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Post your setup pictures - Printable Version

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RE: Post your setup pictures - TheAstronaut - 2012-06-19

My current projection screen is 115" and it is still pretty massive from 15' away. For how close your room looks, ~100" would seem about right, and I wouldn't go over 110". If you wanted to go the easy way, you could make your screen width just under the distance between your L-R tower speakers, then calculate the height accordingly for either 16:9 or 2.35:1 depending on your preference.


RE: Post your setup pictures - crisdecuba - 2012-07-04

After lots of work, I’m finally able to share my HTPC setup. I initially thought this was going to be a weekend project, but it turned into about 4-5 weekends' worth of ripping media, tinkering with settings, redoing things, and so on to get everything working seamlessly.

So here’s my setup, and all of the things I learned along the way. I hope it helps anyone else trying to do the same thing. Note: I own pretty much all the content contained here.

Specs / Hardware:
------------------------------------------------
* CPU: Core i5 3750k overclocked to 4.2Ghz
* GPU: GeForce GTX 560
* Storage:
- 60GB HDD for the OS and main programs
- Four 2TB External HDDs (1 for movies, 1 for TV shows, videogames, home movies, pictures, and music, and 2 drives as backups)
- 8GB USB Thumbdrive to store fanart, videogame covers, etc.
(The reason for this approach is to make it as easy as possible to move the setup to a new computer down the road)
* Optical Disc Drives:
- LG GDR-8164B 16x DVD-ROM Drive (for ripping GCN / Wii discs)
- LG Super Multi Blue Bluray Drive (for BluRay ripping)

Software:
------------------------------------------------
* OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
* Media Program: XBMC
* XBMC Skin: Aeon Nox
* Emulators Used: Visual Boy Advanced, Jnes, ZSNES, ePSXe, Project 64, Dolphin
* Blu Ray Ripping: DVDFab
* DVD Ripping: DVD Decrypter
* DVD Encoding: HandBrake

Physical Controls:
------------------------------------------------
* General Navigation: Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 with Built-In Multi-Touch Touchpad
* PC Gaming: HP Wireless Elite Keyboard v2, Logitech Wireless Mouse M310 Dark Aces
* Non-Motion Console Gaming: Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows
* Motion Gaming: Regular Wiimote / Wii Motion Plus Controller
* Bluetooth Adapter: cirago BTA-6210 Micro Bluetooth Dongle

Demo Video (or click the links below to go to specific sections):
------------------------------------------------
HTPC DEMO VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1J-4b9CPJI&feature=youtu.be
-- Weather portion of the demo video: http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=19s
-- Music portion: http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=33s
-- Movies portion: http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=1m17s
-- TV Shows: http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=2m34s
-- Games (took the most effort!): http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=3m35s
-- Apps: http://youtu.be/i1J-4b9CPJI?t=14m11s

Screenshots
------------------------------------------------
- Weather
Quote:Image
- Movies
Quote:Image
- TV Shows
Quote:Image
- Games
Quote:Image
Image
Image

FAQ (aka Random Things I Learned):
------------------------------------------------
...XBMC General:
1. Removing the “Up Directory” option: Settings - Appearance - Filelists ... make sure the first option there is UNCHECKED
2. Changing Between Celsius and Fahrenheit: To change between Celsius and Fahrenheit go to Settings -> Appearance -> International and select your location under "Region".

Videogames:
1. ePSXe
- Settings for FF7 that remove the weird green lines:
Quote:http://www.crisdecuba.com/images/xbmc/epsxesettings.jpg

2. Project 64
- How to show correct aspect ratio, rather than stretching widescreen: Use the Glide64 graphics plugin, rather than Jabo.

3. Visual Boy Advance
- Show Correct Aspect Ratio in Fullscreen Mode: Change the render method to something other than DirectDraw
- Remove the menu bar: Emulation > Auto Hide Menu

4. Wii / GCN
- Program for Reading Wii-Formatted External Hard Drive: WBFS Manager
- Wii / GCN Game Backup: Program for ripping GCN / Wii games: RawDump 2.1
- Emulator Setup: Different GCN / Wii games may require different settings or different versions of Dolphin to run well. So I essentially created a different instance of the dolphin emulator for each game. This allows me to tweak or adjust the settings for each game individually without worrying about breaking something in another game.

Apps:
- Hulu Desktop – Launch Fullscreen Every Time: Open app, hit control F, close app. Next time will launch full screen

- Advanced Launcher:
--- Creating Duplicate Instance of Advanced Launcher (for example, one for Apps, one for Games:
1. Follow instructions in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gMFJcxdcEg
2. Summary of instructions:
- a. Go to: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\XBMC\addons
- b. Copy paste the “plugin.program.advanced.launcher” to create a new instance
- c. Rename it to “plugin.program.advanced.games.launcher”
- d. Open and edit addon.xml (2 references to update)
- e. Edit launcher_plugin.py in \resources\lib (2 references to update)
Note: Use Notepad++ for this, rather than Notepad

- Netflix:
1. Installing Netflix onto Windows Media Center:
- a. In Windows Media Center, click Tasks, click Settings, click General and then click Automatic Download Options.
- b. Click Download Now. If Windows Media Center prompts you to set up an Internet connection, complete the steps that are listed on the screen.
- c. In the Start Download dialog box, click OK. The download may take several minutes to finish.
- d. When the download is complete, restart Windows Media Center. Then, look for the Netflix option to the left of Recorded TV in the TV + Movies row.

2. Setting up a shortcut that goes directly to Netflix (instead of having to launch Windows Media Center first:
- Create a shortcut. The target is: C:\Windows\ehome\ehshell.exe -launchcoded:{e6f46126-f8a9-4a97-9159-b70b07890112}\{982ea9d3-915c-4713-a3c8-99a4688b7c59}
For the “start in” field, enter: C:\Windows\ehome

Weather:
Where do I get decent FanArt images for the dyamic weather backgrounds: Download the Weather FanArt Pack (about 800 images, 1080p)

Movies and TV Shows:
1. Ripping / Encoding BluRay Discs
- The best approach to ripping Bluray movies, in my opinion, was to do a “passthrough” or something along those lines in DVDFab to create an MKV file. This means the program doesn’t re-encode the file – it just passes it through to create the MKV file. This option results in no loss in image or audio quality and allows you to keep the subtitles and various audio tracks.

2. Ripping / Encoding DVD Discs
- The best approach to ripping / encoding DVD movies, in my opinion, was to rip using DVD Decrypter (DVDFab kept giving me errors), and then using HandBrake to encode into an MKV file containing the subtitles, audio tracks, etc (again, DVDFab kept giving me errors for some reason). There’s a loss in quality, but it’s imperceptible to my eye.

3. Setting up a keyboard shortcut to switch audio tracks:
Follow the instructions here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Keyboard.xml (I chose “n” as my shortcut).

4. What is the shortcut for enabling / disabling subtitles?: “T”

5. Subtitles are enabled by default – how do I change this?
- a. While watching a video, hit “M” to bring up the navigation options at the top of the screen
- b. Navigate to the audio options button, press enter
- c. Disable subtitles, and then down the bottom select "make default for all movies"

I hope folks can get some use out of this, and that it encourages others to take the plunge!


RE: Post your setup pictures - Chris! - 2012-07-04

Can't see the pictures Sad


RE: Post your setup pictures - crisdecuba - 2012-07-05

(2012-07-04, 22:45)Chris! Wrote: Can't see the pictures Sad
Really? They're showing up on my end. Sad. :-(



RE: Post your setup pictures - Chris! - 2012-07-05

Can see them now - crisis over.


RE: Post your setup pictures - mikebzh44 - 2012-07-05

(2012-07-04, 21:49)crisdecuba Wrote: Image
Very interesting setup.

Does Wii games play with no frame drop ?
Does a power processor (Core i5 3750k overclocked to 4.2Ghz) or graphic card (GeForce GTX 560) is needed ?
Graphics are better than Wii (upscale ? better textures ? ...)

Thanks.


RE: Post your setup pictures - mrpopo573 - 2012-07-12

Dolphin can upscale to 1080, with enough power behind it. I run it on an i5/GTX 570 setup, not integrated with XBMC. Its quite the program. There are of course issues with individual games needing specific graphic settings which is why the OP made the smart move and created individual instances of the preferences for it.

http://dolphin-emulator.com/


RE: Post your setup pictures - Deano316 - 2012-07-12

(2012-07-04, 21:49)crisdecuba Wrote: Image

Great setup!! Mine is far from finished as I'm waiting to install my new server. Once that is done it should free up some power to enable me to play games on my main htpc again. I was going to wait until Hyperspin 2.0 came out and integrate that but seeing how well everything can work without it has made me reconsider. Everything works seamlessly and has a unified look. Bravo Sir. Here's hoping mine ends up somewhere near as good as yours! Big Grin


RE: Post your setup pictures - bertybassett - 2012-07-13

here is my beast of a setup built around 2 tiny low spec'ed silent PCs and a centerilsed database running on 2x2Gb synology NAS.

Frontroom

Image
Image
Image

110" motorised projector screen
720p optoma short throw projector
42" Toshiba LCD TV
emachine er-1401 1.3Ghz k2 dual core process 2Gb of ram 30Gb SSD + media centre remote running XBMCbuntu and the NEON skin
wireless keyboard
harmony 700 remote
Onkyo 5.0 amp with 5 Etax floor standing speakers, so need for a sub here.
PS3 slim
Xbox360 slim
Humax freeview HD PVR


Bedroom

Image

Toshiba 32" LCD TV.
another eMachine ER-1401 spec'ed as front room + media centre remote
Onkyo amp 2.0
Eltax mini monitors 2 speaks


Flat mates room

Image
A craptasic old dell optiplex 545 runing windows and xbmc and a budget £2 ebay remote


Testing rigs.

iMac 27" + macbook air

let me know if you want more details but a decent enough setup for a beginner.






RE: Post your setup pictures - slithers - 2012-07-13

(2012-07-04, 21:49)crisdecuba Wrote: - Program for Reading Wii-Formatted External Hard Drive: WBFS Manager
- Wii / GCN Game Backup: Program for ripping GCN / Wii games: RawDump 2.1
- Emulator Setup: Different GCN / Wii games may require different settings or different versions of Dolphin to run well. So I essentially created a different instance of the dolphin emulator for each game. This allows me to tweak or adjust the settings for each game individually without worrying about breaking something in another game.

Thanks for introducing me to Dolphin-Emulator. Can you talk more about how you setup the different instances, or provide a link to a guide!




RE: Post your setup pictures - mkortstiege - 2012-07-13

Please keep this thread for setups and open a new one for the dolphin chat.


RE: Post your setup pictures - BrooksyX - 2012-07-17

Here is a picture of my xbmcbuntu I threw together with some extra parts and a bunch of HDDs.

Image

Specs:
Biostar 790gx motherboard
Amd AM3 5200 x2 cpu
4gb Ram
Asus Ati Radeon 5450
Hauppauge HVR-1800
3x 1tb WD Green Drives
2x 2tb WD Green Drives

Software: XBMCBuntu, TVHeadend, ZSnes, Samba, etc.


RE: Post your setup pictures - jayzirl - 2012-07-18

(2012-07-13, 15:41)bertybassett Wrote: here is my beast of a setup built around 2 tiny low spec'ed silent PCs and a centerilsed database running on 2x2Gb synology NAS.

Frontroom

Image
Image
Image

110" motorised projector screen
720p optoma short throw projector
42" Toshiba LCD TV
emachine er-1401 1.3Ghz k2 dual core process 2Gb of ram 30Gb SSD + media centre remote running XBMCbuntu and the NEON skin
wireless keyboard
harmony 700 remote
Onkyo 5.0 amp with 5 Etax floor standing speakers, so need for a sub here.
PS3 slim
Xbox360 slim
Humax freeview HD PVR

Nice setup... sneaky suspicion you are uk based if you are using a Humax for your HD viewing... (just like me but in Ireland!)

Just spotted you have PS3 and Xbox controller charging stands... i have been looking for ages on ebay and the likes for an xbox charging stand... would you have a link or name on the xbox charging stand? - Thanks!




RE: Post your setup pictures - angel129116 - 2012-07-18

The xbox stand looks similar to the one I have. Mine is made by Gamexpert and was bought from Argos
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5669051.htm


RE: Post your setup pictures - jayzirl - 2012-07-18

(2012-07-18, 14:46)angel129116 Wrote: The xbox stand looks similar to the one I have. Mine is made by Gamexpert and was bought from Argos
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5669051.htm

Thanks for that... thats the one... funny enough i didnt think of argos.