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

#1558950 24-May-2016 20:57

HDCP Stripper arrived. So I now have all the parts I need.... or at least I thought I did. Turns out my PVR2 has an american power supply. It looks like it will work with NZ voltages, but I will need an adapter.

So my plan is now NextPVR on the HTPC, which looks like it will cope with tuning NZ Freeview (incl EPG), and will also treat the Hauppauge HD PVR2 as a tuner.

Kodi on the HTPC as a front end, and also the android box in the bedroom, networked together. Which should let me stream live TV (incl Sky if I get a MySky) live from the living room to the bedroom in HD, as well as let me look at recordings off the NAS (which runs Plex) using PlexBMC.

Initially recordings will be in SD, by connecting Sky to the HTPC using the good old analog connectors, as I haven't decided whether to dump Sky or upgrade to a MySky, let alone pay for an HD Ticket.

I have also acquired a Zone-Free Blu-Ray player. Eventually I want to get something like an Apple TV (apps for Netflix, Lightbox etc), a Freeview Plus Box and install the 4x2 HDMI matrix switch that I have lying around.

The ultimate build could the look something like this.....

Going into the matrix splitter:

Input 1 <-- MySky
Input 2 <-- Blu-Ray
Input 3 <-- Apple TV
Input 4 <-- Freeview Plus

And coming out of the matrix splitter:
Output 1 --> TV
Output 2 --> HDMI stripper --> HD PVR 2 --> HTPC

Which will let me send any input to the TV, or stream any input live over my network to the TV in the bedroom etc, or cap anything I want to watch latter (say on my laptop on a trip). Assuming I ever get around to it...... Frankly my track record of completing projects like this isn't great.

darylblake

1158 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1559022 24-May-2016 23:03

Im using an actual PC but in a small case about 2U in height but as wide as those old Stereos.. its a bit like a VCR. Have a gamepad and wireless keyboard.

Pentium Sandy Bridge G620 i think. 4GB Ram, windows 8.1, loads of storage. Am thinking of upgrading the graphics card to a GTX750ti thats the best low profile card I can find for it, ill try a couple of games to see if its practical before buying a new graphics card.

Felicks

62 posts

Master Geek

#1616071 22-Aug-2016 21:44

I have had two HTPC's. The first one I built around 10 years ago and then built a second one when Terrestrial HD became available here in Chch. So the current one is around 5 years old. It records TV daily. The family hasn't watched Live TV for years and the kids get frustrated with other peoples TV's when they can FF through the ads!

I use Acronis True Image to re-image it in case it ever goes kaput! Generally its very reliable - thank God.

My system: Case Silverstone LC17 & 4 dustless fans, PSU Corsair VX550w, O/S Win 7 Premium 32bit, M/Board Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H (780G chipset), CPU BE2350 (2.1Ghz), RAM 4Gb Corsair, HDD 500Gb and 750Gb WD Green drives, Tuners 2 x HVR 2200's, Graphics fanless nVidia 8600GT, Signal Terrestrial HD Freeview, TV Panasonic P50V20, EPG EPG Collector 4.3 and Big Screen EPG, Remote EPG Big Screen ByRemote v10B (program the EPG remotely using an iPhone)

I recently bought a 2 bay Synology 216play NAS. Aside from various back ups and movies, one of its jobs is to store home security camera footage.

KiwiTim

376 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1616175 23-Aug-2016 09:28

I used to use mine all the time for watching and recording live TV. I use DVBViewer and Recording Service PVR software. However, these days I seldom watch live TV and usually watch Netflix or BBC iPLayer on my Samsung Blu-ray player. Occasionally, I record sport off Prime with DVBViewer or fire up the HTPC to use Kodi. Just don't watch much with live, NZ-sourced TV anymore. There is so much better content available from overseas. Using Unotelly as an unblocker to get UK and Australian TV. I get the UK TV from my Samsung Blu-ray, receive some Australian TV from my Samsung TV and get some more Oz TV via Kodi on the HTPC.

Tim

Kiwibro

69 posts

Master Geek

#1616217 23-Aug-2016 10:45

I still have my faithful I5 powered ivy bridge with SSD and win10 with media center (unofficial version)plus EPG collector via dvb-t twin tuner. I record to ISCSI on a freenas server. We stream and record/watch freeview via HDMI to tv and optical out to 5.1 system. I use cyberlink for blu Ray and is the center of our home theatre in our lounge. I control it with a Logitech remote using a media center remote IR using the media center remote inputs plus a mini keyboard for other PC functions.

nickrout

219 posts

Master Geek

#1618806 28-Aug-2016 17:24

Server runs in an old HP Workstation PC with lots of SATA ports, it has about 8TB of storage.

Runs ubuntu, with mythtv for recording TV from a HD Homerun dual DVB-T tuner, allowing recoding up to about 6 programmes at once. I have another DVB-T HD Homerun as well, but I don't do that much recording at the moment, so it is unused.

It also houses my ripped movies and TV programmes - about 700 movies and 400 series.

I have 5 or 6 chromeboxes running kodi as clients, they all connect to a MySQL database on the server to co-ordinate their databases.

dickytim

2514 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1619066 29-Aug-2016 12:20

I am using my PC as a combination HTPC and Gaming machine.

It lives under the TV and has 5 x 4TB drives, a 240gb SSD and 2TB drive, the last one that needs replacing. I am also running a DVD/BR player, but to be honest never use that.

I stream TV when needed, but between FTA TV, Tivo and generally going out to watch the rugby the HTPC is more often used for games.

I recently scored a really good sized box that easily houses all my HDD as well at the GTX960 (can also take a bigger card) for $25 off trade me, on the way home from picking that up we scored a perfect sized TV cabinet that fits the Onkyo receiver, Tivo, the HTPC and has draws for storage for $200 from the Freedom pop-up store.

Tradepub

Free professional, reference and technical white papers (affiliate link).

lchiu7

6467 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1642914 29-Sep-2016 20:22

Interesting topic that resonated with me.

Up till about 2 months ago my HTPC was a Brix UMPC running an Intel Celeron (R) 1037U 1.8GHz 2G RAM, mSATA 64GB drive, 1TB external USB3 drive and XP(!).

It ran XP because I was using GBPVR, a Hauppauge PVR250 USB2 capture device and a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-900 DVB-T USB capture device.

All recordings were either OTA or capturing from the Vodafone T-Box. Captures were to an external 1TB drive which I then watched content on a Popcorn Hour reading off the share. I could watch content on any PC on the network.

I kept with XP since GBPVR had native support for the T-Box in terms of blasting IR codes from a USB-UIRT to the T-Box to change channels and is not supported on Windows 10. (You might ask why I bothered because the T-Box can record but the problem is the recordings can only be played back on the T-Box whereas recording to a drive I can watch content anywhere).

Anyway bit the bullet about a month ago and worked out how to blast IR codes from a command line exe I found and Pronto codes I had captured for the T-Box.

So upgraded to Windows 10, adding 4GB of RAM and replacing the PVR250 with a HD-PVR capture box. I also now switched to NPVR. NPVR changes channel on the T-Box by calling a small exe that blasts the channel codes via the USB-UIRT to the T-Box. Recordings via the HVR-900 remain the same. All recordings go to the 1TB external drive which is shared across the network.

This all works well and so I can record shows from two sources and watch from anywhere.

EPG comes from EPGCollector and a DVB-T EPG dump somebody continues to post daily :-)

Of course because there is so little to watch the Brix is hardly used but that is quite a different topic.

I also run a Raspberry Pi as my home automation server and I am now thinking I could stop using that and just move it to the Brix as it isn't doing much else.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

mclean

581 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#1643147 30-Sep-2016 10:01

lchiu7: Interesting topic that resonated with me....

Interesting. I'm not sure I understand all that but a couple of questions anyway:

I assume you are capturing off the T-Box through the component video port so HDCP is not an issue. Is that right? How is the video quality and how big is a typical movie file?

Can your USB-UIRT setup convert up/down/left/right remote buttons to mouse movements so that it can work with keystroke-unfriendly apps like Netflix?

davidcole

6021 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1643166 30-Sep-2016 10:19

mclean:

lchiu7: Interesting topic that resonated with me....

Interesting. I'm not sure I understand all that but a couple of questions anyway:

I assume you are capturing off the T-Box through the component video port so HDCP is not an issue. Is that right? How is the video quality and how big is a typical movie file?

Can your USB-UIRT setup convert up/down/left/right remote buttons to mouse movements so that it can work with keystroke-unfriendly apps like Netflix?

I used to use HIP for receiving signals and that would convert to keys....oh you said to mouse....interesting. Not sure if HIP would to that. But there was a API/DLL for the usb-uirt so you could write possibly code to do it.

Maybe LIRC could do something as well (on a Raspberry PI). I'm using my usb uirt now hooked up to open hab and I can send commands to my AV receiver from my phone when I'm not in the from. I guess it all depends if a program can get access to the on screen mouse pointer - must be possible as I've seen IOS/Windows companion apps that you can control the mouse via IOS.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

lchiu7

6467 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1643532 30-Sep-2016 21:50

mclean:

lchiu7: Interesting topic that resonated with me....

Interesting. I'm not sure I understand all that but a couple of questions anyway:

I assume you are capturing off the T-Box through the component video port so HDCP is not an issue. Is that right? How is the video quality and how big is a typical movie file?

Can your USB-UIRT setup convert up/down/left/right remote buttons to mouse movements so that it can work with keystroke-unfriendly apps like Netflix?

Actually I am capturing via s-video because I only capture the SD channels (like Jones, Food etc.). I rarely watch FTA HD channels because I cannot bear the speedup of audio due to 50Hz/60Hz so if I want to watch the latest US TV shows I find alternative sources :-) I could do component but it would require getting behind the rats nest of cables behind the T-Box and running component video from that to the component video on the HD-PVR. That is way too awkward to do.

I don't capture movies but a one hour TV show is about 900MB.

The USB-UIRT can learn any remote (well you need the right software). I don't watch Netflix on the HTPC so mouse movements are not an issue. I watch Netflix on either an Amazon Fire Stick or PS3 and the Netflix app on those devices all work with cursor controls.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Ipv89

141 posts

Master Geek

#1662158 1-Nov-2016 17:24

My HTPC is a laptop Asus something only about 2 years old but I broke the screen so decided to use it as a headless server.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04

Uses:

DNS Server - Pi-Hole
Kodi - Running in Xorg
Virtualmin - development web sites, various server admin tasks
PHPmyadmin for Maria DB administration
Transmission - Downloading and seeding Linux distro's (I like to give back in some way)
File Server - Serving media files, backing up files from other PC's and Phones
Mail Server - Relaying through MailChimp, mainly for alerts and reports. I also have a few scripts running that email me currency conversions and various other things

I have more then likely missed a few things but it all runs well on a laptop and I have a build in UPS.

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#1662204 1-Nov-2016 19:14

just updated my htpc. Found NPVR wasn't reliable for ME. So used WMC and never looked back so decided would upgrade to last another few years. I have windows 10 and latest WMC works flawless. Easy setup finds all channels and flawless playback. Use it to watch and record live tv and watch movies and tv shows. Use Kodi and Kodi integrator and select from within wmc. Watch tv again just use remote exit kodi and back in wmc and tv. For ME it is perfect. Can watch DVDs and BluRay with PowerDVD

wanghou168

453 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1662209 1-Nov-2016 19:26

My HTPC is sitting on the shelves gathering dust.

Current running a pi2 and a pi3 under the TVs running LibreELEC

MOBILE: Huawei P30
OTHER: Thinkpad E14 + Asus Vivobook + Intel NUC5i3 + A family of Raspberry Pi x 9 + Amazon Echo

msreef

88 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#1676673 24-Nov-2016 12:08

I used to have a HTPC running XBMC/KODI connected to my TV, but I got sick of it and moved to a Roku 3 running Netflix and Plex (via an unRAID server).
Chromecast for watching the rugby on my TV (via RugbyPass).
Use a Pi-Hole for network wide adblocking, Fritzbox as the router.

Pretty happy with this setup, very wife friendly with just one remote.

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