[nathanf]

Hey all,

1st time poster here looking for a bit of advice. I am coming to XBMC from Win7 MCE and I am just wanting to clear a few things up about the Live version.

I've searched the forums and found some of the info I need, but if I could ask away anyways, I'd be most grateful.

Basically I need to check if the live version (when I say live I mean installed to a HDD form the live CD) will do everything I need it to. It will be running on a modern dual core PC with 4gb of RAM, with built in GPU and Audio etc. All of which is running fine under Windows 7 64 bit. I'll also be using a MS IR Receiver and a Harmony 555 remote. What I need is....

• All navigation to be performed with the Harmony remote. No keyboard or mouse will be attached.
  
• The system should go into S3 standby when powered off by the remote. (BIOS etc is set to support this)
  
• System must wake up from S3 standby via the remote. (+5v configured on the relevant USB port etc)
  
• System must not wake up at any other time.
  
• Newly added movies, pictures and music should be automatically detected and displayed (all content will be stored on a NAS).
  
• Pressing a number key on the harmony should be equivalent of pressing the corresponding letter (does that make sense?)
  
• Overall the system must be easy enough to used by my kids...and wife
  

So, do we think that the Live system would accomplish all this? Or would I be better installing it on Windows 7?

Many thanks in advance.

Nathan

[Tight_wad]

Most everything that you list there is what I am already doing on my Zbox's. Except for:

Newly added movies, pictures and music should be automatically detected and displayed (all content will be stored on a NAS).

For starters, since it would be just coming in and out of the suspend, its not going to scan for new content in the library (this is activated in the settings). It can do this on an actual power up, but not just a wake from suspend.

Someone else might be able to instruct you on how to make this happen, not me though.

Next, your file name would have to be dead on, and still would require some intervention to select the correct ones at times.

Last, I am not familiar with the Harmony 555, but I use the Harmony ONE, and I can do just pretty much anything with it.

Just curious, why would you need such a hands off?

[nathanf]

Hiya,

Thanks for the quick reply. Glad to see that it looks like it will do almost everything I need

The only reason I need to to be so hands off, is because that's the way it is now with Win7. Just the stock MCE is a bit boring and I fancy a change. Admittedly right now new stuff is not detected by Win7 MCE, but coming in and out of the folders sometimes seems to kick it off.

Possibly a script could be used on XBMC to automate this somewhat?

Anyways, I've been messing with the live CD at work today and it certainly looks good. Can't wait to get it home and install it properly on my media center and start faffing about with it!

Thanks again.

Nathan.

[Tight_wad]

Since I don't have my system setup to sync yet, the way that I make sure that my movies all scrape proper on all three of my zboxes is that I use my main windows computer with XBMC to do all of my scraping. Then I export my library, separate files. This way when I tell the zboxes to scrape, they use the info stored at the movie, instead of getting it online. Pretty simple since I am using that computer to load the movies anyway.

[nathanf]

That's a good idea actually as I'll be using another Win7 machine to load the movies on also.

Last silly question here, but with the Live version installed and the Microsoft USB IR Receiver, will I need to install the MCERemote plugin and configure that, to get my Harmony to play nice? Or will it just work?

Liking the look of those zboxes too! Not heard of those before but might be an excuse to get rid of the huge Antec Fusion

Thanks

Nathan.

[Tight_wad]

You just setup your remote for a Windows Media center and it should work out of the box.

There are a few steps to do to have suspend working, but it is really easy.

[nathanf]

Right, I will have a go tonight. The harmony is already setup to work with Win7 MCE, so should just play.

Are the steps to get suspend/resume working self explanatory or could you give me a quick overview?

Thanks,

Nathan

[Tight_wad]

There are a few steps to do to have suspend working, but it is really easy.

I should clarify this statement a little. I know how to on the zbox with XBMClive. Not sure if it will be different on your computer that you have now.

But here goes. You will have to make sure that you have in your bio's "wake on suspend S3" enabled. Might say it a little different in yours.

Then you need to change the power saving in XBMClive. SETTINGS> SYSTEM>SHUTDOWN FUNCTION> change to "suspend".

This might be all that you need to do so test it. It should suspend by remote without issue, but the wake is what might be an issue.

If the wake is not working, then get it powered back on and then:

Do a Ctrl+Alt+F2 at the main screen of XBMC
type in xbmc for the user name and password
then type lsusb
this will list the usb ports and what is connected to them. Find the usb that the IR is connected to.
Now to enable it type sudo nano /etc/rc.local
Add the following to the end of the file, but make sure it is *ABOVE* the "exit 0" line in the file
sh -c 'echo "USB0"' > /proc/acpi/wakeup but change the 0 to the usb that the IR was connected to like this USB1 (note: I just enable all of mine doing a line for each one)
Now save by doing Ctrl+X
y to save
enter to except the file name to save to is /etc/rc.local

Now type cat /proc/acpi/wakeup and it should show enable in the 3rd column for that usb port.
If all is good the reboot by typing sudo -s
type reboot

This will reboot and then you can test and confirm that it is working.

Hope this makes sense, most of my notes are at home.

[Praesten]

For automatic library updates, configure cron on the NAS (I assume it's running some sort of *nix) to do the following:
/usr/bin/wget -O /dev/null "http://192.168.0.10:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=XBMC.updatelibrary(video)"

change the IP (and port) to what your XBMC Web server is running as and set it to run every few minutes (I use 15 mins myself) and it will automatically start a library update every X minutes, provided the webserver responds. Can also be configured on the machine itself.

[Tight_wad]

Can also be configured on the machine itself.

Could you please share the command for this on the XBMClive?

[Praesten]

It would be the same command. To add it every 10 minutes to crontab, do the following:
Login to the machine
Type: crontab -e
Enter: 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /usr/bin/wget -O /dev/null "http://192.168.0.10:8080/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=XBMC.update library(video)"

Save it (how exactly depends on what editor you use, in vi(m) it's :wq)

Now, provided it runs on IP 192.168.0.10 with port 8080 and wget is in /usr/bin/wget (usually is), it will now trigger a library update every 10 minutes. Of course this requires that you activate the webserver without password.