Back and Forth Forever

The XBMC project is on the verge of releasing the new version, 9.11, of their media player software. This version bolsters a new interface, improved hardware support, and a more streamlined installation method.  Though I’ve showed it to a number of people the installation on dedicated HTPC (Home Theater PC) hardware can seem daunting, though in all actuality the process is very simple, even for novices.  I’ll be going in to detail on how I have configured my setup to include gray area DVR functionality that stomps on commercial solutions.

Having used a number of canned DVR solutions from numerous cable companies in the past (Wide Open West, Comcast, and now AT&T) I’ve found that they’re all sluggish, unintuitive, and unreliable at best.  AT&T edges out Comcast and Wide Open West by a small margin with their U-Verse offering but with a little DIY effort and willingness to get your hands dirty you can build your own HTPC environment that can do everything your current DVR solution can and much more.

If you’re interested in a cheap elegant solution that allows you  to watch 1080p video and TV shows with all commercials pre-cut read on.  One thing to note, the downloading functionality might not be 100% legal in your country, so keep that in mind.

The Meat & Potatoes

There are multiple parts to setting this up, but in the end you’ll have high quality captures of TV shows and/or movies, no commercials, and the ability to go back and grab shows that have aired almost a year ago and don’t look like they’ll be re-airing any time soon.  If you’re not interested in any section below, feel free to skip ahead, I’ll be going in to great detail for each section.

• Storage – Standalone NAS, or Linux/Windows dedicated system
• HTPC Hardware – Acer Aspire Revo & HA-IR01SV Windows MCE Remote Control
• Scheduling – EpisodeButler
• Downloading – SABnzbd+
• Newsgroup Services – Astraweb & Newzbin

Choosing Your Storage

Just like with any business IT solution choosing the right storage for your solution is paramount to what you’ll be able to accomplish with your HTPC environment.  Assuming you chose to go with the Acer Aspire, which I’ll talk more about later, you’ll have approximately 120gigs of storage that you could easily use for your DVR.  The downside is your data is unprotected and you’re limited to a relatively small amount of space.  Also, the software I’ll go in to great detail about later can be taxing on your system especially if an episode is being post-processed while you’re in the middle of playing back 1080p HD content.  I can easily recommend that whatever you decide to do, using your HTPC as your primary storage device is not the way to go.

When picking storage there are a few things to keep in consideration:  Cost, size requirements, and net-loss of hardware failure.  I’ll go in to full detail on these points when offering a few storage solutions in the following sections.

Storage: Option 1 – “Standalone NAS Device”

NAS, or Network Attached Storage, is an elegant out-of-the-box solution for sharing media and files on your home network.  The price per gigabyte has dropped substantially in the past few years due to the ever increasing demand for storage and the capacity of drives growing at rates over 50% year after year.  A NAS solution offers you redundancy through hardware RAID.  RAID can be configured a number of different ways, but for a NAS with 3 or more disks (recommended) I’d go with RAID 5 which will protect your data as long as you don’t lose more then a single drive in  your NAS.  Most NAS solutions, including the two I link below, calculate for RAID 5 and show you the total available storage you’ll have after parity and/or mirroring have been considered.

For the non-technical folks a standalone NAS might be the best solution.  With a store-bought solution you won’t have to worry about configuring hardware RAID on your own, which can be difficult, or managing the OS underneath.  The price might be a bit higher but knowing that you have a warranty behind your storage is reassuring.  If you have an available, always on, computer available to you this a standalone NAS might be the easiest option even for technical folks.

• Western Digital ShareSpace 4 TB
• Cavalry Storage CAND Series 2 TB

Positives:

• Easy to manage
• Manufacturer Warranty

Negatives:

• A second system (not the HTPC box) is recommended for download processing and scheduling
• Not easily upgradable

Storage: Option 2 – “Linux / Windows /OSX NAS”

A Linux / Windows self-built NAS box is more difficult to set up then a standalone NAS solution.  If you already have an old PC laying around you might want to consider shoving it in a closet or in a back corner of your basement after setting up hardware RAID along with 3+ big hard drives.

There are a few situations where I’d build a DIY NAS box over a store bought solution, but for most people this task can be a bit daunting.  If you already have an extra Linux or Windows PC with spare room in the chassis, or if you prefer to tinker yourself then rely on a variable black box to manage your storage.  If you go down this road, I’d highly recommend purchasing a hardware raid card if your motherboard doesn’t support it.  The downside to purchasing a hardware raid controller is, 9/10 times the card alone will  be more expensive then buying an standalone NAS box.

If you chose to forgo my advice and instead want to do software raid understand that any OS problem, failed OS upgrade, could easily make all your data unreadable.  That said, bunch of tutorials around the web that will show you how to configure mdadm under Linux… Windows guys, you’re on your own.

Positives:

• Your downloading, scheduling and processing all can be done here
• More flexibility, full RDP/ssh support for remote support and management
• Utilize old hardware with no other purpose

Negatives:

• Potentially high cost
• Moderately strong Windows/Linux/OSX experience required

HTPC Hardware & Installing XBMC

After almost a year after NVidia announced their Ion graphics processor a number of cheap ideal HTPC machines began appearing on the market.  This post wouldn’t exist without my successes with setting up my Acer Aspire Revo in less then an hour.  There are a number of other solutions out there, including the popular ASRock Ion 330 boards, though I’ll be gearing this towards the Revo due to it’s relative low cost and how easy I found the setup to be.  The only downside the the Revo is you’ll need to pick up a IR receiver and remote.  I grabbed the bundled HA-IR01SV for $20, though any MCE remote should work just fine.

Required Items

• 2gb+ USB Thumbdrive
• HDMI / VGA cable with optical or 3.5mm

Setting up your Acer Revo

After unboxing the Revo and connecting it to your TV using a VGA cable or HDMI you’re faced with the Linux vs. Windows decision.  At this point in XBMC development I don’t think the Windows version works as well, not to mention the fact that you’ll have to buy or find a copy of Windows.  Obviously, per the previous statement, I’d recommend the very easy to install Ubuntu Linux based solution.  Very little to no working knowledge of Linux is necessary, though basic understanding will be beneficial.

At this point you’ll need to have a blank CD-R, bootable USB thumb drive, and the latest Live CD version of XBMC.  It’s important that your USB thumb drive is bootable (most are these days) or you won’t be able to install XBMC Live on your Revo.

Step By Step XBMC Live Setup

Configuring the Revo BIOS options:

• Boot up your revo, and jump in to the BIOS
• Disable the “Use RevoBoot” option
• Change the “dedicated mmory to the GPU” from AUTO to CUSTOM and set it to 512 MB

Preparing & Installing XBMC Live:

• Download the XBMC Live iso from: http://xbmc.org/download/
• Extract and burn the Live CD to a CD-R, ImgBurn works nicely if you’re doing this on Windows.
• With the newly burned copy of the Live CD in your drive, plug in your USB thumb drive and reboot your computer.
• Boot your computer to the CD-ROM
• At bootup you should get an option to Install the Live CD, choose that option.
• When asked for the partition to use, make sure you select the USB thumb drive or you’ll be in a world of trouble.
• Follow the instructions to complete the install on your USB drive then shutdown your PC and remove the drive.

Installing XBMC Live on your Revo:

• With your USB drive and keyboard connected, power up your Revo and hit F8 to select the boot menu.
• Select the “Removable Drive” option.
• Repeat the process you performed on your PC, but this time select your hard drive as your installation target.
• Follow the few install instructions, select yes when asked to make a 2gb partition (if XBMC still asks that)
• After the install completes remove your USB thumb drive and power off then power on your Revo.
• If all went well you’ll boot in to XBMC and can begin configuring it for your setup.

Video Settings in XBMC:

• Under Settings -> Video -> Play:  Set Render Method to “VDPAU”

Audio Settings in XBMC (optional):

• Under Settings -> System -> Audio Hardware:
• Audio output: digital
• Audio output device: HDMI
• Passthrough audio device: HDMI
• Downmix multichannel audio: ON

Part 1 Conclusion

That concludes Part 1 of my short HTPC complete solution guide. Part 2 will contain a detailed method for automatically downloading and updating XBMC with shows hours after they’ve aired complete with commercial cuts in HD quality. If you notice anything wrong, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.