Why Get An HTPC???

[Caleb10E]

Home theater PCs have been something I've had an interest in for quite awhile now, but I still don't fully understand what they're all about. I am a college student who will be living in a house with 5 other guys next year, and I'd like to know some cool things that can be done with one.

 

 

I have some specific questions about them, too:

 

1. What's a good price point for a typical HTPC?

 

2. What kind of hardware should an HTPC have? Minimum and/or recommended.

 

3. What operating system should I use?

 

 

Personal uses and ideas would be great! Just want to hear what the community does with their HTPCs!

[Akula]

I built one not long ago, mainly for my large collection of movies & tv shows.

I run off XMBC & Windows.

 

I used rather low end components that focused on a quiet system.

I spent a bit more on the case, mainly for aesthetics but overall it shouldn't set you back much.

[Godlygamer23]

Good hardware for an HTPC would be something like AMD's APUs. You can also use Linux for the OS, particularly something like Ubuntu 13(much more efficient than Ubuntu 12)

[GeneralBear]

i use it for my massive movie and tv show collections im running a freebe c2d from a client who i built a new system fore gave me their rig and put it in a antec fution remote max added a geforece 210 i had laying around for hdmi and added 2gb ram running xbmc with win 7 plan on a gpu upgrade and a custom seam big picture laincher for xbmca for some racing games like grid and dirt

[Elbstrand]

Wanted to build a HTPC in a Fractal Design Node 605 soon.

 

Not sure about the hardware yet, but probably an Haswell Setup with a M-ATX Mainboard, i3 similar to the i3 3225 and my geforce 570 which i would probably undervolt and underclock to keep it cool and quiet. Also a small (~120GB) SSD as boot drive.

 

Will be used for some minor gaming, mostly for media storage and playback with really heavy duty decoders, like madVR with Jinc 8-Taps.

 

 

 

For the OS give Ubuntu with XBMC a try!

[GeneralBear]

that seams overkill personaly but thats just me

 

lvoe that case though

[tk421]

It can be a great use for an older PC you might have lying around.  A couple of small upgrades and you're done!

[Elbstrand]

that seams overkill personaly but thats just me

 

lvoe that case though

 

What exactly seems/is overkill in your opinion?

 

BTW: I just got the Geforce 570 in my main rig, will swap it against an Asus 660 Direct CU II OC which i got for cheap (~200 USD including transportation). Probably get another one ot these for SLI soon.

[GeneralBear]

goign to haswell for a htpc and a 570 but if its extra layign around sounds good. personly i knew people still using athalon xp or low end p4s in their htpc some even running atoms dont need cutting edge i knowi  wana put my 4870 in mine so i can do some gaming my 210 cant cut it on my projector

[Elbstrand]

goign to haswell for a htpc and a 570 but if its extra layign around sounds good. personly i knew people still using athalon xp or low end p4s in their htpc some even running atoms dont need cutting edge i knowi  wana put my 4870 in mine so i can do some gaming my 210 cant cut it on my projector

 

Well of course you can build a decent HTPC with older hardware, but i would want to be able to use intel quicksync for media decoding wherever possible. The extra power from the Haswell graphics chip should be nice. So i can use the 570 only if really needed.

 

Also i don't really got any old hardware left over and i don't want to upgrade my main rig and put a i7 3770K in a HTPC... :D

[GeneralBear]

true enough why not a iivy bridge system and use its onboard and the 570?

[Elbstrand]

true enough why not a iivy bridge system and use its onboard and the 570?

 

Because i won't buy the hardware for the htpc right now (could be a couple of month) and as far as i know intel cpus won't really drop in price and will just be replaced by there haswell pendants @ about the same price.

[Chenty]

I just use my xbox as my media PC. I download and store stuff on my desktop and access it through the network. I might do it properly at some point, but right now that's an expensive way of watching films in my living room.

[Legion]

Because I've stupid amounts of movies,tv shows, blu-ray's,dvd's and online streaming services which I need silverlight to use properly and mediahint to access the american versions..

[Caleb10E]

Has anyone used XBMCbuntu? How much different is that from using XBMC on Ubuntu?

[Elbstrand]

Has anyone used XBMCbuntu? How much different is that from using XBMC on Ubuntu?

 

Probably the same just without stuff that isnt needed. Maybe closer to Ubuntu Server + XBMC

[kprice789]

Or if you plan on storing your files on your PC then you could get a raspberry pi and put raspbmc on it. (Just a ported version of XBMC)

 

http://www.raspbmc.com/

 

This is what I did and I can steam 1080p over it.

[TassieTim]

i have two HTPC's running atm at my house atm running win7 on 1 and win8 on the second , both are built using old AMD based gear i had left over over the years of upgrading

only have a 1tb hard drives in both with 120/60gb ssd boot drive  with blue ray drives using HDMI video output from onboard graphics ,

have  no hassle playing back 1080 videos and watching youtube vids

 

i do have all my tv/movies spread out over a few 1tb external hard drives atm double copies :unsure: of them all

but planning a new media nas system to make a main server for them all but still only going to use a AMD cpu.mobo combo , no need i think for anything more

will post a link for the build i think in the proper thread to get opinions i guess

[JordanMac]

 don't have a htpc, i run a long hdmi cable and use a wireless keyboard with a touchpad (like what linus has on the livesteam)

[wpirobotbuilder]

I'd use an HTPC mostly if I wanted to do gaming, personally. If you have hardware to spare, you could create a general file server, and use Plex Media Server to stream movies/tv to a Roku, which can handle up to 20 Mbit/s 1080p movies (depending on your connection).

 

I suppose if you want to game and have movies/tv shows, just making your HTPC a general file server as well would be the best option.

 

Roku: http://www.roku.com/

Plex: http://www.plexapp.com

[5tephenm1o5]

apple tv will beat every htpc in its price point

[silencerbob]

i have a 5 year old htpc and it runs like a dream.

 

This is my system here ( you need to create an account to see the pics) : http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/silentyls-zalman-htpc.33938/

 

Again its old hardware but runs perfectly and MediaPortal is simply the best HTPC software ive ever used... so many options and configurations are possible... most recently you can stream any content from your PC across the internet to you mobile device.  It can work across a local network too.  I have 2 PCs... once that store all my media(tv shoes, movies, music, TV tuner) and another PC i have connected to my big screen TV and 5.1 amp+speakers).

 

Its *almost* silent except for 1 mobo fan.. which it barely needs to keep cool.

 

Id expect if you make a new system , you wouldnt need a graphics card, just a haswell cpu (low end i3) for playback.

 

The main idea behind the hardware of a HTPC is go the minimalist way of thinking.  Any HDD(not even SSD), haswell cpu for quicksync video decoding and any mobo should have optical spdif out for an amp to decode audio.  Low power, no noise, no dust, lasts for 10 years+ easily.

[dalekphalm]

apple tv will beat every htpc in its price point

Roku or WD Live would be better than an Apple TV. Especially since the new WD Live units have a redesigned interface that is apparently MUCH more responsive than the old ones.

 

They have better support for file/codec types, and Roku even have a Plex App for their boxes.