)
Author:  S M [ Mon Dec 14, 2009 10:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
Boxee is great. Works with Linux/Windows/Mac. Has the best looking UI in my opinion and works with other "channels" like hulu, youtube, comedy network, etc.

www.boxee.tv

I can't stand media center :P


Question tho. You have it setup is a PVR? What tuner are you using?
Author:  Greg88 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:38 am ]
Post subject: 
I am looking for a HD capture card that can connect a HDMI input. I want to connect my bluray to my computer.

Any suggestions?
Author:  RobB [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:26 am ]
Post subject: 
Zeeshan Hamid wrote:
I actually used mymovies when I was on XP and Windows Vista. But with 7's media centre I haven't felt a need to.

I use Media Scout. It automatically organizes all my media (movies included). For TV it creates folders for shows and seasons, moves them and renames them. It also downloads cover arts, synopsis etc. All magic!


hmmmm will have to take a look at that...
Author:  RobB [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:28 am ]
Post subject: 
Greg88 wrote:
I am looking for a HD capture card that can connect a HDMI input. I want to connect my bluray to my computer.

Any suggestions?


No such animal... HDMI is a protected pathway meant to prevent capturing, hence no capture card for it. If you want to rip bluray flicks you need a pc based bluray player and something like anydvd hd (www.slysoft.com)
Author:  sanj75 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:38 am ]
Post subject: 
Nice videos .. I am convinced.

So I need to get a good enough computer .. what processor are you running? I guess I need something better than what you have.

Any recos for TV tuners?

I ***still*** have not been able to get more than 3 channels with my OTA HD :oops: so I guess I need to mount the antennae really high. I took a peak in my attic and its full of nails and crap .. I really don't feel safe going into that. Besides I don't have a way to take wiring from the attic to the basement.

I never knew media center would match a TV guide from the internet with channels from an OTA HD antennae .. I thought you would need satellite.

Btw what kind of disk-space do you suggest?

Also you mention you can use xbox to fetch and play the media from any computers in your network. Is xbox reliable i.e can play media without hitches, is the media user interface good? and moreover does it have the codecs or can codecs be installed on xbox to ensure it plays all media formats?

I know you can also use ps3 as a blue-ray player but someone told me it is not a good blueray like the dedicated blue-ray players. It sometimes does not play some blue-ray DVDs and is sometimes slow or freezes. I wonder whether Ps3 can be used as a media player too?

Rumours are that xbox will have blue-ray player too.
Author:  sanj75 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 12:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
What about a remote control. Do you get something good that works with media center or a computer.

I have a Lenova Mini Keyboard and its good but still a pain, so I keep a mouse nearby.
Author:  S M [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:11 pm ]
Post subject: 
I bought 2 of these from Canada Computers for $20 a while back.

http://www.vmart.pk/main/images/cordles ... aboard.jpg

They also have MCE remotes for about $30
Author:  sanj75 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 1:41 pm ]
Post subject: 
Zeeshan Hamid wrote:
sanj75 wrote:
What about a remote control. Do you get something good that works with media center or a computer.

I have a Lenova Mini Keyboard and its good but still a pain, so I keep a mouse nearby.


You get remote for Windows Media Centre. Typically these come with TV Tuners. But any universal remote will do. I use the one that came with my receiver.


You mean the TV Tuner comes with an infra-red receiver .. thats the only way a universal remote will work. Also I presume you need some software to understand the infra-red signals.

Sorry for all the questions:)

S M thats a really nice deal! I spent 150 bucks on my Lenovo mini keyboard :P
Author:  rock_80 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
Nice setup I have somethign similar as well little win7 box running media center and mymovies

hardware : http://www.asrock.com/nettop/spec/ION%20330.asp bought it for 340 on sale. with a media center remote for 20 bucks, mapped it to my logitech harmony and it works like a charm, plays blue-ray back no problem as well as any hd media format that I've tried so far.
Author:  Greg88 [ Tue Dec 15, 2009 9:25 pm ]
Post subject: 
RobB wrote:
Greg88 wrote:
I am looking for a HD capture card that can connect a HDMI input. I want to connect my bluray to my computer.

Any suggestions?


No such animal... HDMI is a protected pathway meant to prevent capturing, hence no capture card for it. If you want to rip bluray flicks you need a pc based bluray player and something like anydvd hd (www.slysoft.com)


I am not looking to rip Bluray but instead to stream bluray playback through my computer and more specifically through Media Center (whicH I use for for all of the other elements of our central entertainment and our PVR.

Thanks
Author:  RobB [ Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:52 am ]
Post subject: 
Greg88 wrote:
I am not looking to rip Bluray but instead to stream bluray playback through my computer and more specifically through Media Center (whicH I use for for all of the other elements of our central entertainment and our PVR.

Thanks


"Streaming" would require the same thing as ripping which is decrypting a protected path, same basic principal so you can't use an external standalone player. Only current way to achieve that right now is to get a PC based bluray drive and a bluray software player (I use totalmediatheater by arcsoft). Integrates really well with Windows Media Center.
Author:  sanj75 [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:06 pm ]
Post subject: 
I have been playing around with windows media center on windows 7 and I am not impressed. First of all it uses windows media player which is pretty poor in many features like the play-speed setting. Media player has this but only works on DVDs and is very hard to get to. There are other issues with media player that I wont get to.

With Media center there is no setting to put tags on the files .. something I thought would have been very basic. Like tag movies with "watched" or "Sanj's favs" etc. And search by tags. Just like Picasa for pics and mediamonkey for music.

Moreover I feel at the cost of seeing fancy graphics and interface you spend a lot of time trying to drill down to a movie that I personally can find using window's explorer much faster (that's because I know where it is).

Anyway I will try the other stuff like mediascout or mymovies when I get time.

For now windows explorer beats media center :).

Q1) btw is there a remote control for PCs preferably a bluetooth one. I want something generic that can be customized for say PowerDVD or any media player. And also I can control the mouse with.

I am trying to get my PS3 controller to talk to my PC but no luck as yet.

I also have the PS3 working as a media server, but nothing beats using a PC directly attached to the computer.

Q2) I am using windows 7 with my 52inch LCD TV. The resolution of the TV is not exactly 1920x1080 but something like 1880x1040. So using the video card I created a custom resolution, which works fine, but windows does not render the text/icons smoothly. Have an ATI card and fooled around with clear test settings but no luck.

Q3) Say if you have your OS (Windows) at 720p or less. But you have a movie at 1080p. Is there a media player that will dynamically change the resolution to 1080p to play the movie.
Author:  S M [ Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:26 pm ]
Post subject: 
What (model #) video card are you using? Are you using drivers from ATI.com?

If your TV is 1080p and you have a decent card, you shouldn't have to worry about Q3. Get your HTPC to run at 1920x1080. This will solve a lot of problems.



As far as the remote....

I use one of these: http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do ... BM.979.279

and a Logitech Harmony 700. I have a USB IR receiver hooked up, and it reads everything from the harmony great.

I would look into using an actual keyboard. We stream a lot of movies off of websites, and you will never get the pause/play functionality from a remote to work on sites.
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