HTPC and XBMC Setup

This is a sequel to my first video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOUtTVpZmLs) showing off my HTPC setup and man cave. Since my first video I've bought a house, built a new cave, got a new HTPC and migrated to XBMC. I got a lot of questions about my rig in the previous video so I'll get the specs out of the way:

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
Wintec AMPX 4GB PC2 6400
Sapphire Radeon HD 5750

The XBMC skin is Aeon Phil65, and the version of XBMC is 9.11 RC1.

One of the things I didn't get to talk about was EventGhost, which has replaced Girder for my automation. This is what the Firefly interfaces with to get things going on the PC. EventGhost has a more modern interface than Girder, is arguably easier to use, and is 100% free. My migration to this application has gone off smoothly. Swapping displays a little less so, for the reason that MS switched up how priorities get handled in Win7. I now have to actively disable a screen and set the other as primary, which is a bit more cumbersome than anticipated. D3D also doesn't play nicely with secondary displays. I'm still working out a solution to automate this a little easier. Aside from that I apologize for the brevity of the ending, I needed to keep it under 10 minutes or risk running into an episode 2 for only 30 seconds more worth of video.

Questions and comments always welcome.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• htpc
• xbmc
• videos
• emulators
• games
• roms
• movies
• mancave

[santapaella]

how do you add de plots and the description for the movies



[ieGod]

@santapaella The XBMC movie scraper is capable of downloading all of this information automatically.

[citysnumber10]

Did you use a scraper for the cover art for the ROMs or manually upload them all and reference the image path in the thumb field of the config files?

[ieGod]

@citysnumber10 Manual - this was the part that was a bit of work. But I wrote my own php script to generate the XML files based on my custom hierarchy and naming convention. This is not for the weak at heart.

[spiderobert]

do you know if you can also set up a DVR program, and watch the shows through XBMC?

[ieGod]

@spiderobert Absolutely, but you can't control it through XBMC.

[gustang1969]

Wow i love this setup so much i just had to comment

[routyy94]

are these films and tv shows downloaded, or ripped from your own dvd collection? i have a bunch of shows and movies on disk but would like to give this ago if possible. thanks to anyone who replys :)

[chucknorris687]

How does it know what picture to use for the apps and movies? I imagine that the naming convention plays a role, or am I wrong?

[slash3rr]

@ieGod also if you have downloaded movies with names that contain stuff like .xvid TS dvdrip and such stuff...?

[911Rocks911]

What OS is your HTPC and do you use Event Ghost to control the Firefly. If you do use Event Ghost could you upload your XML Event Ghost file to the Event Ghost website? I'm trying to replicate your setup and I figure why reinvent the wheel. Awsome setup.

[Moog1337]

i love your wiring dude, where did you get those wall panels

[fabarblogs]

great set up, im using a plugin for win 7 media center my movies collecction but i will chage for this xbmc right now, just a few question, what kind of mb, video card and sound do you have?? great job..

[slavlazar]

this is so fkn cool tell me what i need to buy to have this setup!!!!! PLZ!! I downloaded xbmc on my mac but i have no idea how on earth to get this hooked upto my tv ... i have an xbox 360 ... now what? :(

[nioxic]

Thank you for this video.. been looking for some good media server software.. and this seems to just be the best! :D

good inspiration. you lack a projector though ^^

[ZiggyC743]

Iif you're running XMBC on the computer, does that mean you can't run windows 7 on it (i know sounds ignorant but i'm new and learning) or is it like a program you run once the computer is loaded.....