[Doomstone]

Hi there, i would just like to show you guys my new Medeia Center Setup.
With 1 Master MCE and 2 Slave MCE's.


From my blog http://sogaard.us/2010/07/05/media_center_of_doom/

Media Center of Doom
I have promised to tell some of you guys about my Media Center System and setup.
Currently do my setup consist of 3 pc’s 1 Master PC ”Jessica”, and 2 Slaves ”Megan” and ”Claudia”.

Here are the specs for the 3 PC’s

Master MCE ”Jessica”
Custom PC

• 3Ghz Dual Core
• Nvidia Geforce 9500 GT
• 4 GB DDR2 Ram
• 7.5 Tb harddisk Space (5*1,5Tb) in Raid 5 (6 Tb usable)
• 300 GB system disk
• 1000 Gbit Lan connection
• 50 Mbit Internet connection
• Running XBMC Ubuntu 10.04
• Remote

Jessica is connected to a 42” LED tv (LG 42SL9000) though a DVI to hdmi cable. Jessica is also connected to a 5.1 Sound system via a optic cable, the surround receiver is a Denon AVR-1610.

Slave MCE “Megan” and “Claudia”
Acer Aspire R3610

• Intel Atom processor 330
• 2 GB DDR2 Ram (1.5 GB usable)
• 320 GB System disk
• Nvidia ION (512 mb ram)
• 1000 Gbit Lan connection
• 50 Mbit Internet connection
• Running XBMC Ubuntu 10.04
• Remote

Megan and Claudia is connected to a 32” LCD tv, they are not connected to a surround or sterio receiver so the use the tv them self for sound.


The setup
Now the whole plan behind this setup is that my media only is at one place, Jessica, so the slaves will never have any media on them, this on the other had have the drawback of having to have Jessica running before any of the Slaves can run, but as Jessica also act as my server is this no problem for me (It is running 27/4).
Another feature is that the slaves leach on Jessica’s XBMC database and source list. This is why I use Linux as it would be harder in Windows.
My Raid 5 on Jessica is mounted to /media/data, this location is then shared via samba. The slaves now at boot time (Or can be done manually later), mount this samba share to /media/data also, this will result in all the paths being the same no matter what Media Center you are on.
The xbmc settings folder “usersdata” has also been shared via samba. The slaves then use the settings files on the samba share via symlink.

The settings files used

• Source.xml
• Database/
• Playlists/
• Plugin_data/
• Thumbnails/

Conclusion
Now there are some draw backs to this solution, if both slaves starts watching a 1080p movie there might be some problems having enoth network space so it can lag a bit.
There are also a race condition problem with the settings file and database, but as long as you don’t start scanning for media on more the one MCE at the time, you should be fine.
My first solution was to use a hdmi spillter, but that turned out to be a more expensive solution, and this solution also support that there can be used different resolutions on the different tv’s.
I’m in the process of a total renovation of my apartment! That is why the cables are not your set up Also all cables are in the wall, and all network cables are Cat 6.



Also a big thanks for the help to poofyhairguy from the*XBMC forums

[poofyhairguy]

Looks great! Thanks for posting all this on the forum for everyone here to see!

I really like your shared library trick, I might copy that.

And thanks for the shoutout, I am very happy you have solution that works good for you!!!!

[Doomstone]

Looks great! Thanks for posting all this on the forum for everyone here to see!

I really like your shared library trick, I might copy that.

And thanks for the shoutout, I am very happy you have solution that works good for you!!!!

NP, i share this to inspire other people, and show new user what you can do with XBMC

[harryzimm]

Hi, nice setup.

You might want to look at using a mysql database for your library. Just host the db on the master and point the slaves to connect to it via advancedsettings.xml. That way you only need to share the userdata/Thumbnails folder via samba. I reckon it would offer a speed improvemnt also. Another benefit from this is each htpc can have its own settings for overscan etc. Have a look here for more info. I've been using a shared mysql library for a while now and it works great.

cheers

[Doomstone]

Hi, nice setup.

You might want to look at using a mysql database for your library. Just host the db on the master and point the slaves to connect to it via advancedsettings.xml. That way you only need to share the userdata/Thumbnails folder via samba. I reckon it would offer a speed improvemnt also. Another benefit from this is each htpc can have its own settings for overscan etc. Have a look here for more info. I've been using a shared mysql library for a while now and it works great.

cheers

Thank you, i found out about the mysql solution, while i was making the setup, just don't have the time but i will surly take a look at it soon.

[poofyhairguy]

One quick question:

You say that when you start two of your frontends at once, your 1080p videos will lag a bit. Will you tell more about that?

[Doomstone]

One quick question:

You say that when you start two of your frontends at once, your 1080p videos will lag a bit. Will you tell more about that?

Having tryed it yet, see the word "might" i will try it later today and see if it really lags.

[YodaEXE]

I don't think you'll have a bandwidth problem with terabit LAN

[Doomstone]

I don't think you'll have a bandwidth problem with terabit LAN

Hehe sorry it is not a terabit but Gigabit lan 1000 Mbit not Gbit my bad

But both Media Centers can stream 1080p Avata without lagging, so no problem there.