OT: Home Theater PC

[padstack]

Ok, a bit of a tangent here, but had a thought that I was looking for some constructive feedback on.  I have an extra Elo touchscreen that I was wanting to do a juke with, but it seemed like a bit of a waste for me personally.  I also just cleaned out my AV cabinet since I cancelled the satellite and had about 10,000 wires to take out.  I was thinking about fabing a custom enclosure with a slot-feed DVD and a touchscreen.  I have ample room in the cabinet.  I was thinking it would serve as a juke into the stereo, basic control while I work out any remote issues, and any other options such as secondary monitor for viewing the baby's room while watching tv, etc.  Do you think a 15" would be too obtrusive?  My main TV is 52" and I have one of those entertainment systems that has the column on each side with the shelf up top.  I think in a dark setting it might cause distractions.

Any thoughts?

[blueznl]

I see no mentioning of TVersity, so there :-) (For my own convenience I gathered some quick setup information here to speed things up... http://www.xs4all.nl/~bluez/datatalk/mediasoup.htm#top )

I'm also considering building  up a HTPC, but I've also been eyeing the new LG BlueRay players, that are supposed to have full network support... Such an LG in combination with a hidden server running TVersity might just be the ticket, I don't know.

I was thinking about using XMBC or GamEx for a kids setup, to be used as gaming front-end as well as a media front-end, but I seem to be running into problems with both options...

- XMBC, I've never been able to have it launch something else, ie. a game or something through one of the menus. Anybody who has managed that?...

- GameEX, haven't been able to change subtitling and audio tracks, must be something I'm doing wrong...

Suggestions welcome, though perhaps I should put this in another thread, I just realised I'm highjacking this one a little... Though it is a bit on topic, I sear, your honour, it is!

Ah, let me sneak in another question then :-)

- Anybody who's running such an LG BD390 as an audio jukebox? Except for a hard time to browse music without a screen on it just might be the ticket... Then again perhaps a build-in touchscreen is, in spite of the expenses, the way to go...

[Kirky]

I just pulled the trigger on some hardware for a HTPC.  Been waiting for a wireless solution and noticed the Zotac boards.  I picked up a ION-A and so far it rocks!  I am trying XBMC and it looks very promising.  Right out of the box I was wirelessly streaming a HD rip of Wall-E to the device and it played it fine!  I don't think XBMC does the GPU offloading to the ION chipset, yet...  Unless I missed something.

I'm running DishTV so I know that TV is out of the question right now.  Been thinking about OTA broadcasts and might make an attempt at that, but really, I am trying to clean up the clutter around the TV and the need for disks, DVD players, etc.  If I can do something about TV that would really just be gravy.

I need to make a call on a remote, bene looking at the options and there are a ton.  Currently using an iPhone as a touchpad which is working, but not an idea solution.  I think I need to go IR.

[Warborg]

- GameEX, haven't been able to change subtitling and audio tracks, must be something I'm doing wrong...

I haven't tried GameEX in a while, but last time I did it wasn't capable of switching subtitle/audio tracks like in OGM and MKV files.  I had even talked to the developer about it, and he stated at that time he didn't know how to make it do so, and it wasn't a priority feature for him to look into either.  I don't know if that's changed, but as of a while back that was the case and one of the big reasons I didn't use it for my HTPCs, I use Mediaportal.

[zallax]

I have an Asrock 330 HTPC and what I did was a merge of the two.  I used GameEx as the main front end.  Then, using GameEx's menu editor, I removed the Multimedia links and replaced it with a link to launch XBMC.  So, I get the best of both worlds.

[blueznl]

Zallax, what did you do exactly? Some more details would be welcome!