I have been hooking my laptop up to the TV a lot lately. It started in the spring when I got my MLB.TV subscription going so I could watch Braves game and now I use it to watch the Saints via the NFL Superfan app from DirecTV.
Because of this, I have been thinking about getting a small, quiet PC that I can just leave by the TV. There seem to be a lot of contenders out there right now, but I need to find a balance between size, power consumption, power, features, etc... I think I have settled on the Asus EeeBox PC EB1012, but there is no price or release date just yet, so we'll see.
Since I pretty much know that at some point in the not so distant future I will be getting a PC to leave connected to the TV, I have been playing around with some different media center apps. Specifically, Boxee and XBMC. So far, XBMC has won me over, but I still have a long way to go before I make a final decision.
In this post, I want to talk about the tweaks I have had to make so far to get XBMC working correctly for me.
First and foremost, I need to be able to access one XBMC database from all of my machines in the house. I can do this by storing the "userdata" on one computer and pointing all other installations to it. I found out how to do all that here. Nothing too complex, just using mklink in Windows 7, but I do have to turn off all UAC to make life eaiser (don't really care about that).
Also, in all of my testing, I was in dire need of keyboard shortcuts since I don't have a remote setup just yet. Here is where I found that info.
As for the remote, I have a nice Logitech Harmony, specifically for the XBox 360 and I just got an IR receiver that I am hoping I can get to work nicely. I will post the details if/when I get it all figured out. Otherwise, I have already dropped the $2.99 on the XBMC Remote software for the iPod Touch. That works like a charm and is pretty amazing. I am also thinking about getting a Logitech DiNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard rig. It is pricey, but the thumb keyboard plus touchpad might be perfect for doing things outside of the XBMC interface.
The shortcomings I see so far are that there is no integration between XBMC and the other things I use like Superfan, MLB.TV and HULU, etc... I think there is plugin for Justin.TV which I need to check out (since that would let me watch live ESPN and some other sports). I know Boxee can do MLB.TV (or will be able to soon), but I think it may be lacking in a few other areas. For now, I will have to just load up HULU Desktop and see if I can get it working woth the Harmony remote setup.
That's enough for now. I just wanted to get some of this info posted while it is fresh in my head.
