How to get started and what to use

[Guest]

Hi MediaBrowser people.  I am a new adopter of WMC and cable card technology with a HD Homerun Prime.  This all started as I found out my son had repeated something inappropriate he heard on tv.  I have Comcast with 2 HD Dvr boxes downstairs..one on my main tv in the great room and one in the bedroom.  There are 3 tv's upstairs.  Gameroom has Xbox 360 and a 46 720P HD LCD.  The kids rooms have old 19-24 tube tvs.  All 3 had DTA's.  I have parental access set on my account.  Until this incident, I hadn't checked it on the DTA's.  To my chagrin, I found out DTA's don't have parental controls...doh.

 

So, instead of tacking more set top boxes on to the over $38 per month in rentals we have now, I decided to look at a cable card tuner and WMC.  WMC is great....on my server.  But it's in my office and not likely to migrate to the great room.  I have a NAS with 6TB of storage, so my girlfriend is thrilled by the prospect of DVR'ing more shows and being able to keep them longer.  

 

Here's my quandary.  I would like an inclusive way to stream live tv to the 3 HD tv's.  Not worried about the tube tv in the 2 kids bedrooms.  Going to get them 24-32 LCD for Xmas and let them use something...probably MediaBrowser web client to watch tv on tablets with HDMI cables.  That works great...I love the guide and live tv works great even over wireless.  My question is about using the Xbox 360 as an extender.  I love the Media Browser profle setup.  Myself and gf can be unlimited, 13 yr old can be PG-13 and 10 year old is PG.

 

I also have a PS3 and have NEVER used an Xbox 360.  I played with it just a second the other night and got it setup in WMC.  Looks great...but since I don't have parental controls turned on in WMC, there obviously aren't any on Xbox 360.  But looking at WMC parental controls it seems they are on or off.  I don't want to have to punch in a code when I am watching tv so I am wondering where MB comes into all this.  How do I watch live tv on the XB360 but use MB and the user profiles.  I love the way it appears I can setup a library of media to be available to each user.  I could sort my movies by rating and only let him have G and PG, the 13 yr old could get G, PG and PG13.  When they get older I can add to their ratings.  

 

The gf is really leary of losing the ease of use of the DVR box.  I am looking for a cheap Xbox 360 to experiment with in the great room, but my biggest question is how to use profiles for parental controls when I am using the Xbox 360's.  Is this possible?  I'm 44 and got my first computer at 11...a Timex Sinclair T1000.  I work in a technical field, so installing, configuring, and trouble shooting PC software and hardware is not a big deal to me.  I am a PC guy.  I've been around the block a few times with Linux but don't presently have a box running it. 

 

I've got the server, HD Homerun and great room all hard wired with gigabit ethernet.  I plan on getting in the attic and dropping some more wire and putting a 24 port patch panel and switch in an upstairs closet to round out the high speed network at some point if this all will do what I want.

 

So, if you want, skip all that and read this summary:

 

Have Windows7 64bit 6 core AMD with 8GB of RAM and 6TB NAS.  Want to use Xbox 360's, Android tablets and maybe a MS Surface to watch live tv.  Don't have much of a video collection, so streaming ripped movies is not a concern.  Main concern LIVE TV WITH access to the program GUIDE.  And must have parental controls set by user.  How to do that with the Xbox360 or another media extender like an old Linksys or Ceton or something like that AND have parental controls.

 

Lastly, still stumbling around in WMC and MB Server.  Does MB Server need to have WMC running at all?  I think so if just to provide DVR and setup for the Windows Media Extenders.

 

Any and all advice is GREATLY Appreciated!!!!!

 

Drew

[Macburp 109]

I have an Xbox 360 running MB, but you'll find they are a dieing breed. The user interface can be sluggish, and support for codecs (for example, MKV files don't work on an xbox) and surround sound is limited. The xbox crashes most days for me. 

 

Can new Xbox 360's still be bought? Be aware of the '3 rings of death' if you buy second hand.

 

So as you're setting out today, I would suggest you look at an Intel NUC with celeron processor, or of that's a little steep for your budget take a look at the rapidly growing range of small linux boxes, chief of which is the Asus Chromebox (Chrome OS but can be hacked into linux). IMHO Mediabrowser lacks a good linux client if you don't like XBMC/Kodi (which I don't, YMMV), but good results can be had from the XBM3C plug-in.

 

If you're determined to have a go with the xbox, the general principle is that if you get something working on the main WMC machine, it should work on the extender. I think parental controls are set at the server level in MB3 by user, so you're ok there.

 

You should go to the LIve TV forum for more info about that. I don't do live TV at all these days. I hear that some good things have been done with Live TV in MB3.

 

MB server is stand-alone, it doesn't need WMC to run. The client for WMC is Mediabrowser Classic (MBC), which does need MBC to run.

 

I run the IOS client on an ipad, WMC on the extender, Android client on my cheapie android tablet, and web client on other things. It all works pretty well.

 

Enjoy!

[ebr 14903]

I'm afraid you won't be able to get Live TV via MB through your Xbox because MBC does not implement an interface to Live TV (since it is built-in to WMC already).

[Guest]

Ah...ok, so what's the best solution to hook up 3 HDTV's to get Live TV AND individual user profiles.  It would have to have a regular remote control....Logitech or whatnot...but has to work most of the time like a cable box for the kids and girlfriend.

 

I guess I could still use the Xbox upstairs in the gameroom...just let it use WMC and set the parental control to PG13 or less.  I can watch tv on my pc thru a Media Browser app and not be running into the WMC parental controls, I guess.

[Kent 91]

Have you considered Roku's running MB3 to cover live TV with discrete user profiles?  Cheaper than xbox's, but you do lose some WAF with lack of TV grid.  I do think it's a matter of time before the Roku app catches up with a full TV grid.

[Guest]

I've got a Roku and I checked the app out...not too bad.  Yes, a grid EPG would be awesome!  I may toy around more waiting on apps to catch up and get updated.  Mainly just using WMC or MB as a big a$$ DVR.  That's the one thing the gf is excited about.  I told her just with the hd in the PC I had room for 226 HOURS of HD recording!  I haven't started setting up the shares on the NAS yet.

 

Instead of the NUC, what about a Raspberry Pi?  Is there an app for Linux or would I just use the web browser?

Edited October 2, 2014 by droopie