What is everything you know about HTPC setup?

[healerdan]

I have an HTPC. it is in my living room. it's the only TV in the house, and one of the most used rooms in the house.

 

It's a fairly powerful gaming PC, which I use for VR and casual gaming as the TV is not optimized for esports titles like I would like. (I"ll play skyrim or GTA, but I'm waiting to play league until I upgrade the TV)

 

I've lived with this setup for nearly a year now, but there's some things I"d really like it to do still, which I haven't figured out:

 

The text is too small for computational tasks, and if I increase the size it's too big. desktop Icons don't need to be MASSIVE but the clock in the taskbar should be bigger.

I've wondered about maybe dual booting the steam OS, how how to easily switch between the two OS's - I remember a friend used a program that on boot-up a certain key combo would boot a specified OS, anyone familiar with this?

Does anyone have any other tips for how to program an HTPC to perform well as a PC? maybe how to combine a game pad with the system so I can use it as a sort of smart TV when it's not being a computer?

 

more about my system:

logitech K830

AMD 3700x, 2080s, nice x570 board

Samsung 49" smart TV

my couch is about 12 feet from the couch

samsong O+ headset with an 8 foot extension which works great.

 

thanks frens!

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Home Theater Equipment

[dilpickle]

Have you tried the display scaling options in Windows.

 

There are also lots of interfaces you can add that are designed to be used with controllers or remotes. 

[healerdan]

Can you give some examples? I think this is exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone likes to talk about the hardware that goes into a HTPC, but it doesn't seem like folks give much love to the software side.

 

I would like to turn my PC on, and hold... "X+C+V" on my keyboard (for example) which would tell BIOS 'boot steam OS'(though I don't think this provides all the functionality I want.) Turning on my PC would also turn on the TV (I'll add an HDMI-CEC thing probably, or maybe combine smart things and IFTTT) I would then be able to use a wireless Xbox controller + an Xbox keyboard thing to navigate between games (including games in the epic games launcher like GTA and outerworlds- thanks AMD), netflix, hulu, amazon prime, disney plus, spotify etc.

 

When I'm not going to be using my PC as a media device I would boot into windows 10 and do my thang there like normal. It would be convenient to be able to see well from my couch, but I could pull up a chair I guess, or run my VR headset to my couch and run virtual desktop, though that's also less-than-optimal.

 

finally, all of this would be super cool if I could do without touching the power button of my PC. I'm considering a harmony elite remote, but it seems like overkill, and like it wouldn't have proper control of my PC, could an xbox clone style controller be made to turn a PC off/on? then I'd add the usb-CEC device into the mix so the PC turns on the TV, and my AV receiver is usually on anyway, though it's 15+ years old, so it'll eventually get upgraded to something that also takes CEC commands... too far into the weeds?

 

a major point of this is to make it accessible for other people - I can turn stuff on, and choose to boot certain things, fiddle around in chrome tabs to get netflix etc, choose the right inputs and handle different remotes, but my girlfriend loses patience on this stuff, and I want to keep my gaming system in the living room.

[circeseye]

for text size and such....right click desktop...display settings...scroll down to scale and layout. adjust there

 

for browser pages hold down ctrl and use scroll wheel on mouse to resize

 

as for the rest

tv turn on comp i dont think there is anything, but comp turn on tv there was. it was used for home made game cabinets called " USB-UIRT + Eventghost"

 

as for start up to steam os you should be able to set up dual boot. and as it starts a screen comes up for you to choose what os to boot to.

 

[JZStudios]

On 11/29/2020 at 9:25 AM, healerdan said:

I would like to turn my PC on, and hold... "X+C+V" on my keyboard (for example) which would tell BIOS 'boot steam OS'(though I don't think this provides all the functionality I want.) Turning on my PC would also turn on the TV (I'll add an HDMI-CEC thing probably, or maybe combine smart things and IFTTT) I would then be able to use a wireless Xbox controller + an Xbox keyboard thing to navigate between games (including games in the epic games launcher like GTA and outerworlds- thanks AMD), netflix, hulu, amazon prime, disney plus, spotify etc.

When I did dual boot (win7+win10) it just had a quick 30 second "select an OS" screen before defaulting to what you set. I don't know much about SteamOS, but I do know it's linux based and most games don't really work.

To turn on the TV with the PC you'd need a HDMI CEC thing, I've never looked into them, don't know if they exist. Seems like it'd be simpler to just leave the PC on and turn the TV off.

I would recommend Galaxy 2.0 as it will show all your games across every platform in one place. Otherwise if you want a gaming/streaming box, because the PC isn't... good enough? I'd say get an Nvidia Shield. The only reason I can think of for wanting a different OS/device is because browsers don't support 5.1 in Netflix n such, but I'm pretty sure Win10 has apps for all those that support it.

For navigation I'd recommend one of the Logitech HTPC keyboards. 

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-touch-keyboard-k400-plus?crid=27

https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/k600-smart-tv-keyboard?crid=27

 

On 11/29/2020 at 9:25 AM, healerdan said:

finally, all of this would be super cool if I could do without touching the power button of my PC. I'm considering a harmony elite remote, but it seems like overkill, and like it wouldn't have proper control of my PC, could an xbox clone style controller be made to turn a PC off/on? then I'd add the usb-CEC device into the mix so the PC turns on the TV, and my AV receiver is usually on anyway, though it's 15+ years old, so it'll eventually get upgraded to something that also takes CEC commands... too far into the weeds?

The power button is just a simple switch, you'd have to find one with bluetooth or RF. If your PC is running through the AVR first and it doesn't have ARC or whatever then it won't turn on the TV anyway, again assuming there's something that exists that will do that. Again, by far the simplest option is to just leave the PC on.

 

On 11/29/2020 at 9:25 AM, healerdan said:

a major point of this is to make it accessible for other people - I can turn stuff on, and choose to boot certain things, fiddle around in chrome tabs to get netflix etc, choose the right inputs and handle different remotes, but my girlfriend loses patience on this stuff, and I want to keep my gaming system in the living room.

Your girlfriend can't just start a browser and type in netflix? Does she still use an old dumb phone?

Why would you switch inputs if everything is coming from the PC?

[tikker]

On 11/29/2020 at 5:25 PM, healerdan said:

I would then be able to use a wireless Xbox controller + an Xbox keyboard thing to navigate between games (including games in the epic games launcher like GTA and outerworlds- thanks AMD), netflix, hulu, amazon prime, disney plus, spotify etc.

a major point of this is to make it accessible for other people

If this isn't Nvidia Shield territory I don't know what is. Have you considered getting an Nvidia Shield (Pro)?

 

It sounds like it would tick pretty much all your boxes

• It has all the streaming goodies such as Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ etc. to satisfy your television needs
• Steam Link or Nvidia Gamestream to stream stuff from your PC to the Shield
• Use its remote or can plug in a keyboard and mouse or use a PS4 or Xbox One controller to control it menu navigation
• Everything can be set up so that your AVR and PC turn on and off when the Shield does
• All the apps are giant buttons with logos on the home screen. If you can press up, down, left, right and ok on a remote you can find it.