The XBMC thread - What it is, how it works etc...

[Sugar Ape]

Looks like I might be moving house soon, I get 150mb internet at the minute, the place I'm moving to you can only get a maximum of 17mb. This is going to massively fuck up my streaming capability. Just have to hope BT get fibre optic up in my area soon.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Looks like I might be moving house soon, I get 150mb internet at the minute, the place I'm moving to you can only get a maximum of 17mb. This is going to massively fuck up my streaming capability. Just have to hope BT get fibre optic up in my area soon.

I would consider not moving to a place without cable.

 

I'd be downloading loads of stuff before moving if I were you.

[Sugar Ape]

I would consider not moving to a place without cable.

 

I'd be downloading loads of stuff before moving if I were you.

This will probably give me the kick up the arse I need to buy a nas drive and fill it. Can't get Virgin in the area, BT say the cabinet should be enabled around September for fibre optic on their site ( though I don't know if enabled means I'll actually be able to get it then ) and that should give me speeds between 40-75mb which is good enough.

 

But it's going to be a right pisser waiting.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

This will probably give me the kick up the arse I need to buy a nas drive and fill it. Can't get Virgin in the area, BT say the cabinet should be enabled around September for fibre optic on their site ( though I don't know if enabled means I'll actually be able to get it then ) and that should give me speeds between 40-75mb which is good enough.

 

But it's going to be a right pisser waiting.

For me, Plex has been a real game changer. It feels like my own private media server. I guess that's what it is. I absolutely love it. Is your TV Mac mini always on? If so, just get a big ol' USB HD and fill him up.

 

Are you somebody who'll rewatch stuff? I tend not to so much, but I'm collecting lots of shows I've not watched, so the library always has a lot of new stuff to watch. Same with films.

[Sugar Ape]

I don't usually rewatch stuff, there are too many new shows coming out that I need to keep up with, but I'll rewatch things like band of brothers or Twin peaks with the Mrs as she hasn't seen them.

 

If I plug a hard drive into my Mac and leave that in my living room and install Plex on the Mac could I then access the stuff on the harddrive through an Amazon fire box in my bedroom? Would I have to enable something on the Mac to allow me to access it?

[Sugar Ape]

Or I should say would the harddrive have to be wifi enabled or could I just get a standard one?

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

As long as the Mac mini is on and connected to the network it'll work fine. You'll be able to connect from out of the house, too.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

If it has USb 3 go with that.

[Sugar Ape]

Any recommendations on harddrives? Some of the ones I've been looking at on Amazon have people in the reviews saying the don't work well with a Mac.

 

So to sum up, plug the Mac into my telly and connect it to the wifi. Connect the harddrive to the Mac ( which doesn't have to be wifi enabled ) and download plex and set the location for the files as the harddrive. Then if I access plex on my phone or a Fire box in my bedroom I can watch the stuff I've downloaded onto the harddrive?

 

I only need the harddrive then and a fire box if that's the case, can probably get a 4tb one and the box for around £200 which isn't too bad.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

The people saying it doesn't work with Mac are because they're noobs. It'll just need reformatting from NTFS to HFS+ in Disk Utility. It takes 15 seconds, tops.

 

This doesn't look like a bad deal to me. £127 for 5TB. The 4TB version is £115, so you might as well.

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-Drive/dp/B00UNA1O0W/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1430565287&sr=8-13&keywords=usb+3+hardrive

 

I'm not sure of the spin speed, but I run mine from a 5200rpm and it has never skipped a beat.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

And yeah, it's easy to set up.

 

Turn on your Mac, running the plex app. Make sure it's connected via WiFi or Ethernet.

Plug in your USB3 Drive, and get plex to search it and find all the covers n' shit.

Turn on your Amazon Fire TV, install plex (I think it's a couple of quid to buy).

Done. It instantly shows up.

 

You can then download apps for your tablet/phone and use those. Add a new movie, it automatically picks it up and shares it around the house.

 

If you're on your iPad on holiday, connect to a network and you've got your stuff streamed to you. Bonus.

[Sugar Ape]

I'm on it. Definitely getting it sorted this time, I'll just have to leave stuff slowly downloading on my friggin 17mb internet connection whilst I'm in work. I've been wanting to build a library of my own for ages so I'll get a shit load downloaded before I move which probably won't be for a month or so anyway.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I'm on it. Definitely getting it sorted this time, I'll just have to leave stuff slowly downloading on my friggin 17mb internet connection whilst I'm in work. I've been wanting to build a library of my own for ages so I'll get a shit load downloaded before I move which probably won't be for a month or so anyway.

On Virgin, they don't slow you down at all if you're downloading massive files overnight. Before you go to bed - I think the time is 11pm with Virgin - just set a fucking load to download, and it'll all be done overnight. Full seasons/shows - no problem.

[Sugar Ape]

Think I'm going to nip out and get this today NV, it's the same harddrive as the one you recommended but one that connects via usb only so I don't have to fuck around plugging it into a socket and it's smaller too. It's £148 on Amazon but £120 in Argos.

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/2465629.htm

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Think I'm going to nip out and get this today NV, it's the same harddrive as the one you recommended but one that connects via usb only so I don't have to fuck around plugging it into a socket and it's smaller too. It's £148 on Amazon but £120 in Argos.

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/2465629.htm

Looks fine to me. Plus, if it doesn't work Argos will take it back. Should be good though.

 

5tb will last you a good while.

[Sugar Ape]

Looks fine to me. Plus, if it doesn't work Argos will take it back. Should be good though.

 

5tb will last you a good while.

That's what I'm thinking, Argos won't squabble if I want a refund. The reviews are mostly favourable with people mainly just moaning about the quality of the case and some uber nerds complaining about stuff way over my head. This review on Argos made me laugh, though.

 

" I bought this drive today and connected it. Got a flashing LED but no sounds of the drive spinning up. I removed the lid (I am a qualified computer builder) and was presented by a 40GB 5.25" ATA WD drive when there should have been a 5TB 5.25" SATA Seagate drive in there. The drive wasn't spinning up as it wasn't connected.

BE WARNED all the seals and plastic wrap were in place so Argos are buying FAKE EQUIPMENT.

Will be returning this drive tomorrow for a full refund. "

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

You'll want to get your torrent client set up right, too. Set it to automatically download from the computer to the drive it's connected to.

 

You don't want to start copying things across the wireless network if you can help it.

[Sugar Ape]

I signed up to Plex yesterday but haven't downloaded the media player bit yet. I've got a Hammer house of horror movie collection downloaded on my Mac already which is circa 70gig so once I get the harddrive set up I'll transfer that off the Mac to the Seagate and then try and get plex

Up and running and port them over.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

That's what I'm thinking, Argos won't squabble if I want a refund. The reviews are mostly favourable with people mainly just moaning about the quality of the case and some uber nerds complaining about stuff way over my head. This review on Argos made me laugh, though.

 

" I bought this drive today and connected it. Got a flashing LED but no sounds of the drive spinning up. I removed the lid (I am a qualified computer builder) and was presented by a 40GB 5.25" ATA WD drive when there should have been a 5TB 5.25" SATA Seagate drive in there. The drive wasn't spinning up as it wasn't connected.

BE WARNED all the seals and plastic wrap were in place so Argos are buying FAKE EQUIPMENT.

Will be returning this drive tomorrow for a full refund. "

Got to be having a crack hasn't he?

[Sugar Ape]

You'll want to get your torrent client set up right, too. Set it to automatically download from the computer to the drive it's connected to.

 

You don't want to start copying things across the wireless network if you can help it.

How do I do that? I've got an older version of utorrent running now on the Mac but it just puts anything downloaded straight into the downloads section.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

I signed up to Plex yesterday but haven't downloaded the media player bit yet. I've got a Hammer house of horror movie collection downloaded on my Mac already which is circa 70gig so once I get the harddrive set up I'll transfer that off the Mac to the Seagate and then try and get plex

Up and running and port them over.

On your USB drive, you'll want a TV Shows folder and a Films folder. In the TV Shows you need to put them like this...

 

TV Shows > Show Name > Season Number

 

Then there are a few ways to name the files so they automatically show in Plex. You can just put the downloaded file in there, as it's normally something like sopranos.s03e05.mp4. That will get automatically picked up by Plex and show properly with episode names, covers etc. I personally so it like this...

 

Sopranos > Season 1 > 2 - 46 Long

 

Then you can use it without Plex if you want. And I'm anal.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

How do I do that? I've got an older version of utorrent running now on the Mac but it just puts anything downloaded straight into the downloads section.

Download transmission, it's well better. In preferences you can set where you want it to download. I also set it to watch for torrents, so it auto downloads. If you prefer to download the torrent files on your other computer or at work or from your phone, just get it to watch dropbox folder, and put your torrents in there from wherever you are. It'll be auto added that way.

 

Do you have a main computer other than the mini?

[Sugar Ape]

I've got a Vaio laptop that I mainly use to download Stuff and the Mac for streaming through xbmc. I think it'd probably be easier just download on the Mac straight to the Seagate that's connected to it now though.

 

I'm going to download a shitload of movies and tv shows while I'm still living here with good internet speeds, then when I move I'll mainly just be downloading the odd movie or episode of a tv series so, even with slow internet, it shouldn't cause me too much of a problem.

 

Once I've got plex up and running and all the tv shows and movies in the right order I'll get a fire TV box for the bedroom and give it a go.

[Guest Numero Veinticinco]

Try it on your phone or tablet first. You'll get the general idea.

 

Like I said though, give the whole Dropbox thing a go. If you're on you laptop, looking at IPT, download the torrents, and throw them into Dropbox, then they'll auto add to the Mac and start downloading. Its easy to set up and can be accessed from anywhere.

[Sugar Ape]

I've had a look at Dropbox and while it looks great my head is spinning a little bit. Think I'm going to have my hands tied just getting plex set up before I look at that! It looks the dogs bollocks though to be fair.