2013-03-07, 16:37
HI! and thanks for having me.
I posted on a couple other sites, and figured out that I needed to come over here for more specific help. Let me say that I haven't even fired up XBMC yet. I've been tight on free time recently, and am trying to get all the hardware and some of the details ironed out before I sit down and implement my budget HTPC.
A little about me: I'm into quite a few things, computers, automotive, home improvements/remodeling, electronics, car audio, home a/v, welding, you know, all that good stuff. I'm not saying I'm great at any of those, but I enjoy them and keep learning.
I should say, I am a computer dork, but I'm also cheap, so I guess I'm a redneck computer dork. Macs are great for graphics editing and easy to use, but I'm just not that cool (no ipods for me, thanks!). My daily computer is a Toughbook CF-29 Mk1, 1.2ghz centrino, 1.25gb ram, dvdram, touch screen, gps, bluetooth, senou 8604+, XP sp3. I hated vista, didn't care for 7, and think 8 is even crapier. i like linux, but only know enough to know I don't know enough.
Anyway, I'm here today because I've decided to blend my home a/v and computer interests. I’m interested insetting up an HTPC for MP3, MPG, Netflix, Youtube, and at some future time, PVR from basic cable (I haven't had cable/sat in years). The HTPC will also be used for the occasional web surfing and office document, and act as my 3rd data "backup" in the form of a NAS (I'll be dropping files on it's hdd via my network)
Being thrifty, I've started with a Dell C531, AMD Athlon x2 4000 2.1ghz, 1gb dr-6400, 500gb SATA, GeForce 6150 onboard, DVD rom, and a decent (unidentified) onboard audio. I will be plugging this into a Zenith 50" Plasma via VGA (for now) and digital audio cable to a Denon aVr-687 (I will have this set up as 2.5 zone). The first upgrades to be done will be another gig of ram, and a small SSD as the boot drive, as well as ATSC tuner and an HDMI vid card. There is a PS2 and an XBox 360 Elite thrown into the equation, too. I'll be back feeding optical audio to the AVR from the TV for the PS2/Xbox/Other.
I'm looking at XBMC on top of XP (maybe 7 for DLNA) or Ubuntu (if I can figure out Netflix) for my front end, but I also want to play with a few others, just to see what's out there.
My main question or you all is how to control it all. As a computer, I'll be using an IOGear gkm561r. I want to use an Android device(s) to control it as A/V equipment, and was excited when I saw the griffin beacon; I figured I could use an IR receiver in my HTPC. But then I saw some of the IP control apps for android/xbmc and got even more excited. And then sad because I don't want to have to use IR and IP AND switch back and forth from app to app. And then excited because I found Netremote and Girder; and then sad cause it's complicated to set up (but expandable for home automation, yay
).
Anyway; how do I control my HTPC via my android phone, and have my HTPC control my TV and receiver?
I have come to discover there is not any real easy solution for the above question(s). I have, however, found this thread, which seems like what I want/need to do. But I don't understand the basic setup to which they are referring, that I don't understand wht they are talking about at all. I need and oversimplified explanation (the equivalent of a block diagram for a mobo?) to explain it enough to figure out what questions to ask/research to do. Does it use lirc, or is it built into XBMC?
Which IR Rx/Tx unit can I use to control my HTPC and A/V equipment (be it with LIRC or xbmc, or ssh) (i don't understand what ssh is or what it does, yet))(more specifically, can I use a cheapo USB dongle
like this one on fleabay. I know there is a frequency difference between IRDA and CIR, but I've had several IRDA equipped PDA's and Phones that controlled my previous A/V equipment quite nicely.
I apologize for asking such noob questions, but I get poor results searching for "HTPC control AVR with IR", you would think I searched for "control HTPC with IR"
Thanks in advance!
I posted on a couple other sites, and figured out that I needed to come over here for more specific help. Let me say that I haven't even fired up XBMC yet. I've been tight on free time recently, and am trying to get all the hardware and some of the details ironed out before I sit down and implement my budget HTPC.
A little about me: I'm into quite a few things, computers, automotive, home improvements/remodeling, electronics, car audio, home a/v, welding, you know, all that good stuff. I'm not saying I'm great at any of those, but I enjoy them and keep learning.
I should say, I am a computer dork, but I'm also cheap, so I guess I'm a redneck computer dork. Macs are great for graphics editing and easy to use, but I'm just not that cool (no ipods for me, thanks!). My daily computer is a Toughbook CF-29 Mk1, 1.2ghz centrino, 1.25gb ram, dvdram, touch screen, gps, bluetooth, senou 8604+, XP sp3. I hated vista, didn't care for 7, and think 8 is even crapier. i like linux, but only know enough to know I don't know enough.
Anyway, I'm here today because I've decided to blend my home a/v and computer interests. I’m interested insetting up an HTPC for MP3, MPG, Netflix, Youtube, and at some future time, PVR from basic cable (I haven't had cable/sat in years). The HTPC will also be used for the occasional web surfing and office document, and act as my 3rd data "backup" in the form of a NAS (I'll be dropping files on it's hdd via my network)
Being thrifty, I've started with a Dell C531, AMD Athlon x2 4000 2.1ghz, 1gb dr-6400, 500gb SATA, GeForce 6150 onboard, DVD rom, and a decent (unidentified) onboard audio. I will be plugging this into a Zenith 50" Plasma via VGA (for now) and digital audio cable to a Denon aVr-687 (I will have this set up as 2.5 zone). The first upgrades to be done will be another gig of ram, and a small SSD as the boot drive, as well as ATSC tuner and an HDMI vid card. There is a PS2 and an XBox 360 Elite thrown into the equation, too. I'll be back feeding optical audio to the AVR from the TV for the PS2/Xbox/Other.
I'm looking at XBMC on top of XP (maybe 7 for DLNA) or Ubuntu (if I can figure out Netflix) for my front end, but I also want to play with a few others, just to see what's out there.
My main question or you all is how to control it all. As a computer, I'll be using an IOGear gkm561r. I want to use an Android device(s) to control it as A/V equipment, and was excited when I saw the griffin beacon; I figured I could use an IR receiver in my HTPC. But then I saw some of the IP control apps for android/xbmc and got even more excited. And then sad because I don't want to have to use IR and IP AND switch back and forth from app to app. And then excited because I found Netremote and Girder; and then sad cause it's complicated to set up (but expandable for home automation, yay
).Anyway; how do I control my HTPC via my android phone, and have my HTPC control my TV and receiver?
I have come to discover there is not any real easy solution for the above question(s). I have, however, found this thread, which seems like what I want/need to do. But I don't understand the basic setup to which they are referring, that I don't understand wht they are talking about at all. I need and oversimplified explanation (the equivalent of a block diagram for a mobo?) to explain it enough to figure out what questions to ask/research to do. Does it use lirc, or is it built into XBMC?
Which IR Rx/Tx unit can I use to control my HTPC and A/V equipment (be it with LIRC or xbmc, or ssh) (i don't understand what ssh is or what it does, yet))(more specifically, can I use a cheapo USB dongle
like this one on fleabay. I know there is a frequency difference between IRDA and CIR, but I've had several IRDA equipped PDA's and Phones that controlled my previous A/V equipment quite nicely.
I apologize for asking such noob questions, but I get poor results searching for "HTPC control AVR with IR", you would think I searched for "control HTPC with IR"
Thanks in advance!
