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Forums › HTPC › Win 7 Media Centre Setup


386 posts

Ultimate Geek
Topic # 95774 12-Jan-2012 22:21 Send private message

I've finally got around to setting help an old Dell 2400 P4 PC as a media centre. I basically just want to use it to play movies and tv shows and at some later point I may try freeview recording.
I'm thinking of using Media browser plugin and also the Media Center Master tool for metadata.
I have the Movie and TV files on my desktop PC. I want to be able to run media centre on the desktop PC and on another Laptop. How do I go setting it up so that I have the same experience on all 3 machines?
I'm assuming I install Media Browser on all 3 and point to the right directories but just run Media Center master from the desktop PC where the files are stored to sort the meta data out.
Am I missing something? Is there a better way of doing this?

Any help is great thanks.

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14 posts

Geek
  Reply # 568157 12-Jan-2012 23:10 Send private message

I cant really answer your question as I havent played with win7 media center. But I kinda am on the same journey as you and similar hardware setup

So far I have installed freenas on my old quad core machine and have hooked up 2 tablets, 2 laptops and a desktop to access the files on the server. Freenas has lots of services you can use on it, like auto torrenting, ftp , transcoding and lots more I havent had time to try yet.

The Streaming off it is nice and fast as well. Whilst all running of my 2gb usb stick :)

Just a suggestion anyway. Its easy to install and setup for sharing and the hardware requirement are ridiculously low.

I also want to record tv but wont be getting into that till I build a proper htc :)

Check out freenas here http://www.freenas.org/

240 posts

Master Geek
  Reply # 568166 13-Jan-2012 00:01 Send private message

Thats pretty much how I have my setup running.

The only problem you might find is streaming your movies over wireless to the laptop. I have two wired PC's and an XBOX 360 connected over gigabit. As long as you have a decent wireless signal you should be ok for most stuff, just maybe not 1080p quality stuff. Only one way to find out though...




Living in Dubai but still have a keen interest on what's going on back "home"

Media Centre
Intel DH55TC with Core i3 550, 4GB Ram, 8TB HDD space, Hauppauge HVR2200, Blackgold BGT3540, DVBLink TV Source and Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
Connected to Onkyo TX-NR3007, Samsung PS50C6500, Theophany M4's x2, C5 x1 and Klipsch Synergy B2's x2

143 posts

Master Geek
  Reply # 568172 13-Jan-2012 00:46 Send private message

I think you will need the media browser plugin on each machine. The main thing about 7MC is the codecs and the video files. Only certain filetypes are supported, and you may need to run something like serviio to transcode. You can install different codec packs and make changes to the filters etc, but this may screw around with any hardware acceleration you want to do later on if you are watching wtv files.

Others here may have done it, but after I looked into the trial and error pitfalls, I have just left my 7MC installation stock standard



386 posts

Ultimate Geek
  Reply # 568223 13-Jan-2012 08:59 Send private message

Thanks. I don't think I need a NAS just yet. I don't intednt to have the HTPC at the TV on all the time just when I want to watch something, it's way to noisey. The main desktop PC is on most of the time anyway so media can sit on there. I have the shark codec pack installed on the HTPC and it seems to be playing ok with the limited testing I've done. It's a real minefield out there!
Streaming HD probably won't be an issue at the moment, The TV is only SD, and the HTPC probably wouldn't handle HD well anyways.
I'll try and have a play with installing media browser on all the machines.

Is there a way of increasing font size on WMC

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