Guide for HTPC

[photoshop]

Okay, are there any motherboards with built in graphics that'll do the job?

For that you probably need to look at one of the AMD options with the 780g chipset

 

[photoshop]

Could you post a guide on how to do this please?

STEP 1. Install.
STEP 2. Then in the main window click: "Choose Remote". Select Media Centre Remote.
STEP 3: Click "Set up Remote". Untick all of the options
STEP 4. click "Choose Blaster". Select "MCE IR Blaster"
STEP 5: Where it says "Remote Profiles" make sure "Default" is selected. Then press the "Edit" button. and a configuration/remote profile editor window will pop up. You will see a pic of the MCE Remote. Click the "Green Button" on the remote. You'll see that "Window" will be selected from the list of actions. In the "Button Options" plane select "Launch Apllication" in the Type. Then under that it says application. In there browse to MediPortal folder and select MediaPortal.exe. Press ok.
STEP 6: All done and now enjoy.

 

[A[L]C]

STEP 1. Install.
STEP 2. Then in the main window click: "Choose Remote". Select Media Centre Remote.
STEP 3: Click "Set up Remote". Untick all of the options
STEP 4. click "Choose Blaster". Select "MCE IR Blaster"
STEP 5: Where it says "Remote Profiles" make sure "Default" is selected. Then press the "Edit" button. and a configuration/remote profile editor window will pop up. You will see a pic of the MCE Remote. Click the "Green Button" on the remote. You'll see that "Window" will be selected from the list of actions. In the "Button Options" plane select "Launch Apllication" in the Type. Then under that it says application. In there browse to MediPortal folder and select MediaPortal.exe. Press ok.
STEP 6: All done and now enjoy.

thanks a lot

 

[craptakular]

Okay, are there any motherboards with built in graphics that'll do the job?

For problem free blu-ray playback you want a 780G board or an AMD based GeForce 8200 - both are around £55-60. Personally I think I will go GeForce 8200 route as it does 8 channel LPCM audio without issue.

As for processor you want an AMD triple core 8450 or 8650 with 2-4GB 1066 memory.

Thats what I'm going to use for my parents rebuild of there HTPC.

When I biuld my new HTPC (I sold my old one to my dad lol) I'm going to wait for the next gen mainboards as I would want true decoding of Dolby True HD and DTS-HD.

Motherboards are getting close to the perfect HTPC, but a fraction short atm.

FYI: There is also the Intel Socket 775 Geforce 9300 boards surfacing, but so far I can only find them for £90 which means the AMD options are a lot more attractive. I can't tell what Geforce 9300 adds over Geforce 8200 anyway.

 

[clv101]

How power hungry is the Phenom X3 Tri Core 8450 2.10GHz?

I was rather hoping I could get a low power HTPC / NAS all in one solution but if it's going to be pulling considerably more than 50W that's no good really. 50W on 24/7 at just 12p/kWh is £52.56 per year, 100W is £105 per year.

So the real question is, is it possible to get a system powerful enough to play BluRay off disc and have an idle power consumption of less than 50W?

 

[clv101]

For comparison my current P4 Northwood, ATi 9800PRO, 2 HDD in an Antec Sonata with whatever PSU that came with (maybe a 380W job?).... draws 21W when OFF, 160W idle just sitting at the desktop, a similar amount when playing DIVX from the HDD, around 180W streaming iPlayer (over WiFi). Not that I ever do, but running a game like Doom3 see the power consumption rise to 250W, guess that's the 9800PRO taking its share.

So - running this system 24/7 costs 8760x0.160x0.12 = £168 per year. It's not a good HTPC/NAS solution!!

 

[Vertigo]

Hmm, just tried setting up MP again but having probs with the TV Series plugin.

It went through all my folders but had trouble identifying some stuff. Whilst some was due to daft naming, some was staggering, such as "csi new york". On these, the window popped up with a single entry saying it couldn't find it and something about manual selection (can't remember exactly) but clicking OK with this option highlighted just brought the box straight back up and the only way to clear it and proceed with the import was by clicking Skip.

Now I have a list of stuff in the Details tab and it looks like it's downloading artwork (very very very slowly though) but I have the stuff it couldn't identify in the list and don't seem to have any way of changing these entries.

How do I tell MP what these series are?

 

[craptakular]

For comparison my current P4 Northwood, ATi 9800PRO, 2 HDD in an Antec Sonata with whatever PSU that came with (maybe a 380W job?).... draws 21W when OFF, 160W idle just sitting at the desktop, a similar amount when playing DIVX from the HDD, around 180W streaming iPlayer (over WiFi). Not that I ever do, but running a game like Doom3 see the power consumption rise to 250W, guess that's the 9800PRO taking its share.

So - running this system 24/7 costs 8760x0.160x0.12 = £168 per year. It's not a good HTPC/NAS solution!!

I would build to machines, one for blu-ray one as a low watt server. The cost savings on electric gets wiped out by having too buy two pc's.

Whats consumption like when set into hyberation?

I look at saving hundreds of pounds by not having to buy erm linux distro's, as thats what I download anyway. Take that cost saving into account and £168 elec bill - win win

 

[clv101]

Hibernation is the 21W when off, switching it off at the plug seems to cause problems coming out of hibernation, sometimes does, sometimes doesn't.

I could use the relatively high power HTPC ONLY to actually watch stuff, then use a low power NAS, not even a full system, just some drives on an Ethernet adapter? However a half decent NAS costs well over £100 so the savings aren't really there compared with just using a single HTPC.

 

[York]

I've been looking to setup a couple of HTPCs around the house to watch/record TV + watch my ripped dvd collection, but was wondering how many of you are using any of this HTPC software with a dedicated file/tv server?

From my research it seems that GB-PVR, MythTV and MediaPortal (although its an unsupported modification) can all run in this way. I was just wondering how people found the software coped over the network etc

 

[xb8browney]

I've been buying parts for my HTPC build since December so far I have


Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Low Profile CPU Cooler
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5000+ 2.60GHz (Socket AM2) -
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)

I've still got to buy the case, mobo and Blu-Ray drive (£270) spent £140 so far

I've been playing around with Mediaportal so I'm all set once I have all the bits

 

[photoshop]

NAS drives can be a problem if you have more than 1 HTPC as they bandwidth is rubbish. If you get things accessing the NAS at the same time then you will run into problems as they just dont have the bandwidth.

Personally i think getting a 1.5TB drive or 2 and sharing them across the network is a lot better. Just host them on the main PC and let all the others access them. Harwiring them to the router is the best option as i have done with my HTPC

 

[craptakular]

photoshop, had an idea as to why u cant get eventghost working with my configs. Am I right in thinking your antec fusion uses imon software to gain support in mce? If so its totally different to my official MS MCE IR reciever and MS remote.

That might be the reason!!!!

 

[photoshop]

photoshop, had an idea as to why u cant get eventghost working with my configs. Am I right in thinking your antec fusion uses imon software to gain support in mce? If so its totally different to my official MS MCE IR reciever and MS remote.

That might be the reason!!!!

That probably explains it lol

I'm just using MPC as the external player inside MP at the moment. At least this way i dont have tofaff on with the codecs and stuff. Would be great if i could use my harmony 1000 with it but cant get MPC to work with it so having to use my keyboard. Its not ideal but it does the job

 

[A[L]C]

STEP 1. Install.
STEP 2. Then in the main window click: "Choose Remote". Select Media Centre Remote.
STEP 3: Click "Set up Remote". Untick all of the options
STEP 4. click "Choose Blaster". Select "MCE IR Blaster"
STEP 5: Where it says "Remote Profiles" make sure "Default" is selected. Then press the "Edit" button. and a configuration/remote profile editor window will pop up. You will see a pic of the MCE Remote. Click the "Green Button" on the remote. You'll see that "Window" will be selected from the list of actions. In the "Button Options" plane select "Launch Apllication" in the Type. Then under that it says application. In there browse to MediPortal folder and select MediaPortal.exe. Press ok.
STEP 6: All done and now enjoy.

This seems to work most ofhe time, but it has launched vista media centre on a few occaisions.

Any ideas?

 

[photoshop]

This seems to work most ofhe time, but it has launched vista media centre on a few occaisions.

Any ideas?

I'm using XP so i cant really comment
In LMRemote, try to give it exclusive rights. That should work

 

[Clipsey]

Having some trouble with 'my music' in MP - basically trying to get an image to be displayed as a folder cover for the artist.
My music is arranged by artist and in that folder are separate album folders. Now 90% of the artist folders do not display an album image and I can't figure it out. I have tried inserting images, making the folder 'display image' the album cover but just won't display in MP. Again the annoying part - I know it works as some of the artist folders are displayed with an image.
Pics will explain better -
See how the Damien Rice and Craig David artist folders have images - I want that for every artist folder basically.

 

[edgedemon]

[
Monochrome Skin

Probably the best looking skin! Looks like this:

PS. I changed the backdrop image to something i like[/quote]


Thanks for this guide Photoshop - I have been running mediaportal since 1.3 and Im ashamed to admit that I have never moved from the default blue 2 screen. I only upgraded from 0.2 to 1.0 just before Xmas as it had always been rock solid and I didn't want to break anything. Needless to say, the upgrade broke everything, and your guide was great for getting things working again where I had forgotten how to set everything up.
One thing I am curious about is how you changed the background to your skin - was it easy, or are advanced editing skills needed???

 

[photoshop]

One thing I am curious about is how you changed the background to your skin - was it easy, or are advanced editing skills needed???

Its dead easy

Instructions:

Browse to C:/Program Files/MediaPortal/skins/monochrome/media directory. In there is a file named "background". That is the file you have to overwrite or replace.

Note: File must be jpeg and called background (obviously)!

Then delete the monochrome cache in documents and settings...../application data/mediaportal/monochrome directory

 

[edgedemon]

Thanks for that - appreciated...