We'll later also look into remotely waking up computer - the standard WakeOnLan "magic packet" - but even that solution is kinda cumbersome; another reason why I keep my HTPC always on. Obviously, library sharing is advanced and still experimental feature. I'm sure it'll keep getting better, but for now, it's important that it's working.
I really love how it makes experience of browsing the videos you own flashier, and I'm sure you will too once you go through the process of setting library up. Of course, XBMC detection is not perfect, but with few nudges you can make it function the way you expect. And if everything fails, direct file browsing may not be as fancy, but it'll always work. The way I recommend to setup your library is to mimic the organization already present in XBMC menus.
If you are like me, you probably had Movies and TV Shows in the same folder. If you are, as I recommended, setting up library that's sharable, make sure that paths are accessible not only on local computer, but from any computer within the network. Speaking of configuration and choices - I strongly recommend that you set static IPs for your machines in DHCP settings of your router, and then reference paths by IPs.
If you can't do that you have some terrible, terrible router , you can always try with machine names. Obviously, this part can be as simple or as complicated as you wish - maybe you have VPN setup so you can access your library from anywhere. Select it and you can start browsing. Say you have Movies subfolder in there. You can right click the entry or press C on keyboard and then select Set Content Change Content option. In menu presented you can set "This directory contains" option to appropriate value Movies, TV shows, Music videos, etc This is where the fun starts.
Movies detection should be without major blockers - you can select Scan recursively and let detection try to do it's job. Three things are important here:. Setting up your video library is probably just a first of many steps you'll take when it comes to exploring the XBMC. I really love the whole project since it's so much more than a simple Media Center. And once you try out all the stuff from official add-on repository and you are feeling adventurious - just google for "XBMC addon repository" and you'll see tons of unofficial addons.
Now, when I said "feeling adventurious" - I meant it - adding unofficial repositories to XBMC and installing add-ons from them is up to you and it's your own risk. So, what are the options you have for controling HTPC after unplugging? I would've never guess, but browsing the web and reading news on St Louis Cardinals already mentioned watching highlights with MLBMC addon is pretty nice on a big screen. Combined with the fact that you can view some Flash videos only if you fire up a browser and navigate to certain URL, I think that having a wireless keyboard and mouse is a must on a HTPC.
Whether you'll use separate keyboard and mouse, or go with something like Logitech K - it's a question of what you prefer. But I would definitely stay away from mini "keyboard trackpads" like the one I've linked here. Believe me - you want a keyboard on which you can actually type. Now, if you want to control HTPC with remote, I strongly suggest you stay away from Logitech Harmony or those - remote on one side, keyboard on the other.
Flirc is really great since now when I'm watching TV I don't need to worry about multiple remotes or if batteries are dead or whatever.
Since Flirc can practically turn any IR code it receives into any command on computer, you have full freedom with setup. Or, you can create a command line script that puts computer to sleep , then tie it to certain keyboard shortcut and finally program Flirc to execute that script when you press a button on remote.
Combined with ability of Flirc to wake up computer when certain button on remote is pressed and all the startup settings we've done in "Setting up XMBC" chapter , you're pretty much set if you want to control you HTPC as a fancy "media box". So, as you can see - it's pretty nice setup, and I was happy with it. Until I remembered that I wanted headphone jack on the remote.
Sure, I mention iPad here, but if you have any Android or iOS device - you actually don't need to buy anything else. Optionally set port, username and password to your liking. Now, you've guessed it But as we are here to use native app, rather than webpages, let's proceed. Otherwise, you'll need to provide ip and port manually. At least one, short, tiny. For me, seeing all that automatically downloaded posters related to my media showing on iPad, browsing library with ease and navigating content on TV using touch gestures was really great.
Want to watch some Youtube video? Forget Youtube add-on, browse through YouTube app on iDevice and then send video to the big screen. And to top it off - remember that recommendation to install TeamViewer? It's definitely not the best experience or the fastest way to control your HTPC, but it'll serve if you just want to do something quickly.
I just wish that "Sponsored session" dialog from Teamviewer could autoclose after 5 seconds ;. In retrospect, I find it intriguing that I never though of idea of streaming audio TV to iPad and then attaching headphones to it. Everything seems way easier when you look back, I guess. That being said, even though send audio from Windows desktop to iPad sounds easy, I still haven't found a way that completely satisfies me.
The biggest issue with my current solution is a 2 second lag between video on screen and audio that I receive over headphones which is solvable using XBMC awesomeness. On top of that - it isn't free. I'll describe my solution for sake of giving at least one way to do this - if anyone solved this in a better way, please do share your approach in comments and I'll link it.
The solution I'm using is originally envisioned for audio, so it's no wonder there is a lag. Since it's commercial product, installation isn't too tough:. And if that someone is reading this article - just please don't add extra cost to you by going with integrated battery, most of us who are into HTPCs already have rechargable AAs laying around and the last thing we want is another device to charge. That's actually something I want to write about - so if you guys are interested in reading about setting your new HTPC to backup your code, installing TeamCity on it to do automated builds or syncing files across devices Dropbox style Looking at all moving parts, to be honest - I would say NO.
Depending on how technical you are and what exactly you need from your box , here is how I would rank different choices:.
If somebody forced me to choose - I would probably choose Roku 3 since it's not from a big company do I need to mention headphone jack? It was launched since I wrote majority of this article, so that's why I haven't talked more about it.
The fact it is Android device gives you ability to do more with apps from Play Store on top of using box as a player for both Online YouTube, Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc and Offline content. At this point, it really all depends on what you are comfortable with. If you don't shy away from building your own hardware or even better - it's your hobby , building HTPC from custom components is not a bad way to spend a day.
Considering that memory and CPUs don't die that often you definitely don't want to buy used HDD it's easy to get a powerful machine for less than you would pay in retail. And don't be too tight with money on things like Flirc - believe me, anything that makes your experince of using HTPC better will be worth it in the long run. So, you might as well enjoy yourself - any money spent on making your HTPC better will hardly be a money thrown away. This article mentions several open-source projects.
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However, with it you run into problems pretty quickly: If you or your significant other can't watch content without subtitles, then welcome to sweet world of trying to embed subtitles into transcoded video. Sure, you can make it work Want to watch Youtube on TV? Want to watch Amazon Prime on your TV?
Want to watch Netflix? Well, guess what So, what are the alternatives I've started looking into? Luckily, it's nowhere near as easy to get in bed with Apple TV as it is with iPad. However, several thought prevented me from ordering a PC with HDMI right off the bat: I didn't want to get into controlling what is basically desktop computer using something like this remote. No, thanks. I didn't want another Seagate Central pulled on me yet.
Journey finally ends Deciding that I'll go with full PC gave me a direction to follow. It turns out - A LOT. Here are just few pointers on stuff I was curious about when I first started it: If XBMC is focused, your computer will not go to sleep regardless of what you set in Power Options, or whether or not something is playing.
You can use key S to access shutdown menu from main menu. Create directory named Startup if you don't have it already. If you are missing certain option make sure to look in bottom left corner of the menu you are in and change Settings Level if needed.
Current version of XBMC Gotham, Beta 3 at the time of writting , finally gets subtitle settings right - I can only hope other subtitle utilities will follow this standard. So, when you search manually you'll get all available subtitles for multiple languages. And once developers return autodownload subtitle option, subtitles for preferred language will be downloaded. If I was not a developer, I would whine how better option would be to set priority for each selected language and then when automatic download kicks in it can try to search for language 1, then if it's not available language I am developer, so I guess instead of whining I should look through the source code and try to implement it myself, eh?
There you'll see addons for pretty much all popular websites; my recommended choice is installing only OpenSubtitles.
Reason being - if I have other provider OpenSubtitles. After you set your location, go to Weather item now first entry in main menu and you can view forcast for next 10 hours, next day, next 36 hours From there, just enter the keys you want to use for each task. You may have to look up which keys are mapped to which buttons on your remote to do this—though XBMC's default keyboard shortcuts are a good place to start. Usually it just involves installing a small app separately and mapping your keys, just like the Windows instructions above.
NetfliXBMC is still very much in the early stages, but in our tests, it worked quite well. However, depending on your setup, you may or may not experience issues. If you still have questions, that thread is the best place to ask them, especially if it's the result of a bug that the developer needs to fix.
He's extremely responsive, so don't be afraid to let him know if you're having trouble! Good luck! I wanted to add a custom path in the Chrome Launcher configuration. Peter Mortensen 1, 2 2 gold badges 14 14 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. You either want a media centre or classic linux. Trying to mix an match.. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes.
Improve this answer. Celino Celino 1 1 silver badge 3 3 bronze badges. I like that we have many options to select from, since that mean you will find what you want in one of them and also more features, enhancements and ideas that they can borrow from each other ; One last thing, you are not choosing between OSs, they are based on stripped down Linux that boots right into XBMC, however, they are more like distributions. Fahad Alduraibi Fahad Alduraibi 2 2 silver badges 4 4 bronze badges.
Your system would not be functional. XBMC installation instructions added to the original post for people banned on google clearly say otherwise. GuySoft thanks for the heads up. I was gonna try just that. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google.
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