Hokie's HTPC Help Hotline

[wagex]

does xbmc not play bluray? it integrates into wmc

 

[hokiealumnus]

I thought XMBC was a WMC replacement?

Anyway, I've seen an explanation of how XMBC can play BDs, but it's a pain to get working.

 

[wagex]

I thought XMBC was a WMC replacement?

Anyway, I've seen an explanation of how XMBC can play BDs, but it's a pain to get working.

ah, nah its not much of a replacement as you cant watch and record live tv. i just use it because wmc is terrible with listing videos from my server, like it will show them separated by date but it wont show most of them in the library.

though i do love the guide and recording menu in WMC sad i dont have cable anymore

 

[jokers_greg]

I CAN verify a shortcut appears in WMC, but I haven't ever opened it yet.

that's good news! I'm going to try to the trial version and see if it's what I'm looking for!

 

[Enablingwolf]

I wanted to chime in on what I use for my HTPC. With a possible interesting option at the end.
Granted it looks like you've invested in a remote already, but this may seem VERY interesting to you.

I bought a cheap 7" Levono tablet.Then installed WIN - REMOTE on both the PC and the tablet. I find this to be a great solution for a remote HTPC control. It handles WMC and XMBC, besides other media apps and your browser of choice, whatever that may be. (I remote control my torrent client, since I seed Overclockix.) Plus the befit of being able to use the tablet for other things as well. It's just nice to have a multifunction device. Or play Angry Birds if I am bored.

Since I'm a cord cutter. I don't have cable TV DVR. Though if I did. I could download an app for my provider, to set up the DRV with that. Though I do use is the tablet as a TV guide. Since OTA is harder to get easy listings.

I suggest looking at the Galaxy Tab 2. With the built in IR blaster and Peel software. I think it would be of interest to you.

 

[hokiealumnus]

I'll have a look at WIN-REMOTE, thanks. My current app is Unified Remote, which seems to have similar functionality, if not as much eye candy.

I can't bring myself to go with a tablet, especially now that I've got to Galaxy S3. The laptop + that phone are all the portability I need. For now. If we do go with a tablet down the road, it will definitely be android and I'll keep the Galaxy in mind.

 

[wagex]

im glad those remote apps worked for you, mine freaked out all the time and would lag so hard.

 

[Enablingwolf]

I'll have a look at WIN-REMOTE, thanks. My current app is Unified Remote, which seems to have similar functionality, if not as much eye candy.

I've used Unified remote - I liked it. Once I started to use Win-Remote. I had a better experience. Since I tend to focus on how well the 'mouse' function works. W-R has left/right click buttons, where they are easy to use. The scrolling works ok, I think. Plus switching between text function and pointer function is smoother overall. Instead of tapping an icon on the top. You simply push to the next screen over (or hold the back button long). It has (home) functions, arrow and num keys on the next screen past keyboard. Then to get back to mouse, one more screen push.

 

[jokers_greg]

I wanted to chime in on what I use for my HTPC. With a possible interesting option at the end.
Granted it looks like you've invested in a remote already, but this may seem VERY interesting to you.

I bought a cheap 7" Levono tablet.Then installed WIN - REMOTE on both the PC and the tablet. I find this to be a great solution for a remote HTPC control. It handles WMC and XMBC, besides other media apps and your browser of choice, whatever that may be. (I remote control my torrent client, since I seed Overclockix.) Plus the befit of being able to use the tablet for other things as well. It's just nice to have a multifunction device. Or play Angry Birds if I am bored.

Since I'm a cord cutter. I don't have cable TV DVR. Though if I did. I could download an app for my provider, to set up the DRV with that. Though I do use is the tablet as a TV guide. Since OTA is harder to get easy listings.

I suggest looking at the Galaxy Tab 2. With the built in IR blaster and Peel software. I think it would be of interest to you.

I was searching for JUST that sort of solution! thanks for the info!

 

[hokiealumnus]

Well, the HTPC has been up and running for a while now. I actually ordered a wireless keyboard to go with the wireless mouse and remote. Now we've got full fledged access at our leisure. For WMC functions and Hulu, the remote works great. Couldn't ask for more. I wish I had a TV card it works so well. The keyboard & mouse are really just to use the PC if we want (youtube mostly) and/or to game whenever the opportunity presents itself.

I did run into a hitch. It's a noob hitch and I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it before. Apparently, streaming loseless 1080p (i.e. recorded on our camcorder) is impossible over even N wifi. It makes sense now that I think about it, because you're talking well over a MB/second of video. My brain forgot to take its anti-stupid pills that day and thought 'hey, it's 1080p, it'll work!'. Yea, so it doesn't. Thus, I'm reduced to transferring a massive amount of video over Wi-Fi to the HTPC's hard drive so we can watch it at will. It's going to take long time. Heh.

Speaking of video, watching DVDs is awesome. I mean, I can tell it's a DVD and on a bigger-than-our-37"-TV (like, in the 50"+ range), I can see how people might require BluRay, but it looks great as-is. Sure, in the future, movie purchases will be all BluRay, but after watching some movies through the HTPC, I see absolutely zero reason to go out and purchase replacements for our DVD collection.

Side note & question - WMC (and, by extension, windows photo viewer) doesn't auto-rotate pictures. So when viewing as a slideshow through WMC, portrait photos are sideways. Canon's software (ZoomBrowser) does this by reading the photos' metadata. So...is there any way anyone knows to make WMC's photo viewer auto-rotate portrait photos? Being a camera-insane family, we take lots of photos in portrait mode, so it's pretty important if we're to use the HTPC to look at photos.

 

[hokiealumnus]

So....running an ethernet cable, how hard is that?

I find myself somewhat disappointed in Wi-Fi, even n-level speeds. How difficult is it to run cabling? It would first need to get from one side of the house to the other. Since the router is on the 3rd floor, that's as easy as running a line across the attic. No problem. Then the hard part: how does one get an ethernet cable from the top of the 3rd floor to the bottom of the 1st? It's a townhouse, so there is a uniform firewall on the side I need to run down. Has anyone ever done this?

Heh, I'm thinking it's not feasible, but would love to know how hard/easy it may be. Alternatively, can you have TWO cable modems hooked up in the same house? If so, I could just buy a cheap cable modem off of ebay and stick it down with the HTPC. It would unfortunately not be on the same network, but I could live with that trade-off.

EDIT - I see lots of posts around that seem to be mostly for going down from above to the room below; that seems doable....but how do you get from the 2nd floor down to the first? I presume there is going to be a barrier there?

 

[EarthDog]

Wall fishing....

I think since you are going 3rd to the 2nd, the firewall that separates units is on the first floor so the only thing you may run into is a cross member for outlets...use a stud finder on that.

 

[hokiealumnus]

Wall fishing I get, that one should be easy if it were going just from the attic down to the 2nd floor...but isn't there going to be a barrier from the bottom of the 2nd floor to the top of the 1st? That's my concern. I don't want to run it if I have to go through the wall to drill a hole in between the 1st & 2nd floors.

 

[EarthDog]

Depends... you will have to check as it will vary by location. That could involve hacking up drywall too...

 

[Janus67]

I just ran CAT6 in my house, ran from one side of the house to another side by going down through the room above the garage (where the modem+router is) drilling through the floor up there (there were actually already holes there from the previous owners that we just kept when we got new hardwood floors...) routed around the garage, through the basement, through the crawl space, and up through the floor in the family room floor where I have an 8port gig switch.

I plan to do some fishing to get cable to my master eventually, but not looking forward to that!

As for your situation, Hokie, it may be relatively difficult due to the firewalls that could be between the floors. You can't run it through heat ducts due to fire regulations (I read about that when I was trying to do my house) so you may end up needing to do some drywall hacking and patching to find out if it is possible.

 

[wagex]

man im glad i live in a single story house with a crawl space underneath and an attic lol takes about 15 minutes to run a new cable, though i just run cat5e because im cheap.

they do have those real long drill bits if you need to go through any fire breaks those could help without having to hurt any drywall. granted it isnt more than a foot or two from reach.

 

[Enablingwolf]

If your confidence and/or handyman skills are low. You could outsource the basics to an electrician. He/she will be very familiar with what to do, for your local codes. It would be far cheaper in the long run, against a new modem subscription. Plus the professional will have all the tools needed to do the job.

You could get all the infrastructure lines you need dropped. Having the work done beforehand. If you need to upgrade to a newer tech later on. You would not have the same issue now. As the hard part is done. Since once the drops are in place. It is super easy to go sideways, adding more lines as you see fit.

 

[glorp]

Alternatively, can you have TWO cable modems hooked up in the same house? If so, I could just buy a cheap cable modem off of ebay and stick it down with the HTPC. It would unfortunately not be on the same network, but I could live with that trade-off.

Considered MoCA? If you have existing CATV outlets both at the HTPC and also near the switch.

Another possible alternative is powerline which *might* work if you are going floor-to-floor right above one another. Just be sure you can return them because they'll either get adequate speeds or they'll suck, depending on your home's wiring age and whether you need to cross phases of your circuit box.

The good thing about either is that whatever speeds you get, they are virtually 100% stable with MoCA or powerline. So if it's enough speed for HD content, it's always enough.

 

[hokiealumnus]

If your confidence and/or handyman skills are low. You could outsource the basics to an electrician. He/she will be very familiar with what to do, for your local codes. It would be far cheaper in the long run, against a new modem subscription. Plus the professional will have all the tools needed to do the job.

You could get all the infrastructure lines you need dropped. Having the work done beforehand. If you need to upgrade to a newer tech later on. You would not have the same issue now. As the hard part is done. Since once the drops are in place. It is super easy to go sideways, adding more lines as you see fit.

You may be onto something, as my confidence in that kind of work is near zero. I called a local electrician and they'd charge time & material. Labor would be $100 for the first hour, pro-rated at that rate every additional hour. Based on what I told them, the estimate is 1-2 hours, plus cable. While it's not cheap, it's probably better (and cheaper) in the long run than me screwing something up.

Considered MoCA? If you have existing CATV outlets both at the HTPC and also near the switch.

Another possible alternative is powerline which *might* work if you are going floor-to-floor right above one another. Just be sure you can return them because they'll either get adequate speeds or they'll suck, depending on your home's wiring age and whether you need to cross phases of your circuit box.

The good thing about either is that whatever speeds you get, they are virtually 100% stable with MoCA or powerline. So if it's enough speed for HD content, it's always enough.

MoCA sounds interesting; wonder whether that interfere with my incoming cable signal at all? Of course, having to buy all the MoCA equipment would end up being more expensive than having the electrician come drop the cable.

 

[glorp]

MoCA sounds interesting; wonder whether that interfere with my incoming cable signal at all?

It had better not. Wouldn't be much use if it did.