- December 11, 2009
- 142
- 46
- Home Country
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Netherlands
Since about two years Mediaportal has replaced the regular TV in our living room. By now it's getting somewhere, so I'll try to get across the idea.
A the center:
At the heart is a rather old PC (P4 2.8GHz) with a Hauppauge PVR 150 TV card. A SB Audigy 2 card feeds a Harman/Kardon, which is hooked up to two Eltax floorstanding speakers. A Samsung 22" monitor is used as screen. (not to big, but it does the job) With my fathers help I made a casing to fit both the amp and the PC. I hate cables (I've been an amateur sound-technician for 10 years) so this is my way of getting rid of them. Also I like the idea of controlling it all from one place, with equipment and data that's stored away out of sight. A big heap of CD's is sooo 20th century.
Inside the casing, the PC is suspended with tieribs: it 'hangs' inside the casing, to minimize noise. I'll post some pics of the inside soon.
Used Software:
Used plugins:
Strings and stuff
I also like to play the guitar and listen to a bit of the good ol' vinyl. A 30 year old turntable and a Line 6 mini-POD are connected to a Behringer 802, which goes into the line in of my soundcard. (the turntable goes into a NAD preamp)
It took quite a while to get to know MediaPortal and the basics of its settings, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm really quite pleased with the results which seems to have quite a good WAF. (Needless to say, my GF missed some of her dearly beloved TV show due to some 'problems') A big thanks to the mediaportal dev-team!
She's quite fond of the timeshifting features (rewinding funny things, pause). Another part of the WAF (I think) is digitizing our complete CD collection. Now we have some 17.000+ FLAC/MP3's quite neatly 'tagged and thumbed'. That was one hell of a job... But it pays off!
A Trust wireless media keyboard and a G1 Android phone are serving as remotes.
The modded Maya Skin
I really liked the Maya skin from the moment I saw it. Nice and clean, no hassle: perfect! Nevertheless, I would've like it to be even more minimal regarding the amount of information being displayed. And black. Also I was quite fond of the 'blackborders' overlays that ship with the Maya skin. I tried to implement it as a basic element in the Maya skin: it now also serves in the 'common.(home.)overlay' and the 'zap-OSD'. The Music Playing Now screen is really made more simple (just time, artist and songtitle), with the integration of Fanart and an album thumb. Last but not least I did some (heavy) modding to the basichome screen.
Some screenshots:
BasicHome with overlay:
Music Playing Now:
Fullscreen TV, with 'zap display'.
Online Videos: (showing 'TV Gemist' (Missed TV), with which Dutch people can watch a lot of aired TV programs over the internet, anytime after they're broadcasted: props to moiristo for building the 'old' plugin and Doskabouter for the new one!)
Moving Pictures
A the center:
At the heart is a rather old PC (P4 2.8GHz) with a Hauppauge PVR 150 TV card. A SB Audigy 2 card feeds a Harman/Kardon, which is hooked up to two Eltax floorstanding speakers. A Samsung 22" monitor is used as screen. (not to big, but it does the job) With my fathers help I made a casing to fit both the amp and the PC. I hate cables (I've been an amateur sound-technician for 10 years) so this is my way of getting rid of them. Also I like the idea of controlling it all from one place, with equipment and data that's stored away out of sight. A big heap of CD's is sooo 20th century.
Inside the casing, the PC is suspended with tieribs: it 'hangs' inside the casing, to minimize noise. I'll post some pics of the inside soon.
Used Software:
- Windows XP SP3
- K-Lite Codec Pack
- Mediaportal 1.1.0 RC1 - Maya Skin (with a bit XML modding )
Used plugins:
- Fanart Handler
- Moving Pictures
- TV Series
- Online videos
Strings and stuff
I also like to play the guitar and listen to a bit of the good ol' vinyl. A 30 year old turntable and a Line 6 mini-POD are connected to a Behringer 802, which goes into the line in of my soundcard. (the turntable goes into a NAD preamp)
It took quite a while to get to know MediaPortal and the basics of its settings, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm really quite pleased with the results which seems to have quite a good WAF. (Needless to say, my GF missed some of her dearly beloved TV show due to some 'problems') A big thanks to the mediaportal dev-team!
She's quite fond of the timeshifting features (rewinding funny things, pause). Another part of the WAF (I think) is digitizing our complete CD collection. Now we have some 17.000+ FLAC/MP3's quite neatly 'tagged and thumbed'. That was one hell of a job... But it pays off! A Trust wireless media keyboard and a G1 Android phone are serving as remotes.
The modded Maya Skin
I really liked the Maya skin from the moment I saw it. Nice and clean, no hassle: perfect! Nevertheless, I would've like it to be even more minimal regarding the amount of information being displayed. And black. Also I was quite fond of the 'blackborders' overlays that ship with the Maya skin. I tried to implement it as a basic element in the Maya skin: it now also serves in the 'common.(home.)overlay' and the 'zap-OSD'. The Music Playing Now screen is really made more simple (just time, artist and songtitle), with the integration of Fanart and an album thumb. Last but not least I did some (heavy) modding to the basichome screen.
Some screenshots:
BasicHome with overlay:
Music Playing Now:
Fullscreen TV, with 'zap display'.
Online Videos: (showing 'TV Gemist' (Missed TV), with which Dutch people can watch a lot of aired TV programs over the internet, anytime after they're broadcasted: props to moiristo for building the 'old' plugin and Doskabouter for the new one!)
Moving Pictures
