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I probably didn't use the word 'upgrade' properly; mostly just the software to keep current with codecs. What about something like this?: http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330 Looks like it has a good variety of codecs, ethernet & wifi + the option for a USB drive, and within budget. I also was looking at the Roku but it doesn't look like those have AVI back-compatibility which is kind of a dealbreaker.
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Oct 24, 2013 22:52
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GobiasIndustries posted:I probably didn't use the word 'upgrade' properly; mostly just the software to keep current with codecs. What about something like this?: http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330 Looks like it has a good variety of codecs, ethernet & wifi + the option for a USB drive, and within budget. I also was looking at the Roku but it doesn't look like those have AVI back-compatibility which is kind of a dealbreaker. I had one. It worked all right sometimes, but locked up a lot. There's a thread for it here. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3221900 Quoting the fist post: "I have no idea why people are still bumping this old as gently caress thread. Just buy an AppleTV or a $35 Raspberry Pi, put raspbmc on it, hook a hard drive up and go." Some people still like it I guess. eddiewalker fucked around with this message at 23:05 on Oct 24, 2013 |
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Oct 24, 2013 22:59
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Raspberry pi sucks for htpc because it chokes on common audio formats, which is truly unfortunate because of the hardware h264 decoding.
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Oct 24, 2013 23:11
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The WD TVs support more file formats for local playback than Roku, but plugging in a USB drive seems silly when you can stream over your network using Plex on a Roku 3. I have the discontinued Roku 2 XS (the one with ethernet and USB), and I prefer using Roku/Plex over XBMC on my Sandybridge i5 Samsung Chromebox. Plex was easier to organize and is plenty girlfriend-friendly. If anyone is insterested, I'd consider selling my Samsung Chromebox running XBMCbuntu. It's the XE300M22-A02US model: Sandybridge i5-2450M with HD3000 graphics, 4GB RAM (upgradable to 8GB), 16GB SSD (SSD upgradable, or use USB drives for media if you don't have a file server). It's barely audible even when the fan spins up under load. goku chewbacca fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 01:24
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g0del posted:Those good little boxes are generally going to run a little over $200, and are usually about as upgradeable as a laptop i.e. you can change the RAM and hard drive, that's it. That's true, and I should have been more up-front about that: My opinion is, as the market looks now, that no-one should build for "upgradability" unless they have more money than they know what to do with. The market has been moving in that direction for a long time now. Generally, future-proofing is not feasible in A/V electronics, for any reasonable cost, and HTPCs are moving from the DIY segment into the mainstream of appliances.
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Oct 25, 2013 10:39
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GobiasIndustries posted:I probably didn't use the word 'upgrade' properly; mostly just the software to keep current with codecs. What about something like this?: http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330 Looks like it has a good variety of codecs, ethernet & wifi + the option for a USB drive, and within budget. I also was looking at the Roku but it doesn't look like those have AVI back-compatibility which is kind of a dealbreaker. That thing actually works pretty well for the price if all you want is to be able to stream content over the local network (wired or WiFi). I bought one for my parents after failing to get a Roku 3 + Plex install working the way I wanted (the PC hosting Plex Media Server was unfortunately underpowered and was unable to transcode the content effectively). Although not very customizable, the WD Live just works and supports a ton of file formats.
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Oct 25, 2013 16:35
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I have this system... Foxconn nt-A3500-0h0WWAEQB AMD A45 (Hudson D1) 1 x 204Pin AMD Radeon HD 6310 White Mini / Booksize Barebone System AMD A45 (Hudson D1) AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, dual core) AMD Radeon HD 6310 with 8gig of ram. I'm running OpenELEC and cannot for the life of me get the wireless to work. And when I go to the Network Information most everything is blank and it flashes "busy" under MAC address for like a nanosecond every minuteish. OpenELEC posted:Link: Not connected Edit: OpenELEC OS Settings posted:General I tried wlan1 and random other things. If I click "Static IP address" it sets it to 0.0.0.0 and needs DNS pops up and junk. Changing that to 192.168.1.33 does not help. It now cycles between being "connected" "busy" "connected but no DNS" and "not connected. check network settings" It tends to stay on connected the most but flashes to "busy" about every 30 seconds. And I have no access to any add-ons or anything you would expect to be internet related. Edit 2: I gave up and just ran an ethernet cable to it, which allowed it to update automatically to the newest version. However, if I click on add-ons then Get More theres none there. It obviously has internet so I don't know WTF. I've fnagled everything to work-ish over wired ethernet, That'll do for now. RodShaft fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Oct 25, 2013 |
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Oct 25, 2013 16:55
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So - are the Haswell Intel NUCs worth the wait? I'd like to build something very simple, for XBMC/Plex streaming and emulator-playing. Seems like something like this (a core i3 NUC) would fit the bill just fine? Or - is this overkill?
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Oct 31, 2013 00:15
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I have an Athlon system with an 8200 GeForce motherboard that I've used for over three years now. In the past week I've had two failures. First the memory died, and now my boot disk has failed. (Thank God I used a 2.5" laptop drive for OS, and then two 1TB for storage, so my media isn't affected.) I think this is a sign that it's time for me to build a new system. That, and it'll be time for an upgrade soon, because this HTPC struggles to play most 1080p content. That's not a problem now, because I have a 32" 720p TV, but I'd like to upgrade that within the next year too. This is what I'm looking at: Silverstone HTPC case ASUS H81M-A LGA 1150 Intel H81 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Intel Pentium G630T Sandy Bridge 2.3GHz LGA 1155 35W CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 CORSAIR CXM series CX430M 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE GIGABYTE GV-N610SL-1GI GeForce GT 610 1GB Manufacturer Recertified Corsair Force Series CSSD-F60GB2/RF2 2.5" 60GB WD Green 2TB This will improve on my current system in the following ways: * Lowering heat and power consumption. My AMD CPU is low wattage, but now I'll be running a single storage HDD, and a WD Green at that, then my current set of twin drives. And a better 80 PLUS PSU. * Newer GeForce that should be able to handle full 1080p playback. This comes out to a subtotal of $481.92. Sound good? Have any ideas on how I could further cut back? I assume with this processor, I'm going to want the graphics card for DXVA goodness. Can I do better on lowering power and heat? And is a refurbished SSD drive going to be okay for something like this? I wouldn't do it for a desktop workstation, but I figure it should be okay for a home theater PC. I have no interest in running a NAS for this. I think I want to get an external 2TB drive too, though, for backup of my media. (Hell, maybe larger, and backup desktop stuff too.)
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Oct 31, 2013 06:28
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Revol posted:I have an Athlon system with an 8200 GeForce motherboard that I've used for over three years now. In the past week I've had two failures. First the memory died, and now my boot disk has failed. (Thank God I used a 2.5" laptop drive for OS, and then two 1TB for storage, so my media isn't affected.) I think this is a sign that it's time for me to build a new system. That, and it'll be time for an upgrade soon, because this HTPC struggles to play most 1080p content. That's not a problem now, because I have a 32" 720p TV, but I'd like to upgrade that within the next year too. Your processor is mismatched. You have a socket 1150 main board (which you want, definitely) but a socket 1155 processor. You want to get a Haswell Pentium G3220, 3420, or 3430. You might not even need the graphics card, my Pentium G2120 was doing 1080p 10-bit playback just fine and I think the DXVA stuff with Intel HD graphics might be fixed?
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Oct 31, 2013 10:31
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Guitarchitect posted:So - are the Haswell Intel NUCs worth the wait? Depends on what you want to emulate. I'm using xbmcbuntu, and I can say the i3 is overkill for 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, the celeron should be enough there. Might be a different story on Windows, but I would never use that for an xbmc machine. I'm having mixed success with emulating nintendo64. I think the hardware is capable enough, but the Intel graphics drivers and/or mupen64plus may not be completely up to scratch. It performs poorly in full-screen mode. In windowed mode, it's fine, except for the occasional game incompatibility, but then I can't get it to fill the screen more than 2/3rds. And setting up the 360 controllers in mupen64plus is a headache. Haven't tried PSX or PS2 emulation.
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Oct 31, 2013 11:14
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shymog posted:Your processor is mismatched. You have a socket 1150 main board (which you want, definitely) but a socket 1155 processor. Ugh, yeah, I was getting numbers mixed up. I think I'll stick with the CPU and get a different motherboard. So instead: GIGABYTE GA-H61M-USB3H LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX shymog posted:You might not even need the graphics card, my Pentium G2120 was doing 1080p 10-bit playback just fine and I think the DXVA stuff with Intel HD graphics might be fixed? This is something I've been wondering too. I guess I can skip the graphics card first, and then throw it in later if I see I need it. Can XBMC do DXVA with Intel?
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Oct 31, 2013 15:52
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Revol posted:Ugh, yeah, I was getting numbers mixed up. I think I'll stick with the CPU and get a different motherboard. So instead: If you are building a new machine, go with an 1150 board, not 1155.
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Oct 31, 2013 15:53
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Revol posted:Ugh, yeah, I was getting numbers mixed up. I think I'll stick with the CPU and get a different motherboard. So instead: Don't buy old intel processors. You're not getting any real discount, and the Haswell power saving features are actually quite nice for a PC that will likely be always on but not always in use.
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Oct 31, 2013 17:06
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I was going for that CPU because it was so low on wattage. Wasn't aware it was that old.
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Oct 31, 2013 17:28
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Revol posted:I was going for that CPU because it was so low on wattage. Wasn't aware it was that old. Sandy Bridge is a full two generations behind. At load, you'll see a bit more power usage on the newer processor, but at idle it should be drat close if not better. Cutting out the video card should close that power gap. EDIT: And yes, you can do DXVA with Intel. featurecreep fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 01:55
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Is there an easy and reliable way to get local playback (plex/xbmc) and Netflix in the same remote-based UI? I haven't seen anything that isn't janky.
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Nov 1, 2013 13:59
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Crackbone posted:Is there an easy and reliable way to get local playback (plex/xbmc) and Netflix in the same remote-based UI? I haven't seen anything that isn't janky. You don't mention what you've tried, but I assume this was "janky"? http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:XBMC_Flicks_-_Netflix_for_XBMC I haven't tried it, since it doesn't work in my country.
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Nov 1, 2013 14:41
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:You don't mention what you've tried, but I assume this was "janky"? Installing an unfinished netflix clone developed by a single guy that has tons of problems? Pretty much the definition of janky.
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Nov 1, 2013 14:59
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Getting that thing working is a loving bear and even when I had it functional it still crashed or froze on me several times. There isn't really a stable, reliable solution. There's some hacky/janky stuff with the Windows 8 Netflix App, running the old WMC app, using a WDTV or the abandoned Boxee platform. What you're asking for is the holy grail of living room HTPC enthusiasts. Most of us got a Roku or PS3 for Netflix instead since binary plugin support seems to have dropped off the XBMC development radar. All I really want in the living room is Netflix + MKV playback with the XBMC library/interface 
The Gunslinger fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 15:16
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So I was thinking of getting a Mac Mini to use as my HTPC, since I'm pretty well invested in the Apple ecosystem at this point, but am kind of sad they haven't refreshed their line. But I'm kind of needing to move now on one. Would it still be advisable to get one or are there better options out there?
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Nov 1, 2013 15:21
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SuperSpiff posted:So I was thinking of getting a Mac Mini to use as my HTPC, since I'm pretty well invested in the Apple ecosystem at this point, but am kind of sad they haven't refreshed their line. But I'm kind of needing to move now on one. Would it still be advisable to get one or are there better options out there? It's been 374 days since the Mac Mini was refreshed. Average for the Mini is 381 days. The AppleTV is nearing double it's average update time and Tim Cook has promised "new produce categories" coming soon.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:30
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SuperSpiff posted:So I was thinking of getting a Mac Mini to use as my HTPC, since I'm pretty well invested in the Apple ecosystem at this point, but am kind of sad they haven't refreshed their line. But I'm kind of needing to move now on one. Would it still be advisable to get one or are there better options out there? There is really no reason to use a mac mini as an HTPC. Its too powerful and expensive for just watching videos, and doesn't play games well enough to justify its price.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:35
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eddiewalker posted:It's been 374 days since the Mac Mini was refreshed. Average for the Mini is 381 days. That's fair enough. Might just wait and see, just hadn't heard any rumblings lately and normally there seems to be a bit of fanfare preceding a release. Don Lapre posted:There is really no reason to use a mac mini as an HTPC. Its too powerful and expensive for just watching videos, and doesn't play games well enough to justify its price. Well I have various web services I'd like to offload too, but they're probably still minor enough not to fully justify it, I suppose.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:42
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I just bought a Mac Mini (refurb) to use as an HTPC after spending years going across different pre-packaged solutions, building my own, and always having something terrible or annoying about each of the things. I waited a whole 6 months for the Apple event to release a new Mini and was thoroughly disappointed, but I can't wait any more basically now that I ditched every other box I have that could fill the function. I'm just too sick and tired of dealing with all this bullcrap and have the money to mostly fix it for me.Don Lapre posted:There is really no reason to use a mac mini as an HTPC. Its too powerful and expensive for just watching videos, and doesn't play games well enough to justify its price. The limited RAM and CPU on these various devices can adversely affect the responsiveness of the UI. This is shown by the problems running certain nicer looking skins on the Apple TV 2. I had an Apple TV 2 and sold it because it just wouldn't do the job in the end. The fragmentation of content sites and so forth today mostly due to competing technologies to placate the content producers via DRM platforms and forced differentiation (you can't put Netflix videos next to your own media next to Vimeo, Vudu, etc. in anything on the market, even XBMC) means that the squabble over control of the living room will not be coming to an end anytime in the near future either. Even if Apple has totally figured it out, there will be backlash by the rest of the industry against Apple and that'll just be more headaches in the end. Furthermore, there is almost zero doubt that it'll still be fundamentally a frontend to iTunes as the content store king and will be beholden to that as a first class citizen, and the same goes for anything that involves Google, Microsoft, or Amazon. So basically, until hell freezes over, I'm expecting that a computer will always be the Content Device To Rule Them All and for an HTPC that isn't obtrusive, capable, and truly hassle free with no janky add-ons, the widest possible platform for watching content, there is nothing that'll beat a Mac Mini at this point. The Achilles Heel of a Mac Mini is the cable card issue though, no question. Live TV is being blocked pretty hard and every cable provider wants you to use their DVR as the HTPC n years down the road, but we know how well that's going to work for most of us attempting cord cutting. The irony of all these digital living room attempts for me is that I've wound up paying for everything and wasting tremendous amounts of time and money in the process. At one point I had a Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, DVR, FIOS account with 350+ channels and a 10TB NAS supporting a custom HTPC running XBMC. For really impatient, tech-hating people like my wife that refuse to learn how to watch media on a TV besides that single pane of glass view model of channels that's existed since the dawn of TVs and demand zero hiccups with the digital media compared to just popping a disc into a player, you cannot build or buy anything aside from perhaps a Kaleidescape system that would be that actual holy grail. I don't doubt some people's grandmas and 4 year olds have a better grasp on dealing with tech than my wife, but I've found that she's surprisingly representative of the demands most consumers have upon their media experience aside from the fetishization of physical media. Lastly, Mac Minis will hold their value far better than that random HTPC you put together with a slick looking Lian Li case. Even if Apple puts out some Apple TeeVee, I can sell it for maybe 15% off what I paid or repurpose for something else - you really can't repurpose a special purpose media device that's not supported anymore (see: Boxee Boxes - I had one of those too). As a comedy option, perhaps an XBox One could do the job for you if it becomes sufficiently moddable?
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Nov 1, 2013 16:58
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necrobobsledder posted:I just bought a Mac Mini (refurb) to use as an HTPC after spending years going across different pre-packaged solutions, building my own, and always having something terrible or annoying about each of the things. I waited a whole 6 months for the Apple event to release a new Mini and was thoroughly disappointed, but I can't wait any more basically now that I ditched every other box I have that could fill the function. I'm just too sick and tired of dealing with all this bullcrap and have the money to mostly fix it for me. I was more talking about a $199 zotac box.
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Nov 1, 2013 17:30
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Crackbone posted:Is there an easy and reliable way to get local playback (plex/xbmc) and Netflix in the same remote-based UI? I haven't seen anything that isn't janky. Roku with Plex/Netflix. Probably your best bet I would imagine. You need something powerful to run plex though since the Roku has very files it can play natively so almost everything will need to be transcoded. You may consider plex on roku janky though. kri kri fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 19:32
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I don't think those Zotac boxes really cut it either. I had a box the generation prior to this one which still exhibited some lag and wasn't able to play back a whole lot, and the AMD E-350 box I had was a bit better but still a mini ITX box that won't be as power efficient and compact as a Mac Mini. I'll concede that class of box is probably sufficient for a most people compared to a Mac Mini or Intel NUC, but the lack of GPU acceleration for a lot of stuff still is an issue - I've run into it frequently enough that I'd rather just pay a few hundred more to never even think about it and face the wrath of the wife when something stutters like it's 1996 with RealPlayer on my 28k modem. My points comes can be distilled down to: 1. Not everything can be GPU-accelerated 2. Even if GPU-accelerated, you may have obscure issues that ruin the experience / viability of your media center. 3. The only One Box that can do everything including something like video recording / PVR features will have to be able to both playback HD video and transcode it in realtime. 4. Software used to support your experience is probably more critical than the hardware anyway. In theory, a Mac Mini can run everything that a PC can run while a PC can't use every piece of OS X software 5. Just buying a box that'll last several years for most media cases for the foreseeable future will save you the most in the long run. I'm not quite saying "it hasn't worked for me, so it shouldn't work for anyone else" but small, annoying things do exist that can add up to becoming unpleasant and nobody should expect to have equal parity with an actually commercially supported UX by the industries involved. I didn't think that I needed to go all the way up to a Mac Mini for years with various machines that kept disappointing in one nagging way or another but that has proven clearly false. Given my wife literally has OCD though, I cannot count the WAF factor as primary for my reasons for recommendation.
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Nov 1, 2013 21:00
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I reason it this way: If this thing is going to totally replace my cable subscription, blu-ray player, ect, its worth investing a few hundred in building a good box to handle everything with ease.
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Nov 1, 2013 21:06
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I was able to do 1080p XBMC and record 2 hd streams on windows media center using a zotac AD10. They are plenty powerful for media poo poo.
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Nov 1, 2013 21:25
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So what is the current hot poo poo options for building your own (tiny) htpc? I'm cool with it not playing games. I just want a Plex server to go to a roku, and something that I can set up with sickbeard and sabndbz. No cablecard accessibility required either. I have a NAS for long-term storage too, so it doesn't need a lot of drives, and I already have a 128gb SSD ready to slot in cannibalized off my current setup. I am just not satisfied with my present HTPC because it's largish and I have no room on my TV stand for it. Or should I just get a better NAS?
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Nov 1, 2013 22:57
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signalnoise posted:So what is the current hot poo poo options for building your own (tiny) htpc? I'm cool with it not playing games. I just want a Plex server to go to a roku, and something that I can set up with sickbeard and sabndbz. No cablecard accessibility required either. I have a NAS for long-term storage too, so it doesn't need a lot of drives, and I already have a 128gb SSD ready to slot in cannibalized off my current setup. I am just not satisfied with my present HTPC because it's largish and I have no room on my TV stand for it. It doesn't sound like this system is actually going to be hooked up to the TV at all if you're just using it to serve media to a Roku. If that's true then you'd be better served by moving that functionality to your NAS and leaving your Roku as the Plex front end. You might want to check out the NAS thread over SHSC. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2801557
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Nov 1, 2013 23:27
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Crackbone posted:Is there an easy and reliable way to get local playback (plex/xbmc) and Netflix in the same remote-based UI? I haven't seen anything that isn't janky. StellarX posted a few pages ago, and said that he uses XBMC launcher as his default windows shell, and then uses Kylo as a browser to surf to streaming sites - he then had a symbaloo page for all of those sites, which basically makes it point + click. Seems like a pretty good solution... can anyone speak to how well it works on a SFF htpc? for example, is the browser-based streaming from netflix any good, or is it better on something like a PS3 or roku?
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Nov 2, 2013 00:15
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signalnoise posted:So what is the current hot poo poo options for building your own (tiny) htpc? I'm cool with it not playing games. I just want a Plex server to go to a roku, and something that I can set up with sickbeard and sabndbz. No cablecard accessibility required either. I have a NAS for long-term storage too, so it doesn't need a lot of drives, and I already have a 128gb SSD ready to slot in cannibalized off my current setup. I am just not satisfied with my present HTPC because it's largish and I have no room on my TV stand for it. Not much reason to build your own tiny htpc just purchase a NUC or zotac box. You don't need a roku if you are going to run xbmc, unless you want to stream amazon/netflix with less effort. You didn't tell us which NAS you have so its a little hard to tell if you need something better.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:12
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kri kri posted:Not much reason to build your own tiny htpc just purchase a NUC or zotac box. You don't need a roku if you are going to run xbmc, unless you want to stream amazon/netflix with less effort. quote:You didn't tell us which NAS you have so its a little hard to tell if you need something better. Its a QNAP T-212 http://www.qnap.com/en/index.php?lang=en&sn=822&c=351&sc=514&t=523&n=3372&g=1
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Nov 2, 2013 17:08
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This is what I'm looking at now. In trying to choose between cheaper Intels and AMDs and not liking either of their compromises, I decided to drop both and go for an i3-4130. CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($128.53 @ Amazon) Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.83 @ Amazon) Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($54.99 @ Amazon) Storage: Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.95 @ Amazon) Case: Silverstone ML03B HTPC Case ($59.99 @ Amazon) Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon) Total: $468.27
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Nov 2, 2013 22:14
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I'm just going to warn you that I went the build-your-own route with my main HTPC, and wish that I bought an Apple Mini. Not just because I like the Mac operating system better, but those things are silent, smaller, use less electricity, etc. Really the noise is my biggest problem from my HTPC. I also have a Zotac, but at least my main HTPC is more powerful (I do have a cheap graphics card in it, since I planned on it also being used for Emulation/Steam, and wanted to at least do the N64/PS1 era stuff). It's hooked up in my living room, and it's noise is noticeable. If I have the volume up on the surround sound it'll drown it out, but it's still one of my biggest issues with the machine. My Zotac isn't as powerful and doesn't do as much, but it's silent.
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Nov 2, 2013 22:34
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IUG posted:I'm just going to warn you that I went the build-your-own route with my main HTPC, and wish that I bought an Apple Mini. Not just because I like the Mac operating system better, but those things are silent, smaller, use less electricity, etc. Really the noise is my biggest problem from my HTPC. Aftermarket cooling is important. The stock Intel HSFs don't do a great job in a lot of smaller cases because they can't vent out enough air, making them get screamingly loud. My Silverstone ML05B requires that my 3.5" SSD sits above my processor (until I get around to buying a cheap 2.5" to replace it), blocking a vent. I grabbed a Noctua NH-L9 and it is unnoticeable unless up-close.
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Nov 2, 2013 23:22
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shymog posted:Aftermarket cooling is important. The stock Intel HSFs don't do a great job in a lot of smaller cases because they can't vent out enough air, making them get screamingly loud. My Silverstone ML05B requires that my 3.5" SSD sits above my processor (until I get around to buying a cheap 2.5" to replace it), blocking a vent. I personally will be thinking about this part. However, it's about $60 on Amazon, so that would make Revol's PC about $530. So that just makes it even closer to a Mac Mini in price, and much much larger. The only benefit is the extra storage on his PC, the processing power which you don't really need if it's video only, and being able to run whatever OS more easily. EDIT: I'm not pushing you towards a Mac Mini, but that's just the computer I wish I bought instead for myself, so I'm comparing it that way for that reason.
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Nov 3, 2013 02:40
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signalnoise posted:Yea that is pretty much the reason, netflix. I already have the rokus anyway. But also that's what I had in mind, getting a barebones Zotac or something, I just didn't know which ones were considered the good ones I guess? I don't really glean much from hardware specs. It sounds like you want a media server rather than a htpc. Almost every affordable nas runs hardware that cannot handle the horsepower requirements for transcoding, and in my experience if you're running plex on Roku you will need transcoding. The question is how much CPU you need- in theory a dual core celeron will handle a single 1080p transcode no problem, but if you want to do more you'll need something better like a i3.
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Nov 4, 2013 13:21
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