User:Ray N

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Background

I'm a Professional Engineer with a 1999 undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering. I was born and raised in beautiful Puerto Rico (http://welcome.topuertorico.org/index.shtml). Have development history and experience in hardware and software. Started getting involved with Linux based media centers and DVRs through LinuxMCE in March 2009. After a motherboard crash and realizing that LinuxMCE was more than what I was looking for, started looking at other options and found the sexy and solid Kodi solution for our media center experience. Started playing and setting up Kodi back in June 2011 when it was XBMC. Thank God the motherboard was still under warranty!

Our original intent was 1) to be able to watch some TV in the living room as there was no cableTV connection in that room (bizarre construction arrangement, we know), and 2) to watch DVD (or BluRay) movies. To tackle the sending the cableTV signal up to the living room without having to lay coax cables around the house, I thought, why not sending it through the network. So I started looking at options and that's how we came to Linux based media centers.

I decided to build our own system as we wanted a nice looking "appliance-like" box that would take the place of the DVD player. We'll start with a very simple one-machine setup, with the idea to have one in almost every room in the house. This is my server shopping list from March 2009.

Server's shopping list
Item Cost Description Website
Case $58.99 hec Black 0.7mm Thickness SECC Steel 7KJ9 Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121068
CPU $78.00 AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103300
Motherboard $89.99 ASUS M3N78-EM AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 8300 HDMI Micro ATX AMD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131354
RAM $22.99 Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104012
Hard Drive $34.99 Western Digital Caviar Blue WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106
BluRay Player $99.99 LITE-ON Black 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal 6X Blu-Ray DVD ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model iHES106-29 - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106270
TV Capture $159.99 SiliconDust HDHomeRun Network-based Dual Digital HDTV Tuner Ethernet Interface http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815327005
2nd NIC $19.99 Rosewill RC-401-EX 10/ 100/ 1000Mbps PCI-Express Gigabit Low Profile Network Card 1 x RJ45 - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166015
Transceiver $55.00 USB UIRT http://www.usbuirt.com/order.htm
Remote $79.99 Logitech K800 Black USB RF Wireless Slim Illuminated Keyboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126194
Sound Card --- Realtek ALC1200 - 8 Channels In MoBo
Graphics card --- NVIDIA GeForce 8300 In MoBo
Thermal Compound $5.99 Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
MediaCenter Software FREE!!! Woooohooo!

Total: $705.91 Does not include shipping and handling.


Setup

Other stuff

  • Connected to a Samsung LN-T4061F 40" TFT-LCD display through HDMI @1080 resolution
  • Had to purchase a powerline networking adapter because of the location of the system.
  • Also, later purchased the pcHDTV card when realized the HDHomeRun only received digital signals. Then upgraded to the HDHomeRun-CC version and no longer use the pcHDTV card.
  • 2011.08 - Bought two of the awesome Shuttle XS35GT-V2 as clients for a 3-Kodi household setup. We now have the main server in the basement with its corresponding big screen setup, one unit in the living room, also with a huge screen and the other one in the kitchen with the "smaller" 40".
Client's shopping list
Item Cost Description Website
Case $229.99 Shuttle XS35GT-V2 Intel NM10 1 x 204Pin IDT92HD81 Black Mini / Booksize Barebone System http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101122
RAM $25.99 CORSAIR 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145283
Hard Drive $114.99 Kingston SSDNow V100 Series SV100S2D/64GZ 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139418
Remote $80.83 Gyration GYR3101US Universal Infrared / RF Remote Control http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880105001&Tpk=gyration

Total: $451.80 Does not include shipping and handling.


Installation

  • Used XBMCLive 10.1 Dharma release CD
  • On server, original 80GB drive crashed. Bought new 360GB drive and partitioned like this:
    • 4 GB: Swap
    • 5 GB: XBMC (ext4)
    • 5 GB: "Factory settings" reset backup (ext4)
    • 340 GB: MythTV Storage (XFS)
  • Got HDMI sound working by following instructions here: HOW-TO_set_up_audio_over_HDMI_on_nVidia_GeForce/nForce_controller
  • Installed XBMCLive 10.1 Dharma on the client's by following this: HOW-TO:Install_KodiBuntu_from_a_USB_drive
    • Had to manually enable the network interface by editing /etc/network/interfaces

Configuration

  • Installed and configured MythTV DVR on server box
  • Using the Add-on:MythBox as mythtv client (super nice!)

Here's the setup in the kitchen area:
KitchenXBMC.jpg

And here's a close-up of the Shuttle client with the custom-made glass shelf:
ShuttleCloseUp.jpg

Plans

  • To actively contribute to the Kodi community and its progress.


Will be adding more to this page as time permits.