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Desisuperman · 2014-01-08, 03:40

I currently run a HTPC in my living room but I now want to stream XBMC to multiple rooms and have all my media stream from a single server. My house is wired with cat6.

1. What's an inexpensive device I can use that will allow me to stream my content from my server? This device will be used strictly for streaming and using XMBC apps.

2. My Home PC will be used as a server. I currently stream some content from it to my living room HTPC. The Home PC does not have XBMC on it. In order to stream all my content from my Home PC/Server do I need to install XBMC on this machine as well if I would like to have one central database? If yes, would XBMC need to be open at all times?

I'm sure i'll have more questions but i think this will be a good place to start.

ConroyB · 2014-01-08, 04:16

You can use probably devices such as a Raspberry Pi or similar interface. You will install copies of xbmc onto all the devices, for the application you require goto downloads on the xbmc website ,there is device specific option or get the xbmcbuntu version. As for the central database yes that is possible to do, however if memory serves me correctly you need to modify entries in a file on each installed software package to get each machine to look at central point for info, check in xbmc wiki for more info. You will have to load xbmc onto your Home PC and setup the machine to share via UPNP and all other service options for movies and music, for pictures you will probably have to setup an smb or nfs share is the operating system installed since xbmc Frodo version as example does not share is UPNP it's picture library. Just check the wikis and forums on here and on xbmc-hub for more assistance and correction of any info I've provided.
If only xbmc would create a NAS operating system such as Plex provides then things would be even simpler to do, a centralised mass storage unit running raid with dlna / UPNP built-in server, nfs & smb sharing ,centralised database etc running as headless unit been administered via web interface on another PC or mobile device ,no keyboard or mouse required after initial installation, and they should if not yet create a smart-TV app to compliment the NAS unit thus eliminating extra intermediate hardware devices to convert signals from Ethernet to hdmi or rca input and be the interface as well. In my humble opinion the TV should simply be set to network source with the app running on the TVs, each connected via Ethernet directly to the NAS box through just a gigabit switch, let the PC cum NAS do all the work along with the TV sets built-in capabilities. Less hassle and costs except for the extra harddrives and raid card to create a level 1 raid array for data storage.

trdmlc · 2014-01-08, 12:29

1. Raspberry Pi is the most inexpensive way to go, with a few drawbacks. There are some android boxes that are a little more expensive, but also with their own drawbacks. Read through the forums to determine what might be the best solution based on your needs and budget.

2. Here's the wiki link to setting up shared database for use across multiple devices. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW..._libraries

Desisuperman · 2014-01-08, 20:58

I thought about raspberry PI but for a a little more I can get an ATV.

Can the current firmware on ATV 3 run xbmc? Out of the media streaming boxes what's the best one to go with in terms of performance? The roku and ATV are only good as long as they can be rooted/jailbroken. I read the current ROKU can no longer be rooted. What about ATV?

nickr · 2014-01-08, 21:01

Xbmc does not work on atv3.

jammyb · 2014-01-08, 21:36

If you're UK based and your server is running i3 or similar. Bung plex on the server and get a load of nowTV boxes and bung plex on them. They're only a tenner and work great. Sure. It's not xbmc. But I use it to serve parents and a couple mates [i have a high in fiber upload speed] but at home I use XBMC. Smile

AZImmortal · 2014-01-09, 00:01

(2014-01-08, 21:01)nickr Wrote: Xbmc does not work on atv3.

To be more specific, the Apple TV 3 isn't jailbroken, so it can't run homebrew.

nickr · 2014-01-09, 00:12

isn't rpi more powerful than atv anyway?

Desisuperman · 2014-01-09, 01:04

Is it? I just hear a lot of complaints that rpi is slow? How does the rpi compare to the android devices on the market today?

nickr · 2014-01-09, 10:23

RPi has XBMC available. Android is still in the pipeline, no one would call it stable AFAIK.

War-Rasta · 2014-01-09, 20:27

You do not NEED to have XBMC on the server (in this case your home PC) but you can if you want to. There are basically 2 ways you can set this up:

The easiest way to share your media is by installing XBMC on the server, scraping your libray on it and then sharing your media via UPnP (enabled within XBMC itself) and the you just add that UPnP server as a source on the other XBMC clients. The downside to this is that you lose your watched/unwatched status since that is not shared in UPnP. Another downside would be that XBMC does have to be running whenever you're going to watch something even if it's on one of the other boxes.

Here's more info on how to share using UPnP http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...using_UPnP

The second one is a little more complicated to set up but it has its advantages and itá what I personally use at home. You would install a MySQL database on your server and share the folders via SMB (regular Windows folder shares) or FTP or whatever else is supported by XBMC and then you need to configure the other boxes to connect to that database to use the library (it's not hard, just add a couple of lines to a file in the XBMC folder). The main advantages are that you don't need to have XBMC running on the server (or even installed at all if you don't want to) and that you will have a syncronized watched/unwatched status between all your boxes. Also, since all boxes are using the same library you can "update library" from any of them whenever you have new media and it will reflect on all of them (with the previous method you had to do it on the server since that was the "owner" of the library.

Here's more info on how to share using MySQL http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...sing_MySQL

Desisuperman · (This post was last modified: 2014-01-09, 23:36 by Desisuperman.)

The second option will seem more practical . Thanks for the info War-Rasta

Looking at Raspberry Pi more closely and it seems by the time you add in your adapter, case, IR board (to use with logitech remote) you break $100 or come very close. At this point i'm seriously considering Ouya. Seems like a much better option then Raspberry Pi.

http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2013/09/17/o...ning-xbmc/

nickr · 2014-01-09, 23:59

Not if you want to watch mpeg2 tv (eg USA, Canada, many other places). Rpi has mpeg2 acceleration, ouya does not.

Also there are DTS passthrough issues with ouya, not sure if they have been resolved.

**BLKMGK** · 2014-01-11, 05:59

Pivos XIOS is worth looking at although I. Not sure about DTS passthru. Cheap, easily flashed to Linux XBMC, and is responsive. I've only ever had issues with DVD ISO for some weird reason. Setup SMB shares fora content and maybe an SQL server for tracking what's been watching or stopped in a central place and you're done. There's a Plex plug-in for XBMC if you want to stream content from Plex users...