If you have been looking for an easy solution with which you can stream media to any device in your house then XBMC is the easiest solution for you. It is a very easy and versatile program that keeps your media synced and up to date. It even syncs the playlist across your device.
With XBMC you wont ever have to repeat the same movie or TV show again. With XBMC you can pause the video you are watching on your TV and resume it on your IPad or any other portable device from any place in your house. This much flexibility XBMC offers you.
So we have prepared this guide which will help you to set up XBMC in your house.
Things You Need For Setting Up XBMC
- More than one media center where XBMC is installed
- Free copy of MySQL Community Server
- Always on or nearly always on machine on which MySQL server is running
How To Install And Configure MySQL For XBMC
1. The version of MySQL server that will be installed will be 5.5 so download the app and install it
2. After installation is complete launch the MySQL instance configuration wizard
3. After the wizard launches select standard configuration and click next
4. In the next screen check install as windows service and give it the name MySQL and click on launch MySQL server automatically to make sure that MySQL is always running when you switch on your machine
5. In the next screen click on modify security settings and enter new root password and then check mark enable root access from remote machines.
6. Now you need to create a user account on MySQL server so open the command prompt and paste the following command in C:Program FilesMySQLMySQL Server 5.5binmysql.exe” “–defaults-file=C:Program FilesMySQLMySQL Server 5.5my.ini” “-uroot” “-p”
7. When console opens enter the root password that you entered
8. You will be at the MySQL server prompt so enter the following command to create a user on database server
CREATE USER ‘xbmc’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘xbmc’;
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO ‘xbmc’;
9. Now you need to make sure that the port 3306 is open on firewall of the machine that you have installed MySQL on
How To Configure XBMC To Work With MySQL Database
1. XBMC usually uses SQLite database so you need to configure it to use external MySQL database
2. If you are using windows 7 machine then go to the following location C:Users[username]AppDataRoamingXBMC to locate the advancedsettings.xml
3. If you are using windows XP machine then browse to C:Documents and Settings[username]Application DataXBMC
4. Once you have arrived at those locations you need to check for the file advancedsettings.xtml. If its there then open it if not then you have to create one by entering the following texts into the file
<advancedsettings>
<videodatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>192.168.1.120</host>
<port>3306</port>
<user>xbmc</user>
<pass>xbmc</pass>
<name>profilenameherevideo</name>
</videodatabase>
<musicdatabase>
<type>mysql</type>
<host>192.168.1.120</host>
<port>3306</port>
<user>xbmc</user>
<pass>xbmc</pass>
<name>profilenameheremusic</name>
</musicdatabase>
</advancedsettings>
5. After you have created the file and placed it in the appropriate folder you need to restart your XBMC so that it reads the new file and also you need to rescan your database again.
6. After XBMC have recreated the database you need to open the MySQL command prompt and type in SHOW DATABASE
7. After you have made sure that the database have been copied now you can use the following command to check whether or not its reading from the database
SELECT COUNT(*) from databasename.movie;
SELECT COUNT(*) from databasename.tvshow;
How To Sync XBMC Across Multiple Machines
1. You need to change the setting that will enable XBMC to remember the last known location of a file that you have been playing before you closed it. To enable it browse to settings > videos > file lists and select choose
2. Now to test it out you can select playing a file and stop it. And open it again and see whether it resumes or not. Do the same from other machines.
So we hope this guide was helpful to you and you are able to stream media all over your house with your portable device and also resume it frm the last place you left off. So do let us know if you face any difficulty and of any easy way that will allow you to stream media across your entire house easily.
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