my new HTPC + Nas server

[Kamal]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

^^^ I second that. Handbrake is definitely the software for me. As much as I'd love to keep uncompressed HD mkv's on my HDD, I'm afraid of running outta space.

but space is so cheap these days. you can get a 2 TB HD for $100 on a good day at newegg. I remember when I bought my first HD about 9 years ago. 75 GB for $110 and I thought it was a steal.

[res0nat0r]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

yeah but using 50GB for a bluray which can be compressed to 5-8GB is just silly

[Simon Preston]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Coo, I'm going to try that makemkv coupled with handbrake and see what results I get with that.
Now... best DVD rippers that will rip direct to a single file? Anyone? I'm with Dusk as well here, I'd rather not have to have uncompressed ISO's and the like if I can get similar results at a quarter of the size or less.

[Kamal]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

yeah but using 50GB for a bluray which can be compressed to 5-8GB is just silly

maybe I'm the only one but I saw a pretty noteworthy difference between the image quality of a compressed 8 gb 1080p file vs. an uncompressed 1080p file. you can have 480p stretched out to fill a 1080p screen but the detail and color in an uncompressed 1080p file is hard to miss.

[Simon Preston]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

but space is so cheap these days. you can get a 2 TB HD for $100 on a good day at newegg. I remember when I bought my first HD about 9 years ago. 75 GB for $110 and I thought it was a steal.

I remember 200MB (Yup, Megabytes) drives being £300 and I so desperately wanted one. In the end, my first drive was 2.6GB that was about £130.
Storage space is getting cheaper and cheaper but you only need roughly about 20x 50GB Blu Ray until that 2TB drive is also full. Add to that full TV series' and the like and these drive are getting eaten up fast. I got my Blu Ray collection in easy reach, so for me its unnecessary storage usage.

[dusk]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

maybe I'm the only one but I saw a pretty noteworthy difference between the image quality of a compressed 8 gb 1080p file vs. an uncompressed 1080p file. you can have 480p stretched out to fill a 1080p screen but the detail and color in an uncompressed 1080p file is hard to miss.

I definitely agree with you here K, especially since I've started watching movies on my sisters projector. (uncompressed iso's are super impressive) So its a real toss for me - the only movies I think I'll convert uncompressed would be my 5 star rated ones. Right now, no matter how cheap space is, I can't justify saving anything over 10-12gb's for one single movie file on disk.

[dusk]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Coo, I'm going to try that makemkv coupled with handbrake and see what results I get with that.

Let us know how you get on with the results mate.

[ganjamo]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Sup guys i wanted to know what do you think about this Atom PC. Its what i can get locally and its about 350$ . Its an ION 330 but it lacks an optical drive. This is the device in question.

[res0nat0r]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

nice...do you have a link to the actual specs? what type of video decoding chip does it have? that is key.

[ganjamo]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

internally is exactly the same as the Asrock you guys are rocking.
Its 1.6ghz Atom CPU, NVIDIA MCP7A-ION chipset, 2gb DDR2 800mhz, 250GB HD.

[res0nat0r]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

^ahh. sweet!

[res0nat0r]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

https://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/

Free android XBMC remote. This looks epic:

• Remote control with the look of the Xbox' DVD Dongle
• Control XBMC's volume directly with your device's volume buttons
• Fast access to items in list via hard- or soft keyboard (long-press Menu)
• Manage multiple XBMC instances
• Live view of currently playing playlist
• Notification bar shows what's playing with direct access to "Now playing" screen (can be disabled)
• Large screen (854x480) support, while maintaining 1.5 compatibility
• On incoming call, display who's calling on TV screen and pause video until call is over
• On incoming message, display on TV screen
• Setting that prevents your phone locking the screen. You can apply it either for remote control only or all screens (or disable it completely)
• Tabs looking and behaving like HTC's Sense UI, also check out the Gallery.
• Ultra fast cover download for recent XBMC builds (>r27770)
• Texture support for HTC Tattoo, Google Nexus One as well as Motorola's Droid/Milestone.

[Simon Preston]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

Been setting up my Playstation 3 remote for use with XBMC and I've nearly got it mostly mapped out. I'm sure as I'm going a long I'll have a "That would be handy to have at a touch of a button" moment on more than one occasion. However, is there a keyboard combination for Windows that allows me to select a different audio track? Can't seem to find one in the keymap.xml.

Sussed it: Just create your own keyboard.xml in User/Appdata/Roaming/XBMC/userdata/keymaps with the following:

<keymap>
  <global>
    <keyboard>
      <h>AudioNextLanguage</h>
    </keyboard>
  </global>
</keymap>

This will assign the H key to change to the next audio track which I have then mapped to my PS3 remote software.

[CircleGuy]

Re: my new HTPC + Nas server

just came across this thread.

you have good taste in computerwares, reso. ubuntu is the way to go