Thinking of moving to MP... couple of questions before I get started! (1 Viewer)

[stevehoot]

Hi everyone,

I'm coming from a WMC + MyMovies plug-in user who switched to XBMC after becoming disgruntled with the lack of changes and improvements in Windows 8. This all runs on a HTPC attached via HDMI to my main living room TV. Previously I used an Xbox360 as a media centre extender to my bedroom which worked pretty well. After moving from WMC I replaced the Xbox360 with a Raspberry Pi running RaspBMC. This worked fine for media but TV just never worked at all on it unfortunately.

I have a fairly large movie collection (around 500 720p rips catalogued with artwork) and a good 800 video files as TV series. That aside I also use live TV using a dual tuner Hauppage DVB PCI card. This provides Freeview for me at the moment although I'll be upgrading to a Freeview HD card soon I think - possibly network based if I can.

I'm not entirely happy with XBMC. Seems a little clunky, and even with different skins the UI doesn't really feel right. Also find it a little temperamental compared to the stability on WMC.

So I've been doing some looking around and MP looks incredible and something I'm a little embarrassed about that I've never looked into before!

Looks like MP will foot the bill and then some, which is excellent. Before I get started I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping someone will be able to answer for me as I'm struggling to get anything nailed so far:

• How would one go about accessing MP from say a bedroom...? This is the big issue for me so far.
  So for WMC I used an xbox360, for XBMC I used a Raspberry PI with RaspBMC.... what 'clients' are suggested for MP with this sort of thing? Not relishing the idea of buying / making a full-fat Windows PC just for 2 hours of TV in the bedroom each night. If it does require a 'dinky' spec hardware running Windows can anyone offer suggestions as to a low-power HTPC that would be appropriate in place of my current solution as I won't be getting the RaspPI running Windows anytime soon!

• Is there any ability to play or stream from Spotify? No dealbreaker - just something to keep the missus happy!

• In terms of media management, are there any recommendations? At the moment I still use MyMovies for managing everything, and have it set to output a NFO file for XBMC. This sort of thing still okay with MP or does MP have it's own management tool / what formats does it support?

Thanks again for your time and a massive thank you to the developers for what appears to be a fantastic bit of software.

Cheers - Steve

 

[UNOPARATOR]

First of all, welcome aboard =)

• How would one go about accessing MP from say a bedroom...? This is the big issue for me so far.
  So for WMC I used an xbox360, for XBMC I used a Raspberry PI with RaspBMC.... what 'clients' are suggested for MP with this sort of thing? Not relishing the idea of buying / making a full-fat Windows PC just for 2 hours of TV in the bedroom each night. If it does require a 'dinky' spec hardware running Windows can anyone offer suggestions as to a low-power HTPC that would be appropriate in place of my current solution as I won't be getting the RaspPI running Windows anytime soon!

I don't know current development status of Raspberry PI, but if you could install Android OS on it, then you'll be able to do most (if not all) of the things that you mentioned with aMPdroid. The requirement is to install MPExtended on your PC.

• Is there any ability to play or stream from Spotify? No dealbreaker - just something to keep the missus happy!

There should be plugin for Spotify, but since I don't use it I'm not sure. You can just use the search. (or use this link)

• In terms of media management, are there any recommendations? At the moment I still use MyMovies for managing everything, and have it set to output a NFO file for XBMC. This sort of thing still okay with MP or does MP have it's own management tool / what formats does it support?

MP has 4 powerful options for that,
1) standard Videos plugin (comes out-of-the-box, thanks to latest version developments), (I use this for other videos not cataloged in option 2 & 3 - see below)
2) MP TV Series, (I use this for my TV Series)
3) MovingPictures, (I use this for my Movie collection)
4) MyFilms (it is somewhat equivalent of MovingPictures, but I don't use it since MovingPictures is enough for me)

You can also use Media Portal Extensions Manager to install them after installing MP to your PC.

 

[stevehoot]

Hi Unoparator,

Thanks for the quick reply and the warm welcome! Looks like a cracking community and I'm looking forward to get involved (as much as non-dev can do!). With SageTV going to Google, Boxee not doing TV, WMC being left behind and MythTV being only on Linux it seems there's just more and more opportunity for a Media Center application to rival XBMC.

Sounds good. I'll look at getting Android onto the Pi. Failing that I guess I can always look at a low-end shuttle device with a little 32Gb SSD, 2Gb RAM and onboard GPU. From the sounds of things MP ticks all the boxes, really is the hardware side I'm pondering....

Thanks again for your help. I'll look into the spotify bit shortly. Sure there's a forum on here that allows geeks to expand on their setup so I'll try and post a little report on my transition from WMC->XBMC->MP with hardware and other bits too.

Cheers - Steve

 

[RicoHTPC]

For your bedroom you could still stick with your RPi as a xbmc frontend for your mp backend.
I am using the same setup and I have to say that it's doing its job although it wont crack any speed records
especially when it comes to zapping times...

 

[Spragleknas]

Welcome from me as well.

Spotify => Rockstar

 

[HomeY]

Welcome Steve,

Just wanted to say this thread did put a smile on my face.
Love reading these and real curious about the story about your 'transition'

 

[stevehoot]

Thanks for the very warm welcome everyone!

Looks like Android for the Pi is out of the question. Will look into XBMC as the client although I suspect I may bite the bullet and just get a full fat client - if only to get decent iPlayer and other streaming working properly... getting a little tired of "fudging" stuff really.

Don't know if anyone has used a TalkTalk YouView box - but the goal is to essentially have something that does the same (live DVB-T2 broadcasts with EPG plus on-demand streaming using a remote control) but a lot quicker, plus stream my catalogue of TV and Movies with relevant metadata / artwork. Looks like MediaPortal is the ticket!!! At last!!

Cheers again everyone - I'll do a build document of what I'm doing once it gets going. Thanks!

 

[kiwijunglist]

amd a6 5400k is prob the sweetspot if wanting a cheap client that still has good performance. it also is best value and can handle 1080i with ease.