Hardware: Raspberry Pi Model B, WD Mybook 3TB, LAN connection
Software: Raspbian, Samba, Transmission and amuled
Movies: 1080p, DTS-HDMA, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DD. (some movies >40GB)
Access from XBMC over network: DTS and DD - no problem. DTSHDMA or Dolby TrueHD - need to turn off Transmission and amuled.

My hdd connects to Pi directly.
USB hub need to be powered, so will consumed more electricity, since the setup is supposed to run 24/7. I suggest you get the new model B+ that comes with 4 USB ports.

Do you have the link where to buy the new model B+ with that 4 usb ports? And do your RPi also served as NAS? How good is the r/w speed?

because it provides server side media info. all media info and info update will be handled server side, without needing each client to scrape multiple times for each player.
add new media to the server, server does the info update, server updates the sql database, and all player will see the new media plus all the necessary info without needing separate media refresh. saves time if you have a single centralized media library providing access to multiple player throughout the entire house.

netbook as nas if you have a couple of drivers. if you have more than a couple, consider building a low powered server.

some intro for those who are new to XBMC.

Organize all 2000++ movie with XBMC and scraped all data from IMDB.
[attachmentid=4078822]
[attachmentid=4078828]

can also search by collection (ie: 007 collection, fast & furious collection)
[attachmentid=4078823]
[attachmentid=4078824]

Sort movie by IMDB rating. Dunno what to watch? just start from the highest rating one.
[attachmentid=4078825]

Search By Actor.
[attachmentid=4078826]

Search By Genre.
[attachmentid=4078827]

XBMC 13 and above will have build in support for 3d video playback.
Many playback mode to choose from. Here is red-cyan mode ( need red-cyan 3d glasses to watch)
[attachmentid=4078829]

the best way to run XBMC is PC/desktop computer...from what i understand rasberry Pi and android doesnt for 3d playback.
owned 2 android tv dongle but all suffer from 1080 video ( frames drop). have to use external player like MX player to play 1080 video by edit the playercorefactory.xml files.

because it provides server side media info. all media info and info update will be handled server side, without needing each client to scrape multiple times for each player.
add new media to the server, server does the info update, server updates the sql database, and all player will see the new media plus all the necessary info without needing separate media refresh. saves time if you have a single centralized media library providing access to multiple player throughout the entire house.

netbook as nas if you have a couple of drivers. if you have more than a couple, consider building a low powered server.

i use MXplayer as my player.
download this attachment
[attachmentid=4097848]
rename it to playercorefactory.xml
and paste it into location Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata/

when u want to play media files, press "C" to bring out the menu and select "play using"

*different android device might have different configuration, so try see this work for u.

Use hardware decoding but try disabling "Allow hardware (MediaCodec)". As for pressing "C", u need a wireless/Bluetooth keyboard for that. Pressing it will bring up the contextual menu.