Help streaming from N40L to XBMC

[AK 47]

Hi all,

I hope I am posting this in the right place.

I have an N40L running WHS 2011. I have installed 8GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD. I want to use this to stream movies/music to XBMC for Windows on an Acer Revo RL80 (also with 8GB RAM) running Windows 8 64-bit.

The problem is, I really don't know where to start. What I want is for XBMC on the RL80 to display a library of movies/TV shows/music, etc. that I have on the N40L, and for the media to be correctly labelled and with artwork, etc.

I have no experience in this kind of thing at all. I really don't know what I am doing, but would love to learn.

What I am after is if anyone could point me in the direction of a comprehensive step-by-step guide as to how to do achieve this - a real guide for dummies. This thread on the XBMC forums seems to be exactly what I am after, however unfortunately the OP seems to have given up on finishing writing the guide.

I will admit to not have read all five N40L owners' threads as it is just so much to get through, so apologies if what I am after is already there. Please point me to the relevant post(s) if this is the case.

Thanks is advance.

 

[nacmacfeegle]

Relatively straightforward.
Assuming you have a network established...
Set up the media shares on your N40l, plenty of guides around for that.
To start off you will probably want separate parent folders for movies, TV shows, photos, and music. How and where is all your media stored at the moment, and in what format?
These can all be on the same 2 TB drive, or separate drives, it doesn't really mattter.
Install XBMC on the Revo, then configure it to connect to your N40 media.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/home...65219-xbmc-setup-support-thread-part-3-a.html

Give it a go then let us know if you get stuck.

 

[next010]

XBMC quick start guide wiki may also help.

The server has nothing to do with the coverart system it's just a storage location, when you go to add media in XBMC and browse SMB network shares it will ask to set the content type and you pick movies, music or tv shows and let it scan the filesnames on the network shared folder. Then the XBMC media library activates on the home screen, so instead of browsing by files under videos you go to movies or tv shows.

 

[AK 47]

Thanks for your replies, I will have another go over the weekend.

But I have some more questions!

The server has nothing to do with the coverart system it's just a storage location

OK, so how do I get artwork then, does XBMC retrieve this automatically? I read somewhere about "scraping" cover art but the author didn't go into much detail. Is this an automatic feature of XBMC or will I have to install software to do this?

browse SMB network shares

This is something that I also wanted to ask about. In trying to work out how to do what I am trying to do, I have read so many articles. They refer to things like:

• SMB
• Samba
• NFS
• mySQL

I have Googled these terms to try and understand what they mean and which (if any) I need to use (and how to use).

I am at a loss because trying to read about these things just brings up other terms that I don't understand.

What are these used for and which (if any) would I need to use (and how?)

Thanks again.

 

[next010]

OK, so how do I get artwork then, does XBMC retrieve this automatically? I read somewhere about "scraping" cover art but the author didn't go into much detail. Is this an automatic feature of XBMC or will I have to install software to do this?

The act of downloading coverart and metadata is called scraping.

XBMC has an internal scraper which you can apply when adding media sources be the network, local HDD, or USB.

Go to videos->files->add videos->windows network SMB.

Browse to your NAS and pick a folder which holds content like "movies" and then add it, set content type to movies and tell it to run automated scan.

Your better off simply trying it out instead of reading every guide out there, it's not difficult to pick up.

This is something that I also wanted to ask about. In trying to work out how to do what I am trying to do, I have read so many articles. They refer to things like:

SMB
Samba
NFS
mySQL

SMB = Windows networking, SMB is name of protocol used by Microsoft Windows, this is what your server and PC is using.

Samba = open source reverse engineered version of SMB this is what linux systems use to access Windows PC's.

NFS = linux based network protocol only used by linux servers commonly.

mySQL = a system for centralizing all XBMC clients on one media library so each one sees the exact same library, mySQL is being phased out and to be replaced with a UPnP based XBMC media server which is a lot easier to manage and setup. But the UPnP XBMC media server is still only in early phases.

 

[AK 47]

Thank you next010 for your post.

I found your explanations and definitions really helpful in trying to get my head around it all!

Unfortunately due to unexpected circumstances I still have not had a chance to attempt to follow your instructions as yet.

As soon as I do, I will update this thread...

Thanks again!