Why do people build HTPC?

pumaz said:
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. :)
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Almost identical to mine. Except for cpu.

My gpu fans are quite noisy
 
I have a few reasons:


  • Actual 1080p+ gaming
    All my friends are always in awe when they come round (they're all console fans).
  • The best MKV playback
    Everyone knows PC has the best MKV decoders. Ones found in other equipment are completely featureless and basic in comparison.
  • The best DVD upscaling
    PowerDVD achieves the best DVD quality possible, they have absolutely mastered this.
  • AC3 Filter
    Absolutely love this piece of software. Lets you do so many things with audio for free using software, which would otherwise cost loads using hardware.
  • The "full" experience
    I hate simplification and dumbing down for inferior/incapable equipment. PC gives the full experience of web. I don't want to use an "app" for YouTube, iPlayer etc.
 
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al4x said:
Almost identical to mine. Except for cpu.

My gpu fans are quite noisy
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I've got the the Gigabyte 7850 OC Windforce 2X in mine and can't hear my HTPC above movie or games even the quiet bits or just when browsing. It's not silent but it is extremely quiet :)
 
asim18 said:
[*]The best MKV playback
Everyone knows PC has the best MKV decoders. Ones found in other equipment are completely featureless and basic in comparison.
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Not sure what equipment you have used, but my pch streamer is perfect for playing mkv's (I have over 400 br rips which play perfectly with hi def sound all for less cost than an htpc)

asim18 said:
[*]AC3 Filter
Absolutely love this piece of software. Lets you do so many things with audio for free using software, which would otherwise cost loads using hardware.
[*]The "full" experience.
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Personally I leave LX52 to do its job, its what its there for. Soundtracks are as dsigned for a reason, usually best to leave them as they are.


asim18 said:
I hate simplification and dumbing down for inferior/incapable equipment. PC gives the full experience of web. I don't want to use an "app" for YouTube, iPlayer etc.
[/LIST]
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I presume you use IE or another browser, no less of an "app" than those more specific ones you mentioned.
 
pumaz said:
Agreed on the K400, bought one recently and definitely the best wireless keyboard I've used :)
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Do you have an Andriod phone? I use Media remote app from the Google play store which allows me to use my phone as a remote for the HTPC, it's great! Much more tidy and convienant then using a full size keyboard.
 
Yeah I have unified remote and it's very good but like Robbie says you still need a proper keyboard in some situations. One of which is to wake the HTPC up from Sleep mode. I know I could use Wake On Lan but we're forever having to restart our crappy VM Superhub cause we get bad gaming ping and this in turn changes the HTPC's ip address, it's too much faff to find the new address and input it in WOL when you can just press a key on the Keyboard :)
 
My HTPC runs MythTV and has 2 x Dual tuner DVB-T cards in it so theoretically I can watch 1 thing and be recording 3 other things simultaneously. I see your point if you're just talking about a media player but my system certainly isn't just for that.
 
pumaz said:
I've got the the Gigabyte 7850 OC Windforce 2X in mine and can't hear my HTPC above movie or games even the quiet bits or just when browsing. It's not silent but it is extremely quiet :)
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I might exchange
 
pumaz said:
Yeah I have unified remote and it's very good but like Robbie says you still need a proper keyboard in some situations. One of which is to wake the HTPC up from Sleep mode. I know I could use Wake On Lan but we're forever having to restart our crappy VM Superhub cause we get bad gaming ping and this in turn changes the HTPC's ip address, it's too much faff to find the new address and input it in WOL when you can just press a key on the Keyboard :)
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You can use DHCP reservation for this, even in the Superhub! Very handy for port forwarding etc.
 
My current Specs

P45 Giga byte board
Q6600 @ 2.4G
4G Ram
Passive 6450
Nova DVB-S2 HD Freesat card
Nova DVB-S2 HD Freesat card
Nova TD500-USB Dual Freeview usb
TBS 6220 DVB-T2 HD Freeview PCi-e
H50 Water Cooling
Using Mediaportal (for other client PC as well)


NAS: Q nap 409 (4 x 1.5TB in Raid5)
 
Very interesting thread, i had heard of htpc's but never really knew much about the specifics of them.
I have learned a lot from this.
 
Pumaz...

Is the Windforce pretty good at cooling? I'm still in the return window with my sapphire
 
al4x said:
Pumaz...

Is the Windforce pretty good at cooling? I'm still in the return window with my sapphire
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Seems to be, because it's a HTPC nothing is overclocked and I've never monitored temps. all I can say is my fans don't ramp up loud playing games like Dirt 3 and I've never had a crash / blue screen or lockup :)
 
j.col said:
Very interesting thread, i had heard of htpc's but never really knew much about the specifics of them.
I have learned a lot from this.
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There's no real mystery to a HTPC, it's really just a desktop PC that's more than likely in a small case to complement your lounge and stuck under the TV.

If your thinking of building your own my advise would be to go as small and powerful as you can within your budget. You may start out thinking all you'll do is watch movies but eventually you'll start thinking wouldn't it be great if I could slump back on the sofa grab a Joypad and play F1 2013 etc. at 1080p ;)
 
Exactly what happened to me!

I'll have a look at quiet cards.. Msi looks a bit pricey
 
I moved away from an HTPC to an Apple TV 3 as most of the content I now consume is via Hulu and Netflix. The XBMC front end for these was absolutely woeful.

I still have a home server running Windows 7 which used to act as my HTPC but I find myself relying on it less and less.

As a bonus, Spotify on my iPad with airplay to the Apple TV is just awsome.
 
Just as a note i thought i'd whack a picture of my 2 htpcs in here since i just posted them in the Post your Hifi thread anyway.

Top box is an Acer Revo which is for the bedroom and below it is an i3 build in a passive Streacom case.

(Picture quality is dreadful!)

vIyGHxs.jpg
 
I use mine as a HTPC only, has a £20 graphics card in there, an Intel E5300, 4gb ram, second hand motherboard.

When I first had my HTPC, I don't think things like Apple TV existed, I've upgraded it from there, plus, do they support all video formats?

When it boils down to it, it's just an expensive toy, but one I don't regret having :)
 
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