Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 502

I'm running XBMC Eden. I recently swapped a 1.5 TB drive for a 3TB in my HTPC. I renamed the drive to the same drive name as the prior drive and everything worked fine except for the tv shows. Arrested Development and Firefly no longer display any playable episodes. Both TV shows appear in the TV genre, and i could even view the individual information for each of the Arrested Development Episodes,. I have since gone back and renamed all the Arrested development episodes and they display and play fine. What is puzzling is how they managed to work perfectly well before with files names of d:\drive name\tv shows\arrested development\ Episode 1 - Episode Title.mkv. I had to go back and manually rename all three seasons of file names to s01e01 etc.. therenamer would not do this for me, it was very aggravating. i manually added the IMDB number to therenamer and everything else i could think of but it simply would not rename the files, i kept getting an "invalidfilenameerror" Go figure.

Can anyone explain why those files would play perfectly well before, but not after i swapped the storage drives (not the OS drive)?

Finally, I've gone back and renamed all the Firefly (2002) episodes in a similar manner, and none of those episodes will show up after i select the Firefly poster. I get an error message saying "Library Empty. Add Content by selecting Add Videos In.."

I can see the show and the individual File Names "Firefly.s01e01" in the list of shows when i go under "Videos" Files, but they won't display show information or play when i click on them.

I get "No Info Found: Firefly (2002)"

Any help would be appreciated.

^
Seems odd. Have you checked to see if the new copied directories have become "read only" flagged or not shared with the "user" account XBMC is assigned to?

Just built one yesterday. Everything before the Motherboard I already had on hand, so it cut immediate costs by a lot.



Intel 510 Series SSD (120GB) - http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Series-S.../dp/B004OR0GRC

BD burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106346

Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Manta TR1 IR receiver

Motherboard (ASRock FM2A75M-ITX) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157340

Processor (AMD A6-5400K APU 3.6Ghz) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i01

Wifi dongle (for setup) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o00_s00_i00

RAM (Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600 MHz) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i02

Case (MI-008 Tower Black P4 Chassis with 250W Itx Psu) - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i03

BT dongle for whatever - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00

Keyboard/Mouse - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DKZTMG/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_dp_1

I have to start fresh with an OS install and I may go with Win 8 just because its so much cheaper than 7. My main concern is will my WMC remote work on Win 8?It's the silver one from your guides. I'll also have to try out XBMC instead of MB but I've always been interested in trying it so no big deal. I started a similar thread but figured I may get a response quicker here because I have to do it today.

Hey assassin, going to make donation for your guides soon. Is it $25 for both or $25 each? If each do I need to do two seperate transactions one on each site? Thanks. Loved the free guides so far.

For each.

Hi,

I posted thirsd in Official PowewDVD 12 thread but I haven't got any reply since I post here, hopefully someone might tell me what to do.

Do you guys know how to make PowerDVD12 to play DVD folders within Mediabrowser? I set PowerDVD as external player for DVD movies on the HD, but when I click on it, PowerDVD launch but stay at the Media Library screen. I have to manually browse to the folder on the HD and press play. Can it do it automatically?I don't have that problem with MPC-HC. It just plays fine when you click on any movie in Mediabrowser. I want to use PowerDVD to playback the DVD folders on HD because it produces a sharper picture.

Thanks,


HuH

Assassin,

Might have missed it, but the section about adding a new drive to Flexraid should talk about disabling Windows Recycle Bin before adding to the pool.

Did you remove that Crucial drive finally ?

... Lol. (Joke)

What did you update on the server guide ?

Hey Assassin, I purchased your HTPC guides some time ago to set up my rig. The time has come where my 2tb HD is filling up to capacity. My plan is to remove it from the HTPC and place it into this Mediasonic 4 Bay enclosure. Is there any procedure I have to follow to remove the hard drive from the HTPC? Or is just simple unplug and play? My operating system is on my SSD as you recommended in your guides. Thanks.
Edited by azula - 1/8/13 at 8:45pm

This looks like an interesting new HTPC Case from silverstone - http://www.techpowerup.com/178509/SilverStone-Milo-ML05-HTPC-Case-Unveiled.html

The case is built for an ITX board with an "ATX" power supply, "side" mounted connectors, can ONLY hold a slot load drive, and a "glossy" front??

scratching my head......

weird.

but what's wrong with glossy front?

The ML05 takes only a MiniITX mobo so don't think it's bigger than than the ML03.

This is interesting & shows an ML04 which does take a micro-ATX mobo.
http://techreport.com/news/24180/home-theater-pcs-targeted-by-new-silverstone-cases

Light reflection. Undesirable in a Media Center type case. Matt finish...

Hi all,

I'm looking to build an HTPC with the below capability and am wonder what the minimum and key specs/hardware I should be focusing on. In order of priority:


1) play back 1080p + 5.1 sound MKV files via VLC player, output HDMI to AV receiver
2) at the same time, run uTorrent and maintain up to 10MB/sec concurrent up/down speeds
3) at the same time, host a live video encoding/streaming server (https://www.emitapp.com/) for wireless streaming
4) at the same time, run background apps:
- Google Music
- LogMeIn
- WiFi Mouse server
5) at the same time, browser the web fluidly

Money is not much of an issue, provided that I not obviously overkilling anywhere.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I put together the micro-ATX hardware I bought and pressed the power on button expecting to set up the BIOS.

Instead I got a 'No POST'.

The HTPC went into a cycle of running for a few seconds, then shutting off for a couple of seconds, then running for a few seconds, etc. while the monitor didn't light up at all. I shut everything down, unplugged power, opened the case and removed the HDD, SSD, Optical drive, SATA power and data cables connecting them, wireless PCIe adapter card, keyboard, mouse, I swapped the RAM sticks and wiggled the power cables, and then with only CPU MB and PSU installed tried the power button again. This time the HTPC went directly to UEFI setup without me pressing 'Del' or F2.

This is my first HTPC build. Before I re-assemble it, can anyone guess by the symptoms of the no-POST event, what might be wrong here?

Most likely a loose power cable somewhere

1. Outlet
2. back of PSU
3. main 24 pin
4. secondary 4 or 8 pin CPU power

When you say swapped the ram sticks, I assume you mean traded places and not "swapped for different RAM" altogether? If you haven't used different RAM, and your getting POST now I'd say it was power

Traded places. The problem isn't RAM or power. I found the hardware item that is causing the No POST but I'm not sure of the solution. The issue related hardware is:

Intel Core i3-3225 (Ivy Bridge)
ASRock H77M DDR3 1333 Intel LGA 1155 Motherboard
Rosewill RNX-N250PCe High Gain Wireless Adapter 802.11b/g/n PCIe

The H77M has 2 PCIe slots:

PCIE1 - PCI Express 3.0 (x16 mode)
PCIE2 - PCI Express 2.0 (x4 mode)

Only PCIE1 supports Gen 3 speed, and that requires an Ivy Bridge CPU. If there was a Sandy Bridge CPU, PCIE1 slot would be PCIE 2.0 . With the Rosewill adapter in PCIE1 there is No POST; the HTPC runs for 10 seconds, shuts off for 5 seconds, runs for 10 seconds again etc. until I turn off power. If the Rosewill adapter is not installed, or installed in the PCIE2 slot, I get normal POST.

I'm inclined to just install the Rosewill adapter in the PCIE2 slot for now unless you have a better idea.

Metadata for TV series (better results):

I've had my HTPC built for about a year now and finally got a bunch of DVDs and Blu-rays for Christmas (Santa somehow got ahold of my credit card number!). I just finished ripping several TV series and used Media Center Master to pull the metadata. The initial run used IMDB (default) to pull the files. When I went into Media Brower, updated the library, and then looked at the results, everything was there but it was hard to determine the episode sequence for each season. After fooling around, I cleared the metadata from with MCM, looked up the ID via www.thetvdb.com, and used the TV series fetch function based on that ID. It pulled everything down again. Went back into MB, updated the library, and VOILA!, the episodes were identfied in sequence with the episode number. From now on, whenever I rip a TV series, I will use the www.thetvdb.com show ID to pull the metadata. Having TV episodes fully identified is a lot better than having to refer back to a printout to determine the viewing order based on the episode name only.

You can set preference for fetcher in options

Getting ready to build a HTPC and unload that overpriced cable company DVR, and looking for some feedback. I've read through Assassin's blog guide, some great stuff there. I've pretty much settled into the following, using new components and some leftovers from around the house. Let me know what you think, plus a question at the end. This system will be used mostly as a replacement for the DVR, occasional movie watching from DVD rips, and live TV viewing (mostly sports).

Newly/to be purchased:
Core i3 3225 3.3GHz LGA 1155 Processor
H77M-ITX LGA1155 H77 mini ITX Intel Motherboard
4GB G.Skill RAM
hec Black 7K09BBA30FNRX Micro HTPC Case with 300W power supply
Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 Dual Tuner Digital CableCARD Receiver

NOTE: If you live anywhere near a Micro Center store, you really should take a look there for your motherboard and processor. Quite often they have combo deals that just can't be beat. I got the combination listed above for $175, which is $70 cheaper than Newegg, and $55 cheaper than the same motherboard with the i3-3220 from Newegg.

Leftovers around the house:
OCZ Agility OCZSSD2-1AGT60G 60 GB SSD drive (OS and applications)
Seagate Barracuda ST31000528AS 7200.12 1TB hard drive (data) OR
WD Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB hard drive (or both, using eSATA port for extra drive)
Windows 7 Home Premium

So, what do you think? Anyone with experience with that case who can say how the power supply is? I've picked that case over some others due to the included power supply in order to keep costs down, and if I'm just going to have to replace it sometime, I might look at something else.

Also, I was thinking about adding in a display in the optical drive bay, since I'm not putting one in, and would appreciate recommendations for that. I found this one, don't know how good it is:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811996004

Thanks for any help you might have.

If my main goal is playing Bluray and DVD rips, either ISOs and folderstructure, and HD mkvs 1080p, would it the be better to start with Windows 7 based XBMC or is Linux based an option too?

I think that for bluray rips I will need an external player, am I right? I have TMT5 for Windows.


Is anyone using the ML03 case from Silverstone? Would an Asrock A75M with AMD A6-3670K fit in it? Or do I need another cooler? Perhaps the Prolimatech Samuel 17?

http://www.prolimatech.com/en/products/detail.asp?id=157

plus 120 mm fan?

I was wondering have anyone here tried using the Intel NUC as a HTPC yet??? I searched the thread and haven't seen any post on it. I'm considering trying this out. Specs look good for a Media Player. I seen one at CES and love the small form-factor. Your thoughts??? Here is a link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856102002