Topic: Media Storage/ server ideas?

[Chuck]

I've been reading about the AppleTV 2 that can be jailbroke and XBMC can be loaded on it.
That looks like a really cool option. I haven't read about the downsides yet though.

[OFOTD]

I've been reading about the AppleTV 2 that can be jailbroke and XBMC can be loaded on it.
That looks like a really cool option. I haven't read about the downsides yet though.

I have an ATV2 that is jail broken.   The only major drawback is that the ATV2 only supports 720p video. No 1080.

If you do use an ATV2 make sure you check uncheck the 'check for updates' box in the Nitro menu.  Nitro is to a jail broken ATV2 what Cydia is to the iPad or iPhone.    If you don't change the setting eventually you'll get nag screens from Apple to update the iOS.   Major pain in the ass if it updates itself as you'll lose your library and will have to redo it which just sucks.

Also the remote options for an ATV2 aren't great and while the Apple remote is neat it does kinda suck to use.

[plains203]

Which is why I put mine back to default firmware. The iPhone / iPad couldn't be used as Ardmore for everything within xbmc so I didn't bother. My apple tv is out of sight and therefor the original remote never gets used.

[Chuck]

Hmmm... I've been told that the ATV 2 does gapless playback of MP3 files which is very important to me. The Roku doesn't.
I did get the MyMedia channel working on my Roku last night. It's pretty cool that I can call up music and video from my main computer over the network now.

[OFOTD]

Which is why I put mine back to default firmware. The iPhone / iPad couldn't be used as Ardmore for everything within xbmc so I didn't bother. My apple tv is out of sight and therefor the original remote never gets used.

Spend the $3-4 bucks and buy hippo remote app.  Best remote control software I've found for iOS.  Controls everything that is wifi accessible.  Best app I own for my iPhone/iPad

[Chuck]

I don't own any Apple products. So, I assume I can't use the Hippo remote application.

[Chuck]

What CD artwork sites do you guys use to pull CD covers from?

Over the weekend, I got my AppleTV 2 up and running with XBMC. This thing is great!
Now I'm starting to rip my CD's, but I'd like to find a good site with high quality artwork for my CD's.
 
Right now, I'm finding them mostly on Amazon and freedB. I rename the images "folder.jpg" and place them into the folders with the WAV's. So, when XBMC plays the WAV's the artwork is shown on the screen.

[DigiGal]

What CD artwork sites do you guys use to pull CD covers from?

Over the weekend, I got my AppleTV 2 up and running with XBMC. This thing is great!
Now I'm starting to rip my CD's, but I'd like to find a good site with high quality artwork for my CD's.
 
Right now, I'm finding them mostly on Amazon and freedB. I rename the images "folder.jpg" and place them into the folders with the WAV's. So, when XBMC plays the WAV's the artwork is shown on the screen.

I mostly use Amazon for mainstream stuff.  Some of the obscure and OOP discs can be tricky; I've gotten some artwork from eBay listings and some from http://albumart.org/  But a few discs I've had to resort to taking my own photos of the artwork.

[OFOTD]

Some of the obscure and OOP discs can be tricky;

For obsure, OOP and hard to find album info I use http://www.discogs.com/ quite a bit.    Especially handy if you have albums from other countries or multiple copies of the same album but from different pressings.   

Otherwise for mainstream covers I use a combo of Amazon and Wikipedia.    For the most part though the built-in scraper in XBMC usually finds the right cover.   I think that the default is freedb.   You can download and use several other album art scrapers within XBMC though.  Go to add-ins and there should be a category for them.

[Chuck]

I'm running XBMC on my AppleTV2.
One thing I can't figure out though is how to disable thumbnail caching. I want XBMC to always look for album covers in the root of the directory the WAV files are in. It would also be good to know where XBMC stores those thumbnails. That way, I can go in and clear that folder occasionally, so I don't use all the space on the AppleTV2.

The instructions I have found online:

Thumbnail Cache
XBMC will cache all Thumbnails to UserData\Thumbnails\ using the CRC of the path of the file or folder as a filename. That is the first location XBMC will generally look for a thumbnail for a given item.

But, I can't find that folder. FWIW, I'm using Cyberduck to access the XBMC files on the AppleTV2.

[Chuck]

I'm having trouble with playing audio files (WAV or FLAC) through XBMC on my Apple TV 2.
The audio stutters when I start to play a file and when I go into the folder with all my audio files and folders. It clears up once I back out to the main XBMC menu.

I've mentioned the issue over on the XBMC forum, but they tell me it's a known bug and they are working on it.

Do any of you have this problem when playing audio files? I'm running the nightly build (August 29, 2011) right now.