XBMC Media Center

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

I'm not sure what your asking, Moogle. When at home I have Micro-ATX HTPC that I built using the ZOTAC motherboard with XBMC installed. There is no substitute for XBMC as your main Media Extender, so if I was doing it now I would probably buy something like the ZOTAC MAG mini-pc and install the XBMC Linux Distro onto it.

However, when not at home.... it is not feasible that everywhere you go and want to watch your videos or listen to your music will have a PC with XBMC installed onto it. Yes, you could install XBMC onto a thumb-drive and take that with you (which is why I was researching streaming protocols), but it is a hassle and never quite works right. The QMobile app by itself will let you enjoy your media on-the-go, but with such tiny speakers and a little screen your mobile device (smart phone running iOS or Android) can't be shared with friends and family. That is why I bought some component cables for my iPhone so I can hook it up to any TV.

My iPhone becomes my media streaming device. It's compact, portable and always with me wherever I go. Throw the component cables in your bag and you're ready to rock you music and movies wherever you go with no hassle!

Well i got a popcorn hour A100.

You can install myihome on your windows pc, and stream to your popcorn that way.
http://www.popcornhour.com/download/myi ... ihome.html

I am wondering if xbmc is like that. You stream to say the popcorn; and you can get the xbmc gui displayed on your tv etc.

So maybe instead of installing xbmx on desktop pc; just install it on the QNAP.

:X am i making any sense ?

[micster]

No, you wouldn't want to do that. You want your Media Streamer that you install XBMC onto to be able to connect to your T.V. so that means the motherboard will need an assortment of Video Out options (or at least an HDMI for modern Flat Panels). The QNAP Network Attached Storage or NAS for short, is not very well suited for this aside from the lack of Video Out options it is seriously underpowered and most models I believe lack a Graphics Processor all together.

There are plenty of cheap HTPCs (Home Theatre Personal Computers) that are built for running things like XBMC, but most of them have little storage. So you would want both, a QNAP NAS to store all of your media files on that is connected to your Media Extender (Industry Buzz term) such as the ZOTAC I mentioned above which in turn runs XBMC for displaying the media on your television.

I have heard of others using the Popcorn Hour and puting XBMC on it, but I have no experience with this. From what I've seen the Popcorn Hour works pretty good the way it is.