New house, new setup

[IDversusEGO]

recently remarried and we recently moved into a house so I am trying to retro fit my bachelor theater setup to a living room setup with some WAF. so far it is all on the bench and in "temporary" setups but every gallery log starts somewhere.

I am going to list my goals for the HTPC, the hardware used, the software used, and some basic install notes.

My goals for this HTPC:
* Organize and playback ripped and encoded movies (HD and SD)
* Organize and playback encoded and archived TV series.
* Automatically display metadata for movies and TV series
* Organize and playback MP3 files
* Organize and display personal video
* Organize and display photos
* provide weather info
* eventually record TV
* Cover art and fan art driven interface
* fully operable via remote control
* look good in my living room entertainment rack

Hardware used:
This can be a tricky part. You can make an HTPC out of anything, just like you can make a PC out of anything. The trick is determining what you need from it and then properly equipping it. I have made frankensteined HTPCs out of parts I had lying around or out of retired parts with relatively good results. Some oft he components are just scrap parts I am using until I can pick out or afford somethign better. Below is what I am using...

HTPC:
ECS 945PA mobo
e8400 core2 Duo
2gb DDR
Seagate 80gb SATA OS drive
generic DVDrom
ATI 3650 HDMI video card
Silverstone Tek HTPC case
Windows Media Center OEM remote receiver
Logitech Harmony Xbox edition

Other equipment:
Panasonic 42" 720p Plasma
Onkyo 605 receiver
Klipsch RB-51 L/R
Klipsch RC-52 C
Klispch KSW-12 sub
and the first compromise...BIC Venturi DV32 LR/RR (pending order)
Xbox 360

all of the media is on my primary workstation. I would love a dedicated server, but I don't have the room or equipment for it. This works fine so far. Keeps the heat and noise out of my HTPC.

Software used:
Windows Media Center is very popular and for good reason. It still didn't do everything I wanted so I ditched it for a third party app. I have used SageTV for years and still love it, but the interface is clunky and all the plugins can be difficult to manage. They are in the middle of an overhaul and I will most likely go back to Sage once 7 comes out...but that will be another thread. Because I had paid for Sage and didnt feel like investing money into another solution while I wait for Sage, I took a look at some of the free options. There are a few, but I decided on MediaPortal because of the well supported plugins. Here is a specific list of everything I installed on the HTPC...

Windows 7 Ultimate
Windows Media Player Classic Home Cinema
CoreAVC codecs
Medial Portal 1.1.0 RC1
StreamedMP 1.0.2 which includes the following plugins:
* MovingPictures: v1.0.4
* TVSeries: v2.5.3
* MyTrailers: v2.0.6
* InfoService: v1.5.0
* MyLyrics.dll: v1.4.2
* Music Search: v1.7.0
* WebBrowser: v0.5.0
* FanartHandler: v1.5.3740

Not sure, but I bet these are packaged with the new StreamedMP install...
nice Category icons

On my main workstation I have MyMovies Collection Manager installed and am working on getting MediaPortal to look at the XML file for metadata. This will mean that whatever I put in for the meatadata on MyMovies will be consistent across any MediaPortal machines I build. I have plans for 3. This also allows me to publish my collection to a web database and show detailed movie lists to anyone I share the link with. This is great for when you want to borrow movies among your circle of friends. See below...

http://c.mymovies.dk/idvsego

Software Install:

I listed the apps in the order of install. Since I built my last box it looks like a couple f the times I was using in Beta have progressed to RC releases so I am going to rebuild and see if some of the hassles I dealt with are gone. One of the main reasons I picked Media Portal was the ease of install. Sage requires unzipping in directories and each plugin has its own set of dependencies. MP plugins tend to be in .exe files and have install menus. They also package dependencies so that when you download a plugin and install it...it works. Imagine that. I had so many experiences with Sage where I would download the zip file, extract it and crash Sage. I go back, read farther down the post and find that my plugin had another required plugin. I go download and unzip that plugin...crash. Now I read that the dependency has a dependency. At this point I usually just get my daughters to act out whatever movie I had been wanting to watch and call it a night. Anyway, long story short, the install section is now pending.

Here are some of the most common directories you work in..
C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal

C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\skin\StreamedMP\Media\Animations (backgrounds for the main page)

C:\Program Files\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal