XBMC Media Center : Setup Guide, Knowlege Base & Support - Page 85

Boards with 8-10 SATA ports do exist and readily available. See the list here on NewEgg.

Speaking of unRaid and FlexRaid, is one better than there other? From what I've read on their websites, I'm leaning more towards FlexRAID.

I've already presented reasons, you just don't agree with them. That's fine. Have a nice day!

That depends on how storage you want. This server of mine starts with 8TBs, but it can fit 24 HDDs in full RAID 60. It may take a while until I need the next the 4TB drive, but that's the idea...

I read them. Didn't see a single example of anything that is superior to a low cost software based server for HTPC.

trying to set my movies up by genre using smart playlist.

set up a few using what i thought were same params. the thriller list works the others dont. looking at xml directly i dont see any obvious issue

Ok what am I doing wrong and what info do you need to help me fix it. I have downloaded the following programs MakeMKV, Media Center Master, XBMC. I have followed the most of the setup guide up to the point of the skins for XBMC. I have made a folder Movies in my external hard drive, I have set that folder up in Media Center Master to be scanned. XBMC shows the two movies I have ripped but as file types, and individual files as if I play one it is only plays certain scenes. I have windows 7 premium home edition 64 bit. Was I suppose to down load the windows 7 iso images, if so do I just do 64bit. I am only focusing on regular dvds and no blu rays at the moment, this is merely a test run to make sure I know what I am doing, before i go and build my Server and HTPC.

Thanks

if you already have windows installed then you don't need the iso images. in regards to xbmc, make sure that your "view type" is set to library. that way the two movies you added will look more presentable. I'm not sure why it would only play certain scenes, do your rip files play smoothly outside of xbmc?

Updating the video library

XBMC 11.0 on Win 7 x64 and Confluence skin

I am using the video library primarily by creating my own nfo files. My biggest problem is with musicvideo content. When I edit the nfo file and run the "update library" function, should XBMC re-read the nfo file and change the library? It seems like that only happens when I use the "refresh" function on a single file info page, so to do all the files I would have to go through the entire list and do refresh. Is there a way to do a global refresh?

a second issue has to do with fanart, album covers, and artist thumbs. It seems like some of these are created by the musicvideo scraper (last.FM) setting a URL to an image. In many cases they are wrong or missing, but I can't see how to correct it. It seems like some of the fanart/thumbs are actually in the music library, not the video library? I know on some screens there are options to browse for a thumb or fanart, but I'm looking for something I can automate? (I've been using Media Companion 3.5 for Movies and TV Shows and that works well, just doesn't handle musicvideo).

scott s.
.

got it working

now if i can keep from locking up half the time i go up a menu i will be set

This is my first time trying a screen shot sorry if I did it wrong, but this is how my files or movies look. I think something is wrong when I rip it via MakeMKV.

Capture.PNG 424k .PNG file

I don't know why it came out like that but if you can see it then maybe you can see what I am talking about.
Thanks

Looks like your movie either didn't scan into the library properly or you are using file browser mode rather than library mode. For the latter just back out to the main menu and enter the movies sub menu instead of the video menu. For the former...

You mentioned the movie not playing corectly, only in bits? Just to be sure, when using MakeMkv, did you rip only the main title (usually the largest file size)? For now at least that's all you want, go ahead and deselect all the other checkboxes before you rip. We can mess with special features later if you really want them. Get rid of everything except the main feature for now. Next, regarding file/folder structure, move your main title .mkv rips into individual folders named as "The Movie Name (year)" without quotation marks. For example-

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Use imdb to confirm movie name and year. You can rename the .mkv if you want but it's not necessary.

Assuming all this has already been done, you can run MCM if you want but I've personally found the xbmc scrapers to be quite reliable as long as your folders are named correctly. From there rescan your sources into xbmc being sure to select the options that the source contains movies, you want to use the imdb scraper and that movies are in separate folders.

I know you've likely already done most of that, just trying to start with the easy solutions

The scrapers are good, for sure. I copy and paste the IMDB titles to get "Movie Title (Year)" format for movie file names. I use FileBot to appropriately format the file names of TV shows. I keep all my movies in one large directory, but put all the TV shows of multiple seasons in their own folders (named after the series) in the TV directory. The scrapers do a great job finding everything so far!

I've been using XBMC add-on scrapers as well and that's why I was kinda confused as to why the guide talks about creating a separate library, which for me has a big disadvantage because I can no longer change any of the meta data from with XBMC.

When you say individual folders are you talking individual sub folders with in my movie folder or individual folders right off the hard drive. For example C:\ Movies\ willy wonka and the chocolate factory 1972. Or C:\ Willy wonka and the chocolate factory 1972

I do have IMDB set up, how do use it to confirm data.

Yes I left every thing check when ripping to makemkv, so only check the title with the biggest megabyte content. I really don't care about extras.

Thanks

Yes you can! But it's not very straight forward. Right click on the video in the library view. Edit name. Put in the proper name then hit ok. Then right click again and view title details. Refresh. Select the proper title and hit ok. Metadata updated.

But it's still a lot easier then quitting XBMC and start another app to make the changes and then get back to where you were in XBMC. Maybe there is a great advantage of using another app to manage the video library but I just don't see it.

Well I got one to work, But the other still isn't collecting right. I will have to double check to see if it is labeled wright. Thanks for your folks help so far I think I just might be able to get this figure out. One other problem I was having was when I tried to change content to run automated scan, the changes don't change.

Well its been a long week, but I finally got everything to work wright. I would like to take some time and explain my journey so maybe it will help someone that has the same problems I have.

First off I will start with my setup, though it is not a dedicated htpc. What I have decided to do was mainly for a trial run and to get me buy until I get a server built then I will build a dedicated htpc for my ht. But for now I am using my basic pc, which is a hp Pavillion p 6510y I am aware that the graphics card, and video/audio output aren't ideal but they will work( I hope). It has a dvi/d for video and a S/PDIF for audio. I all so wont be ripping any blu rays at this time as I mainly just wanted some of the kids sd dvds to make it easier for them to access their movies with out having to load them all the time. I believe the computer was built with a little entertainment in mind, it has a internal hard drive of 750 gb, and I added a 500 gb external hard drive(which i will go into some details of the journey this sent me down in a bit).

I first downloaded XBMC, then Media Center Master, the MakeMKV. At first I was having all sorts of problems so I had to go over the XBMC guide a couple of times to get it right. I still had some issues ripping my dvds to my computer via MakeMKV, Which later I found out the reason was, that it was formatted to fat32, so I had to go and reformat it to NTFS. Once I did all of that and re rip some of my dvds everything seemed to be fine.

My advice make sure all your stuff is formatted correctly at the beginning and read through this guide over and over. I know it may be some were in the guide, but reading through 85 pages just isn't time efficient for some folks. So maybe this will push these issues closer to the end of the thread(for now) so new comers might find it easier. I now know when I go to build my server and dedicated htpc things will be a little simpler.

Thanks for all your help out there, I had to hit up the MakeMKV forum to get a idea what was wrong at the beginning but in the end it all worked out.

I switched from mediabrowser to xbmc because xbmc supports 24fps playback natively. I got it all installed and configured and it looks great. It plays fine but as soon as I enable "adjust refresh rate to match video" the movies start up and then freeze. Kind of ironic since that is the feature I specfically want to use! Are there any workarounds for this or do I need to wait and try again when version 12 comes out?

Update on some troubleshooting that I performed after research on the xbmc forums. The goal is to get 24fps playback working.

Things I tried last night -

Disabling DXVA2 - no effect

Disabling Vertical Blank Sync - no effect

Setting desktop to 1080p24 and syncing xbmc to display - no effect

Plugging hdmi directly into projector, bypassing Onkyo receiver - no effect

Running xbmc in windowed mode/true fullscreen mode - no effect



Since MPC-HC runs just fine at 24p, I hope I can get XBMC to as well. Things I have yet to try -

Try all of the above using the Intel 2000 graphics instead of the Nvidia 430 which I have been using

Uninstall XBMC Eden 11 HD audio patch, install XBMC 12 Frodo nightly, try again

Right click XBMC.exe, go into compatibility mode, check "Disable Desktop Composition"


If none of that works I'll uninstall XBMC and try Plex. Since Plex is based on XBMC I don't hold out much hope for that working either. If I can't get any of that working I'll buy a popcorn hour or something similar.

Good call, I'll check tonight. I just installed that nvidia card a few weeks ago, but I am not sure if I used the cd that came in the box or if I went online to install drivers. If I used that cd, who knows how old the drivers are. I hope thats the issue, that would be too easy!

Hi Nebrunner - can't think that it is likely to be too much else. What you are trying to achieve is basic out the box playback. Certainly shouldn't need to make as many tweeks as you are to achieve 24fps playback.

What xbmc build are you using - some are more stable than others and if you're using a nightly build there could well be issues with that - best to stick to one of the 'snapshot' builds here http://mirrors.xbmc.org/snapshots/win32/. They are still 'test' builds but less buggy.

The latest revision of Nvidia drivers is 306.23

PS just had a look at your 'theatre build' - looks good.

I did update the drivers last night, the latest ones are exhibiting the same behavior as the ones that I had been using, so that isn't the issue. I also re installed Jriver media center to try out the 24fps playback there, and it works fine there. So out of 3 different players, the only one that won't work right is xbmc. I like the interface the best on xbmc so I hope I can get it working. I'm not sure which version I have, I just used a link that was in assassin's paid guide, it was for Eden 11 with bitstreaming of HD audio. I'll try uninstalling it tonight and moving to a version off of your links page, thanks steelman.

I went back to look at the link Assassin provides for download of xbmc in his paid guide, it is a build from February 28th. I'll uninstall that tonight and get a newer build, I'm sure there must be newer stuff than that available.

Really surprised that you are having so much trouble.

All that is required from a default installation is to check - 'adjust refresh rate to match video' - and set-up your Audio configuration properly.

I have been running xbmc with an Nvidia GT430 for several months with 24fps playback - hence the reason why I'm so surprised at your dilemma. No need to tinker with anything else. Though I would use a 'true fullscreen setting'

One thing you may want to check is in System\Settings\Audio - check your audio passthrough settings and try using both WASAPI (check that throughput matches your receiver and or output device) and if that doesn't work try DirectSound settings, both of these if not set correctly can cause issues. Also make sure your using the correct output setting (assuming that it will be HDMI) and that the choices for DTS etc reflect the capability of your amp/receiver.

Hope you have some success

By the way JRIver is superb, but like you I prefer the slickness/interface of xbmc, but purely for playback and if you can get past the interface restrictions it is the best out there IMO.
Edited by steelman1991 - 9/19/12 at 8:35am

I've been trying to for over a week to resolve my Bufering and Freeezing issue as well. I've tried every option imagineable and nothing...I even purchased Assassin's guide and it was really a great help! I've uninstalled\reinstalled xbmc several times as well. I did notice on the "o" option settings I was able to see that my vcpu was running anywhere from 70-100% on certain movies (avatar) but still no freezing connected via VGA. But then....I connected my rig to my plasma via hdmi and whamo...the issue was back. I tried different hdmi cables everything. I'm running a.AMD A6-3500 Llano 2.1GHz (2.4GHz Max Turbo) Socket FM1 65W Triple-Core with 8 GBs of RAM.

Not that knowledgable on the techy aspects, but I would venture to suggest that your cpu is underpowered to run xbmc on its own. You don't mention the GPU in your set-up, but have you attempted to run xbmc with DXVA2 enabled - System\Settings\Video.