HTPC

Home Theatre Personal Computer.

Paully's Ultimate Lazy Boy Configuration

This has to be the best way to enjoy hassle free viewing of the very latest TV shows and Movies.

It involves 7 different pieces of software, and they all have to work...

1. Ubuntu_Server - to use as the base operating system.
2. DNS - to be able to access certain web sites.
3. FlexGet - to retrieve the list of new shows or movies.
4. Trakt - to manage the list of your shows or movies you want.
5. Transmission - to download the torrent files.
6. FileBot - to rename the files and place them in your folders.
7. XBMC - to watch and scrobble the tv shows and movies.

Ubuntu > DNS > FlexGet > Trakt > Transmission > FileBot > XBMC

Paully's Setup...

Case	Silverstone GD05
Power Supply	FSP ZEN 400
Acoustic Absorbtion	Akasa PaxMate
Motherboard	Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 NEW Asus M4A785TD-M EVO OLD
CPU	AMD FX(tm)-4350 Quad-Core Processor NEW AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor OLD
CPU Cooler	Scythe Shuriken Rev.B NEW Zalman CNPS8700-NT OLD
Case Fans	Coolink Ultra-Quiet Fans 80mm x 2 and 120mm x 1
Memory	16Gb Crucial DDR3 PC3-10600
Graphics Card	Palit GeForce GT 520 PhysX GPU 1GB DDR3 Dual-Link DVI, VGA, HDMI Graphics Card
TV Card	Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-HD-S2
Remote Control	Dell MCE HF569 USB Infrared
Hard Drive	Western Digital 8TB NAS Red WD80EFAX NEW Western Digital 6TB NAS Red WD60EFRX OLD Western Digital 4TB NAS Red WD40EFRX OLD Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Black WD1502FAEX OLD Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Green WD15EADS OLD
Optical Drive	ASUS BW-16D1HT with v3.01 firmware and LibreDrive (4K UHD Friendly) NEW LG HD Blu-ray HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW GGC-H20L 1.03 OLD
Software	Plex for Samsung + Plex Media Server Ubuntu Server FlexGet → Transmission Daemon → FileBot NEW Linux Mythbuntu MythTV 0.27 (PPA Daily Updates) with the Blue Abstract Theme 1.9 OLD
Television	Samsung QE55Q6FN 55" 4K Ultra HD HDR 1000 Smart QLED FUTURE Samsung UE49KU6400 49" 4K Ultra HD Smart HDR LED TV Freeview HD Freesat HD NEW Richer Sounds Samsung UE40F6740B LED HD 1080p 3D Smart TV, 40" with Freeview/Freesat HD and Voice Control OLD Samsung UE32B6000VW 32" LED-backlit LCD TV 1080p FullHD OLDER
Media Players	Roku Streaming Stick+ 4K HDR Google Chromecast Ultra 4K
Speakers	Logitech Z906 THX DTS 5.1 Surround Sound

Transmission

Install the software...

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:transmissionbt/ppa
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install transmission-daemon transmission-common transmission-cli
sudo service transmission-daemon stop
sudo pip install transmissionrpc

Allow the software to run on startup...

sudo nano /etc/default/transmission-daemon
     ENABLE_DAEMON=1

Fix the user the daemon runs as (because we are saving it in our shared Samba folder)...

sudo nano /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon
     USER=nobody
sudo nano /etc/init/transmission-daemon.conf
     setuid nobody
     setgid nogroup

Make the folder it will download files to, change settings and permissions...

sudo mkdir -p /home/samba/shared/transmission
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /home/samba/shared/transmission/
sudo chmod -R g+w /home/samba/shared/transmission/
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /var/lib/transmission-daemon/
sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /etc/transmission-daemon/
sudo chmod -R g+w /var/lib/transmission-daemon
sudo chmod -R g+w /etc/transmission-daemon
sudo nano /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json
     "download-dir": "/home/samba/shared/transmission",
     "rpc-authentication-required": true, 
     "rpc-bind-address": "0.0.0.0", 
     "rpc-enabled": true, 
     "rpc-password": "mypassword", 
     "rpc-port": 9091, 
     "rpc-url": "/transmission/", 
     "rpc-username": "myusername", 
     "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1", 
     "rpc-whitelist-enabled": false, 

Start...

sudo service transmission-daemon start

Check it is running...

sudo pidof transmission-daemon
sudo ps faux
sudo netstat -ntap |grep 'transmission'

FileBot

sudo -i
mkdir -p /root/misc/filebot
cd /root/misc/filebot
aptitude install default-jre-headless
wget -O filebot_4.5_amd64.deb http://sourceforge.net/projects/filebot/files/filebot/FileBot_4.5/filebot_4.5_amd64.deb/download
dpkg -i filebot_4.5_amd64.deb

FlexGet

Install the software...

sudo aptitude install python-pip
sudo pip install flexget six==1.8.0
sudo flexget --version

Schedule updates...

sudo -i
crontab -e

# flexget
@daily easy_install --upgrade Flexget &>/dev/null
@daily easy_install --upgrade transmissionrpc &>/dev/null
@daily /usr/local/bin/flexget --version

Create config file...

(as regular user)

mkdir ~/.flexget
nano -w ~/.flexget/config.yml

tasks:
  test task:
    rss: http://mysite.com/myfeed.rss
    series:
      - My Favorite Show
      - Another Good Show:
          quality: 720p
    download: /home/me/watchdir/

Test...

flexget check
flexget --test execute

HOWTO:

Backup Whole Entire System (less /home)

sudo -i
cd /
tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz --exclude=/backup.tar.gz --exclude=/home --one-file-system /

SCREENS:

Check out the specifications of your chosen display at the aptly named DisplaySpecifications.com.

LINKS:

https://enztv.wordpress.com/