Hi from a newbie HTPC/Gaming & MP (1 Viewer)

[AIstudio]

Hi to EVERYONE on here,

I have just built my HTPC over the Xmas break. The components that I used are as follows:

- Connected to 50 inch Pannasonic TH50 PF10 HDTV
- Using B&W speakers through Arcam AVR300 on component etc

- Case - Silverstone CW01B-WDR
- CPU - Intel Q6600 OEM G0 QuadCoreCPU
- Motherboard - Asus Striker Extreme s775 nF6 SLi
- PowerSupply - CORSAIR HX 620W MODULAR PSU
- Ram - Corsair TwinX 2GB DDR2 8500DOM
- HDD - 1 x 250 Gb Samsung SATA2 Spinpoint OS
4 x 500 Gb Samsung SATA2 Spinpoint RAID5 (storage)
- Gfx Card - 512MB BFG 8800GT O/CLOCK
- Sound Card - Onbard sound from motherboard with extra card.
- TVtuner - Haupp 289 WinTV Nova-T 500 MCE
- Keyboard - Dinovo Edge wireless keybard/touchpad


It is set up at the mo running vista 32. It also has a wireless 360 gamepad and a MCE remote (which I havent installed yet.

Even though I built this system a week or so ago would it be worth putting this into the ongoing HTPC section???

The reason that I am posting here is that I am new and looking to Media portal for the front end.
One thing that I MUST be able to do is to play games right from media portal. Can this be done???

The reason that I ask is that these days, even to run the original without having to dig the cd/dvd out is very cumbersome.
After installing a game you then have to create an image of the disc, then mount that in demon tools etc and then hide the virtual drive to get it to work.
Can media portal be programed to do all those functions without having to do it all manually.

Please don't turn this into a pirated copy thread as this is the method you HAVE to do if you don't want to keep on having to put the discs in the drive all the time!!!

Cant wait to get everything configured though

Just need to finish my front room now to put it all in lol

Any help or info appreciated

Kev

 

[milhouse]

Depends on what you actually mean.

If you mean "I want to connect my PS3 through the TV tuner card so I don't have to leave MP", then the answer is "no". While it works fine, the delay inherent to the extra connection makes it pretty much unplayable.

If you mean "I use emulator software (NES, MAME, etc.) and want to start the emulator games straight from MP", then the answer is "Yes". See the "My Emulators" plugin. My Emulators link

Milhouse


-----------------------------------------

Sorry - I mis-read the original post. You want MP to mount CD/DVD images and start a PC game. I think My Programs would let you run any program from MP, but I don't know about mounting CD images.

 

[jburnette]

Mediaportal has a programs plugin that acts as a pretty good front end for launching games. You can get patched executables from gamecopyworld that will allow you to play without the disc (you're only downloading the patched file, not pirating the game). If you consider that piracy, which it may or may not be, that's really going to be your only way to accomplish what you want right now since the My Programs plugin doesn't support mounting images before launching.

 

[AIstudio]

Sorry Millhouse, I didn't mean connecting a PS3 or Xbox etc through the media centre. I was thinking of pc based gaming etc. I should have specified that. :sorry:

Many thanks for the pointer there jburnette I will have a good luck into the pluggin and see if I can get it all configured etc.

I am so looking forward to this as I have been waiting patiently for nearly 10mths to build this all up. Slowly gathering parts and info.

I just love the look of MP and it is looking VERY good.

many MANY thanks

Kev