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For anybody interested in using Meedio as a front-end, I would suggest going to MeediOS as opposed to the official Meedio forums. MeediOS is a project to write a new piece of HTPC software from the ground up, utilizing Meedio's ease of use and open plugin architecture. Meanwhile, all relevant discussion about normal Meedio plugins are happening there, whereas the old Meedio forums are just a bunch of bots posting spam. 
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Mar 24, 2007 14:44
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Ryokurin posted:They need to get together. Mediaportal as a front in frankly blows, but the TV part is starting to come up to speed. meediOS is the opposite. it would save a bunch of time to merge the two. I'm both excited/depressed. It makes sense for the two projects to merge and become a bigger competitor to MCE, but I've never been able to get Media Portal looking as sharp or as easy to use as Meedio. Granted, I spent more time with Meedio, but that was because there was no big draw for me to go to Media Portal, other than the desire to try something new out. I haven't used the newer versions, though, so I might give those another go.
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Mar 25, 2007 15:44
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ShaneB posted:I'll try Meedio as soon as my LCD arrives. Can I suggest trying it before then? Any of the libraries you create can be moved over (literally, they're nothing but files) and a lot of the configuration can move over as well. Meedio needs a bit of playing around with t0o figure everything out. As mentioned earlier, check the MeediOS forums as well as the Meedio forums for support and help. There's a learning curve, but it's worth it in the long run. Out of curiosity, can you Media Portal guys post some screenshots of the basic menu navigation and things? I could never make MP as "pretty" as Meedio, even though Meedio didn't have a DirectX interface and animated menus. Never seemed worth it for me.
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Mar 26, 2007 03:32
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Allen Fiverson posted:I'm going to ask the same question here that I've asked at HTPCNews and Green Button and a couple other places. I have a large and well-organized collection of avi movies. Some are on a server, most are archived on DVD. Meedio + PlayMee + TagManipulation Importer + Video player of your choice = solution to your problem. What you're asking for doesn't have a couch-friendly out of the box solution, so you're gonna have to spend some elbow grease to get it done. It will work something like this: you'll create a library of your online files first, since they're the easiest. You can use a basic tag mask importer to pull these files in, assuming they are all named in a logical and consistent fashion. After that, you'll use the TagManip Importer to run a script that will add your offline media; you'll configure it with the tag mask (probably similar to the one you used for your online files) and the drive to look at, and it will import the files and prompt you for a DiscID. At that point, you'll need to configure PlayMee to prompt you for the discID whenever an offline file is played. There are lots of plugins available to grab covers/data/etc. Check out MovieNight, which is cool as all hell. I never liked GameEX that much, but really, really like myGames, which is still kicking around. Juriko posted:Pretty how? I guess module integration was a big thing for me. I could always make Meedio look fairly consistent across the board, with little to no tweaking files manually. Most, if not all, of the popular plugins have screens that work with the two biggest themes, HDeeTV and MenagerieSE. The interface was always easy to use, fast, and nice to look out, even without animations and DX support. That said, it is/was a pain in the rear end to make really nice Meedio screens/themes. The theme designer never worked correctly, and often choked on advanced screen files and such.
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Mar 26, 2007 15:55
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Cellwind929 posted:My only question is what software I will need to stream the media and organize it. Thanks Media Portal or Meedio is your answer. MP is still being developed, Meedio as a software product isn't being improved, but there is still an active community developing plugins. Try both out and go with what you like. In my opinion, MP is more geared for watching/recording TV, and Meedio is the best media collection front-end in the business. It's pretty simple to get up and running with a nice looking theme and easy access to the media.
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Apr 2, 2007 22:10
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To import avi files, make sure you are using the Tag Mask Importer, and have the file extensions set correctly ("*.mpg, *.avi, *.mkv"). Then create a Media Module, point it to the library, and change the screen to movie. If it's TV shows, I would really suggest reading through and understanding how to use the TVNight importer. Same goes with MovieNight, which is a great interface for watching movies. Info on both can be found in the plugins subforum of MeediOS. Screenshot of TVNight: 
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Apr 3, 2007 05:39
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ShaneB posted:I installed Meedio and am having issues playing back videos, in that many videos have audio but black screens. I usually can diagnose this to a codec issue, but they play fine in Media Player Classic. I only seem to be able to select "Default", "Overlay", "VMR7", and "VMR9". If I select WMV9 my framerate goes to poo poo. I don't know what's happening when I select that, but more videos appear to work in Meedio. I only have an athlon 2000 running at 200x10, so it's not exactly blazing fast. Any ideas? Look for your video log file in C:\Docs and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Meedio. If that doesn't send you in the right direction, post over on MeediOS and someone will help you out.
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Apr 4, 2007 05:16
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ShaneB posted:Can anyone who has a slick Meedio setup please try their hand at writing a guide, or point me to a RECENT guide? I'd like to have online and offline media split into TV and Movies. I'd love to have art like TVnight and Movienight seem to offer. Right now I've just been hitting stop points that are frustrating. The main problem I have at the moment is manually importing TV and Movies into separate databases, and having Meedio display them to me separately from each other. If you have some time tomorrow, PM me with your issues, and I'll see if I can help out. You could also post on meedios.com/forum as well. I'm not sure what you would like, though. You create sep. libraries for both TV shows and movies, and you use sep. modules to view them both. When you say manually, are you talking about having to actually run the import (which you can schedule to occur at regular intervals or everytime you enter Meedio)? The online/offline thing can get a bit complicated, so you should probably should get the online stuff working first.
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Apr 11, 2007 04:39
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ShaneB posted:I don't seem to be able to get Meedio to use the databases I create with the import modules, instead of it making me navigate through directory hierarchy. When it installed it asked me how I wanted to add my media. I could either let Meedio find it (which I didn't want), or I could navigate through my directories to have Meedio play my media. I want neither solution - I want to set up my imports and have them run automatically. Gotcha. You can skip the whole gui setup altogether, it's really there for people who don't want to do stuff manually. Here's the checklist (it sounds like you're almost there, though, so ignore the stuff that doesn't apply): 1. Create the library (Meedio Config > Media Library > New) 2. Create the imports (After creating the new library, click the imports tab on the right, then click new). You'll need to select the importer that you'll use, typically a tag mask importer to bring in the files. If you have your movies all in one directory you can use something like "<name>.<>", or if you keep them in genre folders you can use "<genre>\<name>.<>". My TV shows tag mask is "<>\<>\<SeriesName> - S<SeasonNumber>E<EpisodeNumber> - <name>.<>". Make sure you input the correct file types to import, and uncheck "use same image for all files in the directory". If you want it to import at a certain time or in certain intervals, configure it at the bottom. 3. Check to make sure the items were imported correctly by going to the Items tab. 4. At this point, you would usually go through and create views for your media, but I'm going to skip that one since you can find lots and lots of resources on that stuff if you search either one of the popular Meedio forums. 5. Now, go the Menu section of Meedio Config. Select the second "Meedio" in the list, and click Add > Music and Movies > Media Module. Point the new Media Module to the library you created in step 1. When you open Meedio, there will be a new menu item and it will point to your library of items. Here's the difficult part of this whole thing: these instructions are only partially correct when using TV Night and MovieNight. You will need to create a library and import your items into it, but the similarities end there. With TV shows, you'll add an additional importer to the library that will pull lots and lots of fun info and images from the TVdb. That importer will have all sorts of properties and things to play around with as well. Then you'll add a specific TVNight module to your menu, point it to the library and go from there. Meedio is really like its own miniature OS, in terms of the flexibility and, proportionately, the confusion to first time people. It takes awhile to figure out the terminology and then how the various things work together, but once you get it its as easy as changing settings in Windows. Well, at least until you get into the wonderful world of screen files...
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Apr 11, 2007 15:33
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I'm having some weirdness playing back 720p content. I'm using CoreAVC, and the audio seems to start way, way before the video does, which makes it out of sync. I have a P4 1.8, 512mb RAM, ATI 9600. Not top of the line, but I figured I could at least get 720p out of it. I've tried a couple of different media players and all do the same thing. I have DefilerPak installed, but I disabled it from handling x264 content. Is there something I might be missing somewhere?
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Apr 28, 2007 19:31
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Crackbone posted:Check your processor usage in task manager. Chances are it's at 100%. A 1.8Ghz process really isn't enough to decode even 720p. My Athlon XP 2500 can't do it. That's what I figured. Would this system work? Any suggestions on things to cut down the cost a bit? I have the case/PSU/sound/drives already.
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Apr 29, 2007 15:59
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Yeah, the box is going to be dedicated to HTPC, no gaming. So if I have no plans on going to Vista anytime soon, I won't see the benefits of the 8600? Still seems like a good deal for a nice video card, though. Thanks for the input.
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Apr 29, 2007 17:30
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Lowen SoDium posted:Should I consider another front ends other than Media Portal? I have read others in this thread talk about Myth, Sage, Meedio, etc, but theres not been much talk about the strengths and weeknesses of each. While I consider Meedio to be the best media front-end around, its weakness is in the fact that it is no longer really supported. Yahoo! bought out the IP awhile ago, and have only released I think two version since then, neither one doing a lot for the product besides integrating some Yahoo! services (along with adverts, IIRC). Because of that, it's relatively difficult for Meedio to support new TV Tuner devices. There is a chance that your tuners will work, but its hit or miss. I still recommend it as the primo front-end if you don't need a PVR, though. And even then, it can fairly easy integrate with the likes of Sage and BeyondTV through the use of importers and what-not, so you can get the best of both worlds.
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May 16, 2007 17:00
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I would be very surprised if that wasn't ATX.
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May 19, 2007 15:03
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RibeyeJaksom posted:So nobody except people willing to buy a Velocity Micro media center are able to do this? So how exactly are people setting up their TVs when they have premium cable? Are they splitting their cables before it reaches the cable box and using one TV input for the cable box and one for the HTPC? Doesn't that defeat a large part of the HTPC's purpose? What do they do, switch to the HTPC to use PVR function with ATSC channels and then switch back to the set-top box for premium channels (which they cannot PVR)? That seems like a real pain in the rear end. Is there really no better way? From my research, there is no really good way to do your own HD PVR at this point. OEM Cable Card PCI Cards would be a good start, but I just don't see that happening at this point. It's a shame really, because I would probably be willing to pay my cable company for the privilege, but "OMG PIRACY" mentality is stopping it in its tracks.
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Jun 7, 2007 04:57
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http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2143304,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532 I saw this article this morning, and its got me intrigued on what these cards could mean for the HTPC market. Does anyone have any thoughts? A $50 DX10 card based on the 8x series from NVidia makes me all excited.
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Jun 8, 2007 15:22
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RibeyeJaksom posted:Except they "will probably lack HDMI" which probably means DVI as well. I guess thats not a big deal for some people. Its got DVI, and it would be a huge deal for most people like me, who use a DVI>HDMI adapter because my TV doesn't have a VGA/DVI input. Edit: this non-English site has some pics.
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Jun 8, 2007 18:05
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Probably a resolution issue. What is the native res of the TV and what are you sending it? Whatever the answer, try 1280*720 and go from there.
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Jun 8, 2007 23:16
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OldSenileGuy posted:From what I've read in the thread, Meedio is where it's at for a front end if you don't need any DVR capabilities, which obviously I don't. But according to their website, they aren't offering it anymore. Does anyone know where it's still available? Or any other options that might be better for me? Yahoo bought out the IP for Meedio and turned it into Yahoo! GoTV or some such. They did one release that was essentially Meedio with integrated Yahoo features, most of which you could already do with existing plugins. Since then, development on the CORE of Meedio has ceased, and there was one final release that did away with the need for a serial. Fast forward awhile, and the Meedio forums are nothing but spam. Most, if not all, key developers of plugins have moved over to MeediOS, where they have continually put out more and more excellent plugins. The two you would be looking at are TVNight and MovieNight, which are front-end interfaces for TV shows and Movies. Both work extremely well, are very easy for even my wife to browse through. Meedio can be a pain in the rear end to wrap your head around, so go through the instructions carefully so you won't miss anything. The big difference between Meedio and most other front-ends are the libraries; you don't just point the app at your directory and go (although it can do that, you'll miss out on alot), you have to go through the process of importing those files into a library. Also, a note on MeediOS: most of the info on the website and the forums will lead you to believe they are releasing their own front-end software. This is true in a way, and they are making progress, but right now its mostly a repository for Meedio plugins and a forum for discussion and problems. Sorry this got so long-winded, but it should get you started. If you get stuck along the way, shoot me a PM and I can help you out.
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Jun 17, 2007 14:58
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OldSenileGuy posted:Where can I download MeediOS though? The official site links to a sourceforge page, http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=170156 That's just it, MeediOS isn't ready to dl yet. There's a code base somewhere, but you're looking for the standard Meedio installer file, version 1.41.
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Jun 18, 2007 13:08
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OldSenileGuy posted:Ah, I see. Did all this stuff with Yahoo buying them out happen relatively recently? About a year ago I think, they came in and bought Meedio out. MeediOS was created as nothing more than a website with the hopes of becoming the reinvention of Meedio: open-sourced, learning from the mistakes, and retaining everything people loved about Meedio in the first place. A database driven library system, open plugin architecture, flexible skinning system (it is!), and an active community of developers. Since then things have been in stasis. There was great interest a few months ago, and some work on the new core and the new library system was posted. A few WPF developers signed on for the UI stuff, and then it all went underground. There was some talk about joining up with Media Portal and development progress was stopped. Everything went quiet. Just recently Kairos has been posting progress reports so things are happening, but I think its going to be awhile before we get into usability mode. But man, I can't tell you how happy I've been with Meedio. 
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Jun 19, 2007 00:30
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Milosh posted:I've got an old system laying around gathering dust. It's an Amd XP 2000 with 512 megs of ram and a crappy Nvidia card. Could I use it to make a basic HTPC or is it too outdated? I used almost this exact spec for a good long time as an HTPC. As long as you don't expect to decode HD content, you'll be fine for 99% of the things you want to do.
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Aug 1, 2007 18:31
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Milosh posted:Did you use MythTV? What program did you use with that machine? I didn't do any recording on that box, just playback of video/music. Everything was (and still is!) run through Meedio.
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Aug 2, 2007 15:06
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Crackbone posted:I understand what you said. I mean try to set the PC to output 1280x720 exactly, not 1366x768. I really wish I could get my Phillips TV and ATI9600 to display at the native res. Right now I have to use 1280x720, which is fine except there's a bit of overscan to the whole thing. In Meedio I can adjust for this, but I still miss out on the outer edges of videos. I just can't get the ATI card to output in that res. I even screwed around with Powerstrip for a day or so and never managed to get it working.
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Aug 8, 2007 16:19
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ahawks posted:In your setup, does the digital connection carry all audio (from Windows startup sound, to mp3s, to DVDs?), or just pre-encoded audio like DVDs and HDTV? I have optical out going to be receiver and it plays all audio through that: windows sounds, emulators, Meedio, DVDs, etc.
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Aug 22, 2007 17:21
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You should be fine with those specs. Meedio is probably the least demanding software front-end out there.
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Sep 2, 2007 00:38
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Also, PC Alchemy, I got my Silverstone case from there, since Newegg didn't stock it.
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Sep 5, 2007 02:50
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Are you hitting Apply before exiting Meedio config? That is what saves the configuration.xml file once you leave. Otherwise it could be something related to the Meedio Ultimate package, as I don't have much experience with that. Whatever it is, it is definitely related to the configuration.xml file (c:\docs & settings\all users\app data\meedio).
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Sep 7, 2007 15:04
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UserErr0r posted:I did a little testing: PM or IM me sometime, and I can get you started. There's a learning curve, but once you get it down everything becomes MUCH more clear. To sum up a little with this post: TVNight There are three parts to this plugin: the file mask importer (that you use to import the actual shows from your hdd), the TVNight importer (that downloads the metadata for the tv shows), and the TVNight Module (that you'll use to display the info in a logical and cool fashion). The first importer is called a Tag Mask Importer, and you use it to grab specific info about your shows. For xample, say you have z:\tv shows\The Simpons\S01E01 - First Episode.avi. You would have to create a tag mask to grab the information that the TV Night importer needs to find the ep in the database (SeasonNumber, EpisodeNumber, SeriesName). In this case, your tag mask would be <SeriesName>\S<SeasonNumber>E<EpisodeNumber> - <name>.<>, with the root being set to z:\tv shows. The rest of the options should be fairly clear. Then you run the TV Night importer (most of the options should be clear here as well, although you can probably leave them to default), and once it's done you add the TV Night module to your menu structure, point it to the libraries, and you're done. It reads much harder than it is, I promise. As a note, make sure you're looking/asking for info over at MeediOS, and downloading the plugins from OpenMAID, because that's where all the new stuff is. Either way, feel free to IM me if you're having issues. It's usually something fairly simple that hangs new people up.
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Sep 8, 2007 00:20
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Harminoff posted:so are you guys just using mce or is there something better that I should look at that runs on windows? For TV recording/viewing, it's a toss up between Sage and Media Portal for most people. For stored media playback, it's either Media Portal, Meedio (my personal fave), or MCE.
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Sep 15, 2007 17:07
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Not sure why people don't seem to like MythTV, personally its just because I didn't have much experience with linux, and didn't want to learn how just for that (although the XMBC port to linux may change that attitude). For your other questions: MythTV: Linux based, never really used. Sage: Seems to be the choice for recording TV at the moment. Beyond: A close second to Sage, although neither one seems to get the "media on your harddrive" part down pat. Meedio: Probably the best platform out there for organizing your media, it doesn't have a modern and robust TV solution. People have integrated it with Beyond and Sage, though.
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Sep 20, 2007 19:15
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HinderedUseless posted:Does any of the other software (i.e., not MythTV) provide a front-end for emulation and browsing? With Meedio, there are a lot of tools to help get you started on the emulation side of things. None of it very easy to do, though, at least in an integrated format. At one point there was a plugin that would automatically scan roms, grab metadata and covers, and then automatically configure the various emulators to work. It even had a plugin to control the Meedio interface with a gamepad, so you didn't have to pick up the remote to change games. That, however, has since expired, but a lot of the plugins still remain. I always recommend people to this, but post on the MeediOS forums and see what other people are doing. For web browsing, do you REALLY need it? I used to think that I would want to surf the web from the couch all the time, but ultimately it died out. Most of the entertainment related stuff has been replicated inside Meedio (ie, ESPN Videos, CNN videos, YouTube, stage6, etc), and I hardly use those. But just about any front-end will let you launch FF or IE if you DO want to browse around. quote:Also, it is really important that I can use a network drive as if it were on the computer, as I have around 900GB on my main computer and don't want to transfer data or waste space with duplicate data. Do all of the major players allow for this? Is that harder to do with Linux? Can't speak for the linux side, but I doubt its that hard at all. Most of the front-ends will let you point to UNC paths or network drives for most things. I personally use UNC paths since windows likes to randomly disconnect network drives and not auto-reconnect, but whatever. The only caveat here would be trying to play HD stuff via a weak or slow wireless connection.
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Sep 20, 2007 21:39
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I think he's saying that its not really comparable to Apple TV, since Apple TV is small, sleek, and backed with powerful software. That said, I'm intrigued on the new motherboard. Any benchmarks floating around?
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Sep 30, 2007 19:00
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You would need a cable card, and you can't buy them after-market. They only come with prebuilt systems. Isn't that loving great?  It's the dumbest goddamn thing ever. On top of the gimped nature of the deal, almost every write up I've read is just a nightmare getting it up and running.
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Oct 1, 2007 01:50
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Gromit posted:I used the Antec Fusion Black HTPC case (includes PSU) and the Fatal1ty I90HD motherboard that has built-in video with HDMI out. I can't hear the thing at all. Do you use HDMI for audio as well? I've been looking at that mobo for awhile, but would need to run HDMI to the TV and optical to my receiver.
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Oct 10, 2007 16:29
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Calculon posted:It was on Auto but I changed it to PEG Port (I guess this is Foxconn's way of saying PCI Express). Still doesn't do anything. I guess I forgot to mention I'm using a BFG 8600GT and when I said hook up with VGA I meant use one of those DVI->VGA converters on one of the video card ports. As Gromit mentioned, your PC is probably sending an invalid resolution for your TV. If you're using the VGA port, it's probably limited to only one res, so you'll need to set your video card to that to get a picture.
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Oct 13, 2007 15:38
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Kaf posted:Is there anything out there that works good with Media Portal but will also work as a good universal for my TV, receiver, and cable box? Could I get something like this and a USB IR receiver and have it control everything? Yes. There are a variety of ways to control the HTPC with an IR remote, either directly controlling the front-end software, or by translating the commands into key presses.
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Oct 26, 2007 15:01
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I'm looking to replace my aging HTPC (as I have for the last year). What do you guys think about this: Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Manchester 2.2GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3500DKA4CG - OEM Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model KVR400/1GR - Retail XFX PVT86SYAFG GeForce 8400GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail Comes out to $182 before shipping, which isn't bad at all. I already have the HDD, Case, PSU, etc.
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Nov 23, 2007 18:03
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Explosm posted:edit: I found this one but couldn't find anything on compatibility with a PC. There's also a Microsoft one that says XP only. All of the Harmony remotes will work on PCs if you have an IR receiver. Sometimes they come with the remote, but you can buy the standard one here. I have that and have had no issues with it (well, none that relate to the receiver anyway, I hate the Harmony I have for controlling the PC). Most of the software front-ends out there will support it as well.
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Nov 26, 2007 02:37
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EC posted:I'm looking to replace my aging HTPC (as I have for the last year). What do you guys think about this: Goddamn every time I start looking at upgrading stuff I just get confused and walk away. Compare the above with this: quote:
...and give me advice. The below stuff is right at $300, but I had already decided to ditch the 8400gs from the top one and move to the 8600, which brought the total price to $240. I'm thinking of going with the bottom setup since I could easily upgrade the video/RAM/CPU going forward. Anybody know if that mobo handles x264 stuff correctly? Also, I can't for the life of me get the prices on Core2Duo's. The 6550 is $169, the slower 6420 is $204, and the speedier 6600 is $229.  Feels like I'm missing something, but doing a side-by-side comparison on Newegg doesn't show anything obvious...
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Nov 26, 2007 18:51
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