HTPC or Rasberry PI

c4rm0 · 31 Dec 2013 at 09:04

I am sick of cinavia owning me on my PS3 so have decided i am going to either buy a rasberry PI for my bedroom and stick XBMC on there and use it as a media centre or i am looking at getting a cheap HTPC and sticking XBMC on there. I will only be using it for watching films/TV shows/ Iplayer / streaming / Occasional browsing

opions on either a rasberry PI or a HTPC ? also could some one spec me a cheap HTPC i dont really want to spend any more than £150-200 if i go down the root of HTPC

boxman2000 · 31 Dec 2013 at 12:11

I've used a chipped original Xbox with XBMC, a PS3 with PS3 Media Server, HTPC of varying sizes and degrees and a Raspberry Pi with Raspbmc and the Pi is by far the best solution for me.

It's easy to setup, very customisable, the unit itself is very compact (I'm going to mount it on the back of the TV), the latest Raspbmc updates have made a real difference to overall performance (IMO). I'm still running the 256meg version but it handles 16gb Bluray rips absolutely perfectly and of course you have gigabit lan included and wifi ability for almost nothing.

Pi gets my vote

Woden · 31 Dec 2013 at 12:15

Was using my RPi for XMBC for a while and was very impressed with it. Added apps for iPlayer and TVCatchup (bedroom was sans-aerial for a bit) and it ran well. Even HD rips were flawless. All controlled by an app on my phone. Very impressed for its size and price.

c4rm0 · 31 Dec 2013 at 13:01

does the rasberry PI only play mkv's ? ive heard you can buy a mpeg 2 licence which should allow me to play a lot of my content as its .avi/mpeg2

do you have any issues with certain videos that are encoded slightly differently ?

boxman2000 · 31 Dec 2013 at 13:06

I've had no issues at all. 95% of my videos are .avi and the rest run fine.

Yes you can get an mpeg2 licence but you may find you don't need it.

Most people have a 1000mA+ micro usb charger and a good quality SD card, add a pi and whatever case you need and that should set you back no more than £40. Bargain!

c4rm0 · 31 Dec 2013 at 13:28

Ive just looked at the WD TV live how does this compare tbh it looks pretty good and looks like it would meet my needs