Xbmc

[Spinal]

I know a few people here use XBMC, so was wondering...

What's the interface like with music? Can you navigate metadata trees? (e.g. All songs> songs by decade> songs by artist)

How does it handle (large) libraries? I converted all my LPs and CDs to mp3/flac a few years ago, and still do that with any music I buy (refuse to buy on iTunes... I want physical media to sit on my shelf.. but that's me)

Thinking of hinting that it may be a good xmas present running on a small computer...

On that note, any suggestions as to a client? I'm guessing something with 8Gb of RAM, an I5 processor and a reasonable graphics/audio card should do... though my amp is only 5.1, so no point in going too high end with the sound card, but something with HDMI and optical audio out should be fairly easy to find, right?

M.

 

[kingdave]

I have several xbmc installations at home.
- main tv has an ubuntu linux box underneath with 8gb ram, dual satelite tuners for mythtv backend
- raspberrypi running raspmc
- android tablet
- windows pc in my office

I find it a bit disapointing for music to be honest, I'd encourge you to install it on a machine you already have and have a play with it, see if you like the navigation etc. I don't think you'll see a problem with a large library or working through metadata.

My only problem with it is I didn't get on with the navigation - scrolling through lists on a remote wasn't much fun, though that said, I didn't play with it too much or try any of the plugins which might help.


What I've ended up doing is using the old logitech squeeze system, basically means I have sonos type functionality but cost me pennies. My nas (netgear readynas duo) holds my music and provides a logitech squeeze server. I have another raspberrypi connected to my hifi running headless squeezelite (known as picoplayer for the pi). There are squeeze clients for android and ios which are free or very cheap which means if you want to create a few more zones for a party or listen in the bath or something it's easy.

Reason I mention it, is that there is a free plugin for xbmc which turns your xbmc into another squeeze zone, I get on with this set-up because I quite like having the music on in the kitchen, lounge and dining room so as I move about pottering around I can hear it. The other great thing is the ability to use the ipad, android tablet/phones etc. as browsers to choose music and create playlists. There are loads of different apps for this, some free and simple, others paid apps but slicker.

 

[kalvin928]

Hi i have it set up all my apple devices and have set it up as media player on my tv.... Love it..... Except for VIRGINS trafficing.... This should be resolved in next few weeks as going to to BT infinity.... I have a lot of the music adds ons and have no issues. I bought a main pc with HDMI and with 750 gb hard drive and paid £140... Now have set up with XBMC, all the main UK TV streaming stations etc.... Cant see any downfalls with it

 

[Spinal]

Thanks - need to research the squeeze system next.

On your android/raspberry units, do you have them scan your entire library? How big is the SQL database it keeps?

Have you used it for the picture viewing bit? I'm not sure it's that useful to me (over 1TB of images in raw formats) - but may be an easy gimmick to show a picture or two.

M.

 

[kingdave]

the android and raspberry pi clients come in two flavours, remote control and player. Some apps can do both. The players don't maintain a database, they just get sent files to play I think. The remote control clients don't maintain a database as far as I know either. When you choose to select music by Artist for example, I think the list of artists gets requested and sent there and then from the server.

It's the server piece that runs on the nas that regularly scans and must be maintaining some sort of datastore, but I haven't investigated if it's flat file, relational db or any other format, nor how big it gets.

There is ocassionally a tiny bit a of a lag with, for example, sending the list of say 5000 artists to the app in real time, but nothing too bad in my experience.

We do use the photo part of xbmc to view our photos from NAS on our main tv. It works fine, we have several hundered gb photos stored as jpg. I forget how big they are, they're the native jpgs saved by our EOS450d (not raw so a fair bit smaller than that).

 

[Spinal]

the android and raspberry pi clients come in two flavours, remote control and player. Some apps can do both. The players don't maintain a database, they just get sent files to play I think. The remote control clients don't maintain a database as far as I know either. When you choose to select music by Artist for example, I think the list of artists gets requested and sent there and then from the server.

It's the server piece that runs on the nas that regularly scans and must be maintaining some sort of datastore, but I haven't investigated if it's flat file, relational db or any other format, nor how big it gets.

There is ocassionally a tiny bit a of a lag with, for example, sending the list of say 5000 artists to the app in real time, but nothing too bad in my experience.

We do use the photo part of xbmc to view our photos from NAS on our main tv. It works fine, we have several hundered gb photos stored as jpg. I forget how big they are, they're the native jpgs saved by our EOS450d (not raw so a fair bit smaller than that).

I looked into this last night- XBMC maintains a local database (SQL) with the metadata and downloaded covers of the files (if you tell it to, which is needed for the library view to work - at least on my laptop where I tried).

What worries me now is HDD capacity, as I was planning to get it to trawl through everything...

M.

 

[kingdave]

Sure, xbmc maintains an internal database of your video and music files. If you go the squeeze route it will function as I described and there will be no local music database required. I don't think the photos get indexed locally on xbmc.

If you are running several xbmc instances you can arrange to have one central database as long as you keep client versions in sync, that way you could at least force it to reside somewhere you have space. I wouldn't be all that concerned by the size of the database though, it's only indexing the content not copying the material itself.

ETA: Just re-read your post, I guess cover-art could take up some space.

 

[Pittsey]

I use squeezebox for my music.

I have a Squeezebox touch going into a Tube Amp in the living room. The Touch supports 24 bit 96khz rips, so that's why I picked that one. I have the Squeezebox duet going into the bathroom, with some KEF ceiling speakers. I have the squeezebox radio in the kitchen.

I think the kit has been discontinued. Which is a shame, as it is the only alternative to the Sonos. Which doesn't support 24 bit rips, by the way.

You can get something like an O2 joggler (or even a raspberry pi - I think) and stick the squeezebox software on. I did intend to do it for my bathroom, but used the duet instead.

I am also tempted to switch out my XBMC front end for Plex. Plex seems a lot more flexible and you can easily share your library outside of the home.