Ready-made and cheap HTPC recommendations?

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tukapa1

725 posts

Ultimate Geek

#838139 17-Jun-2013 15:16

I ordered one of these - shipped it with YouShop for about $30NZ - bunged 4GB ram in it and installed openelec XBMC on an SD card and it boots straight to xbmc nice and quick.

Would cost around $300NZ all up including delivery then add the ram for $50 and you've got a full set up for around $350.

Plays full 1080p uncompressed blu-ray rips over the network easy.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

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#838172 17-Jun-2013 16:02

^ revo r3700 are pretty slow, but will be fine with OpenELEC, not so much if u use Win+XBMC.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

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#838175 17-Jun-2013 16:05

tukapa1: I ordered one of these - shipped it with YouShop for about $30NZ - bunged 4GB ram in it and installed openelec XBMC on an SD card and it boots straight to xbmc nice and quick.

Would cost around $300NZ all up including delivery then add the ram for $50 and you've got a full set up for around $350.

Plays full 1080p uncompressed blu-ray rips over the network easy.

^ nice setup.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

mclean

581 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#838189 17-Jun-2013 16:18

tukapa1: I ordered one of these - shipped it with YouShop for about $30NZ - bunged 4GB ram in it and installed openelec XBMC on an SD card and it boots straight to xbmc nice and quick.

Would cost around $300NZ all up including delivery then add the ram for $50 and you've got a full set up for around $350.

Plays full 1080p uncompressed blu-ray rips over the network easy.

Looks good. Did you have to do anything to run it on 230V?

tukapa1

725 posts

Ultimate Geek

#838199 17-Jun-2013 16:33

mclean: Looks good. Did you have to do anything to run it on 230V?

Nope - comes with power brick (same as laptop) with a clover plug so I just chucked out the plug that came with the unit and used a NZ one.

Tickety boo.

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#838203 17-Jun-2013 16:36

^ if your thinking of that, have a look to see if they have an e450 with dual slot ram. not sure how single slot would cope with 1080i, but dual slot would cope fine.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

tukapa1

725 posts

Ultimate Geek

#838417 17-Jun-2013 23:14

kiwijunglist: ^ if your thinking of that, have a look to see if they have an e450 with dual slot ram. not sure how single slot would cope with 1080i, but dual slot would cope fine.

Not quite sure what that means but I am using the one I linked to with full uncompressed blu-ray rips on a 50" Full HD plasma over my home network and have no issues at all with playing 1080 content.

Wise

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kiwijunglist

2981 posts

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#838422 17-Jun-2013 23:23

1080i = interlaced video. Blurays are 1080p (progressive). Also you mean full size ~~uncompressed~~ high bitrate bluray rips. 1080i is used in FreeviewHD.

So what I was saying is that if he intends to watch freeviewHD he should be safe, and try to find an e450 motherboard that takes dual channel (2slot) ram (assuming they are similar price).

PS. All video on blurays are compressed, if it was uncompressed it would be several about 1.5TB in size and you would need 30 dual layer blurays to store a 2.5 hour movie :)

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

tukapa1

725 posts

Ultimate Geek

#838425 17-Jun-2013 23:33

kiwijunglist: 1080i = interlaced video. Blurays are 1080p (progressive). Also you mean full size uncompressed high bitrate bluray rips. 1080i is used in FreeviewHD.

So what I was saying is that if he intends to watch freeviewHD he should be safe, and try to find an e450 motherboard that takes dual channel (2slot) ram (assuming they are similar price).

PS. All video on blurays are compressed, if it was uncompressed it would be several about 1.5TB in size and you would need 30 dual layer blurays to store a 2.5 hour movie :)

My bad - what I meant was not compressed from the initial blu-ray rip. Anywhere from 18GB-40GB per movie.

The collection takes up a bit of storage space though!

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

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#838449 18-Jun-2013 00:57

Tell me about it, I have 12TB and I'm running out of room :(

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

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