'home media centre'

[eFestivals]

I'm playing around some more with the media centre stuff on my home network, and am a bit confused about what are the good things that can be done with media servers and uPnP/DLNA receivers, so wondered what people could tell me...?

[t8yman]

depends on your setup, but if you have capable tvs etc, you can stream music, movies and photos to any compatible screen in the house. playback varies by codec, Ive never had any luck with rewind, skip, or even pause with .mkv files or .ts files, but .avi's seem to be fairly sturdy. wired is obviously better for HD files, as the wireless speeds rarely keep up with the higher bitrate stuff.

I use one of those power plug ethernet adapter things, you can get them in asda for about £30 per plug - you need an "in", then the "outs" are a little bit cheaper, if you buy both together you can usually get a set for about £45, then you can have wired network all over the house.

any specific queries?

[t8yman]

oh, another thing, if you are using windows as your extender - windows media player must have complete knowledge of your library contents, but not necessarily control of them.

[eFestivals]

lol .... this is why I get confused. ... Everywhere I go to try and find some info assumes an existing level of knowledge ... .mkv files and .ts files are new ones on me.

I've got a media server (on a NAS). It works great.

I've not got a smart TV but do have a Raspberry Pi running XMBC hooked up to my TV.

I've also got a Marantz MCR603 (hifi) which streams.

The Pi and 603 I can control via browsers &/or apps (am mostly using Kinsky currently).

I'm mostly wanting to know what the further possibilities are for that kit, and any other kit I might add, including what is the best software &/or apps for getting the most control of the various parts.

I'm also wanting to set-up some stuff on my NAS to download some torrents, and while I have Transmission, BT Sync, CouchPotato, & Headphones installed the documentation is dreadful and I can't make head or tail of how to get them to work. Any help with these would be great.

Edited October 1, 2013 by eFestivals

[t8yman]

your existing networking knowledge is probably much better than mine, I couldnt set up couch potato after numerous tries. My knowledge is entirely based upon using various screens around the house to watch movie and tv files stored on my PC's hard drive (or attached usb 3tb drive) all the library stuff is handled by windows media player, and the other end is either handled by an xbox or a smart TV, so my actual use of DLNA is a little rare, before I had a PC hooked up to my telly t be precise, as its our main screen and our main source of stuff to watch.

mkv and ts are just formats like mp3 or aac. the vast majority of HD files are in .mkv format, and in terms of player, I've always found VLC player handles pretty much any format out of the box.

utorrent does have a companion smartphone app, depending upon which mobile platform you use, which allows you to remotely start a download, I know there are ios and android versions out, but dont know about windows mobile.

the raspberry pi is basically doing the job of a smart TV, and xbmc is an amazingly versatile piece of software, that requires a little bit of networking knowledge to get the best from, and I'm sure you have that covered. if you are using the raspberry pi to stream stuff, then you wont be actually using DLNA if I'm not mistaken, just LAN streaming.

are you sorted for a good torrent site? I have invites available if you want one? many of their forums have really helpful stuff, and some really knowledgable users, I'll be happy to send you an invite if you need one, as long as you agree to abide by the rules, as I can get banned if people I invite breach the ToS.

[eFestivals]

utorrent does have a companion smartphone app, depending upon which mobile platform you use, which allows you to remotely start a download, I know there are ios and android versions out, but dont know about windows mobile.

I'm a little confused about what you're saying here.

I'm got uTorrent on my android tablet, but are you saying that I can use it to trigger torrent downloads to another device (rather than the download happening directly to the tablet)?

If so, i'd love some extra info on how, as I want to try to avoid having to transfer stuff from other devices to the media server.

the raspberry pi is basically doing the job of a smart TV, and xbmc is an amazingly versatile piece of software, that requires a little bit of networking knowledge to get the best from, and I'm sure you have that covered. if you are using the raspberry pi to stream stuff, then you wont be actually using DLNA if I'm not mistaken, just LAN streaming.

I know that XMBC doesn't support DLNA as yet (it'll be in v13 tho, which is currently in alpha development).

I've only used it for streaming hooky footie streams so far (which don't work at the mo, tho there's now a hack for SportsDevil to get it working again; I plan to sort that in the next few days). But as i've got this kit I want to start to make more use of it, which is what has triggered this thread.

Does anyone know of a decent XMBC skin that's been primarily designed for video use? The default skin has you jump thru more hoops than necessary to get to the videos section, so I'd like something better.

are you sorted for a good torrent site? I have invites available if you want one? many of their forums have really helpful stuff, and some really knowledgable users, I'll be happy to send you an invite if you need one, as long as you agree to abide by the rules, as I can get banned if people I invite breach the ToS.

I've only ever used the public sites, so if you're able to point me in the direction of some better sources that'd be great, thanks.

[eFestivals]

I run XMBC via the Pi and then use the Airplay support to play things from my store on my MAC. Works very well. The Pi is an awesome little bit of kit.

I'm trying to avoid going the AirPlay route, as I don't want to be tied in to having to buy stupidly expensive propriety kit.

As far as I'm aware (I've not yet tried it), I should be able to stream stuff to the Pi from the media server so I shouldn't need AirPlay.

[t8yman]

I'm a little confused about what you're saying here.

I'm got uTorrent on my android tablet, but are you saying that I can use it to trigger torrent downloads to another device (rather than the download happening directly to the tablet)?

If so, i'd love some extra info on how, as I want to try to avoid having to transfer stuff from other devices to the media server.

I know that XMBC doesn't support DLNA as yet (it'll be in v13 tho, which is currently in alpha development).

I've only used it for streaming hooky footie streams so far (which don't work at the mo, tho there's now a hack for SportsDevil to get it working again; I plan to sort that in the next few days). But as i've got this kit I want to start to make more use of it, which is what has triggered this thread.

Does anyone know of a decent XMBC skin that's been primarily designed for video use? The default skin has you jump thru more hoops than necessary to get to the videos section, so I'd like something better.

I've only ever used the public sites, so if you're able to point me in the direction of some better sources that'd be great, thanks.

yes, you can trigger a download on your PC from your phone or tablet afaik. "utorrent remote" its called, again - I havent really applied myself to doing it, but apparently it works really well. theres plenty of tutorials online to set it up.

[t8yman]

oh, and check your PM's

[eFestivals]

yes, you can trigger a download on your PC from your phone or tablet afaik. "utorrent remote" its called, again - I havent really applied myself to doing it, but apparently it works really well. theres plenty of tutorials online to set it up.

thanks ... tho I've just gone and got it, and it's not what I want. It's a remote controller for an install of uTorrent on another device - which would be OK-ish if I could install uTorrent on my NAS, but I can't.

If I can get Transmission (plus other bits, if needed; i've yet to work out how it works) working on my NAS (and I know that it can work, I just can't suss out how) I'll be able to access that from any other device that runs a webbrowser to set-up the downloads I want, which sounds like the ideal set-up to me - I want to avoid faffing around with having to have the right software installed on devices or having to move what's been downloaded across to the NAS.

[eFestivals]

oh, and check your PM's

cheers, it's appreciated.

[eFestivals]

I've got Transmission working on my NAS now, and successfully had it download a film during the night (scheduled to happen in the not-using-internet hours).

And I'm having a play around with Plex Media Server alongside the media server I was already using, because it appears to have the best cross-platform support as well as the best interfaces for both the server and clients. Annoyingly tho it's not picked up all of my music files, so I need to have a dig around to try and find out why.

And I got SportsDevil working again on my Pi/XMBC too.

[Essex_George]

I've got Transmission working on my NAS now, and successfully had it download a film during the night (scheduled to happen in the not-using-internet hours).

And I'm having a play around with Plex Media Server alongside the media server I was already using, because it appears to have the best cross-platform support as well as the best interfaces for both the server and clients. Annoyingly tho it's not picked up all of my music files, so I need to have a dig around to try and find out why.

And I got SportsDevil working again on my Pi/XMBC too.

How did you get SportsDevil working on the Pi?

[eFestivals]

How did you get SportsDevil working on the Pi?

see here:-

http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2013/09/18/temporary-manual-fix-instructions-for-sportsdevil-issues/

There aren't instructions on that page for Raspmbc, but there is an 'plugin.video.SportsDevil' directory on the Raspmbc install somewhere, for you to copy the files into subdirectories. If you're not able to locate it yourself then post back here and I'll get the details for you off another of my PCs (which I know I've still got).

And I say it fixed it, I think it did. There's an added firstrow.org entry which (last night) listed last nights matches, but I failed to get a working stream of the Arsenal match in the 15 mins I tried before kick off (so reverted to my laptop). But an hour earlier I did get a working stream that was titled 'Champions League Preview', so presumably some of the live streams will work.

[Essex_George]

see here:-

http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2013/09/18/temporary-manual-fix-instructions-for-sportsdevil-issues/

There aren't instructions on that page for Raspmbc, but there is an 'plugin.video.SportsDevil' directory on the Raspmbc install somewhere, for you to copy the files into subdirectories. If you're not able to locate it yourself then post back here and I'll get the details for you off another of my PCs (which I know I've still got).

And I say it fixed it, I think it did. There's an added firstrow.org entry which (last night) listed last nights matches, but I failed to get a working stream of the Arsenal match in the 15 mins I tried before kick off (so reverted to my laptop). But an hour earlier I did get a working stream that was titled 'Champions League Preview', so presumably some of the live streams will work.

Thanks for that. I will give it a go at the weekend.

[eFestivals]

George, here's the details for how to get the files to the right directory....

The directory for SportsDevil on Raspbmc is: "./.xbmc/addons/plugin.video.SportsDevil" (without the quotes).

You can get the files to the relevant subdirectories below that (as detailed on that linked page) by unzipping the files on a windows computer and then FTP-ing the files to your Pi.

You'll need an FTP client to do that with, and you'll need to know the IP address of your Pi.

The FTP user & pw are "pi" and "raspberry" (without the quotes).

You might well find that the FTP client can't see the start of that directory path on your Pi (cos it starts with a dot that means it's hidden) to let you get to it, but you should be able to set the start-up directory within your FTP client as the full path I've given above and then your FTP client will be in the right directory for you to upload the subdirectories.

I hope that helps.

[t8yman]

If you need a reliable (but not free) site that shows all the footie ( a lot of it in HD). I may be able to hook you up. works out about a fiver a month. has never let me down.

Edited October 3, 2013 by t8yman

[windy_miller]

thanks ... tho I've just gone and got it, and it's not what I want. It's a remote controller for an install of uTorrent on another device - which would be OK-ish if I could install uTorrent on my NAS, but I can't.

If I can get Transmission (plus other bits, if needed; i've yet to work out how it works) working on my NAS (and I know that it can work, I just can't suss out how) I'll be able to access that from any other device that runs a webbrowser to set-up the downloads I want, which sounds like the ideal set-up to me - I want to avoid faffing around with having to have the right software installed on devices or having to move what's been downloaded across to the NAS.

I use transdroid to control Transmission from my phone. Much easier than using a webbrowser, and has a built in search facility.

http://www.transdroid.org/

[eFestivals]

I use transdroid to control Transmission from my phone. Much easier than using a webbrowser, and has a built in search facility.

http://www.transdroid.org/

thanks - have just got it, looks the biz.

However, having installed the extra search app, when I search I get @Error during communication with server@. Any ideas why?

(I'm connecting to the server OK).

[Essex_George]

George, here's the details for how to get the files to the right directory....

The directory for SportsDevil on Raspbmc is: "./.xbmc/addons/plugin.video.SportsDevil" (without the quotes).

You can get the files to the relevant subdirectories below that (as detailed on that linked page) by unzipping the files on a windows computer and then FTP-ing the files to your Pi.

You'll need an FTP client to do that with, and you'll need to know the IP address of your Pi.

The FTP user & pw are "pi" and "raspberry" (without the quotes).

You might well find that the FTP client can't see the start of that directory path on your Pi (cos it starts with a dot that means it's hidden) to let you get to it, but you should be able to set the start-up directory within your FTP client as the full path I've given above and then your FTP client will be in the right directory for you to upload the subdirectories.

I hope that helps.

Thanks alot for that Neil, that doesn't look too bad to sort out. Only problem is looks like my laptop has just died!

[eFestivals]

stupid question time .... what format (and bit-rate?) should I be aiming to find for movies? Downloading visual stuff is all new to me.

[windy_miller]

thanks - have just got it, looks the biz.

However, having installed the extra search app, when I search I get @Error during communication with server@. Any ideas why?

(I'm connecting to the server OK).

Some of the search engines will be blocked by your ISP. I set up transmission on my NAS to connect to all trackers through TOR, which gets round the blocks. You can set up TOR on your phone and get the transdroid search to go through that as well.

[t8yman]

stupid question time .... what format (and bit-rate?) should I be aiming to find for movies? Downloading visual stuff is all new to me.

read this a couple of days ago and forgot to reply. Depends on the quality you want. My mate has an HD TV, but flat out refuses to download the larger HD files of the TV shows he watches (for some reason).

For non HD files, a 1 hour program will typically be around 700mb per hour of the show. Look for words like divx or SD or dvdrip in the title of the file.

For HD you are looking for keywords like mkv, x264, 720p, BR or BRRIP (both of which refer to Bluray/Bluray rip). and for super sexy full HD - look for the previous, but with 1080p in the title. A 50 minute show will be around 1.5-2gb for 720p, and around 3.5gb for 1080p.

If you give me an example of something you are interested in, I'll send you a link for all 3 different types for the site you joined so you can see the difference.

that site has a TV-HD section, and a TV-SD section, makes things a bit simpler. Theres also a "Movies" section, and a "Bluray" section.

[t8yman]

and.........

it also depends on what you want to play it on.

my suggestion is to try a few different options. divx (.avi files) play on most players, tablets and phones. .mkv files and .ts files are a bit more picky.

a good place to start is with a short program like south park or modern family. grab both HD and SD of one ep of your chosen short prog, and see what the results are like.

[eFestivals]

thanks for the info t8yman.

I don't have anything I'm interested in (I hardly ever watch movies, and tend not to do TV series) but am waiting on daughter to supply me with a list. From the info you've given I should be able to find what I need.

====

Regarding speaker stands, windy miller's comment above gets to show they're worth having to get the best out of the speakers - but you could also use wall brackets instead of stands (which might suit you more for your kitchen?).