michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Moving on to the next step: once you have completed all of the above steps, you still need to tell the application XBMC what to use to output sound, as well as setting up your other preferences like your city for the Weather Network. XBMC can browse shares, NAS ( network attatched storage ) or other outboard and system hard drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 That's about it for tonight folks, I have an appointment with Gregory House, M.D. in a few moments... [] What was the final cost for this computer? Newegg.ca has a special on until the end of this month for $ 279.99 with a free wireless keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is based upon a laptop unit, smaller than a conventional unit. The wireless mouse is a laser unit, and of good quality.Both take AAA batteries. Of the two complete computers purchased, I had to send my keyboard and mouse combo back for a replacement, as the keyboard I received did not work. Newegg was quick in issuing an RMA as well as a shipping label. The other keyboard and mouse set works flawlessly. Go figure! Interestingly enough, when I was browsing around looking at this particular unit, Newegg.com had the same part number with a copy of Windows 7 and the wireless keyboard and mouse for the same price. Apparently, us Canucks couldn't get the same deal. Link to Newegg.ca site for Zotac MAG: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173001&Tpk=zotac%20mag Samsung Story Station 2TB external HDD: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152205&cm_re=samsung_story_station-_-22-152-205-_-Product 2TB of external storage for $ 114..... that's a darned decent price, considering I paid about $ 179 for each of my other 1 TB drives over a year ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 If you haven't noticed already, the mouse pointer in XBMC is very very slow, beyond sluggish. You must download and install the newest Nvidia driver for the display. [ System > Administration > Hardware Drivers ] Check the box to enable the restricted drivers for your NVIDIA card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 To make the desktop a bit more 'usable' I scaled up the size of the fonts and the size of the icons, especially if you are going to be using this on a large display, and sitting across the room. To change the size of the fonts, click [ System > Preferances > Appearance ] To change the size of the icons, mouse over and then right click on your mouse. Select the "Stretch Icon" and pull the corner of your icon to the new desired size. Repeat for all of your desktop icons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Font selection: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Stretch Icon: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 At this point, you should have the proper drivers installed, and everything configured except the applications. Coming from Windows, Ubuntu is a bit of a pain to MAKE everything work together.... it's not simply plug and play. ( apparently older versions of Ubuntu were REALLY a pain to install and actually USE programs, they made it better.... ) When you open XBMC, you get a black splash screen with the XBMC logo and then : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Moving down to the various categories: Music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Weather: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 XBMC system settings : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted July 29, 2010 Author Share Posted July 29, 2010 Select 'System' again and 'Audio Output'. Configure this according to what you are going to be using to output audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whamo Posted August 1, 2010 Share Posted August 1, 2010 Very cool Mike. I'm marking this so I can find it for future reference. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 I had problems with the mouse as well, the newest display drivers fixed that. Go to your System > Administration > Hardware drivers. I wrote about that problem in one of the posts. It should tell you that Restricted Drivers are available, and make sure that the Nvidia display driver is shown, installed and activated. I hooked the mini PC up to a friend's Sony LCD television, the resolution and everything were way out to lunch. I have hooked mine to a 42" LG plasma, as well as a 50" LG plasma with absolutely no issues. Does VLC support deep color as XBMC? I had installed VLC on an older Windows XP box years ago, but I did not care for the interface much at all. With XBMC, there is also gapless audio support, where there is no delay switching tracks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesV Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Very cool Mike. I'm marking this so I can find it for future reference. Thanks +1 Will have to look into it more but first a new TV is in order. I also downloaded XBMC a few weeks ago after you mentioned it in another thread, Really nice from the few times that I played with it, hope to do a little more now that I have a little more down time..... James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted August 3, 2010 Author Share Posted August 3, 2010 I took a few more screenshots, but was too busy this weekend to update this thread. Browsing files on a drive that is normally hooked to my WDTV streamer: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted August 3, 2010 Author Share Posted August 3, 2010 Selecting files, I have created some .ISO files from my own DVD's with commonly available tools off of the 'net. ISO's are a complete DVD image, and XBMC allows you to have full menu support, special features, audio options etc, unlike the WDTV streamer I have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted August 5, 2010 Author Share Posted August 5, 2010 BTW, is it easy to get a remote stick working with XBMC? I haven't experimented with a remote, but I have read that there is support for an MCE remote out of the box, in the Linux build of XBMC. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Using_a_remote_control_with_XBMC Personally, I think the keyboard and mouse for me is great. : Side note, I did have the chance to use a custom programmed remote with XBMC on the original XBox, and it's operation was flawless, however the owner did a lot of work programming the remote. ( touchscreen ) Inexpensive remote controls here: http://cgi.ebay.com/PC-Remote-Control-Wireless-Mice-Windows-MCE-XP-Vista-7-/180542519890?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a092c3a52 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michael hurd Posted August 6, 2010 Author Share Posted August 6, 2010 BTW, I guess I have been a bit out of the loop, but apparently there is another skin or front end for XBMC called AEON. I just ran across this today, but check out the eyecandy here. WOWZERS!!!! What a custom HTPC should look like! http://www.aeonproject.com/gallery.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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