I figured with all the discussions going on about GoogleTV it could be a fun time to find out what the Gdgt community is doing in the terms of HTPC.
Hardware: Windows 7 32bit machine with 4GB of Ram, 1TB Drive and an ATI HD4350 video card doing video & audio out over HDMI.
Software: XBMC with the Alaska Revisited skin
I control it via my Harmony remote that is working together with Eventghost to properly map the buttons.
I'm hoping the HDHomeRun CableCard tuner comes out soon because I'd love to properly integrate live TV into my XBMC since it can find HDHomeRun feeds.
Discussion about
So who out there has a HTPC set up?
For me:
Mac Mini with Plex installed hooked up to HDTV
Logitech Harmony One universal remote controlling TV, Mac Mini, Virgin Media, amp
Plex and Hippo Remote iPhone apps
All works like a charm. With the Plex app I can browse my movies on the iPhone, then if I want to watch one I just click it, select "watch on Mac Mini" and it starts playing. I just have to click "watch my movies" on the logitech remote and it switches the tv and amp over the mac and turns off the virgin media box.
The next step would be to use Lion's multiple sign-in feature to have one user permanently logged in and showing Plex in fullscreen on the TV, then remote desktop in to the Mac using a different user account and virtual desktop. That way I can manage Plex and my downloads etc without having to minimise Plex. Unfortunately while this works (I've tested it), my Mac Mini is not powerful enough to handle it and I get performance issues. (Come to think of it, I've not tested this method with Plex as I used to use Boxee until they announced they no longer support it - maybe will try again and see how Plex performs).
Mac Mini with Plex installed hooked up to HDTV
Logitech Harmony One universal remote controlling TV, Mac Mini, Virgin Media, amp
Plex and Hippo Remote iPhone apps
All works like a charm. With the Plex app I can browse my movies on the iPhone, then if I want to watch one I just click it, select "watch on Mac Mini" and it starts playing. I just have to click "watch my movies" on the logitech remote and it switches the tv and amp over the mac and turns off the virgin media box.
The next step would be to use Lion's multiple sign-in feature to have one user permanently logged in and showing Plex in fullscreen on the TV, then remote desktop in to the Mac using a different user account and virtual desktop. That way I can manage Plex and my downloads etc without having to minimise Plex. Unfortunately while this works (I've tested it), my Mac Mini is not powerful enough to handle it and I get performance issues. (Come to think of it, I've not tested this method with Plex as I used to use Boxee until they announced they no longer support it - maybe will try again and see how Plex performs).
My house is based on windows 7 media center and windows home server. 2 360 extenders & 3 linksys dma2200 extenders. The 360's and 1 linksys are wired and 2 linksys are wireless. My experience is that wired is far more reliable but wireless does work. Extenders need to be rebooted periodically with wireless. All video content is transcoded by 7 to work with the extenders, so home videos work well. Having all your pictures, videos, music, recorded tv available in any room and remotely is awesome. Wife acceptance factor is high with its ease of use and 1,700 plus tv shows/~100 series available anytime anywhere. Internet video access (you tube etc) can be done with playon or tversity and some media center plug-ins.
I will probably get the ceton card at some point as well when comcast blocks cuts off analog. I currently use a hd homerun and haupauge qam tuner for hd and analog tuner for cable. I also use a roku soundbridge for my outdoor speakers combined with remote control software for my phone and computer.
I bought an hp tablet for remote access to my media via windows media player and to use the play to functionality of windows 7. It also servers as portable media player throughout the house where there is no extender. With the hdhomerun you can use it to watch live tv as well.
The windows home server helps me keep the media center going in case of hard drive failure or software curruption taking only a couple of hours for a complete restore. It also comes with a nice tv archive/transcoding utility integrated into windows media center.
The kids have zunes and their favorite recorded tv shows are wirelessly transferred to them when they are put on their docking stations. Zune pass gives everyone the music they want for $15 a month. All zune pass content works on soundbridge and extenders.
I have been using windows media center for my dvr since 2005 xp/vista/7. I used the same pc for all 3 os's. I upgraded to a new pc because transcoding tv shows would peg the cpu and degrade extender performance.
I will probably get the ceton card at some point as well when comcast blocks cuts off analog. I currently use a hd homerun and haupauge qam tuner for hd and analog tuner for cable. I also use a roku soundbridge for my outdoor speakers combined with remote control software for my phone and computer.
I bought an hp tablet for remote access to my media via windows media player and to use the play to functionality of windows 7. It also servers as portable media player throughout the house where there is no extender. With the hdhomerun you can use it to watch live tv as well.
The windows home server helps me keep the media center going in case of hard drive failure or software curruption taking only a couple of hours for a complete restore. It also comes with a nice tv archive/transcoding utility integrated into windows media center.
The kids have zunes and their favorite recorded tv shows are wirelessly transferred to them when they are put on their docking stations. Zune pass gives everyone the music they want for $15 a month. All zune pass content works on soundbridge and extenders.
I have been using windows media center for my dvr since 2005 xp/vista/7. I used the same pc for all 3 os's. I upgraded to a new pc because transcoding tv shows would peg the cpu and degrade extender performance.
I have a relatively old PC set up as my HTPC. Pentium D, Win7 32, nVidia 8600, HDMI video/audio. It's hooked up to a 50-inch Samsung plasma TV and my Sony hi-fi (I have a surround system and Blu-ray player on the way). I use a Harmony remote. Two TV tuners. My content is stored on a NAS with 2x1TB HDDs.
I use Windows Media Center and do most of my viewing through the Media Browser plugin.
I also use Media Center Master with uTorrent to automatically download all my favourite shows in the background as they air and rename and move the files to the appropriate series folders. It works really well and I no longer have to trawl torrent sites for shows. Media Browser has a great podcast feature that lists podcast episodes as if they are on your disk but streams them on demand. All the Revision 3 shows work great with this.
I'm planning to replace my HTPC with a net-top PC and a HD Homerun network tuner as my current HTPC is quite big and very noisy when running.
I occasionally use Windows 7's 'Play to' feature to stream music from my laptop to the HTPC and it works great (WMP has to be running on the HTPC for it to work.).
I use Windows Media Center and do most of my viewing through the Media Browser plugin.
I also use Media Center Master with uTorrent to automatically download all my favourite shows in the background as they air and rename and move the files to the appropriate series folders. It works really well and I no longer have to trawl torrent sites for shows. Media Browser has a great podcast feature that lists podcast episodes as if they are on your disk but streams them on demand. All the Revision 3 shows work great with this.
I'm planning to replace my HTPC with a net-top PC and a HD Homerun network tuner as my current HTPC is quite big and very noisy when running.
I occasionally use Windows 7's 'Play to' feature to stream music from my laptop to the HTPC and it works great (WMP has to be running on the HTPC for it to work.).
No. I don't even think cable card exists in my country. And I've just moved to an area where the free-to-air reception is terrible, so I pretty much get all my TV via channel Bittorrent.
So, will XBMC work with a Ceton multi stream cable card solution?
I actually just sold my MacMini/elgato hdpvr setup for a diy HTPC w/windows 7 64bit. Core i7 4gb ram, 60gb ssd with another 2tb hdd. I've been waiting for the Ceton card to come, but with all of the delays, it's getting kinda annoying! My HTPC I think will be used more like a server feeding two xbox360s. Initially, I wanted to put it in my rack, but I think it will be too noisy.
Any suggestions on software to use on this new pc?
I actually just sold my MacMini/elgato hdpvr setup for a diy HTPC w/windows 7 64bit. Core i7 4gb ram, 60gb ssd with another 2tb hdd. I've been waiting for the Ceton card to come, but with all of the delays, it's getting kinda annoying! My HTPC I think will be used more like a server feeding two xbox360s. Initially, I wanted to put it in my rack, but I think it will be too noisy.
Any suggestions on software to use on this new pc?
I don't think XBMC supports cable cards directly at the current moment. Which is why I said I'd use an HDHomerun since it can read that as a UPnP.
As for software it really depends on what you're looking to do with it. PS3Mediaserver works the best for any file type as well as supporting transcoding in the event that your xbox can read the file. However I know WMC will give you the most complete package for your xbox.
In the terms of an actual HTPC front end I've tried WMC, Boxee and XBMC. I find myself liking XBMC the most for it's simple use and clean look. Boxee is great for everything built in but I just haven't been 100% satisfied with it yet. I re-downloaded the newest release to give it another go. I stay away from WMC simply because it takes too much to get it working with all the different codecs XBMC & Boxee can support. I just think it doesn't give you as much out of the box.
As for software it really depends on what you're looking to do with it. PS3Mediaserver works the best for any file type as well as supporting transcoding in the event that your xbox can read the file. However I know WMC will give you the most complete package for your xbox.
In the terms of an actual HTPC front end I've tried WMC, Boxee and XBMC. I find myself liking XBMC the most for it's simple use and clean look. Boxee is great for everything built in but I just haven't been 100% satisfied with it yet. I re-downloaded the newest release to give it another go. I stay away from WMC simply because it takes too much to get it working with all the different codecs XBMC & Boxee can support. I just think it doesn't give you as much out of the box.
Have you tried Media Center in Windows 7? The codec issues are pretty much fixed. All it takes now is to install the .mkv decoder. Everything else seems to work out of the box.
The biggest problem I have with WMC is that it doesn't seem like it was designed by someone who uses it the way I do. Like many of their products it's half-arsed, and advancing very slowly. Win7 came 3 years after VIsta, yet the changes in WMC are quite minor. Although WMC has come a long way since the XP version, it seems that all the stuff MS have fixed and added had no reason not to be there 5 years ago (e.g. solid codec support, over-the-air guide, etc.).
Perhaps the Google TV and new version of Apple TV will prompt MS to put a bit more effort into WMC. I hope so because it is so close to being perfect. But MS seem to want the XBox in the living room and the PC elsewhere. Hell, if they make an XBox that can do everything WMC can do I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
The biggest problem I have with WMC is that it doesn't seem like it was designed by someone who uses it the way I do. Like many of their products it's half-arsed, and advancing very slowly. Win7 came 3 years after VIsta, yet the changes in WMC are quite minor. Although WMC has come a long way since the XP version, it seems that all the stuff MS have fixed and added had no reason not to be there 5 years ago (e.g. solid codec support, over-the-air guide, etc.).
Perhaps the Google TV and new version of Apple TV will prompt MS to put a bit more effort into WMC. I hope so because it is so close to being perfect. But MS seem to want the XBox in the living room and the PC elsewhere. Hell, if they make an XBox that can do everything WMC can do I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
