HTPC or media player? same thing?

rG-tom said:
So to play blurays you need to have a PS3, meaning if you dont you have one,you have to buy one for more money than a htpc cost as well as the streamer. A bluray drive is 40 quid.

if you want to use spotify you need to have your main pc on, and a laptop as you can't RDP from the streamer.

with regards to codecs, i've not installed any, just installed the XBMC live distro and it works straight out of the box, and i can dual boot it with a streamlined XP if i want to for other things but almost everything works from the ubuntu backend of xbmc (ie firefox for browsing etc). Also using a motherboard actually designed for HTPC use ie an atom/ion based one means things like DTS etc work straight out of the box, no faffing.

I can appreciate the problems you may have with a windows based media centre but with dedicated operating systems like xbmc knockin around it's a piece of **** to get working, pretty much the same as a proper streamer bar the ~5 minutes to install the OS, and you're not reliant on ongoing support (ie my western digital hasnt had a firmware update released in over a year so no new codecs etc)
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But this device is being put forward to people who simply want a streamer? If you'd have bought the HTPC from new it would be over £300 without storage.

with this streamer and a half decent 4TB NAS, I'm looking at less than £450 all in.
 
does that AC Ryan play ISO's ?
does it play 720p MKV?
is the remote IR or wireless??
the vids on youtube show a very basic jukebox, is that one your showing above an add-on?

thx :)
 
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Reality Bites said:
But this device is being put forward to people who simply want a streamer? If you'd have bought the HTPC from new it would be over £300 without storage.

with this streamer and a half decent 4TB NAS, I'm looking at less than £450 all in.
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You asked what the extra functionality/benefits would have been, I'm pointing that out.

Also, as shown by DanF you can get a pretty identical spec pc for <£150 (a gig of ram is sufficient and an 8gb usb stick are cheap as chips) brand new if you dont mind the lack of 5.25" drive bay.
 
rG-tom said:
You asked what the extra functionality/benefits would have been, I'm pointing that out.

Also, as shown by DanF you can get a pretty identical spec pc for <£150 (a gig of ram is sufficient and an 8gb usb stick are cheap as chips) brand new if you dont mind the lack of 5.25" drive bay.
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which excludes a case and psu in most cases....not checked this one
 
Hi guys, can one of you Ac Ryan mini owners tell me if this will work ??

hdmi from the ryan into my a/v receiver so i can use my speakers etc .


if so im sold ! :D
 
How's the playback via the USB port on the Playon Mini? If I get this I prefer playing movies from an external hard drive rather than streaming. I know the other has internal storage but I don't like fans :D
 
I just plug an ethernet cable into the back of my TV's and it shows the NAS from which I then play the movie I want. I don't get menus, a simple directory structure but it plays most formats without the slightest problem. I see all these threads of streaming devices, PC's, conversion etc, am I missing something because all I have is a TV, an ethernet cable and a NAS and it works like a dream. Genuine question.
 
Housey said:
I just plug an ethernet cable into the back of my TV's and it shows the NAS from which I then play the movie I want. I don't get menus, a simple directory structure but it plays most formats without the slightest problem. I see all these threads of streaming devices, PC's, conversion etc, am I missing something because all I have is a TV, an ethernet cable and a NAS and it works like a dream. Genuine question.
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Most TVs dont have this functionality and when they do, as you point out, it's very basic. If you want to output to a receiver for surround, you're very limited. If you take a HTPC, you can play music, record TV, iplayer, run emulators, watch TV series/movies with all the menus, information etc ... it's basically much more flexible.
 
This thread is interesting to me as I'm still torn between an HTPC and a streamer. However people don't seem to be comparing like-for-like when discussing the differences between the two.

You can't really say that an AC Ryan (or equivalent) is the better option for pure streaming, without pointing out that someone that doesn't already have a blu-ray player, will have to shell out ~£100 for one. Edit - you also need to factor in storage, as the AC Ryan HD Mini doesn't come with any internal storage.

Obviously if you already have a PS3 or an external BR player, it might be a sensible option if all you want to do is music / photos / videos. But then you've already bought a PS3 or a BR player.

However someone that has no BR facility, would probably be better off going down the budget HTPC route as they will have far more flexibility and customisability for the same outlay as buying a BR player and an AC Ryan, for example. The HTPC will allow them to do all of this and more from the comfort of the sofa if they wish: check email, play games, full YouTube access, controlling downloads, forum browsing, using MS Office etc...

Conclusion: I'm still torn as I don't have an external BR player but want to use the internet in my living room without having to fire up the laptop. That, and the laptop is for work so I can't do everything I'd like to do on it ;).
 
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ok, i have been reading a bit about the Ac Ryan jobbies, and im confused wheather i would need a player or a streamer.

can anyone outline the different uses of the 2 ?

my plan is to have the pc turned off when im watching my films, and having the Ac Ryan plugged into my a/v receiver via hdmi, with a usb drive - mybe a passport type, plugged into the ryan.

at first read through i can imagine a lot of you thinking 'well its obvious the dude needs a player then' but the problem is the mini is the one i want (its the cheapest too) but it says its a streamer so :confused:

i just dont know arghhh

help !
 
Mittens said:
ok, i have been reading a bit about the Ac Ryan jobbies, and im confused wheather i would need a player or a streamer.

can anyone outline the different uses of the 2 ?

my plan is to have the pc turned off when im watching my films, and having the Ac Ryan plugged into my a/v receiver via hdmi, with a usb drive - mybe a passport type, plugged into the ryan.

at first read through i can imagine a lot of you thinking 'well its obvious the dude needs a player then' but the problem is the mini is the one i want (its the cheapest too) but it says its a streamer so :confused:

i just dont know arghhh

help !
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if you're going to plug usb into the back, you should be ok with the mini. To save messing around though, I would get the full one and put a hard disk in it. Then when you want to watch something, transfer it to the disk.

this is still messier than having central storage which is available all the time
 
revo htpc for £180

I bought one and i LOVE it- much better than a playstation (which couldnt handle my large mp3 collection).

The form factor is tiny and I dont need my main pc on to use it.
 
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