Multiple Questions

[rragavan]

Hi,

First off, thanks for building this guide . It's one of the few detailed step-by-step guides out there on how to build a media server. This will save me hours and hours!

A few questions (Caveat: still a newbie so let me know if the following questions make some assumptions I shouldn't be making):

1) I have a couple of nettops just lying around that I was thinking of using as HTPCs. My plan was to load up XMBC on them and have the media server stream to them. Is there any specific process for getting Linux to play well with XMBC or do you know of any other guides out there for this?

2) I know I can use this for streaming media to my TVs in my own house. Is it possible to access this media from a friend's house (i.e. could his HTPC etc. access content on my media server?)

3) Is this server setup only good for movies/music or could I also use it to host various files (e.g backups of my laptop etc.)? Is there another program you would suggest I use for this purpose?

Thanks again!

[Ian]

Hello there and welcome to the forum.

Hopefully the guides will help you considerably but if you get stuck just ask and one of us will be able to help you.

OK, your questions are not presumptuous at all, they're all sensible:

1). I don't use XMBC but from what I understand it will be a simple case of making the content on the server acessible to your nettops using samba.

2). Yes you can. A couple of things to think about: a). the speed of your internet connection. It's the "upload" speed that matters here not the download speed. Obviously your friend needs a decent internet connection too. b). Security. If you "open up" your server to the internet then you want to make sure that it is only your friend accessing your server and not everyone.
I've never tried doing this myself so I can't whip you up a how-to I'm afraid. Google is your friend.

3) You can do lots with it and I've only scratched the surface with my guides. Think of it like a desktop computer just without a screen. You can store whatever you want on it and install a whole host of applications on it. I only chose to make mine headless because it lives in a cupboard and so I'll never sit infront of it with a keyboard and monitor attached to it. But that doesn't mean you have to make yours headless too. You could have it as a regular desktop but just make it shareable on your network.
If you're thinking of using it to back up your laptop etc. I use SyncBack Freeware on each of my desktops/laptops and think it's great

Hope this helps,

Ian.

[thinmintaddict]

Hey, Ian hit all the points I could think of too. Just a couple things to add:

1. XBMC can be installed on top of another OS, or you can use their LiveCD version (doesn't have to be run from CD, you can put it on the harddrive) which is a custom linux distro built on Ubuntu. If you go that way, you probably won't have to worry about anything "playing nicely" with anything else. Seems like you should be able to set up Samba or NFS on the XBMC system and be ready to go.

XBMC is the one I've heard the most nice things about, but you might also look at Boxee and Mythbuntu. They each have their strengths, it really depends on what your needs are. XBMC is spectacular at aggregating and navigating content (though I've heard its aggregation system can be a pain to deal with, as it needs Filenames to appear a certain way to recognize them). Boxee does much the same as XBMC, but it's newer and I don't know much about it. Mythbuntu is built off of MythTV, so if you're more interested in recording and playing back TV off your cable box or satellite, Mythbuntu will play very nicely with MythTV on your server. you can use cap cards on either system and record to the server.

[rragavan]

Thanks both. Looking forward to getting this project started!

I have read that XBMC is very particular but I need to organize my media collection anyway. So at least now I have a reason to do so

[thinmintaddict]

My favorite program for renaming files I've already downloaded is FileBot. It lets you rename files based on info from thetvdb. TVRage, AniDB, IMDB, or a couple other databases. It will let you define exactly how you want to organize the information in the filename as well.

[Ian]

My favorite program for renaming files I've already downloaded is FileBot. It lets you rename files based on info from thetvdb. TVRage, AniDB, IMDB, or a couple other databases. It will let you define exactly how you want to organize the information in the filename as well.

That sounds like it could come in handy, thanks for the pointer

[Wingsigmortic]

2>

I have a few of these that i use. One is remote in another state ( after I left college, my friend took his Server with him, but we still collaborate on it and keep it as a central Media place for us). It is handy to have a few things set up:

RSA KEY authetication. He actually set it up that when SSHing in, it has to autheticate via RSA, Password is not good enough ( get rid of a LOT of the cruff ). And with this you can do the SFTP... etc. ( again like IAN said, Upload/download speeds apply... and think of their speeds as well if you are uploading/ downloading when they are trying to do similar... it sucks for them. ( my transfer goes ~7 am... garuntee he is asleep ( cron scripts are my friend)

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ssh-passwo ... ntication/

http://www.defcon1.org/html/rsa-ssh.html

( few others, but those are a good place to start. )


1>

XBMC... i like it, but it seem to eat up my processor even if it's not playing something. Nothing major, but it works. ( ti plays nicely with my setup of MiniDLNA

Just my thoughts
~Wingsigmortic