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Front Row / Windows Media Center / etc recommendations..

MattusMattus Registered User new member
edited October 2007 in Games and Technology
My photo / music collection is pretty substantial, so I built a server in the basement to hold everything. Now I'd like to be able to stream the pictures / music (movies too if I decide to rip my DVD collection) to the various tv's in my house. Since everything is centrally located, I don't really need a full fledged PC attached to it. (or if it is, it'd be pretty bare bones).

Does anyone have any experience with Front Row? windows Media Center (or the extenders, like the dlink or xbox 360?) Hacked/modified versions of either? Some other front end all together?

Ultimately I'd like something that has a decent front end (something my non-geeky friends could use if they came over), but flexible in how things are displayed (say I wanted to have multiple seasons of 24, I'd prefer selecting the series, the season, then the episode).

thanks! :)

Mattus on

Posts

  • Recoil42Recoil42 Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    XBMC sounds like the perfect option for you, and with Xboxes going for easily under a hundred bucks these days, a great cheap option, too.

    It'll stream the media (pictures, music, movies) from any network source; windows network, samba share, etc. is TOTALLY flexible in how things are displayed, and plays Xbox games, hooks up to Youtube, Apple Trailers, and several other online services, to boot.

    http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center-299809.php

    http://lifehacker.com/software/weekend-project/soup-up-your-xbox-media-center-302821.php


    Completely skinnable, too:

    Screenshot-18.jpg

    Vision-04.jpg

    Visionb-02.jpg

    Screenshot-04.jpg

    Recoil42 on
    marioyoshi.jpg
    I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
  • MattusMattus Registered User new member
    edited October 2007
    Thanks! I'll check it out! Anyone have any other suggestions before I go start buying a bunch of 1st gen xboxs on ebay? :)

    Mattus on
  • khainkhain Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Can XBMC play all formats and is it limited to a certain output resolution?

    khain on
  • MattusMattus Registered User new member
    edited October 2007
    From the wikipedia article.

    In addition to this, the XBMC DVD-player 'core' can upscale/upconvert all DVD-Video movies and output them to 720p or 1080i HDTV resolutions in better quality than most, if not all, high-definition television set's native function for upscaling/upconverting video.


    * Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CDs (including DVD-Video, VCD/SVCD and Audio-CD/CDDA)

    * Container formats: AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV, MOV, MP4, M4A, AAC, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB (RealAudio/RealVideo), 3gp, VIVO, PVA, NUV, NSV, NSA, FLI, FLC, and DVR-MS (beta support)

    * Video codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (SP and ASP, including DivX, XviD, 3ivx, DV, H.263), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264, including Nero Digital), HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, RealVideo, QuickTime, Sorenson, WMV, Cinepak,

    * Audio codecs: AIFF, WAV/WAVE, MP2, MP3, AAC, AACplus, AC3, DTS, ALAC, AMR, FLAC, Monkey's Audio (APE), RealAudio, SHN, WavPack, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+, Speex, Vorbis and WMA.

    * Digital picture/image formats: BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, ICO, PCX and Targa/TGA

    * Subtitle formats: AQTitle, ASS/SSA, CC, JACOsub, MicroDVD, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMI, SRT, SUB, VOBsub, VPlayer

    Mattus on
  • LachLach Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Thank you for starting this thread.

    My Xbox has a purpose again.

    Lach on
  • Rigor MortisRigor Mortis Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Do be aware that the Xbox stutters terribly when playing H264 video at any watchable resolution. The only solution I know of to get H264 playing well is to get one of the custom-modded Xboxes where the original processor has been swapped out with a faster one. (http://www.gamestron.com/enhancedxbox.html) Although the site and domain are up for sale, so good luck buying one from the link :P

    Xvid, MP3, OGG etc are a dream on XBMC. Get the remote control for the Xbox and you have one HELL of a media center.

    Also be aware - wireless streaming doesn't work well - Windows drops wireless connections for 10 sec each minute to scan for new networks. This fucks a lot of Xbox streaming up. Thus, Homeplug is your new best friend (ethernet bridging through your power lines - works GREAT with the Xbox) I use 2x 14mb/s adaptors to stream my movies through the house (http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XE102.aspx) 14 mb/s should be fast enough for media, but you can get, say 85 or even 200 mb/s going if you fork out for higher end transmitters. (http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XE103.aspx)

    Rigor Mortis on
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