What should i do? Help

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › What should i do? Help

ushare

485 posts

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#114147 10-Feb-2013 12:39

Hey Guys

So i have a descent home theater set up at the moment. 120" projector, 5.1 Sony Blu ray Home theater etc.

Currently I use the Sony player to play my movies and tv shows. But a lot of files come up corrupt or unable to play. These files play fine on my computer.

I have a lot of movies and tv shows. Most are full hd mkv. I also have many 3d Full hd movies at about 15gb each.

Now my blu ray player cant play all of these and I don't really like having to attach an external hdd each time i want to watch movies.

So What would be a good option to fulfill my needs?

I have looked into the Western Digital Live mediaplayer 1tb and it looks tempting. I do not feel like building an htpc. My budget is about 500 max. XBMC looks really promising :P

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#758943 10-Feb-2013 13:30

For $500 there are many many options:

HTPC - whilst you say you don't want to build one, it does give you the most power and flexibility. Can run Windows Media Centre, XBMC, JRiver, etc etc.

Apple TV - the 2nd generation models can be jail broken (I have done this to mine) and play 720p files through XBMC just fine. It does struggle a bit with 1080p files

Raspberry Pi - Very cheap and very powerful for what it is. Can play 1080p files fine (I think using XBMC again?) according to several users here on Geekzone

WD Live/WD etc - I have no experience with these, but a few seem to be able to play many types of files

PS3 - PS3 Media Server allows PS3's to play MKV and other files using the built in DLNA. I have not tried (but it is on my list of things to try)

I think you biggest factor is going to be file support. MKV files are popular because they are a single file but can store many audio and video streams.

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shrub

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#758981 10-Feb-2013 14:38

ps3 media server works well and a 2nd hand ps3 is pretty cheap

Deev8

481 posts

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#759066 10-Feb-2013 17:13

I do not feel like building an htpc

The HTPC forum might not be the best place to ask the question then - a lot of people who read this forum are inclined to say "build a HTPC".

ushare

485 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#759150 10-Feb-2013 19:51

I would really like to build a htpc with xbmc installed. It would be able to play everything right?

But the thing is i also need hdmi in for my bluray player and a security recorder i use and constantly watch.

Is there such a thing as hdmi in for pc that has no input lag at all and can be viewed straight from the htpc?

What I really want is to use my htpc as my main device which handles everything, basically one device with all other devices plugged into that.

Does that make any sense?

Cheers for the help guys

blackjack17

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#759170 10-Feb-2013 20:23

ushare: I would really like to build a htpc with xbmc installed. It would be able to play everything right?

But the thing is i also need hdmi in for my bluray player and a security recorder i use and constantly watch.

Is there such a thing as hdmi in for pc that has no input lag at all and can be viewed straight from the htpc?

What I really want is to use my htpc as my main device which handles everything, basically one device with all other devices plugged into that.

Does that make any sense?

Cheers for the help guys

What about a HTPC with a bluray drive?

Honestly there is no way I would trade in my xbmc pc now.

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ushare

485 posts

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#759180 10-Feb-2013 20:36

Ok here i go.

Currently my main source of entertainment is the tv. Which is plugged into a dvd player recorder with 500gb hdd. The recorder currently records all day every day via an av camera. The recorder has a freeview tuner and therefore this is all that is plugged into the tv.

And then there is the projector which i use about twice a week for movies. This is plugged into a sony bluray player. Its a HTIB (home theater in a box) and therefore this is also the receiver. The problem is, the bluray player cant play all my movie rips and has a pretty crap interface.

I want to build a HTPC and this should be the backbone of the entire home theatre system and i want it all running via htpc. I guess the blu ray player has to stay as it acts as a receiver for the copper cable home theater cables.

I want to be able to view freeview from the htpc accessible from the xbmc interface itself. I would also like to be able to view and record the av camera at all times withvery little to no input lag.

This way i can get rid of the dvd player too. and is there any way of getting rid of the bluray play also? I mean the only reason it is there is for the copper speaker cables which can only go into the receiver...,

Help.. Thank you so much guys

Nety

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#759478 11-Feb-2013 13:34

The easiest solution for you is to buy the Western digital live media player. From everything I have heard on Geekzone it will play anything you can throw at it. It is a consumer device so is stable and reliable.
I am a bit confused about the HTPC, first you say you do not feel like building one and now you are saying you want to? If you are not VERY enthusiastic to build a HTPC then do not waste your money get the Western digital and enjoy. I can assure you that building a HTPC is not straight forward and the chance of getting it going 100% how you want in the first attempt is possible but not likely. Often people spend MANY hours getting them up and running. HTPC's are a fantastic solution in that you can get them to do an amazing array of things and customise them to your hearts content. However they are NOT a consumer device. Even the best managed HTPC will have issues at times. It will stop working or miss recordings etc. They take work to get going and keep going.
You are likely to have an issue with your HT in a box as they generally have very limited inputs but if it has HDMI in then you might be OK. The HTPC can certainly do bluray as well however with the budget you have I would leave the current player doing that part as you are looking at a couple of hundred to add bluray support by the time you have purchased the drive the software required.

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ushare

485 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#759564 11-Feb-2013 15:30

The thing is, I know i said i dont want to build one, but i sure can get one built, it might cost a bit more, but if it gets what i want done, then its worth it. I have built several pcs before too, and the problem is i really like the xbmc interface over wdtvs.

ushare

485 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#759611 11-Feb-2013 16:17

http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/desktops/no-monitor/auction-559954297.htm

Do you think this would work?

Basically, i would setup xbmc on it and purchase a remote. I would store all movies to a external hdd which would be a shared drive for all other wired pcs in the house.

As soon as i get a new rip i put it onto the shared hdd. Do you think that would work?

Cheers

JimmyH

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#759695 11-Feb-2013 19:02

I'm not an HTPC expert. From what I know, an Atom processor looks a bit light, but should work provided that the graphics card is up to coping with decoding the video etc. However, 320GB hard drive is very small for what you want to do - particularly blu ray rips etc. So, you also would need external USB drives to store content.

However, for what you state you want to do, I would second Nety's recommendation of a WDTV live. Small and stable, and "just works" out of the box with minimal ongoing maintenance. Network it over a wired connection and plug a drive or two in to it. It will cost significantly less, be less hassle, and let you do everything you state you want to do - including letting the drives plugged into it be shared drives for other machines on the network. Last week JB HiFi had the old model WDTV lives for under $100, and the newer ones (better menus, processor, built in WiFi etc) for $157. Personally, I would buy the later model, and then put the $440 saved towards drives and content.

If I was inclined to build a home PC, then I would build something a bit better than the machine you are looking at. I would go for at least an i3 ivy bridge processor, 2TB of disk, and a blu ray drive. To my mind, if you are seriously looking at a build then either spend a small extra amount and do it properly, or don't bother.

driller2000

932 posts

Ultimate Geek

#759739 11-Feb-2013 20:47

i have an powered atom / ion 2 combo (xtreamer ultra) and that plays 1080p content fine - incl high bit rate rips

i have not put a tv card in - so i don't know if it would handle that task (personally i have avoided this option as messing with epgs and backend servers - for me - seems like a lot of work - compared to my freeview pvr - but each to their own)

the pc you have linked to has a faster cpu and far superior gpu then mine - so i believe it would be more than ample

personally i would not go back to a streamer and 1 have run xmbc machines for 2 years now - xmbc simply rocks

i have had very little ongoing maintenance required on my 4 xmbc machines - and it is infinitely more flexible, powerful and upgradeable than any streamer

good luck : )

Goosey

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#759753 11-Feb-2013 20:57

Popcorn Hour !

Network it to your data source and Stream it from there or simply copy data into it.
Has decent I/O's Easy to use.

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

ushare

485 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#759834 11-Feb-2013 23:13

I kind of like pop corn hour :P

The reason i really like htpc is because of xbmc. I seem to love the interface and how it indexes your movies with fan art etc..

I am really leaning towards an htpc at this stage. If only i could get rid of the blu ray receiver and plug the 5.1 straight into the htpc?

Is that possible?

Loismustdye

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#759836 11-Feb-2013 23:20

We've got a WD media player with a 1Tb drive plugged into it, works a treat and cheap as chips compared to some of the other options mentioned.
It plays pretty much every video file I've thrown at it so far, outputs via digital optical cable or hdmi as well.
There's also an app for ios and android to operate over the wireless network.

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#759837 12-Feb-2013 00:15

I'm running XBMCbuntu on an old laptop (with a C2D - which is more than ample). The interface is fantastic, and the flexibility to run any other kinds of software in the background as required. There are android and iphone clients, XBMC is constantly updated, it plays everything (no really), and supports airplay as well as DLNA. It can be flakey at times, but I put that more down to the aging hardware and flakey Linux ATI drivers than anything else.

Honestly if you want something you can keep up-to-date then it's the way to go. If you want to keep investment to a minimum in the first instance, a RaspPi would be the ticket.

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