Play any media file on your PC

Add your music
Adding music to XBMC so you can play it is simple. Click Music from the main menu, then click the icon labelled Add Source and browse to find the folder where music is stored on your PC. Select ‘C:’ for the main hard disk in the computer and navigate to the folder containing music, then click OK. To have XBMC scan the whole hard disk, just select the drive letter.

After a folder has been added, clicking on it shows the contents, organised just like it is on the hard disk. What is so great about that? Well, nothing, really. But there is a much more important trick up XBMC’s sleeve. Right-click on a folder and choose ‘Scan to library’, and the computer will search the folder, analysing music files, and reading the information they contain about artists, albums and so on.

If there is a lot of music on the hard disk, it could take some time; a progress bar at the top right will show how it is going. When it is done, click the Library button at the left of the screen, and instead of the list of folders, new headings for Artists, Albums, Genres and so one will appear. No matter where music files were found on the hard disk, they will all be organised under these headings so you can easily find the song you want.

Fun with films
That’s a neat trick, but XBMC can be even more clever when it comes to films and TV programmes on your computer’s hard disk. The three-step guide we took you through earlier shows how to tell it that you are adding TV shows to its list, and when that has been done you can browse them as you would in Windows.

Where things get really clever, though, is when you take time to arrange the video files on the computer, with one folder per programme. If you have a folder for a particular programme, then name each file with its series and episode number (so episode three of series two of a programme, for example, would be called S02E03). You will find a full explanation to XBMC file naming here.

If files are named in this manner then XBMC can do something clever: when started, it will check to see if there are any new recordings, then automatically fetch information on each show from the internet. Click the Library button in the Video section of XBMC and all the programmes will be organised by name, series and episode number, complete with background information about the series and episode summaries.

Tell XBMC that a folder contains films rather than TV shows, and it will download a plot synopsis for each along with poster or DVD images, so it’s much easier to see what you have available to watch. And it will even do the same for music videos; choose party mode and a random selection will be played.

XBMC might not be able to record TV, but it can still show you programmes you missed thanks to the BBC iPlayer service. Although not installed by default, a few clicks is all it takes. At the bottom right of the main XBMC screen, click the icon to the left of the power button, then choose ‘SVN Repo Installer’ from, the list of favourites.

Next, choose xbmc-addons, followed by plugins, then video, pick iPlayer from the list, and choose to install it. iPlayer will appear in the Plugins section of the video area, and it is possible to browse through channels, genres and the most popular shows, then watch them within XBMC.

There are similar plug-ins for other online video services, too. Another handy function is the ability to play music stored on another computer or networked hard disk. If you have a networked hard disk that supports the UPnP system, you can fill it up with music or video files and play those from within XBMC. Click to add a video source, click Browse and choose UPnP.

Rather than clicking to select your shared media files, click OK to create an item labelled ‘UPnP Media Servers (Auto Discover).’ When anything that can share media files using UPnP is connected to your home network click this option in XBMC and you will see all the files that are available.

PC to TV
There no substitute for viewing on the big screen, and many modern TV sets have sockets specifically for PCs. All you need is the right cable.

Older computers will have a VGA connector, which is a blue D shaped connector with 15 pins. Many flat-screen TVs have the same connector, and a standard monitor cable can connect the two. If your PC has a round S-video socket then it can be connected to an identical one on some TVs, or to a Scart socket using an adapter.

More modern PCs may have a white DVI connector. These are only found on a few TV sets, but a cheap adapter cable can connect one to a TV’s HDMI socket. Some computers even have an HDMI socket, making connection easy.

Remember that HDMI is the only type of connection that also transfers sound, so for all other types you’ll also need to connect an audio cable between the PC and TV.

All together
XBMC can organise and play all your music, TV programmes and video files, and even play shows from the iPlayer. In fact, it can do even more than that.

It can turn any computer into a powerful media centre, and the more you play with it the more handy tools you are likely to find. So, why bother with a television set in the bedroom? Settle down with your laptop and you can enjoy TV, films and music at the touch of a button.

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