Why do people build HTPC?

Raymond Lin said:
Just curious, what is the spec? and more importantly, how much of that was your existing parts? include everything such as cables, keyboard, mouse or plug and software/OS.
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no existing parts, cable is just a hdmi cable....i use my phone as a remote.

Spec is similar to an acer revo.

Intel® Atom 330 on board
Nvidia ION Graphics Processors
4gb ram
cheap hdd.

OS was how much os's cost ;)
 
Mine:

Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3GHz - with biggest cooler I could find to fit in Silverstone HTPC case & 800rpm noctua fan
Nvidia GT520 passive - "upgraded" from 8800gt for hdmi 1.4 - ended up regretting it as the card is so crap it doesn't even play itunes visualiser smoothly sometimes when the smoke gets thick where the 8800gt did without issue
4GB Ram
dfi mobo
60gb ssd
Asus Xonar HDAV (the one that adds audio stream to hdmi feed)
bdrw


Built it when 1080p decoding was heavily cpu-bound. Swapped it out with a Q6600 and that wouldn't play everything smoothly... the bump to 3ghz, even though dual core - made a big difference.

Since then, all has been good. It still works very well for everything I throw at it & the audio quality is a big step up from anything optical can provide...



Got myself a 2-channel valve based DAC for music.
 
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I use a Boxee Box, but it has it's limitations, and D-Link have dumped support for it which is slightly annoying.

I do on the other hand also have a greeat little HTPC, it's a Mini-ITX AMD Fusion based board that I got for a shade over £60, popped it in a tiny little ITX case from eBay that I won for £12 (:D) and stuck 4GB RAM and a mSATA SSD that I picked up for £25.

Had a media centre based remote from an old graphics card/tv card thing which I managed to get working with XBMC, andit's miles better than the Boxee. AS pointed out before, if something like the subtitles are missing, or there are new features added it's so easy to upgrade.

I spent only £120, which was less than my Boxee and it is a hell of a lot better.
 
I have a wdtvlive and it's excellent but if I could add one thing it would be a browser. It's fine being able to watch something but I have the attention span of a 2 year old and quite like browsing when the film is at a slow bit.

right, I'm bored now and off to ride my bicycle.
 
I was going to build an htpc however I'm more than happy with my raspberry pi running raspbmc, there are faster alternatives, but not at the same price.

Dave
 
I went with an I3-3225 setup in a silent case. Main reason for me is you need a pc to play back 10bit h264. I also use emulators on it too so the cpu power comes in for that. Another bonus is that I can use any skin I like on xbmc as my cpu combined with an ssd makes for a 100% responsive setup. Finally I use some other streaming services which are not widely used (dramafever being one) so I need the flexibility windows 8 gives.
 
I built my HTPC simply so I could have a single box under the TV that did everything; Sky, Blu-Ray, Internet TV, Internet Radio, OTA radio as well as general internet browsing.

My system has now morphed in to a completely distributed TV system using MediaPortal, Argus Scheduler and 4 x DVB-S2 cards on a server. I can now watch 4 sky streams at the same time like you can on the HD box, but at the same time any locally connected PC can also watch Sky in a separate room.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Less than a WD Live?
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I've got a wd media box i think it was the first model. It was a good bit of kit but didn't support wifi so it meant hooking an external hard drive to or connect it up to the router which meant laying cat5 all over the house. Also while it could play dvd image files they didn't support dvd menus which is an issue for watching tv shows rippied of a dvd disc. With an htpc i don't have to worry about any of these issues plus i can play games on and go on he internet.

Edit
I just above someone say that xbmc can't play 1080p smoothly whereas the wd live can.
 
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My HTPC

SG05 - 450w
i5 2600
8GB Ram
2GB 7850
256GB SSD
3TB HD

I've been down the Apple TV 2, WDLive, Acer Revo and NAS route and they were all mostly OK but I wanted great! so I built the above and it plays everything I throw at it via XBMC and the difference between XBMC on this and say the ATV2 is night and day. I also enjoy playing racing games on my 50" TV and lastly it also operates as my NAS and is lightning fast over my wired Gigabit network.

For me and my family it's perfect and makes sense. :)
 
Check out the AMD E350/450 spec boxes as well, I've found them much faster and smoother than ION based solutions and you can pick them up for a similar amount.

OCUK sells the Foxconn nT-A3500 base unit but only in white atm. This is what I'm using with the old memory stick and HD from an upgraded MBP. Just buy and plug in USB drives for more storage and it can then act as a NAS, torrent box, casual browser box and xbmc runner. It also sucks up hardly any electricity so you can leave it on running 24/7 if you like.

Oh the Logitech K400 wireless keyboard and trackpad is really good as well, I've tried a few of the smaller keyboard devices but always found them way to fiddly to bother using for any typing of browsing.
 
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chaparral said:
My HTPC is mainly used for gaming on my 50" plasma


And there no way a £99 Apple TV 2 is going run my games....;)
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by the looks of that case - your setup cost a lot more than a standard htpc :D


Personally I dont have a problem with using a (pch) streamer for my br rips (from a purpose built unraid server), and HD freeview stb for tv stuff.

1) imo freeview HD pc cards are still relatively hard to find, they were nigh on non-existant when I bought the hd freeview box 2 years ago or so
2) I have a pretty crappy broadband line, due to my location this is the best available, and it would drive me bonkers to have a tv show not recorded because Windows needed an update or some other "3rd party" fault.
3) Obviously storage benefits to an htpc, but then you either pay to "silence" the case or suffer the din of fans and probably multiple discs which I dont mind using my pc, but not really a fan of watching tv.
4) I just want it to work, whenever I need it - I dont want to spend any time fiddling with drivers, installing updates etc etc (which I do for a day job, so it may be easy but its still time-consuming and a busman's holiday lol)
 
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What is a HTPC?
to me it's a low power pc with lot's a HD space that can play back SD/HD content.
increasingly seeing htpc threads here where people want to play games, isn't that just a small desktop pc?
 
DanF said:
Oh the Logitech K400 wireless keyboard and trackpad is really good as well, I've tried a few of the smaller keyboard devices but always found them way to fiddly to bother using for any typing of browsing.
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Agreed on the K400, bought one recently and definitely the best wireless keyboard I've used :)
 
Using an ATV3 here (before that an ATV2 with XBMC). Personally found xbmc a bit cluttered and full of unused features.

Using a stock ATV (when it stays connected to iTunes!) it works brilliantly. A little tiresome having to have everything converted, but makes for a neat library and quality loss is near enough transparent while saying boat loads of space.
 
Got 2 solutions in the house at the moment.

Boxee box, had it since launch and it still plays absolutely everything I throw at it. 50gb blu ray iso's play without a stutter. Shame it has been royally dumped by its makers. Boxee+ hack is interesting but I just started to find the UI a bit laggy. Still have it but its in my lads room now.

PulseBox, picked this up a couple of months ago. Mini pc based around amd fusion board. It's running openelec from a thumb drive. Thing boots in seconds and xbmc interface looks lovely on the big screen. It auto updates itself so unlike other htpcs I've owned before the maintenance is non existent.

Keyboard wise I just use a Rii mini wireless keyboard. As that's I really need for xbmc, my phone is used more often then not withy the app for it. I still have a Ceratech Accuratus KYB-TOUGHBALL Wireless Keyboard in the garage which is a fantastic full size keyboard. By far the best I've used. It's kid proof as well.
 
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