XBMC

[Amadeus1756]

Not sure if this is the right forum but couldn't find anywhere I thught was more suitable.

I've just bought a MacMini for use as a media center. I have been playing around with XBMC over the last month or so and am very impressed.

It has so much functionality. I just found a plugin to allow me to watch TED presentations. There is currently an issue with the searching for presenters, but I'm hoping that gets fixed soon. I could spend hours watching people talk about things I know very little about.

If you're considering a media center, I'd urge you to have a look at XBMC. There are ports of it for a number of platforms, but I like the form factor of the MacMini.

 

[kinda]

Yes, XBMC is great. I put it on an original XBox back in 2004. Played ISOs, MKV and everything. It tickled me when things like the Apple TV appeared, with worse functionality than an old console and piece of free software, claiming to be revolutionary.

XBMC is now on loads of devices, (can be loaded on Apple TV), and is still good though it can't play BluRays without an external program.

 

[Alantiggger]

I tried it on my pc and thought it was difficult to navigate around ? .... might have been a bad night for me ?

I couldn't for whatever reason load my music to it ?

 

[wireman]

I'll second (third?) that... it's great. I'm running XBMC Eden Live TV edition on an Acer Revo Media PC (which is smaller, slimmer, and looks better than my laptop!), and it's working a treat... even streaming my ripped blu-rays (although there is more work to do there... looking forward to the audio-engine project)!

 

[Alantiggger]

:type: It seems I'll have to tag my music properly (my son gave me a weird sort of look when I said I wasn't understanding it)

I will get this set up properly yet :?

 

[Amadeus1756]

I've not actually put any music on it yet - I'm currently outputing sound through the TV - seems a bit disrespectful to put Beethoven's glorious 9th through rubbish speakers... I do intend to tho, and my wife intends to put all our holiday snaps on it as well.

Out of interest, is anyone using an AV receiver with it? Any problems in terms of lip sync?

thanks

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I've got hundreds of albumsc dozens of tv series and 200 odd films and it's a joy to use. I've not upgraded to Eden yet but Dharma with the Aeon skin will be hard to beat. I use a Harmony One remote to control it and it's great.

 

[wireman]

Out of interest, is anyone using an AV receiver with it? Any problems in terms of lip sync?

No problems at all with my Denon 4310 receiver/Apex5.1, fed through HDMI - it sounds as good as my dedicated Blu-ray player/Samsung PVR.

I use a Harmony One remote to control it and it's great.

I've yet to sort that with my Harmony 1100 - I'm temporarily using a wireless Logitech K400 keyboard. What IR receiver are you using with your Harmony One? Are there Logitech codes set-up already?

 

[Amadeus1756]

I'm controlling XBMC using the Apple remote which works well enough (tho do need a keyboard when doing things such as subtitles it seems). I can see the benefit of a more advanced solution when I get an AV receiver and speakers (waiting for the iPad 3 to come out for that).

 

[Anonymous]

Besides XBMC check Plex also. I do use Plex and XBMC on a mini mac, currently in favor of Plex. The main reason: remote apps on iPhone / iPad.

Cheers, Harold

 

[Amadeus1756]

Hi Harold,

I tried Plex but found it to be a bit picky when it came to file formats. I also found that tho the N-tier architecture may give a cleaner architecture and be beneficial in a multi-device environment, for what I want to do, it made administration more difficult.

rgds

 

[Amadeus1756]

Here's a question for XBMC users:

Are you using a universal remote of any kind? Do devices such as the Logitech devices (actually I'm more interested in iPad universal remotes) allow you to control XBMC easily?

I have this desire to control all my AV equipment with my iPad (yet to be bought - waiting for the iPad3).

thanks

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Out of interest, is anyone using an AV receiver with it? Any problems in terms of lip sync?

No problems at all with my Denon 4310 receiver/Apex5.1, fed through HDMI - it sounds as good as my dedicated Blu-ray player/Samsung PVR.

I use a Harmony One remote to control it and it's great.

I've yet to sort that with my Harmony 1100 - I'm temporarily using a wireless Logitech K400 keyboard. What IR receiver are you using with your Harmony One? Are there Logitech codes set-up already?

I'm using the receiver that came with my keyboard and mouse - Dell. It works perfectly. In the Harmony set up, I match the remote to a Windows Media Center remote. I've disabled MCE and added a green button script so XBMC starts like MCE used to with one button.

 

[Anonymous]

I use iPad / iPhone to control AV receiver and xbmc commander or Plex iPad / iPhone app to control my mini mac. It is great :rofl:

 

[wireman]

I'm using the receiver that came with my keyboard and mouse - Dell. It works perfectly. In the Harmony set up, I match the remote to a Windows Media Center remote. I've disabled MCE and added a green button script so XBMC starts like MCE used to with one button.

Thanks for the tips. My Acer Revo is really small, and comes with an even smaller wireless touchpad controller: It does include a full keypad but it's a bit too fiddly for my fat fingers, hence the larger, proper-sized keyboard for web-surfing/emailing. But I'd like to get my Harmony working for core AV control since I already have it - watching TV/recording/disc playing/streaming/watching on-demand services etc. I'll need to add a USB IR receiver though... the fact that your Harmony One works with your Dell encourages me to order one (it's only £6 for an HP one off the bay). I'll do that now... Thanks again!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I'm using the receiver that came with my keyboard and mouse - Dell. It works perfectly. In the Harmony set up, I match the remote to a Windows Media Center remote. I've disabled MCE and added a green button script so XBMC starts like MCE used to with one button.

Thanks for the tips. My Acer Revo is really small, and comes with an even smaller wireless touchpad controller: It does include a full keypad but it's a bit too fiddly for my fat fingers, hence the larger, proper-sized keyboard for web-surfing/emailing. But I'd like to get my Harmony working for core AV control since I already have it - watching TV/recording/disc playing/streaming/watching on-demand services etc. I'll need to add a USB IR receiver though... the fact that your Harmony One works with your Dell encourages me to order one (it's only £6 for an HP one off the bay). I'll do that now... Thanks again!

No problem. Just in case you didn't know how, you will need to "customise buttons" in the Harmony set up. I use the menu button on my remote as the green button. Here is where I found the script I mentioned. http://xbmccustomregis.sourceforge.net/remote_manu.html I'm loving your system by the way!

 

[wireman]

@Gerrardasnails - That's a great bit of advice... now my IR receiver's arrived, I'll give that link a good read when I get time and give it a try sometime soon; thanks!