Will xbmc do what I want ? Newbie question)

First of all, sorry if this is in the wrong area but until 2 days ago I had never heard of xbmc - now I am very interest!

Some time ago I created a windows home server which holds all my DVD ISO images,music,photos, sd home movies (mpg 2) and hd home movies (m2ts with 5.1 Dolby sound track

In the rooms there are Netgear Eva 8000 units connected via cat5 cabling to the home server. The Eva units are great for playing DVD ISO images and the photos but can't deal with hd content as the processor in the units are not up to the job.

So I am looking to replace the Eva units with something else. I know it is early days to talk about xbmc on the rPi so have some questions about the general versions on xbmc which run on a Linux platform. These are as follows:

1) will it play DVD ISo. Images from a windows SMB share? I think from what I have read this is yes
2) will it play m2ts fies which contain avchd content with a 5.1 DD audio stream?
3) can it play photos on a windows share ? Again I think this is a yes
4) can it be controlled from another device (such as a web bowser on a tablet or through an api on a windows app)

Apologies for all te questions - before I embark on a steep learning curve I want to understand what the project being successful are

Thanks

Dave

Have you got a spare computer you could experiment with first before buying hardware. That way you can experience the unanticipated, and find out other requirements you have.
As xbmc is free it can't hurt!

(2012-04-18 23:08)pseudo7 Wrote:  Have you got a spare computer you could experiment with first before buying hardware. That way you can experience the unanticipated, and find out other requirements you have.
As xbmc is free it can't hurt!

I can probably knock one up - I have a box I use as a Freenas device. I have googled the possibility of adding XBMC to the freenas build to Freenas (running on the same device) but it would appear this may not be possible.

Dave

There can be problems with some home camcorder made AVCHD files. Post a small sample clip and many will be able to test on various devices.

All the rest are yeses, however viewing photos in XBMC is not as polished as video or music.

(2012-04-19 17:34)live4ever Wrote:  There can be problems with some home camcorder made AVCHD files. Post a small sample clip and many will be able to test on various devices.

All the rest are yeses, however viewing photos in XBMC is not as polished as video or music.

I have been experimenting today with XBMC running on Windows and remotes running on the iPad. I like the look of XBMC commander and will be purchasing that soon.

Certainly the Windows Version of XBMC is happy with my AVCHD files and recognises the 5.1 audio

Many thanks for your reply.