# My setup



## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

I've been away from the forum for a few months and I thought you guys might be interested in what I've been doing HTPC-wise.

I've run CAT6 to each room as well as to the NID outside. I have U-Verse and the STBs are all connected via Ethernet. I have two Netgear GS108s, one in the office and one in the living room entertainment center. Gigabit it available at every port in the house now. That comes into play with the media server ... more on that later. 

I have the 18Mb package from U-Verse and I'm getting pretty good speeds. I've ordered the 24Mb package, but they keep cancelling my order. Not sure why.



That's the boring network stuff ... on to the fun stuff.

My media server is Windows Home Server running on my old "rip and burn" PC. I have two 1.5TB drives with room for 6 more. I'm waiting for the 2TB drives to come down in price. The PC is fairly basic. It has an Abit AT7-MAX2 MB with 1GB Ram, and a generic 1GB NIC. It has an old video card because it runs headless. My Movies is the main addin I'm running for WHS. I store the movies in standard Video_TS folders. 

The other PCs in the house are running Windows 7. I run My Movies client on each of them. My Movies pull in meta data from IMDB.com and stores it in a database. When you're in Media Center, this information is displayed on the screen. 











The kids love being able to watch movies streamed from the WHS. With this setup it's like you're watching a DVD in a standalone player. You get all menus and options.



I have an Xbox 360 in the living room that's streams everything but my stored DVDs. We use it mainly for watching downloaded TV shows. I had never seen How I Met Your Mother and ended up downloading all five seasons. 

By summer I'll have a HTPC built for the living room. I want to be able to play games on it as well. The kids want me to get us setup with some LAN games.

That's about it for what I've done over the last couple of months.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Sounds fun. Hard to believe we are in terrabytes already.


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

No doubt. I paid the same for my 1.27GB drive when it came out as I did for BOTH of my 1.5TB drives.


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## plumbcrazy (Feb 22, 2010)

sounds like fun


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## wbassett (Feb 8, 2007)

Jim when you say 


> With this setup it's like you're watching a DVD in a standalone player. You get all menus and options.


Are you archiving your DVDs in ISO format? Also do you have a PC in each room or are you using media devices like the PCH, WDTV, XBox or PS3?


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## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

Jim - can you give us a brief overview of what you use to stream these movies to your tv? Are you using a HTPC? Xbox? PS3? I have a PS3 and I've been itching to use it, in conjunction with my WHS, to catalog, archive and stream all of my DVDs to my home theater. I've been looking at My Movies and wondering if it will work with the PS3. :scratch:


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

wbassett said:


> Jim when you say
> 
> 
> Are you archiving your DVDs in ISO format? Also do you have a PC in each room or are you using media devices like the PCH, WDTV, XBox or PS3?


No, not ISO. They are in the standard Video_TS folder (VOB files). The Xbox won't stream them, but all of the Windows 7 machines will. I'll be building a HTPC for the living room soon just for that purpose. Otherwise, the Xbox streams every other format.

Each of the other rooms have a Win7 box.


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

mechman said:


> Jim - can you give us a brief overview of what you use to stream these movies to your tv? Are you using a HTPC? Xbox? PS3? I have a PS3 and I've been itching to use it, in conjunction with my WHS, to catalog, archive and stream all of my DVDs to my home theater. I've been looking at My Movies and wondering if it will work with the PS3. :scratch:


My Movies doesn't do any transcoding. It basically catalogs the movies and presents them to the client. I believe TVersity would work well for you. 

I was bummed that the 360 wouldn't play the .ifo files. You can play the individual VOBs, but you have to back out and play the next in line. I believe the PS3 works the same way.

With WIN7 you go into Media Center, click on My Movies, then scroll through the movies. They are presented with the cover art and you just click on one to play it. It's a very cool setup.


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

Great setup. I did the same last week running CAT6 to all the rooms. I install and Powerhouse system also so that when i'm in the theater ( where if a movies playing i cant hear anything downstairs) It will trip a motion sensors and show the camera in Media center if someones is at any of the doors... I purchased a few of those Dell ZINOS for the system and they really seem to be doing great with Media Center (WIN7 ) I love that you can click on an actor and get all the info on them.. Anyway your setup sounds great


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

I had never heard of the Zino until I read your post. NICE!! I'll be spending the rest of the day researching those. I've seriously considered the Asus Revo nettop, but couldn't bring myself to buy one. The Dell looks slick. 

I may have some questions about your camera setup. That sound very cool!


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## wbassett (Feb 8, 2007)

FlashJim said:


> I was bummed that the 360 wouldn't play the .ifo files. You can play the individual VOBs, but you have to back out and play the next in line. I believe the PS3 works the same way.


The PS3 can play files sequentially so you can play .vob files and when it finishes it will go on to the next file. You just have to make sure your movie is in order. Double check the Xbox, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to do this as well.


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

wbassett said:


> The PS3 can play files sequentially so you can play .vob files and when it finishes it will go on to the next file. You just have to make sure your movie is in order. Double check the Xbox, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to do this as well.


I'll test that. I know it plays the single VOB files and I could swear that it just stops. We'll see. 

I could use Transcode 360 to help stream the files to the 360, but I want the same experience we have on the Win7 machines. I'll eventually build or buy a HTPC and relieve the 360 of all streaming duties.


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

Jim ,, I love this lil ZINO system I just ordered another one to sit next to the HTPC , to control my home automation system Nice that they are so small yet function great... The Bluray works great on it...


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

What options did you get with your Zino?


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

Jim , I just purchased the standard one, But i did upgrade the processor to the next step (the only way to get the bluRay to work)... Later I added a 801e USB tuner, and a external esata Drive unit (Thermaltak) so i could add more HD space.. So all together i have 6TB of space. Runs movies just fine off the esata connection ( it comes with 2). Only thing i might have tought of later is it comes with 2.1 audio .. and you can add the FX Creative USB setup I will probably do this later but with WIN7 it lets you simulate 5.1 and so far sounds good .


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## wbassett (Feb 8, 2007)

Ultramanv said:


> Great setup. I did the same last week running CAT6 to all the rooms. I install and Powerhouse system also so that when i'm in the theater ( where if a movies playing i cant hear anything downstairs) It will trip a motion sensors and show the camera in Media center if someones is at any of the doors... I purchased a few of those Dell ZINOS for the system and they really seem to be doing great with Media Center (WIN7 ) I love that you can click on an actor and get all the info on them.. Anyway your setup sounds great


Did you run into any problems with your order? 

My brother tried ordering a Zino for his son for Christmas and Dell was a complete mess. Everyone's orders were being pushed back. At first he was told there would be no problem getting it by Christmas, then he was told it wouldn't be until the first week of January... ultimately when they told him it wouldn't ship until sometime in Feb and send him an email to confirm if he still wanted the order or to cancel it, he opted to cancel it.

The Zino does look pretty slick, but isn't it kind of expensive? The base unit really needs a lot of upgrades to get it to where it can play everything. If I recall my brother's order after all the upgrades was pushing $700. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put the Zino down, I'm just trying to figure out if it lives up to Dell's hype and where it fits in all this.

I also don't want to derail this thread either. We might want to start up a Zino thread if there isn't one already 

As far as what we are all doing- HTPCs, media servers and extenders... I am facinated by all this because I remember talking to my brother back in the late '80s and I was telling him there would be a day when PCs and TV would meld together and the way we view entertainment as well as the content for it would all change. We're the pioneers of that right now!

Ultimately this is how I see things going though-
HTPCs are cool, but ultimately media extenders will win out. I know and hear the collective groans out there! "But things like the WDTV, O!Play, PopBox, SlingBox... they don't play Blurays or DVDs... well to be honest they really weren't designed to because that's what the BD player is for. Keep in mind that 99% of the DVD/BD players out there can't do streaming content and those that do are limited in what they can do. So nothing does everything... yet at least. 

I digressed though- the way things will go at first is there needs to become a solid set of standards for all media extenders. I think we are just about at that point right now. Next is the price. Media extenders need to get well under the $100 price range and become an everyday item on the shelves at Target and Walmart. People will start buying them like they buy those cheap DVD players for the bedroom or kids room. 

That's only the start though and I'd say towards the end of this pioneer stage. Ultimately this will be built into every HDTV. That's where this is all heading eventually.


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

I also was told that my unit would be delayed but I ended up receiving it way before they said i would .. as far as price .. I purchased the base unit , upgraded the processor and used that for my HTPC all by itsself total was about 340.00ish. I did later get the external HD unit because I immedialy realized I like to have all my fav movies ready on the HD without doing a disk swap . You might want to tell your brother to go to the dell outlet and look in there for a Zino (they have lots) these are ready avalible as they are returns or lil scatched units.. I have had a few friends buy them from the outlet at a GREAT price. I saw the unit i purchased just now for 209.00. It's true you are limited with these as to adding cards and such but for a starter unit they work great .. And the size it nice .. Ill post some pictures tonight in the gallery section of my theater and units..


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## FlashJim (May 6, 2006)

Can't wait to see them! 

I'm about to start a new thread about my living room system rebuild. This past weekend we decided to spin the viewing area 180 degrees. Everything has to be moved, including my IB.


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

Wow thats a big project... I put some pictures up in the users gallery area .. Il put some more tonight as thos are about 3 monts olds and ive added a lot since then...


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## rizzi_nyc (Mar 12, 2010)

Guys, sorry if I'm diverting this thread further into the Zino topic but it was the most relevant thread that I saw. For those of you that have used it, can you tell me if you're able to get 1080p playback? I read a review on Cnet and it said that the basic unit definitely can't and it made it sound like no option could. I was planning on upgrading the processor to the 3250 and the video card to the HD 4330, but I obviously don't want to do that if it still won't be able to produce 1080p. 

I'd appreciate your input as I'm debating whether to take the plunge to the HTPC or continue experimenting with my PS3 or doing WD TV Live or O!Play.

Thanks a lot.


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## wbassett (Feb 8, 2007)

Start a new thread about the Zino please...


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## Ultramanv (Feb 24, 2010)

I cant speak for anyone else ,,, But I have watched many 1080p movies it mine, I have the base unit with the upgraded paocessor and havent had and skips or anything... But Ill see what my setting are to see if im doing anything diff... I love this zino But thats my personal pref being it fits good in my cabinet


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