Well, more progress!

All DVDs (544 total) have finally been ripped to ISO files. All those iso's, music mp3's, etc all fit on a 3TB drive with a little over 600GB to spare. Everything has also been duplicated onto an external 3TB drive.

The kids' PC has been set up to run Windows Media Center as well, except it is set up to get its media files from the server rather than storing them locally.

Here are a couple pics of the media center PC itself. Don't mind the substandard woodwork, but the entertainment center had glass doors and that won't do at all with kids around (not to mention poor cooling). So, I made a new door with a ~2mm thick steel screen to provide protection and cooling. I also had to fab a new shelf since the existing shelves were too short for the PC's depth.

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/htpc_3.jpg

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/htpc_4.jpg


I also finished the web music player. It was designed with the intent to run in any web browser, including/especially a cell-phone, so the interface is rather simple/spartan and links/buttons were sized up for easier use on a phone without having to zoom in.

After searching around for a while, I decided on a Flash-based player. However, since all their interfaces were rather small, I ended up using this player, completely hiding the interface, and manually scripting all the functions. The buttons on the interface were "borrowed" from a screen-shot of Windows media player, just resized and rearranged a bit. Operation is pretty simple: enter in some search text (supports partial matches) and the results automatically become the "playlist". You can either step through the songs via the buttons, or click the song link from the results section. The interface supports shuffle and repeat as well. Getting the web server to "know" where to find the MP3s from the browser was a simple matter of creating a virtual directory in IIS and pointing it to where the files are stored.

The other day, I used the web player on my phone while mowing the lawn and it worked swimmingly. :smile:

Here is a screen grab of the web music player with a search for "GNR" as an example:

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/htpc_5.jpg


As far as the web site goes, the "Music" link brings up the MP3 player, the "Movies" link will bring up the video player, and the the "Administration" menu item is where I can manage parameters, and rebuild music/video libraries.

When the site rebuilds the music libraries (only needed when files are added/changed/removed), the server simply scans specific folders for all applicable files on the server and saves the paths/filenames in the database. This is because file-system operations are much slower than database queries (relatively speaking), so doing this makes web searches much faster with less CPU overhead.

The site is all parameter-driven via the web interface; media file paths (physical and virtual), media file extensions (each media type can support multiple file extensions), etc can be adjusted on the fly separately for MP3's, videos, and recorded TV (not sure if the recorded tv will stay though).

So, that's it for now. I am starting to look more closely at video transcoding options, so it might be a while until the next update.

Brian, I love what you have done here!
I'm sort of in a similar boat and was wondering if you could help, seeing as you seem to have done research on items on the market.
I'm looking for a media player, with a built in hard drive (or capable of having one with at least a TB capacity) that can hook directly to my TV via HDMI, wifi ready (transfer files to and from it), and play the main video files (mainly .avi, .mkv, .iso).
That's pretty much it, doesn't need to be as in depth as yours, mainly just plug and play I guess.
If you have a suggestion, that's great, if not, don't worry about doing any active research for me. Just thought I would try my luck before committing lots of time on it, haha.
Thanks!

Your best bet will probably be something like a Boxee. Bestbuy is a reseller, so you can stop by and check it out in person if you want. It appears it has wifi built-in, as well as a wired connection. It also has USB connectors for external harddrives, etc. IIRC, it will play ISO files directly, but you might want to make sure it will play those other formats you have (or convert them to something it will support).

By the way, after using the web version of the music player, I found the buttons a tad small when on my Android phone. So, I ditched the Windows Media Player derived buttons and designed my own from scratch. I'm NOT a "graphics guy" by any means, but I think they came out all right nonetheless. The only functionality missing from the previous interface is volume control. I found it was much easier (and less confusing) to simply use the device's volume control.

Here's the new screenshot:

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/htpc_6.jpg

On the video transcoding; I found out that VLC crashes when you convert a video to MP4 (my preferred format) on a Win7 x64 OS. Figures. So, I'm waiting until the next version comes out before I try it again. Until then, I'm kind of at a standstill.

In the meantime, I started creating an app that allows my wife to enter, view, and manage her recipies. Kinda tired of having recipe cards floating around the house. I figure this will allow her to store them electronically, and give her the ability to do things that could never be done on paper. And when she's in the kitchen, she can use her Kindle Fire to view them via wi-fi.

Nothing new yet, still waiting for the next version of VLC that won't crash when converting to H264 on Windows 7 64-bit. Grrr, that release should have been out a couple weeks ago.

I did discover an oddity though with ISO virtual DVD mounting. I was using Elaborate Bytes Virtual Clone Drive and while it does work, for some reason MediaBrowser (Windows Media Center plugin) sometimes won't auto-play the virtual disc. The ISO mounts fine (as seen in Explorer), but MediaBrowser just doesn't play it. After tinkering my autoplay settings to death, I ended up uninstalling Virtual Clone Drive and using Daemon Tools Lite instead. They are basically the same thing, but MediaBrowser will always autoplay the virtual DVDs now. Weird.

Another update but with some bad news:

Since I'm impatient, I installed a nightly build (non-released versions that contain some unofficial fixes) of VLC and am now able to convert an ISO to MP4 (H264 video and AAC audio) on Win7-64bit without crashing. Yay!

My plan was to fire off the conversion of the selected ISO file via my web app (by selecting a video to play), which would start converting the ISO to a "temporary" MP4 file on my server. Then, have the web player pause for ~10 sec to give the server enough time to partially convert the MP4 file before I attempted to play it. Since my server can convert video at faster than real-time frame-rates (approx 3x faster actually), I wouldn't have to worry about the player "catching up" to the point where the file was currently converted.

Excited, I quickly ported the command line to do this in some ASP code and fired the conversion from within my web app (using ASP). However, I discovered I cannot play a partially-converted file. And even if I choose a format that does allow playback of a partial file (like WMV), I can only play the video up to the point where it was initiated (would stop after the ~10 sec mark).

Looks like I will have to devise a way to convert the video and stream in real-time after all. This is a bit complex since there is no "file" to play; the web player will be playing a direct stream. So back to the drawing board. :diablo:

Hm, never thought I'd be in your shoes, but I sort-of am now.

My brother is home for the most part now, which means there's a new spot in our HTPC console for his PS3.

My other brother had his friend setup media streaming from PC->PS3, and he could watch movies, tvshows, that he had on the PC, directly to the computer.
We are wanting to do the same..

Now here's the tricky part.

I have Music, Movies, AND TV Shows.

I've tried Windows Media Player, TVersity, but all of them only support Music & Movies; and won't add that second library/separate library for TV Shows.
Why?
I have tons of TV Shows I want to have separated from the Movies section, because scrolling through all those TV show episodes to find one movie can get.. annoying.

Curious if you ran across any other alternatives?

Another (final?) update:

Well, after lots more digging, it doesn't look like the real-time video transcoding from ISO files will be feasible. To stream an ISO, I can set the server up to basically "blast" the stream to the client, but there is no client control (like fast-forwarding, rewinding, etc). And even if decide to stop the movie, there is no way for the client to tell the server to stop transcoding (without killing the process obviously). To do this right, you'd have all your media pre-converted to a suitable format, and to support some advanced functions, you'd have to encode it in "chunks". So, it could be done, but it won't be very practical.

Learning that, I was a little disappointed, but I did find that the WD TV Live device which will allow hookup to a TV and pull the movies (in raw ISO form) from my Windows "server" over a wired or wireless network (and without needing any kind of transcoding). It's about the size of a Roku box and is surprisingly full-featured for the money. It allows ISO playback from a Windows or Linux network share, and it also does lots of the streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, etc (but doesn't do Amazon). It also lets you hook up an external HDD with your media on it for those who don't have a server. So, I hopped down to BestBuy and picked up the unit for $100. I hooked it up to my bedroom TV via HDMI, a couple minutes downloading/installing an update, and then setting up the share locations and it's good to go.

So, I'll keep the music player web app I already built so I can listen to music on my phone while mowing the lawn or sitting on the john (I know, nice image right?), but will be removing the video portion of the app. Adding a $100 WD TV Live to any TV that I want to access the ISO movies is a little more than I wanted to spend, but sure is easier, smaller, and cheaper than tethering a full-fledged computer with XBMC or Media Center to a TV.

I guess we can mark this project as "done" then. The system now will do everything I set out to do for the most part, except real-time transcoding to ANY device. But aside from other TV's in the house, I really don't see where I would have used that functionality to an appreciable degree.

I'm glad this is done, because it seems like I'm just about the only one that posts in this thread lately, and it was beginning to feel like I was talking to myself.

@Rawfuls:
I'm sorry, but I can't answer you question yet. Despite have TV DVR functionality in the media server, no one has really used it much yet so I have no idea how the system would manage a large library of TV shows and their associated seasons. I think my wife used it once to record a baking show or something, but that's about it.

But if I were in your shoes, I would start by putting all your TV shows in a separate media folder (named something like "TV Shows" or something), and apply a share specific to it. Then, it should be a matter of finding the software that will treat that one area as TV shows and download all the meta data for it. Maybe MediaBrowser? Dunno.

Brian, I think I like the looks of that TV live. I would probably run my media HDD plugged directly to it. Though there is a different one with 1TB integrated, will have to look at that a little closer.
For the streaming from a PC on the network, do you just have to share the folder to allow the TV Live to access it? This is how I had my old school xbox (soft moddded) to run back in the day, would be neat to have a similar setup again.

Thanks!

Ended up with going to Serviio, it's pretty nifty.
No cool UIs like Tversity or anything like that, but does everything I want, right out of the gate.
Also puts on a cool artwork next to the title if it's spelled correctly and has enough time to do so.

Yeah, the WD TV Hub has the internal drive, and is a bit larger and more expensive. IIRC, it's only 1TB of space, so it should be fine if all your media will fit (which is around 200 standard DVDs). If not, then maybe the regular WD TV Live with an external 2TB or 3TB drive would be a better choice (but I would look online to make sure the device works with that size drive first, and you'll have to format it as GPT to be able to see the full drive amount if it's a 3TB or higher drive).

For the WD TV Live to access content from another computer, it's just a matter of sharing it via a Windows or Linux share. Usually, it's just a matter of sharing the folder either with a user/password combo, or just allow the "everyone" user group access to that shared folder.

However, you might want to think a little about security and who will be using it. For instance, my family also uses these devices on other computers/devices, so I set the shared folders so that the "everyone" user has read and write access - but NOT delete access (requires the use of the "special permissions") - to the media files. This allows devices/anyone to read the media files and any devices to store their specific media library meta files, but does NOT allow anything other than the server's admin account to delete media files.

So, while the TV Live is pretty easy to set up for basic setups, it can get a little complicated when you start looking into the more advanced stuff. :smile:

Brian - I dont post much but have been following the thread from Day1.

I've been researching smart tv's vs attachement boxes and basically come to the conclusion that the smart box seems to be the better long term option.

I also like the WD Live - Bit of a pain it doesnt have amazon though as I do have amazon prime.

Question is which 50 to 55 LED LCD TV to buy?

I've never been a fan of smart TV's. They never seem to be as smart as you want them to be, and if you do set up a home system with them, you are kinda stuck with that brand's "ecosystem". I have similar feelings toward TV's with integrated DVD players, but mostly because the players end up dying far sooner than the TV.

Yeah, from what I've read about the lack of Amazon; it's because of some licensing thing between WD and Amazon, possibly related to the fact that WD supports Blockbuster streaming service. All speculation, but probably not far from the truth. But to be fair, I haven't seen a single device that has everything in one; they all miss something or other. It's just a matter of choosing the device that supports what you want at that time. In my case, I primarily wanted an inexpensive device that would be able to access and natively play ISO files from a shared network resource - and the WD Live fit the bill and had Netflix as a bonus (although my BD player has Netflix already so that wouldn't have been a deal-breaker).

As far as TV's go, everyone says Plasma is better than LED/LCD. Better contrast, refresh, contrast, colors, saturation, etc. But the downside to plasma is the substantially higher power drain and the possibility of image burn-in (although that's better than it used to be). LED just refers to the backlighting technology (LCD uses CCFL backlight), but still uses LCD for the picture. I don't there is a true full LED TV on the market yet (wonder why?). So, it just comes down to going to the store and finding the model that looks the best while having the inputs you need at the price you want to pay. Personally, I like BestBuy's Insignia line. They seem to have the best bang for the buck despite being a "house brand". Some people don't like them, but either I'm not as discerning, or they are just whiners. :smile:

Just wanted to provide a little more feedback about the WD TV Live unit I got.

It works well when you have simple Windows network shares set up. However, getting ISO files to show up doesn't work if you try to set it up using a "Media Server" using Windows. Apparently, Windows doesn't recognize an ISO as a valid media file, so those files are never "served" to the WD unit regardless of the fact that the WD unit does have the ability to play ISOs.

If you have just regular video files (AVI, MP4, etc), then the "Media Server" method works just fine (providing you have the Windows server set up right). But if your library contains ISO files, I would just recommend just sharing the folder(s) containing those files, and using the "Network Share" method in the WD unit.

Also, I would stay clear of trying to set up Windows for a mix of Network Shares and Media Server methods. Setting up the proper permissions for both is a royal pain so it works right in everything.

Another small update:

Every once in a while, the WD TV Live unit had trouble accessing the network share. Sometimes, it could see the list of movies, but the unit would reset itself when trying to play one. Other times, I would get a username/password prompt.

A bit of Googling later, the solution is as follows:

Windows7 has some issues broadcasting its availability on a network. The steps below should help solve these issues:


First, configure Sharing and Discovery

1. Navigate to the Network and Sharing Center via the Control Panel
   
2. Click on the Advanced Sharing Options link
   
3. Set the values as follows:
   
   • Network Discovery - ON
   • File Sharing - ON
   • Public Folder Sharing - OFF
   • Printer Sharing - ON
   • Password Protected Sharing - OFF
   • Media Sharing - OFF

Next, configure the folder you want to share

1. Select the folder
2. Right-click and choose 'Share' from the menu
3. From the drop-down box select the Everyone (All users in this list) account, making sure permissions are set to 'Read'
4. Click the buttons Add, Share and Done.
5. Do the above steps for any/all folders to share

Next, some further registry "tweaks"

WARNING: Editing the registry incorrectly can cause the system to become unstable and unusable. Follow the instructions below at your own risk - I am not responsible for any damage caused by following these steps.

1. Open the registry editor as an administrator
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\Lsa\
3. Double-click on "everyoneincludesanonymous" and change the "Value data" from "0" to "1"
4. Double-click on "NoLmHash" and change the "Value data" from "1" to "0"
5. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanManServer\Parameters\
6. Double-click on "restrictnullsessaccess" and change the "Value data" from "1" to "0"
7. Close the registry editor

Finally, restart your PC.

The first and second sections are simple enough and I had those right, but after the registry tweak, I haven't had any more trouble. While this was to fix network share access issues with the WD TV Live unit, it will probably work for other similar non-Windows devices.