2013-04-25, 05:16
(2013-04-23, 22:45)rwight Wrote:(2013-04-23, 21:45)JChin Wrote: Hi, I'm new to XBMC and will be setting up a htpc media center for the first time. I was looking to purchase a desktop from Best Buy either Gateway (this) or Asus (this). Does the Gateway or Asus seem good for a XBMC setup? What else is needed beside a pc (I read about external storage)? Or is there something better than using a pc for XBMC? Also can someone point me where I can learn how to import dvd and blu-rays (as you can tell I'm a noob to all of this ? Any info or suggestions are appreciated, thanks.
These look like good places to start for an XBMC machine. The only thing you will want to concern yourself with is your amount of storage. Lot's of us have TB's worth of media so we need machines that can hold multiple drives, or have a separate server/NAS (network access storage) for your media. You can always get external NAS drives later on down the road as your collection expands for sure. I think if you start here, the only thing you should worry yourself with at this point is maybe a remote. Check amazon for windows media center remotes, they are great. Here is the forum discussion for peoples favorite remotes. XBMC Remotes Forum
Once you get your machine, you are going to want a dedicated MEDIA folder (unless you are going to use an external or separate drive, then make the whole drive MEDIA). In this folder place a MOVIES and TV SHOWS folder (and music and pictures if you want). Make sure your media is separated into their folders AND labelled correctly! This will make XBMC's job a lot easier when scraping your media (gathering media info, posters, fanart, etc). See this page for the correct label formating ----> Labeling Media
Ripping DVD's and Blu-rays can be complicated. Keep in mind there are MANY ways to rip movies, but these are the ones I have and do use myself. For DVD's these days you could get away with using Handbrake to rip and compress the DVD. Handbrake is free and it's a simple program to use. It makes ripping movies and shows from disc a breeze. For blurays you will need something of a higher caliber to get the BEST quality you can and get it a decent size (unless you aren't worried about drive space) I personally use Pavtube's Byte Copy for my bluray rips but it is a $50 program. I do not regret paying for it as I rip a ton of movies I own to my drives (rip is term used when talking about importing and compressing a movie from disk to your computer).
Hope this helps some
Hi rwight, thanks for the links thats very helpful info. This should get me started at least.