[joey2506]

Hi all,

I'm currently looking for a new media player solution and am looking at the ATV2 + XBMC.

I currently have over 500 movies and 70 tv shows on my NAS and am after a media center that's quick with updating new cover art and movie info.

My tv show structure is: tv show s01e01
My movie structure is: movie name [year]

After the initial scraping / setup of the library, how long does it generally take to add 3-4 video files to the library with updated cover art / movie info?

Does it scan the entire library every time you add a few files or is there a setting only to scan and update new files?

Thanks in advance to anybody who replies!

[g-off]

You can manually add stuff to the library by browsing to it. Doing a library update scans everything but it is pretty quick and only checks things that have changed. (a couple of minutes)

The tv stuff should scan ok. If you have movies in directories it is best that the nfo files are with them with the same name. The default behaviour with movies is to not look at the directory name. This can be changed.

[DiQ23]

Depending on how quick you need a solution and how much you're willing to put up with beta versions of software (there's no stable atv2 xbmc yet) I'd seriously consider hanging on for this :

http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/1/22/272...play-1080p

[g-off]

Depending on how quick you need a solution and how much you're willing to put up with beta versions of software (there's no stable atv2 xbmc yet) I'd seriously consider hanging on for this :

http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/1/22/272...play-1080p

I reckon you will be waiting a hell of a lot longer for a stable version of xbmc on that thing

Anyway by the time you put a case on it, a power supply and some means of controlling it (a remote) it is going to look a lot less attractive.

It would be nice to have unrestricted and documented access to the atv2 hardware though

[joey2506]

You can manually add stuff to the library by browsing to it. Doing a library update scans everything but it is pretty quick and only checks things that have changed. (a couple of minutes)

The tv stuff should scan ok. If you have movies in directories it is best that the nfo files are with them with the same name. The default behaviour with movies is to not look at the directory name. This can be changed.

More than happy to manually scan new files across one at a time, is it a case of locating the new file via file browse and clicking on the file in a specific way to scan it? Roughly how long would it take per file? 1 minute?

[mealto]

Depending on how quick you need a solution and how much you're willing to put up with beta versions of software (there's no stable atv2 xbmc yet) I'd seriously consider hanging on for this :

http://mobile.theverge.com/2012/1/22/272...play-1080p

Raspberry Pi looks awesome. So if you were to buy that board, would it fit into a case somewhere and you install Windows then XBMC?

[Nighteyez07]

I'm currently using (2) ATV2 machines in my house and a Win7 machine all running XBMC on a centralized database. System runs smooth and I have no complaints. I currently use the theRenamer to name all my movie and TV shows (1100 movies and roughly 350 various TV episodes in my library currently). TV Shows loads blazingly fast and Movies has a little bit of lag time to initially load (about 1 minute) but after that it's pretty quick.

I totally recommend going the route of ATV2. It's such a quick process to jailbreak and load XBMC on it and get up and running that it's pretty much painless. Of course, if you are unable to follow directions on what do to, then you might be sorry.

When jailbreaking, I recommend SeasonPass, super easy to use.
Instructions for loading and configuring XBMC on ATV2 can be found http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...ecific_FAQ and http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...Apple_TV_2

The only negative thing I have to say is the remote. If you have kids or deep couches, the damn thing will get lost. So either have an iTouch or iPhone with the Apple Remote on it, find some way to attach the remote to something bigger, like say a brick or plan on buying replacement remotes ($20 a pop) for the damn thing. Other than that, LOVE IT!

[Nighteyez07]

Also regarding scanning, the first time it will scan your library it will probably take a while. But once the bulk is scanned and you have to do a few at a time, it takes just a couple minutes. There's other setups you can do to to kick off the scan after a new file has been updated and do it automatically, but I haven't gotten that far down the road.

Good Luck!

[g-off]

More than happy to manually scan new files across one at a time, is it a case of locating the new file via file browse and clicking on the file in a specific way to scan it? Roughly how long would it take per file? 1 minute?

It would normally only take 30 seconds or something. You can highlight it in the file list and add it to the library by holding down the menu button. I normally just tell it to update the entire library. As the other poster said, the initial scan will take forever but subsequent scans only check for changed content and are pretty dammed quick.

If you want instant gratification you can play it from the file list without adding it to the library and do an update when you are done watching.

[joey2506]

Thanks for all of your feedback! Just purchased an apple tv 2 and looking forward to jail breaking it when I get home from work!

[DiQ23]

Raspberry Pi looks awesome. So if you were to buy that board, would it fit into a case somewhere and you install Windows then XBMC?

It runs Linux and will be able to hardware decode all formats not just h264. I can't help thinking development on the Pi will be much faster than the ATV2 due to the lack of restrictions and the huge mod base that will arise.

As for control, I'll probably control it via WiFi with my Android as I do the ATV2 so no change there.

[joey2506]

thanks again guys, just logging back in to say jail breaking the atv2 and installing xmbc was a breeze (after reading the how to's and wiki pages on this site)

am off tomorrow to buy one for every tv in the house