Automating my home theatre

[Asher]

So in prep for my Boxee Box (http://www.dlink.com/boxee ), I got a Drobo FS (http://www.drobo.com/products/drobo-fs.php ) and bought 3 x WD Green 2TB drives. Moved all of my movies/tv shows there, among other things.

I also set up the FUPPES media server on it, which lets me play media from it with any DLNA/uPNP device. Boxee Box will use it just like a network drive, though.

I also installed a torrent client on the Drobo. I created a daemon to scan a specific folder ("torrents") every 5 minutes, and if there's any files in there, load them up with the torrent program automatically and download them to an "incoming" directory.

Right now I then manually move these files to the proper directory.

Next steps:
1) Write a perl script to scan the "incoming" directory and attempt to properly move files to their appropriate destination dirs. Shouldn't be too hard given the de facto standard online for named media torrents. I'll just need a mapping of show names to directories, which I'll probably put in a CSV file in the same directory for easy maintenance.
2) Write a script to populate the "torrents" directory automatically. Was hoping someone already had an RSS downloader for Drobo, but it seems no one has done it. This way I can tell it to get certain shows, and it'll automatically get new episodes as they get posted.

The end result:
My NAS (Drobo) will auto-discover, auto-download, the auto-categorize the files.
My streaming client (Boxee Box) will simply show me my new media I've not yet watched.


Yes, this is much more work than simply downloading the torrents and copying the files, but this will be more useful long-term and I think it's fun to do. It's also damn cool to not have to use a PC in any step after this is set up.

The Drobo is also an iTunes server, just because it took me 5 seconds to make it so. Not sure I'll use it for that.

[Wiglaf]

It's not shocking you don't like the DMCA, but coming clean eventually is better than never coming at all.

Also, it's spelled theater. Or do you also take teddy bears with you on business trips you VAGINA.

[Asher]

Canada's equivalent of the DMCA has not yet passed.

I am, interestingly, breaking no laws.

[Asher]

Fun fact: the RCMP (who is the authority in charge of such cases) last commented on online media piracy in 2007:

“Downloading music for personal use, or non-profit use is no longer targeted, and is legal.” Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the RCMP, said in an interview with Le Devoir.
St-Hilaire explained that they would rather focus on crimes that actually hurt consumers such as copyright violations related to medicine and electrical appliances, as well as ones that affect organized crime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing_in_Canada

[Wiglaf]

I wonder why no good television shows have ever come out of Canadia?

[Asher]

I'm confused. Why would we make television shows?

We get all the benefit we need by having you shoot yours up here.

Your show productions stimulate our economy, we pirate them afterwards.

[Jaguar]

What are the advantages of Boxee? I'm college-dormed, so my monitor is my best TV screen, so I don't know about this sort of thing. Why not, say, just connect your PC's video output directly to the TV?

[Asher]

You could do that just as well. Boxee is free software.

My PC isn't next to the home theatre, and PCs tend to be noisier than a virtually noiseless box. And noise in the home theatre bugs me.

You would probably also need to rig some kind of remote control for the PC.

The Boxee Box is basically a very low-noise/low-power box designed to fit in the home theatre, while a PC is none of these things.

If you were just hooking up your computer to your TV, I'd probably run XBMC instead of Boxee.

[N35t0r]

That must be some strange PC, not being next to itself...

What torrent program do you use? uTorrent has an option to automatically scan a dir. for new torrents, and can even subscribe to RSS links AFAIK.

Also, most torrent programs support moving a file to another directory when finished, so you could do that and just scan the finished torrents directory for new media.


[edit:]

Also, LCD vs. Projector. Discuss. I currently use my PC monitor to watch stuff (since it's screen is bigger than the one TV my GF had - we should try and sell that TV, we never use it), but in ~9 months I'll be wanting to get something 'bigger'.

[Asher]

That must be some strange PC, not being next to itself...

What torrent program do you use? uTorrent has an option to automatically scan a dir. for new torrents, and can even subscribe to RSS links AFAIK.

Also, most torrent programs support moving a file to another directory when finished, so you could do that and just scan the finished torrents directory for new media.

Eh? Don't think you understand -- this runs on a tiny embedded Linux OS on the Drobo, not the computer.

It uses a headless version of Transmission for torrenting. It can scan a dir for new torrents (this is how it's working now), and it does move to another directory when finished (this is how it's working now).

What it doesn't support is RSS downloading, so I need to implement something myself.

I also don't just want it to move to a single directory, I want it to move to the proper directories. TV shows go into \TV Shows\Show Name\Season Number\Episode Number - Episode Title.extension, etc. I also need to write something for this

[N35t0r]

You could install XP on it

I misunderstood the directories thing... I thought you additionally needed a way to figure out when the file had finished downloading (also, not seeding back? tsk tsk )

[Asher]

You could install XP on it

Nope, it's not an x86 processor -- it's ARM processor. It also only has 185MB of usable RAM.

I misunderstood the directories thing... I thought you additionally needed a way to figure out when the file had finished downloading (also, not seeding back? tsk tsk )

Seeding is illegal in Canada.
Downloading is not.

I'm a moral man.

[N35t0r]

It's the seeders that are the true pirates. It is them that give to other people what isn't legally theirs to give.

[Jaguar]

Seeding is illegal in Canada.
Downloading is not.

I'm a moral man.

So basically, you're a freeloader in every possible sense of the word. You pirate stuff that people work hard on, and then you don't even share with others?

[Asher]

I would share if I could, but as a moral man I refuse to break the law.

As for the shows, the majority of them aren't even available in Canada (UK shows, US specialty/cable shows). Most of the rest are on channels I already subscribe to (HBO, etc), but want the convenience of having it on the PC. The other ones are ones are long off the air.

Frankly, my cable bill is still $175/mo so the term "freeloader" doesn't really fit.

[Wiglaf]

You should buy an iPad so that you can stream your iTunes store purchases from the iPad to your HDTV.

[Wiglaf]

I think this new innovation feature is called Airplay.

[Asher]

Why the hell would I watch content on a 4:3 1024x768 screen? Or why the hell would I stream content FROM a device with limited amount of storage & processing power?

Why the hell would I buy low-quality video content from the iTunes store at high prices?

Are you retarded?

[Jaguar]

But the iPad has higher quality parts and sends a higher quality signal to the TV. You think it's all about the number of pixels and stuff, but that just shows how narrow-minded you are.

[Asher]

Actually, the iPad has lower quality parts and sends lower quality signals.

It only outputs 720p and its hardware is only capable of processing 720p also.

[Jaguar]

Sure, it might not have as many p as some other device you use, but that isn't what's important. What matters is the quality of the experience.

[Asher]

Does not play mkvs!

Bad quality! Bad!

[Asher]

With Boxee Box, I can watch mkvs with multiple audio stream options, multiple captions to choose from, chapter markers, etc.

The iPad is decidedly ghetto. As is AirPlay from iTunes.

[Jaguar]

You can put VLC on an iPad. Of course, since you get the best quality video (Quicktime) from the iTunes store, there's no need to use it.

[Asher]

You can put VLC on an iPad.

It's a subset of VLC functionality!

Of course, since you get the best quality video (Quicktime) from the iTunes store, there's no need to use it.

The iTunes store uses AVC, just a lower level of it. IIRC it's fairly low bit-rate AVC level 3.

I encode all my stuff at LEAST at 4.0/4.1, but 5.1 if possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels

In addition to the quantitative limits in the wiki chart, there's all kinds of very cool features that are more complex to decode that the iPad/iPhone do not support (which is why it's AVC level 3 and not higher). You can get something like ~20% better quality per the same bitrate in 5.1 vs 3.0, and much higher bitrates as well.

iTunes videos are also 720p and encumbered with DRM.

[Jaguar]

What I like about the iPad is that everything just works so easily, and I don't have to worry about things like encoding. You also don't have to worry about your TV getting a virus.

[Asher]

You do have to worry about things like encoding.

It only plays a small subset of video codecs.

[Jaguar]

I'd rather have a machine that plays only the high-quality codecs that Apple selects, rather than one that plays just any old codec.

[Asher]

[N35t0r]

I was wondering whether to call Jaguar a troll, or Asher, for continuing to argue such an obvious troll.