Home Theater Media Center

Hello everyone. In this article I will share some information about my home theater media center.

For this project you will need at least two computers, for best performance a gigabit router, Media Center remote, and allot of hard drive space for your movies and TV shows.

I have a lot of movies on my home file server. I've tried all kind of solution to watch my movies on my TV in the living room, and this one is the best of  all.

Here is how I’ve set it up.

Network

I have a router that connected to the internet. My servers are plugged in to the router as well is the computer that connected to my TV.

I’ve setup media (movies) folder as shared so it can be accessed from other computers through the network, and I’ve set permissions to allow view to Everyone and edit to Administrators only. You can set permissions ass you like, if you don’t care for other people be able to change/delete files, then you can set Full Control for Everyone.

Hardware

In my case I used Windows based server to hold and share my media files. You can also gateway with network attached storage such as USB External hard drive plugged in to the router or network attached hard drive enclosure.

In this case you only need one computer that you will connect to your TV via VGA or HDMI. I would recommend using HDMI for batter picture quality. Some computer already comes with DVI output, you can get a DVI to HDMI adapter, and it will work as well. It is not recommended to use old VGA do to very poor quality, but some older TV’s will not work very well with HDMI, in this case you’ll be better off with VGA.

As far as computer, you can use almost anything that you can install Windows XP or Linux OS (operating system). I used Acer Power 2000 with 1.5GB of RAM, 250GB HDD, Duo Core Processor for my setup.

It is very compact and it’s even smaller than typical cable/satellite box. I actually got this computer from work for free, and before I’ve used Dell Inspiron 530 which is significantly bigger.

You also need to have Windows Media Center remote for better user experience. With the remote, you don’t have to deal with mouse and keyboard and it actually fills like you dealing with cable/satellite box and not the computer. Trust me, it’s a lot better with remote. You can also use your iPhone or android to control XBMC over WiFi. Just search App store for XBMC.  You can also buy a BlueRay DVD Player so you can play your BR DVD’s. It will replace your DVD player box and you will have all in one (Computer, DVD player) box on your TV stand.

 

Software

For the software, all you need is XBMC software. XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. It’s is available for Linux, OSX, and Windows. You can install XBMC on top of existing OS or you can install it standalone as an actual OS. To find out more about XBMC click here to go to XBMC website.

Steps

1.Connect your computer and your storage device (Server or Network Attached Hard Drive) to the same network (Router/Switch).

2.Make your media folder shared and apply proper permissions for that folder.

3.Connect one of the computers to your TV.

4.Install XBMC on the computer that connected to the TV. ( If you are installing XBMC on Windows 7, you can also make it to run when Windows start by adding a shortcut to Start>All Programs>Startup folder or by adding a new registry key. To do that go to Start and type in regedit in the search box. This will open Registry Editor. In Registry Editor go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and create new String Value by right clicking the body of the Registry Editor New>String Value. Rename it to XBMC and open it. In the Value data enter path to xbmc.exe file (In my case it was C:\Program Files (x86)\XBMC\XBMC.exe)).

 

5.Now you need to add your media folders to your new media center. Run XBMC and go to the Video in the main menu, and click on Add source>Browse.  Select Add network location… and click OK. Enter your computer name (the same computer where you keep your shared media folder), shared folder, username and password and click OK. Select from the menu (Movies) or (TV Shows) and click OK. From the Main Manu select Videos>your media shared folder and you should be able to see all of your Movies.

6.This step is optional. From main menu click System>Appearance>Skin select the Confluence skin and click on Get More… to download more skins.

You can also use your iPhone or android to control XBMC over WiFi. Just search App store for XBMC.