United Kingdom
Two years ago we bought a new house, and we did some renovation work. Whilst replacing the electrics I decided that I was going to Cat5e the whole place up at the same time so that I could introduce a (headless) central media server system.
For this cental media system what I wanted was :
1) Central TV distribution (Freeview UK)
2) Central PVR facility
3) Central DVD/Film selection
4) Central Media (Music and Photos)
5) HD Distribution
I orginally looked at the "slingbox" system, as we could use our existing PVR and the sling box, then sling extenders in each room that was to be used, at the time though the slingbox didn't support HD, and it looked like the sling extenders were falling in to the EOL category. I already had a NAS box (a cheap Freecom thing) so media was to be stored where possible on this.
So, after discounting those I moved towards a MythTV and XBMC solution - I had an old PC that I could use as a server (Athlon64 AM2, 1GB RAM, 400GB, ATI), and the client side was going to be HP T5730 (Small, silent PC with XP embedded).
After many trials and tribulations of MythBunto, (With a Hauppage 500) I finally got the server working, so the next part was XBMC on the HP XPe. Although it all installed, and I could watch TV, it was taking 30/40 seconds to change channel. I decided abandon the MythBunto system, as there also seemed to be lots of little things that didn't quite work correctly.
After a bit of research I found NextPVR so thought I'd attempt that - the server side went on quite easily, but it didn't seem very "slick", I then had problems getting a client PC to connect, and eventually fell upon media player. Media player seemed to doeverything I wanted so thought I'd give it a try.
Once all the prerequistes had downloaded, my first struggle was with SQL server, once that was running correctly I could view Freeview etc on the server. My phase was getting my normal PC to connect, which after deciding that the windows7 firewall on the server was a pain and was turned off, that was working.
Sadly, once I got to the HP Xpe, a prerequsite for MediaPortal wasn't installable - namely .Net 3.5 sp1. The HP only has a 1GB system hard drive (with a 4GB usb stcik as another drive), HP provide a special XPe SP3 image plus a number of addons, what they don't supply is .Net v3.5 SP1, only .Net v2, and there isn't enough room to install to the hard drive.
This pushed me back to XBMC as the client, after a bit of searching I found the PVR version of XBMC and the server plugin and installed those. A few issues with a VC++ 2010 redistributable, but a reinstall sorted that.
The database was viewable but no TV, again a bit of searching and RTSP had to be enabled on the client. The guide only seems to be now and next, and it does seem to take a fair while to start up, changing TV cahnnels is slow, but acceptable.
So, this is where I am : MediaPortal server under the stairs, wired to 100Mbit switch, PC using MediaPoratl can watch TV, XBMC on HP XPe, but I think I'll try "flattening" the XPe and installing as much as I may be able to make some room.
Where Next? HP to be used in anger, as I got three quite cheaply they will also go in the living room and probably the bedroom.
For this cental media system what I wanted was :
1) Central TV distribution (Freeview UK)
2) Central PVR facility
3) Central DVD/Film selection
4) Central Media (Music and Photos)
5) HD Distribution
I orginally looked at the "slingbox" system, as we could use our existing PVR and the sling box, then sling extenders in each room that was to be used, at the time though the slingbox didn't support HD, and it looked like the sling extenders were falling in to the EOL category. I already had a NAS box (a cheap Freecom thing) so media was to be stored where possible on this.
So, after discounting those I moved towards a MythTV and XBMC solution - I had an old PC that I could use as a server (Athlon64 AM2, 1GB RAM, 400GB, ATI), and the client side was going to be HP T5730 (Small, silent PC with XP embedded).
After many trials and tribulations of MythBunto, (With a Hauppage 500) I finally got the server working, so the next part was XBMC on the HP XPe. Although it all installed, and I could watch TV, it was taking 30/40 seconds to change channel. I decided abandon the MythBunto system, as there also seemed to be lots of little things that didn't quite work correctly.
After a bit of research I found NextPVR so thought I'd attempt that - the server side went on quite easily, but it didn't seem very "slick", I then had problems getting a client PC to connect, and eventually fell upon media player. Media player seemed to doeverything I wanted so thought I'd give it a try.
Once all the prerequistes had downloaded, my first struggle was with SQL server, once that was running correctly I could view Freeview etc on the server. My phase was getting my normal PC to connect, which after deciding that the windows7 firewall on the server was a pain and was turned off, that was working.
Sadly, once I got to the HP Xpe, a prerequsite for MediaPortal wasn't installable - namely .Net 3.5 sp1. The HP only has a 1GB system hard drive (with a 4GB usb stcik as another drive), HP provide a special XPe SP3 image plus a number of addons, what they don't supply is .Net v3.5 SP1, only .Net v2, and there isn't enough room to install to the hard drive.
This pushed me back to XBMC as the client, after a bit of searching I found the PVR version of XBMC and the server plugin and installed those. A few issues with a VC++ 2010 redistributable, but a reinstall sorted that.
The database was viewable but no TV, again a bit of searching and RTSP had to be enabled on the client. The guide only seems to be now and next, and it does seem to take a fair while to start up, changing TV cahnnels is slow, but acceptable.
So, this is where I am : MediaPortal server under the stairs, wired to 100Mbit switch, PC using MediaPoratl can watch TV, XBMC on HP XPe, but I think I'll try "flattening" the XPe and installing as much as I may be able to make some room.
Where Next? HP to be used in anger, as I got three quite cheaply they will also go in the living room and probably the bedroom.