Looking for the perfect (high WAF) setup

[zombieagain 7]

Hi,

 

I'm looking to simplify and make more robust and spouse friendly my setup, so I'd like to have some suggestion. This is what I have right now:

 

MBC and MBS on the same HTPC.

Cable card from Comcast. My subscription includes copy once channels (HBO, etc...).

WMC internal player for wtv files and Live TV.

TMT6 for Blu-Ray and DVD (disc, ISOs and folders).

MPC-BE with MadVR for everything else (I need a player that can delay subtitles and switch audio streams through remote control).

 

For Recorded TV organization I use this combo:

WTV-Renamer runs every few minutes to extract metadata from wtv files and rename them.

Sickbeard monitors the recorded TV folder and will move all the renamed files to the appropriate folders.

 

For metadata, I used Metabrowser for movies and Sickbeard for TV until now, but the new MB3 Server is awesome so I just need that with one exception. I still use the Youtube trailer downloader from metabrowser, as the local trailer plugin doesn't have enough sources for now (it would be great if it could download the Youtube trailer referenced by the TMDB movie page).

 

For remote control I use a Nexus 7 with Irule, an IR blaster and Eventgost on the HTPC.

 

As far as I understand, the Recorded TV organization may be taken over by a new server feature, so I could remove WTV-Renamer from the list and maybe in the future the local trailer plugin will have more sources, but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong and I should re-architect my system in a different way.

 

99% of my content comes from the Cable Card or ripped discs, but I do use Sickbeard and Torrents for foreign stuff hard to get in US. I also had to use the Piratebay edition of Sickbeard to automatically download subtitles, as the only player I found that has a remote friendly way to download subtitles is XBMC (I tried to use XBMC as external player for MBC, but that is way too cumbersome).

 

Sometimes I have glitches (video freezing or slowing down for a few seconds) so I'm thinking to get a new machine to move server and all the background stuff and have only MBC, TMT6, MPC and Eventghost on the machine connected to the TV

 

Any input is welcome!

 

Giovanni

[WarrenH 16]

Seems like you have it all well set-up, the only comment I would make is to try keep things as simple as possible if you're looking for the best WAF. For example - I bet she doesn't like using the Nexus as a remote controller.

 

What I've learnt is to not impose those things that interest me such as plugins, themes, etc upon the family unless they add to their viewing needs. As such we have a very basic MB setup that just works without complication.

Edited February 12, 2014 by WarrenH

[chef 3750]

The WAF, is that measures out of ten?

 

Currently, I have been using mbc with the square theme. My wife seems to be able to use everything quite easily. When I made the love from chocolate theme to square it took some getting use to, but things seemed to come together quite nicely. The beauty of square is how it shows multiple newly added media on the ehs (the other themes do as well, but square shows lots) this means that my wife doesn't really have to navigate past the ehs.

 

Mbc is very reliable

[pmac 132]

On our main HTPC we haven't switched from MBT since it came out, and everyone seems to enjoy it we get the odd minor hiccup, but I've mapped a "Exit Media Browser Theater" button to my Harmony remote as well as one to start it back up, so everyone knows to just quit and restart it if they're unsure about something. That normally solves any problems.

 

I downloaded MBC and Square theme since it looked similar to MBT, but I found it wasn't quite as fast to navigate as MBT, and it seems to have a lot more information on the screen, and I felt it may confuse anyone used to using MBT here. It's definitely a very nice, feature-rich theme though. The OneTV setting is pretty cool, makes finding a certain tv show fast!

 

But as far as simple WAF goes... One word: "Roku" it doesn't get any more easy and straightforward than that. The only minor problem we've had is there are a couple movies and (so far) one complete series that doesn't seem to want to play, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and figure out why. The ease of use is astounding though, literally anyone could figure it out.

[zombieagain 7]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

The Nexus 7/Irule remote was actually a decent hit for the WAF, because all the other remotes are now in the drawer and it doesn't require line of sight (uses wi-fi). Also I'm dynamically remapping all the buttons depending if I'm playing a video using WMC, MPC or TMT, but the remote layout stays the same.

 

MBT does not seem to be an option for me because it can't handle copy once channels and recordings, but I would love for a way to switch between MBT and WMC/MBC depending on the copy once flag.

I've been looking to the Roku a lot, but again, not live tv with copy once content and no blu-rays with full menus... so I was considering Roku to add auxiliary content (Netflix, Amazon, Youtube...) but the fact that HBO GO is not enable on Roku for comcast customers is keeping me from pulling the trigger.

 

Maybe off topic, but how does the Roku picture quality compare with MPC+MadVR? I've been very impressed after switching to MadVR a few weeks back. The difference in quality from my previous setup for mkv and avi files (it was WMC + ffdshow) is very noticeable.

 

Zombieagain

[trusselo 220]

personally i dont have live TV and canada doesnt do cablecards, but that end seems to be covered now with MB Server, its new live tv functions and soon to come renaming.

 

for everything else, ie torrent downloading, subtitle downloading, trailer downloading from youtube, renaming ect. ect. ect. I use one tool.

Media Center Master

it can auto-download tv shows right after they air, by controlling utorrent, then after completion, removes completed/seeding torrents, renames them, fetches episode info, moves to correct TV series/season folder, gets subtitles for you, or if subs were included with torrent they get kept and moved/renamed with.

 

it also monitors utorrent/download folder for movies, clears utorrent, renames fetches, gets trailer, subtitles, moves to movie folder.

it can be setup to download new releases automatically as well, or be told to download any movie or tv show through trakt.tv account by adding to custom list.

 

combine these features with setting up utorrent to auto-load and delete all .torrent files in a folder i set up inside dropbox, and i can use my phone to download .torrent files, upload to that dropbox folder, then my pc at home sees that torrent file, loads it, then deletes it. media center master handles the rest.

i come home, and new movies and tv shows are waiting in mediabrowser, with subtitles and trailers.

Edited February 18, 2014 by trusselo

[Vidman 589]

personally i dont have live TV and canada doesnt do cablecards, but that end seems to be covered now with MB Server, its new live tv functions and soon to come renaming.

 

for everything else, ie torrent downloading, subtitle downloading, trailer downloading from youtube, renaming ect. ect. ect. I use one tool.

Media Center Master

it can auto-download tv shows right after they air, by controlling utorrent, then after completion, removes completed/seeding torrents, renames them, fetches episode info, moves to correct TV series/season folder, gets subtitles for you, or if subs were included with torrent they get kept and moved/renamed with.

 

it also monitors utorrent/download folder for movies, clears utorrent, renames fetches, gets trailer, subtitles, moves to movie folder.

it can be setup to download new releases automatically as well, or be told to download any movie or tv show through trakt.tv account by adding to custom list.

 

combine these features with setting up utorrent to auto-load and delete all .torrent files in a folder i set up inside dropbox, and i can use my phone to download .torrent files, upload to that dropbox folder, then my pc at home sees that torrent file, loads it, then deletes it. media center master handles the rest.

i come home, and new movies and tv shows are waiting in mediabrowser, with subtitles and trailers.

What type of phone do you use?... On android there are a few utorrent remote apps that will automatically add magnet links to utorrent. I find transdroid to be the best... there is a crippled version in the play store called transdrone which doesn't include the function to search for torrents from with the app Edited February 20, 2014 by Vidman

[trusselo 220]

What type of phone do you use?... On android there are a few utorrent remote apps that will automatically add magnet links to utorrent. I find transdroid to be the best... there is a crippled version in the play store called transdrone which doesn't include the function to search for torrents from with the app

yeah i know there are apps that can do that. i use the dropbox method for various other reasons.  i can also set my fathers computer to download through another dropbox folder, he lives 3000 km away.

[Vidman 589]

They also allow you to connect to more than one server and allow you to check the status and manage your torrents as well. ... But you probably know that as well;)

 

...but maybe this may be a better solution for someone else reading this thread such as the original poster

Edited February 20, 2014 by Vidman

[Vidman 589]

To give my suggestion for the OP I think the simplest unified solution would be to use xbmc as the front end and use the xbmb3c addon to integrate with mb3 and serverwmc for live tv/pvr

 

XBMC have great smartphone remote apps and one interface to acess disc media nas media and live tv

Edited February 20, 2014 by Vidman