And thus, endeth our story...

Now this thread belongs to the ages.

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This Space For Rent

I was away all weekend and missed the party.

Congratulations Sean on getting your build up and running. More importantly, I'm happy that you stuck through it when some would have given up.

As Alex and others have reinforced, get that manual backup done and locked. With that, you shouldn't need to go through your painful Vista install process again. I'm pretty sure you know what each install screen looks like now. If anything, I'm sure you got some more grey hair now.

I hope the Mac folks don't see this thread. It'll give them more ammo for their Mac vs. Vista commercials.

Again, well done Sean.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

Damian, are you leaning towards one of those as your favorite?

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Sean
"I do not like the cone of shame."
Boom Boom Room

Keep that virgin backup at the ready. After you finish trying out all these different suites, you will have what I consider to be a polluted computer. For a new build, that wouldn't give me a good feeling. Once you've decided on the suite that you will commit to, I would restore the backup just prior to your suite testing (or the initial backup) and then re-install the suite and software that you will end up using.

You spent a lot of time with your computer to then bring in some potential instability with the installation of all these products. If you can, avoid using your HTPC as a sandbox.

Just my 2 cents.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

I like SageTV but it is not free. The reason why I got it is because I have one of their HD Extenders. Honestly though, if I didn't have their extender I would not get as it costs $80 after the trial. Also, it seems like SageTV keeps crapping out on my HTPC (which is Vista x64). My main PC is Vista x32, so I have been testing on both versions. With VMC, you either need to do a simple hack or use myMovies to play your dvds (I have a combination of straight dvd rips and mkvs). If you can get this working then VMC is probably the most straightforward and has high WAF. You can also bring netflix into the mix as well, and they have a neat MSNBC addon as well.

I started playing around with XBMC a few days ago. If you have the time it actually seems pretty neat. My video playback is a lot quicker then VMC and it has Apple Movie trailers integrated (the only reason why I still have my AppleTV). Only problem is that since it is open source there are still some bugs, and you may have to do some tweaking to get what you want.

I would suggest you take a crack at VMC first. If you can get it to do everything that you need and it is easy for everyone to navigate through, then run with it. If not, then it can't hurt to try the other programs out (I think boxee has a windows version coming out soon, so I am very interested to see what that has to offer as it looks like it has very good online content integration, I have to get a USB stick to mod my AppleTV with Boxee to give it a test run)

Here is a thread actually that we started talking about different software. I think somewhere in there I gave my thoughts on some of the different suites:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2612&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

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Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I have been using VMC on an existing PC and like it quite a bit. It's easy to use, looks good, and it reads all my VOB files with no problem. I only wish they would come out with some different skins, or custom layouts.

All4fun,
I totally agree, I don't want to use my new HTPC as a "sandbox". Some of the streaming software I have tried on my existing PC, and evaluate there instead of on my build.

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Sean
"I do not like the cone of shame."
Boom Boom Room

I have myMovies installed on my MSS and HTPC, works well with VMC (although I had to go and reselect the movie covers for many of them as they were incorrect. Plus, being a little anal I wanted the HD/Blu Ray covers to show for my HDDVD/Blu Ray movies, not the standard dvd covers). I don't like the menu structure for VMC, and agree with you, I don't like the lack of customization. Hopefully Windows 7 will be a big improvement




From my perspective I would have to disagree, I would take a different approach with testing the software. I would rather use my HTPC to test different media suites. My main PC has a lot more critical data. It is a lot easier to clean up the HTPC since it has such a limited use and has minimal data then having to do the same on my main PC. My main pc is where I do all my ripping/encoding, where I keep track of my finances, etc... and prefer not to use this as a testing ground. I have a lot more to lose if I blow up my PC then I do my HTPC. Also, my PC is a lot more powerful then my HTPC, so playing media on my PC may work smoothly but come out choppy on my HTPC. Since my PC is x32 and my HTPC is x64, I have to test on the HTPC anyhow and just from my experience with SageTV, the software does not function as well on x64. Just my opinion though, I think it depends on what you use your main PC for and how critical it is.

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I don't even want to think about installing a new OS right now!



I see your point, but for me this HTPC has to have a huge WAF. If she wants to watch a movie and for some reason I have made chances or corrupt something, she would see it as a hassle and want the DVD player back.

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Sean
"I do not like the cone of shame."
Boom Boom Room

Hopefully the only thing you need to do is get a working codec set installed. For me that is the only thing that could change and possibly corrupt something. Once you have the correct codecs the various media suites should work without interfering with each other (at least they haven't interfered for me so far, knock on wood!!!)

I don't know if you have thought of codecs yet. I prefer the Vista codec set, which is what I have on my HTPC. For some reason on my PC though I have issues with this codec set when I encode my HD videos to mkv, so I have to use K Lite instead. My one piece of advice, find the codecs that work and stick with them, the more codecs you install the more chance of serious issues...

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

Just catching up on some missed threads and missed this one...

Here's my additional perspective on the matter as to why I wouldn't use the HTPC as the sandbox:

1. My main machine is MY machine. It's not shared with anybody else in the household (except with my son for gaming but he doesn't count). Even with any critical data on it, I know that I can quickly restore the data from the MSS (the backups) or perform a PC Restore if I had a catastrophic failure.

2. The HTPC has to be seen within my household as a plug n play device similar to a DVD player. It has to just work. If my wife sees me forever tinkering with it, she knows that something is up and it will be viewed as a complicated device that she will not end up using rendering the purpose of the HTPC useless. Yes, I can perform a similar restore as with my main machine, but it's a matter of perception here. If my wife sees anything else but a movie playing on the HTPC, she will know that I'm tinkering again.

After the hell that Sean (MaximAVS) just went through, my recommendation would be to leave the HTPC alone from tinkering until he's sure what he wants to put on there.

I guess it really doesn't matter. Probably the most critical thing is to make sure that your MSS backups are working reliably so that you can quickly restore your PCs if you need to.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

"Perception is reality"

"It does not matter HOW you run your business! All that matters is how our bosses THINK that you run you business!"

Famous quotes from my boss.

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Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
Core 2 Quad Core Q9550s
4GB Mushkin Ram
TR4MB eSata Enclosure
TR4UB USB Enclosure
Netgear WNDR3700
UPS APC 1500 XS LCD

You couldn't have said it better. What took me lines to say, you said in a few short lines. "Perception is Reality" when it comes to garnering support for the HTPC in my household.

Hey CBick, where's that animated avatar that I'm so looking forward to seeing.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

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Chris Bickerstaff
HP MSS DataVault X510
Core 2 Quad Core Q9550s
4GB Mushkin Ram
TR4MB eSata Enclosure
TR4UB USB Enclosure
Netgear WNDR3700
UPS APC 1500 XS LCD

At the time is was "hell", but looking back on it I'm thinking because of my noobness (is that a real word), some of the problems could have been no big deal for the educated PC builder. But now that I have put one together, and from the help from you guys, I know what to look for and what to try, and won't be posting a bunch of questions.
I'm still very happy with my fist one!!

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Sean
"I do not like the cone of shame."
Boom Boom Room

You can ask questions if you stop using the non-word "noob"...

Actually, you did great with the hardware, just ran into Windows....

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This Space For Rent