[AcidOverride]

First post here and Im quite new to this so bare with me. I recently read the thread Intoducing my HP Microserver N36L using WHS2011 + XBMC and was happy to hear that he got XBMC running fine on WHS2011, also the fact he got the bluray working excited me as it means I dont need a separate player! I would copy his setup but its missing just one thing.... HD sound! I know it will pass through the HDMi but thats no good without an AV reciever and I want to connect it directly to a Logitech speaker system via optical cable. So I went on a hunt and put this together on pcspecialist.co.uk......

Case: BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Case (Black) + 450W PSU
Processor (CPU): Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-3220 (3.30GHz) 3MB Cache
Motherboard: ASUS® P8H77-I: Mini-ITX, LG1155, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM): 4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 X 4GB)
Graphics Card: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD + Clear Video HD Technology
Memory: 2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (will eventually get another to mirror)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Sound Card: ONBOARD 10 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB: 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Now my question is, will everything setup and configure the same on this machine as it did on that guys HP N36L or am I gonna run into trouble?

Thanks in advance and I hope all that makes sense ha.

[QLink]

you cannot bitstream HD audio over optical cable...

only hdmi has enough bandwidth to do so.

[AcidOverride]

you cannot bitstream HD audio over optical cable...

only hdmi has enough bandwidth to do so.

I was unaware of this thanks! So basically to get the best audio HDMi to an AV Receiver will always be the better option right?

Will I defo be able to get the bluray working using the same method as in the Intoducing my HP Microserver N36L using WHS2011 + XBMC thread though? This is my main worry!

[QLink]

i don't see why it shouldn't work with the above posted components, but i can't give you a definite answer cause i never used a i3 with intel gma and bluray.

the mainproblem with bluray is, you have to mess around with external software to get it working. that is very time- and money-consuming.
you'll need powerdvd or totalmedia theatre and reclock to get it running smoothly.

it costed me many, many hours to get it all comfortably working.
nowadays i definitly would buy a separate bluray player as long as there is no good solution concerning the copy protection of blurays in combination with xbmc.
but i'm afraid there won't be one any time soon... but hope dies last ;o)

[AcidOverride]

Yeah the amount of messing about you seem to have to do to get bluray working smooth makes me wonder is it worth it? I already have a good bluray player, I was just wanting to be able to control everything via the XBMC remote on WP8. Might be a better idea if I got a Logitech Harmony or similar and fit a IR receiver to my server/htpc.