[parker36]

Hey all -

I am anticipating a move in the next month or so and want to take that time as an opportunity to move away from paying for cable which I rarely use and convert my old desktop to run XBMC for all of my media needs. I want to do my best to make the transition as smooth as possible and get the most out of my machine and XBMC.

Basically I am looking for tips/suggestions that you all have for a first timer setting up XBMC to make it intuitive and very user friendly for my girlfriend and guests

These are the add-ons I am looking at:
Netflix; Amazon Prime; Pandora;

Add-ons that I am looking for suggestions:
something to play NES, Sega, and N64 ROMs with Xbox 360 controllers;
a good music player;
favorite TV and movie scrapers;
video library system (should I do anything besides keeping them in folders on my HDD?)
I have a TV card, so suggestions for setting that up with PVR.

I am excited to get started in a couple of weeks, but until then if anybody has some favorite add-ons, suggestions for setting up/upgrading my system, or a helpful nudge towards where I can start reading up, it'd be great. Thanks!

I plan on running Frodo on Windows Vista Home Premium
AMD athalon 64x dual core 4000+ 2.1Ghz
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE (pushing it, I know)
2GB RAM (would upgrade to 4GB if necessary)
32 bit

[PeterPopper]

Just a few tips from my current setup, sure others will have plenty more info to add.

As for scrapers, I would say your best bet is to use the Universal Scrapers for TV, Movies and Music they do an excellent job.
Not sure what you mean by good music player as once you've scraped your files XBMC should handle all your needs. Of course there are some great extra add ons such as Vevo, Shoutcast or SpotyMC which can give you extra options.

For video files you can just put them in folders and have XBMC scrape them and download the info. Alternatively if you want a bit more control you could use Ember Media Manager which will allow you to fine tune extrathumbs, fanart etc.

To play emulators you may want to look into Advanced Launcher or ROM Browser which will allow you to scan your ROMs and launch them directly from XBMC through the correct emulator. I believe wired 360 controllers appear as PC controllers so they should be easy to setup within each emulator. Alternatively if you want to use wireless ones then you will need a 360 controller PC adapter.

Add on suggestions:

TVCatchup
YouTube
iPlayer
The Trailers
Vevo
SpotyMC (Requires a premium Spotify account)

You may also want to install the repositories installer as this will give you access to the repositories where you can install the extra addons.

Hope this helps!

[parker36]

Thanks for the advice on the scrapers. There are so many, it was kind of getting to be a little overwhelming, and it would be nice to get it right the first time.

For the music player, what I mostly want is something that is easy to navigate through, make playlists, and is compatible with the remote.

I've heard of Advanced Launcher before, but it was in kind of a dated article of XBMC add-ons. Does anybody have any preference?

The wiki says iPlayer & TVCatchup are UK only. Are there US versions?

Youtube, The Trailers, and SpotyMC (does it work the same with premium vs. free versions?) are definitely on my list now.

I heard the Netflix add-on wasn't great. Is that true?

[PeterPopper]

Aha! my apologies, didn't realise you were across the pond!
You are correct, iPlayer and TVCatchup will only work over here although there are little tricks that you can use to get around that if you are interested. Look into Tunlr. You may also want to look at the HULU addon.

I'm afraid I've not used Netflix so I can't comment on that.

AdvancedLauncher has been around a while but I still think it's about the best option for launching emulators as you can use fanart etc. like with movies which makes thinks look a little nicer. There are also various methods to make the transition from XBMC to the emulator a little more seamless if that's an issue. If you'd like to run PC games there are also options for that such as SteamLauncher.

SpotyMC needs a premium account to work at all I'm afraid, the addon is very good though and you'll also be able to access it on your phone.

XBMC's music player is second to none IMHO and I use it in preference to anything else. It has the features you mention, plus the ability to play more or less any format you chuck at it, smart playlists, lyrics, karaoke, etc. Also with a little legwork and using addons such as ArtistSlideshow it looks truly stunning with artist fanart, logos, discart, artist biography, album review etc.

Just grabbed from my setup as an example...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7d6dfac3010c9u...282%29.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iffm2nqeulx6l1...hot004.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/571hq5lwqkkhjl...hot005.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2sac8vwaq7s7i9...hot006.png
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9k0zzjvcc87gev...hot003.png

Also, have you looked into the remote apps for your phone? The official remote and Yatse are very good on android. There are iPhone options also although I'm not too sure of the names.

[parker36]

Those screenshots look real nice. How is browsing? Easy, laggy? Is it easy to create playlists on the fly through XBMC?

I have a windows media center remote, so I'll probably stick with that instead of messing with phones.

What kind of transition are you talking about for Advanced Launcher?

[PeterPopper]

Browsing will largely depend on the skin you are using and your setup. My screenshots are from the Aeon Nox skin which is fairly graphics intensive but should work fine on your hardware. I have a similar setup and it's smooth as butter.

There are 2 types of playlist in xbmc. Smart playlists are dynamic and are customised using tags etc Such as all songs with a rating of 4 or more stars, videos with a certain path.

You can also create standard playlist's by queuing up songs, arranging them in the playlist viewer and then saving them. The interface is very simple and easy to use for both types .

As advancedlauncher runs your emulators directly there is a transition where windows switches between xbmc and the emulator. I believe you get a dos popup briefly. This can be made more seamless using some of the methods discussed on this forum.