[WIP] Stream Machine

[d33g33]

Hi everyone,

 

So as you may or may not know I went on an ambitious journey to watercool a SG33G5 Shuttle with a Q9550 and GTX750Ti. Long story short, I killed the motherbroad during the build process. If you want to look at that story see the build log >HERE<

 

I sold of what I could and began the hunt for a replacement HTPC build. Now this build wont be the most exciting, but It should give you a good base if you wanted to do something similar, I will make alternate recommendations as I go through but for the most part wanted to write in a guide for setting up XBMC, HyperSpin and such.

 

I priced up an i3 4150, Asus H97i Plus and 8gb or Mem and that came to $358. As I wasn't in a rush I had a look around some local forums hoping I could get something suitable a bit cheaper.

 

Turns out I didn't get anything cheaper, it was the same price, but much more powerful. I know power isn't normally required for a HTPC build but I run an ambient lighting system that effectively is running screen capture software constantly, I also wanted to use HyperSpin and could use the grunt for PS1/PS2 and Wii emulation, also I was unsure of what would be dependent on Steam Game Stream working well. To understand the Ambilight setup have a look at the guide I did >HERE<

 

So this is what I ended up with for $370.

 

A 3570k

Gigabyte Z77N-Wifi (This is actually awesome with on-board Bluetooth that I will use later in the setup)

Corsair 2x 4gb XMS Memory

BitFenix Prodigy case

Silverstone Strider 600w PSU.

No GPU and NO HDD/SSD's

 

 

Pictures after picking it up. As the Case and PSU are getting changed out I will sell these off to recover some more cost.

 

Oh so orange...

 

 

Whatch'ya hiding in there!

 

And quickly, stripped.

 

Now that's out and put aside lets take a closer look.

 

A tidy little board actually! Dual HDMI + DVI onboard and dual NICs plus the WiFi/Bluetooth combo mentioned earlier.

 

Now some new parts to go with this build.

 

The case! A Silverstone ML07 HTPC 'Gaming" case. There isn't a lot of info on this case around yet but I went with it because of the very slim/entertainment unit friendly form, but it still allows for a dual slot GPU.

Box

 

Front

 

Back

 

Insides

 

To be honest I really like the layout of this case, but the quality isn't the best. The plastic around the outside feels a bit nasty. Also the power on button on the front is hard to locate blindly.

 

I also decided to get a new CPU cooler to replace the stock item

A Noctua L9i

 

Box

 

Packaging - OMG best packaging i've ever seen.

 

Profile - Look how cute it is!

 

The GPU for this build is the same card that was intended for the Shuttle build, the EVGA GTX750Ti FTW. A card like this certainly isn't needed for a HTPC however for GameStream I think it will be ideal.

 

Now the Silverstone ML07 needs an SFX PSU. Silverstone are doing some awesome stuff in the SFX department with a 600w Gold version on the way and I think a 450w 120mm semi-passive version on the way as well. However for now I got the 450w-Gold version. Overkill for my needs.

 

Hehe - Hi there!

 

And for size comparison to show how small it actually is.

 

Removed the CPU for a clean and new HSF install.

 

3570k, such overkill. I'll undervolt and then try up the clock a touch to see if I can get some free clocks without adding additional heat.

 

And Noctua Cooler installed.

 

Now The PC is together and working however it will come apart for a bit of a tidy-up and maybe a time-lapse build. I'll update this post as I go.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

The below posts will be a XBMC setup guide, a HyperSpin guide and a Performance comparison, Gamestream with a GTX780TI in the host or using the GTX750Ti.

[d33g33]

Reserved for XBMC Guide

 

Ok so for those who dont know XBMC isnt actually going to be XBMC for much longer, it is going through a name change and it will be called Kodi, but for simplicity sake, I will still refer to it as XBMC.

 

Now the install is very easy, its multiple platform compatible however I have only used it on windows and this guide will be with that in mind.

 

Word of advice

XBMC will help you out as much as it can, but you need to help it to. For XBMC to get the correct information for your TV and Movies the naming needs to make sense. I also suggest all movies are in their own folder, all TV's separated by TV show, season and then the files within the folder.

Example of the movie Forrest Gump. I don't change the file name, it can be fgflt.avi for example, however the folder that it is in I format as Forrest.Gump.1994 (I include resolution so .720p on the end, but you don't need to) to make it super easy for XBMC to find the relevant information. Its a pain the first time, but totally worth it. Eg,

 

 

And for TV, everyone needs to have a look at the app FileBot. It will scan your TV series and name the episodes appropriately. Eg of folder structure and file naming.

 

 

Installing XBMC/Kodi

So first, head to http://xbmc.org/download/ and download the installer, its straight forward, leave everything as default and just install with next, next, next methodology, there's no spyware/adware in here. The version I will be installed for example is Gotham, v13.1

 

Now what makes XBMC so appealing is that is very customizable. If you just have TV and Movies but dont want any seperation you could leave it as it is and throw a skin on that you like, however I like to customize my layout a bit.

 

For example;

 

Under the "Movies" title I have 4 other sub menu's. HD, DVD, 3D and Disney Movies. 

 

For ease of customization I suggest you install the Aeon Nox skin.

On your vanilla installed head across to System and Sub Menu Settings then Appearance and Skin and then click Skin - Confluence and select Get More If you get a first runtime select OK and then click Aeon Nox, then Install. It will begin to download, once its finished downloading you will get a prompt asking if you want to "switch to this skin". Press Yes, Confirm the change.

 

Adding your media

Now, Escape all the way back to the main screen, its time to add some content.

Scroll across to Videos and then Sub Menu Files. Click on Files and then +Add Videos...

 

Now there will be variances here as I have all my media stored on a NAS so whether its a mapped drive, homegroup shares or on local storage there will be slight differences here I'm sure you can figure out. 

 

Once you have clicked the +Add Videos... select Browse and navigate where your movies are for example. I will use the parent directory "movies" for my example as there are 4 sub folders and then each movie within individual folders within that. A picture for example.

 

Now that I've select Movies on the right press OK

 You should now have a windows saying that "This Director Contains", on the right before an Up and Down arrow the word None. Press the up and down arrows to change this between Movies, TV Shows or Music Videos. Obviously we will use Movies I also have every movie in a separate folder so down the bottom I click the option "Movies are in a separate folder that match the movie title" because, well all my movies are in individual folders. I think this is the neatest way then press OK for this example. You will be asked if you want to refresh all items within this path, press Yes. NOTE - You can add more to this such as I have one for UFC events. I will cover this off later.

 

XBMC will now go and scan all your folders and match the names of the folders against The Move Database and scrape the correct information, go have some beers, depending on your collection, this will take some time.

 

OK once its finished scraping all the information lets see what we've got. Escape all the way back to the main screen.

 

Scroll across to Movies and hit enter. Hopefully you have something like below

 

Sweet as! Now do the same for TV but remember to select the TV scraper on the side as it will default to whatever you used last.

 

 

Customizing your menu's

Now the whole thing is customization. So say you have added all your movies but you wanted to filter out what is 720p/1080p or what is SD/DVD quality. To do this, we use smart playlists.

 

Escape back tot he main screen and scroll across to Videos and then go into the sub menu Playlists.

In here select New smart playlist... 

The way that I separate things out is by using their path, for the example of only showing movies that are in 720p/1080p I make sure the;

Type = Movies

Name of Playlist is "HD Movies" (this is just a name it doesn't actually matter)

New rule = "Match items where (path) (contains) -> Browse -> Movies -> HD Movies

 

Now there is a reason why we use "Path Contains" and not "Path Is" because if we use Path Is it will only find items in that exact dir and nothing deeper.

 

Another way to achieve this would be by filtering the video resolutions

Change (path) to (video resolution) and change (path contains) to (700)

 

This looks at every video file resolution that has been scraped into Movies and will filter to show only video files with a resolution higher than 700

 

Finish editing the playlist by pressing OK.

 

You can check the filter is working by pressing the HD Movies Smart Playlist, confirm it is only show HD Movies.

Once its working we can now add in this as a custom menu item.

 

Escape all the back to the main screen, go to System and Skin Settings. From the Home Window go right and enter on Setup the Aeon Nox main menu.

From Movies go down to Manage Submenu.

 

Now Ill try list this as clear as I can because its a bit confusing.

 

For the example of adding HD movies under the Movies title

 

Select Add and you should get a new item <none> then set the label "HD Movies"

Now Cycle through Type until you get to "Playlists" and select the HD Movie playlist you made earlier. You will get the option to automatically start playing it, or to display it. I'm choosing to display it.

 

Now Escape all the way back to the main screen and scroll across to Movies in the sub menu you should have the default sub menu items as well as the new one you created "HD Movies" Press it to confirm it works.

Rinse and repeat for any additional sub menus you want to put in here. You can also delete and Sub Menu's that you don't think will be useful to you.

 

Now I created some Custom Menus like MMA and Anime.

To create a Custom Menu Escape all the way back to the main screen and go into System and the Skin Settings, Home Window and into Setup the Aeon Nox main menu option.

 

Go down to where you have "Custom1" now to be able to activate it you must have something in the Default Select Action. As I treat these as headings only I select custom shortcut and enter in "label(MMA)" for example. This won't do anything but gives me a heading where underneath I can have UFC, Strikeforce and The Ultimate Fighter for example. Once you ahve created and activated the Custom menu item you can add in your custom sub menu's the same as above.

 

Now, i'll address additional scrapers quickly.

A scraper is a source that XBMC can use to go out and fetch information on content. 2 examples that come to mind are MMA (UFC) or Anime as The TV Database, The Movie Database or IMDB is unlikely to get you these results.

 

Installing them is super easy, do a Google around for the scraper you would ideally be looking for, and then just copy it to your C:\Program Files\XBMC\Addons\ folder, restart XBMC, when adding content scroll to Movies or TV, you should see satellite buttons to select which scraper you are after. Easy

 

As I have a more than required powerful PC it will also be used for Steam\GameStream and HyperSpin (Rom Emulations).

 

To tie this in create another custom menu if you like Games, on mine I used the DefaultAction of Label(Games) as I don't want the title to actually do anything.

Check out this thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=173526 which gives you the add-in to automatically launch Steam in Big Picture Mode.

 

Once you have copied the addon into the addon folder you can go ahead and create a custom sub menu item and link it to the Steam Big Picture addon and you're laughing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming back to finishing the guide, stay tuned

[d33g33]

Reserved for HyperSpin Guide

[d33g33]

Reserved for Performance Comparison

[Enderman]

OH MAH GUURD ORANGE IS MAH FAVOURITE COLOUR!!!

[Bagmup]

Sweet mate, this will definitely give me a place to start when i get around to building a HTPC. Especially the software side, I have NFI about that.

[d33g33]

OH MAH GUURD ORANGE IS MAH FAVOURITE COLOUR!!!

I'm sure its fine where appropriate, however something tells me it wouldn't quite fit right in my entertainment unit

[d33g33]

Sweet mate, this will definitely give me a place to start when i get around to building a HTPC. Especially the software side, I have NFI about that. 

XBMC is pretty easy, people run it on a Raspberry Pi so its not that taxing though I have some very large media files (40gb plus)

 

Customization can depend on finding the right skin that lets you do it easily.

[d33g33]

I tried out GameStream with my Ambilight and it is SO AWESOME

[novasae]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing stuff inside the case Thank god you showed off that Noctua cooler, I thought I was stuck with the Intel heatsink for a compact build I'm planning.

Subbed :3

[novasae]

I tried out GameStream with my Ambilight and it is SO AWESOME

 

:DD

[d33g33]

Awesome, looking forward to seeing stuff inside the case Thank god you showed off that Noctua cooler, I thought I was stuck with the Intel heatsink for a compact build I'm planning.

Subbed :3

I have a bit of room to play with I might actually swap out the stock Noctua Fan for a NF-B9 Redux. They are 25mm instead of 14mm (I have room for the higher fan) and looks a bit nicer than the Brown. I dont know how much better it would be than the stock cooler, a bit, but not a huge difference I dont think

[Loe]

Very interested in the temperatures that you get after you finish building it!

[d33g33]

Heres a very badly configured YouTube video showing GameStream and the Ambilight system

[d33g33]

Started writing XBMC guide peeps

[d33g33]

OMG PS3BluMote is AWESOME!

[d33g33]

Started work on HyperSpin, damn its a complicated config. Highly recommend finding someone who has done a lot of the work for you.

[FrankTheTank]

Started work on HyperSpin, damn its a complicated config. Highly recommend finding someone who has done a lot of the work for you.

Hyperspin is doable, but just a lot of work in my opinion. Got the basics working fast, adding games can take a lot of time.

[d33g33]

Hyperspin is doable, but just a lot of work in my opinion. Got the basics working fast, adding games can take a lot of time.

Very true,

 

I'm lucky i've found some .torrent packs that have done a lot of the work for me, I just need to repoint where the emulator .exe is and the path of the roms are. Im actually almost done I just need to figure out 2 things.

 

1. Config the xbox controller for each emulator.

2. Make everything display in 1080p, for some reason its scaling down to 720p and then its not coming back when I switch back to XBMC.

[FrankTheTank]

Very true,

 

I'm lucky i've found some .torrent packs that have done a lot of the work for me, I just need to repoint where the emulator .exe is and the path of the roms are. Im actually almost done I just need to figure out 2 things.

 

1. Config the xbox controller for each emulator.

2. Make everything display in 1080p, for some reason its scaling down to 720p and then its not coming back when I switch back to XBMC.

 

Don't know answer for both questions, I had made myself an arcade cabinet a while ago with some real arcade buttons/joysticks. The games that I played didn't really need a better resolution so I never looked into that. Arcade cabinet is gone as well.

[Guest]

Love this dude, keep it going!

[d33g33]

Don't know answer for both questions, I had made myself an arcade cabinet a while ago with some real arcade buttons/joysticks. The games that I played didn't really need a better resolution so I never looked into that. Arcade cabinet is gone as well.

xpadder with HyperLaunch 3 seems to be the go for the controls I just need to figure it out.

 

Love this dude, keep it going!

Glad you're enjoying it! Will try and keep updating it with as much detail as I can.

[d33g33]

FYI emulators are huge. 

 

The front end of Hyperspin once configured is 96gb, with NO emulators and NO roms...

[d33g33]

Got HyperSpin working mint and auto loading custom key profiles to the 360 controller depending on which emulator its running.

 

Its launching straight from XBMC so thats awesome as well, I only have Genisis and MAME configured for testing, I just need to do the other profiles and ill be laughing!

 

Video soon guys.

[Manny Calavera]

awesome