My (Nerd) Build Thread

[rusty_nail]

Hi Guys,

Was chatting to Toddie (NissanGQ4.2) the other day about DVD Recorders and which one is the best one out there and how i felt they were a redundant system with the availability of media on the interweb. I mentioned to him about my setup and although at first glances it may seem complicated, it really is a fool proof idiot proof system. So anyway, no more talking about it ill just get straight to business.

What you will need(minimum):

1 x Old pc with at least Two Terabytes of storage(to be of any real use, i have a total of 13tb but an external hdd is fine) also a HDMI out is preferable BUT the old VGA cord and a stereo cable will work with most modern TVs.
1 x Copy of Media Center Master, (available at http://www.mediacentermaster.com/) there is a free version of this program available, but it really makes you do alot more leg work i have the paid for version and @ $50 for a lifetime license its a bargain ive had the program for over 5 years and its frequently updated and ive definately got my monies worth.
1 x Copy of Media Browser, this is a freeware program but you can support the developers by buying a plugin or something off them. I paid for a $10 plugin that i dont even use, just to give something back to the developers.
1 x Cheap Ebay USB Infrared PC Remote, they are about $8. We used to have the four dollar ones but they broke all the time so we spent a little more and havent looked back.
Your lounge room TV.

and thats it take a look below to see how it all works.

So from the very beginning. once those programs are installed on your PC you start with Media Center Master. it looks like this:

MCM base.jpg

You can add your folders from the various locations you store your media (Such as "C:\Feature Movies") into this library. It catalogs all the media, renames to a convention that you like such as "The Best Movie Ever(2014)" or "The best TV show Ever(2014) S01E01", adds a metadata file which Media Browser can read and also downloads fan art for Media Browser to display. All this is just to make your viewing experience very pleasant.

Media Center Master can do this from your DVD Videos that you have ripped OR from torrented Movies that it will source for you. Now BIG disclaimer here. I do not condone the use of pirated material, and anyone that does so does it at their own risk. In my opinion i just wouldnt go talking about how many movies etc you download from the WWW on a public forum


Now onto the juicy stuff, Media Browser. Media Browser comes in two flavours, "Media Browser Theater" which is a standalone program, and "Media Browser Plugin" which is a plugin for Windows Media Center. anyone running windows 7 or windows vista will have Windows Media Center installed and the plugin version is for you. Anyone running windows 8 or 8.1 Media Browser Theater is for you. I run the plugin variant although they are pretty similar.

So imagine it, you turn your TV on and you are greeted by this:

MB Base.jpg

So you want to watch a movie, you go into your collection:

MB F1.jpg

You Pick a movie and this is what is displayed:

MB F2.jpg

You Press play and off you go, movie started, no Ads, no getting up to find the DVD and you are definately sure that is the movie you wanted as the synopsis told you what movie it was.

Lets say you didnt want to see that movie but you wanted to see a movie with Heath in it. You choose the little man(Cast) and BOOM, this:

Cast.jpg

Click on Heath and you will see all the movies in you library that he is in:

Cast Content.jpg

Or perhaps you want to see a TV show:

MB TV1.jpg

i cant do any more tonight i have to goto bed missus is calling but ill finish this off tomorrow, she wont be here :P there is a fair bit more to it than what i have written but if anyone wants clarification or more detail these programs are EXTREMELY versatile. oh and FYI, i have no afilliation with any of these programs, im just as extremely happy user and i love sharing what i have with everyone else for these little developers.

also mods, im sure i could figure it out if i had the time but i dont so if anyone can make those images display bigger that would be awesome.

[rusty_nail]

saving this for a later edit

[NissanGQ4.2]

also mods, im sure i could figure it out if i had the time but i dont so if anyone can make those images display bigger that would be awesome.

They display bigger when you click on them Nic so will just leave it how it is

Thanks for the nerd thread

[matfew]

mmm I might have to have a play. any minimum specs for pc.i got a gq old laptops laying around

[rusty_nail]

mmm I might have to have a play. any minimum specs for pc.i got a gq old laptops laying around

No minimum requirement Matt I had one of my TVs running a Pentium 4 with 4g ram for a while but have since upgraded it.

Todd you don't need bulk HDD space I just have loads so i have heaps in my library. There is plenty of crap I reckon I could cut my library down by half if I needed to.

[NissanGQ4.2]

Todd you don't need bulk HDD space I just have loads so i have heaps in my library. There is plenty of crap I reckon I could cut my library down by half if I needed to.

Just joking Nic, I'm sure I have a few hdd's knocking about that will be sufficient just need the hdmi card, have one in the lappy but want to keep it seperate

[Chappy]

Great guide, thanks! Now just to adapt it into the Patrol for movies on the go.

[rusty_nail]

Just joking Nic, I'm sure I have a few hdd's knocking about that will be sufficient just need the hdmi card, have one in the lappy but want to keep it seperate

but thats the beauty of it! like i said, you only need a computer. you can do with VGA and a stereo cable but it wont transmit 5.1 audio and the picture wont be as sharp, and TBH the difference is really not that much.

[rusty_nail]

Great guide, thanks! Now just to adapt it into the Patrol for movies on the go.

well see here is a problem. media center master sources the metadata(pics cast and synopsis etc) from two sources, themoviedb.org and thetvdb.com. and australian productions rarely make it up there. if you really feel like doing so (an i have for one show, some 4x4ing show i cant remember because i deleted it) you can actually upload the information to their site beacuse it is open source.

for example, and AB started filming all of the trips we did and making vids out of it, he could make his own hypothetical tv show on thetvdb.com, add metadata for it and there you go, you have your very own tv show that MCM will source, so long as you have the correct media to go with it.

it sounds really complicated but it really isnt, well no harder than posting up on this forum or on facebook etc...!

[rusty_nail]

Just joking Nic, I'm sure I have a few hdd's knocking about that will be sufficient just need the hdmi card, have one in the lappy but want to keep it seperate

Hey Todd I actually have an old system that it's already setup for this that I will give you.. For free. It has hdmi and everything all you need is the remote and your HDDs...