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itsjwills · 2011-07-03, 21:53

So I was getting all set up to purchase SageTV when Google swept in and now their store is shut down. I have become inpatient and have decided that I no longer am interested in an HTPC for recording needs.

I am going to use DIRECTV Whole Home DVR for live TV but definitely want an HTPC for storing movies and music. XBMC looks sexy as hell and I think it can fit most of my needs but I haven't found a solid answer on having it set up for multiple TVs.

Here are my needs:
1. 1080p playback
2. 3D capable
3. Rip and play blu-ray/3D
4. Be able to access the HTPC from both TV's in the house and potentially watch two different movies at the same time.

It appears that 1-3 won't be much of a problem with the right HTPC build but can anyone give me a solution to need #4? How can I have it set up so my wife and I can be watching a movie downstairs while our daughter watches one of her movies upstairs?

lightshow12 · (This post was last modified: 2011-07-03, 23:12 by lightshow12.)

Number 4 is really simple. Before I get into that, you may want to look into a different configuration perspective.

NAS + Thin Clients:

NAS box with some processing power and no Video Card GPU power with a bunch of hard drives. This box can be big (in terms of size and CPU power for BlueRay Encoding) and loud. You can make it sit in a closet and either give it WIFI or hardwired Ethernet. You plug in a few TB hard drives (using Windows, or a NAS OS like FreeNAS). This will be your media server. You can also make it from a Walmart computer if that gives you enough CPU encoding power (depending on how long you are willing to wait to Encode a BlueRay into 1080p mkv).

Then for the bedrooms, you can get an AppleTv2 (for $99) and jailbreak it for free to run XBMC and get your media over the LAN/WIFI

This is probably the most economical setup and the thin clients are silent and HDMI capable (AppleTV2 does only 720p, so you may want to hack an AppleTV1 and put in a Broadcom Crystal HD Card which lets it play 1080p seamlessly).

Otherwise, you'd have a heavy duty computer in your main desired room (just because of blueray encoding) with a Nvidia 3d Card and Windows OS (for Blueray encoding, not sure Ubuntu has any decryption programs available yet for BlueRay).

Then with that computer, you'd share folder via SMB Simple Sharing (To share to Windows,Mac,or Linux) or HomeGroup (Win 7 computers) and map the media shares (via XBMC's interface) to your daughter's computer (which can be the cheap $99 Appletv2 jailbroken with XBMC).

There will be no limitation for you playing at least 3 different movies (720p and below) over Wireless N and if you're hardwired, then 5+ movies/tv shows will be no problem. At that point it's the speed of your internal network. Also, we can take deeper dives into any of the above if you're interested.

itsjwills · 2011-07-04, 00:05

Thanks for the reply! I will have to research some of the things you have suggested.

1080p playback is very important to me so Apple TV2 is likely out as an option. If 1080p isn't capable through wireless streaming than I may have to consider hard wiring everything.

Also, I would like my bluray rips to be as fast as possible so I would probably want to build the PC rather than buy a Wal-Mart one.

Wouldn't it be possible to make the main PC fairly quiet? I would like to have it in the main viewing room so I can do the rips there rather than in the basement. If it isn't possible to build one that is quiet than I may have to explore having it in the basement.

itsjwills · (This post was last modified: 2011-07-04, 01:36 by itsjwills.)

Also, will the Crystal HD card eliminate all of the lag with Apple TV? I've read so many bad reviews of the quality of Apple TV with XBMC that it makes me a little cautious.

Also, would 3D playback be possible at all with Apple TV?

Is there any option that would work better than Apple TV as an extender?

darkscout · 2011-07-04, 01:59

Apple TV is 100% different than Apple TV 2.

One is a Mini x386 CPU with PCI-Express and a hard drive the other is an ARM chip with flash memory and iOS.

itsjwills · 2011-07-04, 02:32

darkscout Wrote:Apple TV is 100% different than Apple TV 2.

One is a Mini x386 CPU with PCI-Express and a hard drive the other is an ARM chip with flash memory and iOS.

So is Apple TV the answer? Also, what would you recommend to get two TV's in different rooms running with access to XBMC at true 1080p without a lot of noise and load/buffer time?

darkscout · 2011-07-04, 03:17

Do you really NEED 1080p?

itsjwills · 2011-07-04, 05:36

I would like to have 1080p. I am roughly 10 feet away from a 60" TV.

I understand that it is not the ideal distance for a 60" TV but it is what I have to work with. There is a hole built into our wall from the previous owner that a 60" TV comes close to covering and the furthest I can sit away is roughly 10 feet.

It gets delivered next week so if it unwatchable we will downgrade to a 55".

Why not have something capable of 1080p since the TV can support it? I do think I will be able to notice the difference on a 60" TV.

**Malard** · 2011-07-04, 18:31

I would have to agree, the BBC did a recent study, that found anything less than 2.5m and below 56" would not require more than 720p and even then the difference in going up to 1080 was hardly noticeable. Even the ripping scene is taking note and the bulk of their releases are now showing up at 720p

I was at IBC last year and Panasonic demo'd a 4k 106" screen which did look amazing, but when I checked another booth also sporting a 106" screen (it was actually JBC's booth using a panasonic screen just with the logo hidden) they were only showing 1080p content and you couldn't really tell the difference.

Perhaps what you should investigate is a blind test, get a 720p rip and a 1080p rip of a short video and play them back and get someone to make a note of which one is playing each time.

See how often you get it right if you don't believe the stats Smile

itsjwills · 2011-07-05, 04:54

So I would assume there is no solution for 1080p in two different rooms then? Doesn't anyone have a setup with this capability?

jhyland · 2011-07-05, 05:16

Im actually pretty interested in method 4 as well. Would it be possible to have the main XBMC media server on the "main" tv, (so the server will have the large graphics card, do the torrent downloads, hold the data, etc), then have the thin client in the bedroom? Thats my goal really.

Which thin client would be the best option for a linux OS?

Is it possible to have the thin client be wireless? heh

hypergolic · 2011-07-07, 17:42

I don't see why 1080p in two rooms would be a problem, although you will probably have to use 1Gb ethernet to accomplish this. I have had nothing but problems with HD over wireless, but I also get frustrated quickly. So it was just easier for me to run ethernet and it works great.

I am not sure if you can rip and play 3D Blu-ray in XMBC, but I rip and play regular Blu-ray all the time.