What are you doing with your HTPC?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › What are you doing with your HTPC?

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2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1527851 7-Apr-2016 18:31

I can't say what I am doing with it, since mine (ASRock Beebox N3150 mini PC) has been gathering dust since I bought it in November. However, I have just ordered the final parts I need to complete the planned setup, and will be hopefully getting it all up by the end of the month.

It will replace my current WD TV Live in the living room as the main media player, and will:

Run Kodi, and PlexBMC, to pull films and TV series off the Plex server on my NAS
Have a Hauppauge USB tuner that I have, plus NextPVR, for live TV, with the NextPVR add-on for Kodi to make Kodi the front end
Have a Hauppauge HD PVR 2, and an HDCP stripper, for HD captures
Have an old USB capture device, and a possibly a Grex later, for SD captures
Have Plex server, so that I can watch captures on the medroom media player etc
Have a wireless Xbox 360 controller dongle, and a couple of emulators (SNES, Megadrive etc) for the odd bit of social gaming

The USB tuner is only a single tuner. If I find use the TV feature a lot I may add a dual tuner and/or a satellite tuner in future. I may also add a webcam and Skype at some point in the near future.

Just waiting for two courier packages with bits to arrive, and a free weekend to get round to installing it all.

turb

881 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1527859 7-Apr-2016 18:41

JimmyH:
I can't say what I am doing with it, since mine (ASRock Beebox N3150 mini PC) has been gathering dust since I bought it in November. However, I have just ordered the final parts I need to complete the planned setup, and will be hopefully getting it all up by the end of the month.

It will replace my current WD TV Live in the living room as the main media player, and will:

Run Kodi, and PlexBMC, to pull films and TV series off the Plex server on my NAS

Have a Hauppauge USB tuner that I have, plus NextPVR, for live TV, with the NextPVR add-on for Kodi to make Kodi the front end

Have a Hauppauge HD PVR 2, and an HDCP stripper, for HD captures

Have an old USB capture device, and a possibly a Grex later, for SD captures

Have Plex server, so that I can watch captures on the medroom media player etc

Have a wireless Xbox 360 controller dongle, and a couple of emulators (SNES, Megadrive etc) for the odd bit of social gaming

The USB tuner is only a single tuner. If I find use the TV feature a lot I may add a dual tuner and/or a satellite tuner in future. I may also add a webcam and Skype at some point in the near future.

Just waiting for two courier packages with bits to arrive, and a free weekend to get round to installing it all.

....and an understanding partner.

But seriously, try doing that lot with any of the devices mentioned above.

Interests: HTPC, Web App authoring.

littleheaven

2128 posts

Uber Geek

#1528084 8-Apr-2016 01:01

davidcole:

Yeah I do have something similar. But I also have a ir receiver and a remote. Unsure where you can get receivers now....they used to be a mcrosoft piece of hardware.

I have that keyboard. Not bad. If anyone is after an IR receiver, I got mine from the Raspberry Pi shop online: https://pishop.nz/RPI-FLIRC.html It works well with my Harmony One remote.

Geek girl. Freelance copywriter and editor at Unmistakable.co.nz.

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1528107 8-Apr-2016 07:32

browned:

Have a custom HTPC, Gigabyte Brix box with multiple remotes and ir sensors sitting idle. Both replaced by Nvidia Shield TV's with Android TV running Kodi/SPMC, NextPVR Clients, Emby Clients, and Sky Go side loaded. These are the only boxes we need.

Yep Nvidia Sheild has repalced my HTPC too - and in doing so has added 4k and superior surround sound capabilities ie. dolby atmos so i can get the benefit of my new amp and atmos speakers : ) (just need a 4k tv now: ) - oh yeah and it does gaming too.

Fantastic device.

allio

885 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1528190 8-Apr-2016 09:54

Mine is a combination NAS/HTPC (not ideal, but the best fit due to space constraints in my current home). The backend is tvheadend with an HVR-2200, and the frontend is Kodi. It runs 24/7, recording live TV, playing live and recorded TV, plus downloaded media from the NAS, and occasional streaming from Youtube etc via addons.

A Chromecast on another HDMI input handles most other streaming duties, while a Windows PC connected to the receiver via a long HDMI cable takes care of those websites without Chromecast support (mostly NZ ones).

Ideally I'd separate the NAS and HTPC, and remove the Chromecast and PC from the equation. One day...

mclean

581 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#1528196 8-Apr-2016 10:05

turb: I think using a keyboard (Logitech K400) is a very small price to pay for a box that really does do it all, and is likely to in the future.

But it would be nice if the PC-based apps, like the Netflix, Plex, YouTube, Skype apps for PC, could work with just keystrokes, then they could be programmed into a remote. But they all need a mouse (Kodi being the exception for the apps I use). And you still need a remote to control the volume, so you need a mouse and a remote to watch pretty much anything through the PC .

But I agree a PC has much more to offer than set-top boxes.

davidcole

6020 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1528198 8-Apr-2016 10:07

mclean:

turb: I think using a keyboard (Logitech K400) is a very small price to pay for a box that really does do it all, and is likely to in the future.

But it would be nice if the PC-based apps, like the Netflix, Plex, YouTube, Skype apps for PC, could work with just keystrokes, then they could be programmed into a remote. But they all need a mouse (Kodi being the exception for the apps I use). And you still need a remote to control the volume, so you need a mouse and a remote to watch pretty much anything through the PC .

But I agree a PC has much more to offer than set-top boxes.

And web sites....not just apps - apps are likely to be keyboard controlled. It's web sites that are annoying, up down left right, ok to play, space to pause.

Previously known as psycik

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JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1531038 12-Apr-2016 20:10

turb:

....and an understanding partner.

But seriously, try doing that lot with any of the devices mentioned above.

Luckily, I have one.

She likes the odd bit of gaming (so hopefully the emulators will hopefully appeal), and also loves the fact that the our movie, TV and music collections now sit on a NAS, and are playable to either telly or stereo in the house and controllable off her phone. So she won't object to a HTPC designed to cap material and build the collection.

We have "pick a movie" weekends at the moment, where we take turns to pick the film for a Saturday night. She quite likes just scrolling through until she finds something she likes.

lurker

823 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1531051 12-Apr-2016 20:32

I'm running Kodi + browser based VOD using the Logitech K830 keyboard/trackpad. Everyone prefers the keyboard over the Harmony Remote which is gathering dust now.

Also use Steam's in-home streaming when playing on the big screen.

shrub

773 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1531056 12-Apr-2016 20:37

Mines being used as a NAS/torrent box, Media server and a NVR.

Serviio media server. It just works.

BlueIRIS running in the background with 2 cameras.

I then use my LG smart TV(Lounge) or chromecast(bedroom) to stream from Serviio and I remote desktop to it to access security cameras and utorrent which has RSS feeds:)

I also have a DVB-T/DVB-S card installed but im yet to work out how to stream to either chromecast or LG Smart. Mainly cos i do not see any reason to want to watch crappy add filled TV.

mattrix

193 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#1558578 24-May-2016 12:28

Can anyone confirm TVNZ Ondemand app & TV3 App runs on the Nvidia Shield TV?

I have just ordered one.

gbwelly

1238 posts

Uber Geek

#1558597 24-May-2016 12:47

Still old school.

HP Stream Mini desktop, Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center.

iSCSI to the server for recorded TV drive, HD Homerun for tuners

Plex on the server

Plex HT on the HTPC

Controller Companion with xbox 360 wireless controller for Netflix and Hulu

Rikkitic

Awrrr
18605 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1558697 24-May-2016 14:35

My set-up is all DIY because I couldn't find anything that did what I wanted and because it had to be cheap. I used some creative keyboard shortcuts together with AutoHotKey to build my own HTPC. I tend to stream a lot of different sites but I have found ways around many of the keyboard issues. Some sites do respond to at least some keyboard shortcuts, others work with keyboard and mouse macros via AHK, a few still have to be done by hand but AHK menu commands have greatly simplified this. I found an easy IR remote solution by purchasing a cheap generic USB remote, finding the database it uses, and programming it into my Harmony One. With AHK I am able to translate all Harmony keypresses into useful Windows and browser commands. The number keypad at the bottom of the Harmony corresponds to mouse movements in all directions and there are even two buttons left over for left and right click. Navigating the mouse is fairly quick and easy and there are some menu shortcuts to jump the cursor to different parts of the screen. I also have a wireless keyboard that I use when I have to enter text for something.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Killerkiwi2005

374 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#1558714 24-May-2016 15:13

Intel NUC with Mythtv/Kodi and wireless keyboard

But find ourselves using chormecast about 50% of the time now

Kids are using stream quite a lot as well

Kiwiuk

138 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#1558719 24-May-2016 15:24

For those with windows based htpc or nuc you can use the Intel Remote Keyboard app on your iPhone or iPad, and it simulates mouse track pad support also.

I use kodi on Windows 10 with my iPhone also having the kodi app.

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