Start of XBMC Takeover

Frequentrain

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Hi all and merry christmas!

You may think its a weird time to post this but it was the first proper time i could set a side some thinking.

I recently moved house and we are in the process of decorating. For years, i have been a big fan of xbmc and used it reguarly as XBMC Live for my home cinema setup. Since my initially introduction to the product, i have created many installs for friends and provided a lot of support for members on the route.

Now, onto my proposed setup...

As i house all family photos, music and movies in a central location (Windows Home Server) i plan to distribute these to all rooms using an XBMC client.
First of all, the kitchen. This will be a location that i will use for my certifications, home server and also the xbmc client.

The plan is to build a cupboard into the corner of the kitchen and install a cabinet (20U) that will house the CISCO networking gear for CCNA self certs. Under the cabinet will be shelves that will house a pedastol HyperV server for self certs in MCITP, PC for XBMC and the windows home server.

Ventilation for the cupboard will be via an extractor fan that will vent into the utility room. The XBMC client will be fed from the central data cabinet that will be setup in the loft , which is part of this setup.

The XBMC client will have a dual monitor setup, one screen has a USB touch screen controller and a 17" monitor for ease of selecting music etc, the second screen is a 23" TV. Both screens will mirror and sound will be fed from ceiling mounted speakers.

I'm currently in the planning stages at the moment but i will post pics of the setup before work starts.

Anybody done anything similar?
 
Mine is positively primitive in contrast; your proposed set up sounds awesome! Look forward to the build!
 
Hi all and merry christmas!

You may think its a weird time to post this but it was the first proper time i could set a side some thinking.

I recently moved house and we are in the process of decorating. For years, i have been a big fan of xbmc and used it reguarly as XBMC Live for my home cinema setup. Since my initially introduction to the product, i have created many installs for friends and provided a lot of support for members on the route.

Now, onto my proposed setup...

As i house all family photos, music and movies in a central location (Windows Home Server) i plan to distribute these to all rooms using an XBMC client.
First of all, the kitchen. This will be a location that i will use for my certifications, home server and also the xbmc client.

The plan is to build a cupboard into the corner of the kitchen and install a cabinet (20U) that will house the CISCO networking gear for CCNA self certs. Under the cabinet will be shelves that will house a pedastol HyperV server for self certs in MCITP, PC for XBMC and the windows home server.

Ventilation for the cupboard will be via an extractor fan that will vent into the utility room. The XBMC client will be fed from the central data cabinet that will be setup in the loft , which is part of this setup.

The XBMC client will have a dual monitor setup, one screen has a USB touch screen controller and a 17" monitor for ease of selecting music etc, the second screen is a 23" TV. Both screens will mirror and sound will be fed from ceiling mounted speakers.

I'm currently in the planning stages at the moment but i will post pics of the setup before work starts.

Anybody done anything similar?

Another amazing build on the way. Would love to see how your XBMC client interacts with multiple monitors and a touch screen.
 
Thank you for the interest! I have been doing one testing with xbmc and I'm not sure how well the touch screen monitor will work. For a start, the kit I can find is for 17" screens, so my resolution will be limited on the main screen.

In my old setup of cinema room, I used my iPad and xbmc commander remote app which worked really well. In this setup, I do not have the funds available to purchase a dedicated iPad remote for the kitchen so I'm looking at the possibilities of using an android tablet. Ebuyer have reduced the cost of their 7" tablet with gingerbread from £108 to £70. This may be perfect to use as the xbmc controller but I need to check out the apps from the marketplace as I remember that they were not as well engineered and feature rich as the apple apps.

Anyone recommend a decent xbmc commander like app for android?
 
I have moved this thread to the HCPC section as you might get more response from in here :)
 
Hi, I'm sure it's really cool what you are setting up, but it also sounds extremely expensive.

The plan is to build a cupboard into the corner of the kitchen and install a cabinet (20U) that will house the CISCO networking gear for CCNA self certs. Under the cabinet will be shelves that will house a pedastol HyperV server for self certs in MCITP, PC for XBMC and the windows home server.

This morning, in the space of 2 hours I networked Sky HD TV with all recordings and full epg and all my media files throughout the house (the "Server" is a dedicated HTPC in the Lounge connected to the TV and the clients include my gaming PC, daughters bedroom PC, office PC and partners laptop).

This was all achieved using Windows 7 home network, and my free Orange broadband router with 4 ports. All the clients on ethernet connections work fantastic. The laptop wifi connection is slightly slower, but completely usable. Daughters PC on wifi is slow and currently is unusable, but I presume thats due to the old wifi card, and the weak signal in her room but should be easy to fix.

I've also setup remotes on my own and my daughters android phones, which was very quick and easy - all other clients will be controlled either by keyboard and mouse, or mini remotes - I'm currently looking at several options which all cost around £30 eg:

Rii 2.4GHz Mini Wireless(USB) Keyboard with Touchpad & Laser Pointer -Black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

In the lounge, which is the most regularly used client, I'm temporarily using my wireless gaming mouse, which to be honest works really well!

Total cost of the setup was £0 and total setup time was 3 hours for 4 clients and 2 android remotes.

Please don't take offense - I'm not trying to pee on your bonfire - but I'd really like to know what extra benefits you will get for the extra investment in time and money.
 
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spacemanc said:
Hi, I'm sure it's really cool what you are setting up, but it also sounds extremely expensive.

This morning, in the space of 2 hours I networked Sky HD TV with all recordings and full epg and all my media files throughout the house (the "Server" is a dedicated HTPC in the Lounge connected to the TV and the clients include my gaming PC, daughters bedroom PC, office PC and partners laptop).

This was all achieved using Windows 7 home network, and my free Orange broadband router with 4 ports. All the clients on ethernet connections work fantastic. The laptop wifi connection is slightly slower, but completely usable. Daughters PC on wifi is slow and currently is unusable, but I presume thats due to the old wifi card, and the weak signal in her room but should be easy to fix.

I've also setup remotes on my own and my daughters android phones, which was very quick and easy - all other clients will be controlled either by keyboard and mouse, or mini remotes - I'm currently looking at several options which all cost around £30 eg:

Rii 2.4GHz Mini Wireless(USB) Keyboard with Touchpad & Laser Pointer -Black: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

In the lounge, which is the most regularly used client, I'm temporarily using my wireless gaming mouse, which to be honest works really well!

Total cost of the setup was £0 and total setup time was 3 hours for 4 clients and 2 android remotes.

Please don't take offense - I'm not trying to pee on your bonfire - but I'd really like to know what extra benefits you will get for the extra investment in time and money.

I believe the equipment is for self development, and not directly related to Xbmc setup.
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
I believe the equipment is for self development, and not directly related to Xbmc setup.


:) that explains it. I did google "CCNA self certs" as I hadn't heard of it, and from the results I did suspect something like that.
 
Thanks for your response but as bym007 states, the equipment listed (cisco, hyper v) is not related to my xbmc setup.

As I stated, the equipment is for self certification in cisco and microsoft products. I use these products at work daily but cannot afford to play with the products on a live network.

The xbmc setup will use the standard wireless router and a layer 2 switch so I can vlan the self cert items from my home setup. I can then play with things such as dhcp without disrupting the home.
 

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