[bonoscot]

Hey guys,im about to start my main media home setup and was told about XBMC.

Now i have had a go and followed a few threads to get me used to it,i have a few questions though if you dont mind helping me.

i assume most people that use XBMC use them in there home cinema setups,do you guys download your files and store on Hard drives ,then set them up via XBMC?

1.I will be using 2 x 4TB external hard drives at the moment,most of my media consists of avi/mkv/avi files for movies,is this ok? Should i use others?
2.My music consists of mainly mp3 files but i am at the moment changing to FLAC loseless files,would this also be ok,or any other suggestions?
3.I have hyperspin (arcade gaming setup on my PC) and also many steam games,is there a tutorial on how to setup xbmc for this at all? i found a video online but its from years ago and i cant find the application.exe startup addon.This is my main problem tbh,is there a tutorial for adding Hyperspin or Emulation?
4.i have seen many great setups on youtube,can you suggest great frontend addons,screensavers etc? that i can try out that are highly rated?


is there any other starting up tutorials i can watch online to see how i can proceed with my home cinema frontend?

thanks people for any help

[ironic_monkey]

1) fine as long as they are available at static urls (same mount in linux, same drive in windows).
2) flac or mp3 are both supported
3) yes, search for 'advanced launcher'

[DaVu]

4. How´s about giving us some links to youtube videos which contains setups you like and we can give hints how to achieve this.

We don´t know what you like and we don´t know your personal wishings. So help us to understand what you want

There are so many videos online, that it´s hard to choose a specific one. I think, the normal way (adding video to you library, let them scrape, make some fancy settings in the skin you like etc...) is nearly self explained. You should take a look at the wiki, which is really helpfull in most cases. Especially those parts of "Filenaming for TV-Shows and Movies" and the "Folder structure" for them. You can nearly do everything with XBMC. Even programming your own skin, or send homeautomation signals via IP or RS232 to external devices, that can be controlled by XBMC....nearly everything is possible.

So, what are you trying to achieve? It´s hard to explain everything, which is possible, at once

Greetings

[bonoscot]

thanks guys i appreciate all the advice already and i am in the process of reading otehr threads...im not a lazy person,i like reading up on it all as well.

i just finished a mancave basically Cinema/Projector/2k speaker setup/Av reciever,ps3/ps4/ virgin cable etc etc....i currently want the perfect setup for my home cinema,and XBMC looks the very thing,i am about to buy a new HTPC using XBMC and about 4TB external drives that i have filled with Movies/TV shows/Music/Concerts etc...

I also have an arcade section called Hyperspin with 4TB of games,so i would like this as a title header within XBMC...

also i would like to add my steam games


Im so glad i have found this site and program as most of the videos on youtube look amazing on what you guys have achieved..

[DaVu]

For the future, I wouldn´t recommend using external (USB)-drives. Your library will grow and grow, and maybe somedays you might have more than one XBMC client in your house. So I would spend some money for a NAS to create a local base for all your files. In this way, you can access your files with every client in your house...just a hint for the future.

Don´t spent so much money on expensive cables. Don´t take the cheapest ones, but you aren´t absolutely not in need of paying 100$+ for a 10 meter HDMI cable. That´s just a waste of money. I speak for my own experience. For example I use a 30$ 10m cable...and it works like a charm and you won´t ever see ANY difference in more expensive cables. Mostly cables which ar longer than 15 meters might get you some issues...in this case it´s ok to buy a bit more quality.

I have my own cinema (still in the living room atm) with 3D PJ (JVC), a Rotel pre-amp and Rotel amps (1 * 5-channel amp, 2 * 2-channel analog amps for bi-amping front speakers...and 1 * 1-channel amp for my subwoofer), self-build speakers etc....and the most waste of money you can do is buying expensive cables!!!! This is only voodoo .

[nickr]

As far as your media is concerned you need to set it up right per the expected naming that XBMC wants to see.

Basically:

1. Movies in a separate directory/share to TV

2. Named like:

Movies/Avatar (2009)/Avatar (2009).mkv

TV/Game of Thrones/Season 1/Game of Thrones S01E01 Winter is Coming.avi

There are variations on the above, but those naming schemes will work perfectly. If in doubt over name or year look at themoviedb.org for movies or thetvdb.com for tv shows.

More details on the wiki, which I am guessing you haven't found yet

http://wiki.xbmc.org