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Long Francesco posted:Whats the best, and cheapest, tv tuner card nowadays? I just want to be able to watch ota tv in hd and dvr stuff. the last time i messed with tuner cards all the software around was complete garbage so I hope that has changed. Windows media center any atsc tuner.
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Feb 20, 2015 13:50
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I'm contemplating a HTPC to replace the bluray player that I have at some point in the future. It would be cool to have a full fledged always-on PC instead of a finnicky blu ray player. Are there any defacto entry level systems or setups for this stuff? - Would probably prefer windows - Use it for playing blurays/dvds (I know there is a software cost associated with this - PowerDVD looks to be about $60 right now) and maybe plex home theater (I already have a plex server on my main PC) - General computing/web browsing as needed.
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Feb 20, 2015 17:18
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dreesemonkey posted:I'm contemplating a HTPC to replace the bluray player that I have at some point in the future. It would be cool to have a full fledged always-on PC instead of a finnicky blu ray player. Everyone says HTPCs make terrible BluRay players.
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Feb 20, 2015 18:03
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Thermopyle posted:Everyone says HTPCs make terrible BluRay players. They do, spend 50 bucks on a bluray player instead of on a bluray drive.
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Feb 20, 2015 18:12
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Haha, ok. I have a sony blu ray player right now but the wifi stopped working and to wire it I'd need to fish through walls (it's in a closet), I have HDMI run there but not ethernet. So now if I want to watch plex I have to load up the Xbox if I'm going from watching a movie (which is a lot, since I have a 3 year old). Just nit-picky, I guess. Sure is cheaper than spending ~$500 on a HTPC though I guess.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:14
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Keep the bluray player for watching blurays and DVDs, get an HTPC for fun and streaming video.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:22
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Buy your blurays and put them in a box. Torrent whatever movie you just bought and watch it on your HTPC. Everybody wins.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:43
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dreesemonkey posted:Haha, ok. I have a sony blu ray player right now but the wifi stopped working and to wire it I'd need to fish through walls (it's in a closet), I have HDMI run there but not ethernet. You call the blu-ray player finicky, but that's nothing compared to a Windows PC. Why don't you get a Chromecast for Plex? TomR posted:Buy your blurays and put them in a box. Torrent whatever movie you just bought and watch it on your HTPC. Everybody wins. Also this.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:54
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TomR posted:Buy your blurays and put them in a box. Torrent whatever movie you just bought and watch it on your HTPC. Everybody wins. Heh. I thought I was the only one who used this crazy scheme.  Some scenes are so much better in BluRay but for the most part I can't be arsed to get out the player and the disks. Something about video has me channeling Homer Simpson.
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Feb 20, 2015 19:55
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I rip the BDs I buy, stick them on my file server, and then watch them from my HTPC. Since I have a ton of space on the file server I don't bother compressing the rips, it's faster and easier than torrenting a version of it.
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Feb 21, 2015 01:48
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What are you using to rip them?
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Feb 21, 2015 03:46
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GokieKS posted:I rip the BDs I buy, stick them on my file server, and then watch them from my HTPC. Since I have a ton of space on the file server I don't bother compressing the rips, it's faster and easier than torrenting a version of it. How big are the ripped movies? I have some tv shows I keep on my plex server and a couple of movies but I think I'd need a bunch more space if I wanted to do uncompressed rips. Oh yea, and a blu ray drive I guess. I have terrible internet at my house (1.4M D/.3M U) so anything beyond basic web browsing is painful.
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Feb 21, 2015 13:28
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dreesemonkey posted:How big are the ripped movies? I have some tv shows I keep on my plex server and a couple of movies but I think I'd need a bunch more space if I wanted to do uncompressed rips. Oh yea, and a blu ray drive I guess. Around 25-50GB if you want to just copy a BD, otherwise up to approximately 10GB if you just want the video files.
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Feb 21, 2015 15:24
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Some other information that makes my needs fairly unique: - My AV equipment is remotely located in my basement, tv is wall mounted and the speakers are in-wall units. - My blu-ray player is in a closet right near my TV (I was not going to walk to the basement to switch movies). The walls are now closed up and I didn't run ethernet like a dummy. Which makes it annoying now that my blu ray player won't attempt to join my wireless network, so we can't do plex or anything on the BRP anymore. - My internet is slow as poo poo. We can stream netflix most of the time, but it looks like poo poo (we get about 1.2Mb down max) - My xbox, located on my server rack downstairs, is hard wired and can do our plex stuff, but the interface isn't great. Maybe that'll change when they release the xbox app to non plex-pass subscribers. Ideally I could get some sort of something that I could replace the BRP with in our coat closet. I thought PC because it could be always on, do whatever I'd like with it in terms of streaming or web browsing and get a small lenovo wireless keyboard/mouse controller thing. Most of what we do right now is just watching movies with my son. Since I have a good PC now it would also be cool to be able to do the game streaming thing from my main PC (i5, gtx970, etc etc) to if I ever gamed. I have an old system laying around, it's a shuttle case with a Core2Duo, 4G RAM, an SSD. If I was going to use it I'd need to get another windows license ($100), a blu ray drive ($50), a big spinning drive to rip stuff to ($150), possibly a new video card that can do HDMI out, and then I'd still have to fish some cat5 to it to wire it. And even then I might not be happy with the performance (I used it as a plex server before and transcoding would grind it to a halt). I guess I mostly should just figure out what I want to do first. Maybe I'll just fight with getting my blu ray drive wired first since that will be free.
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Feb 21, 2015 17:53
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Superb Owls posted:Around 25-50GB if you want to just copy a BD, otherwise up to approximately 10GB if you just want the video files. very few movies are 10gb after ripping just the video and audio. assuming you dont rip the HD audio, most movies are 15-20gb. some are more, depending on lenght and aspect ratio. avatar is near 30, for example
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Feb 21, 2015 18:06
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Hexigrammus posted:What are you using to rip them? dreesemonkey posted:How big are the ripped movies? I have some tv shows I keep on my plex server and a couple of movies but I think I'd need a bunch more space if I wanted to do uncompressed rips. Oh yea, and a blu ray drive I guess. x265 would probably allow you to cut the size in half again, but at the price of compatibility. I don't think anything out there will hardware decode x265 yet, so you're stuck only watching on relatively fast computers. I started all this because I had crap internet for a long time, so this was much faster. Ripping the original movie takes about 40-60 minutes for me (newer blu-ray drives might be faster, I don't know). The handbrake encode takes a lot longer - 4-5 hours for most movies on my overclocked 2500k. I usually just start the encode when I'm going to bed or when I'm leaving for work.
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Feb 21, 2015 18:09
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I remember now why I started torrenting instead of ripping my Blu Ray disks - the ASUS drive I bought for my PC has some sort of weirdness that won't work with MakeMKV. It also won't co-exist with my original DVD drive.  Hopefully this is ancient history and Blu Ray drives are less finicky today.
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Feb 21, 2015 18:19
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Yeah, I use MakeMKV, and they're usually about 25-35GB for just the main movie with 1 or 2 audio tracks (full DTS-HD MA/Dolby TrueHD and normal AC3/DTS), and takes about 20-30 minutes on my gaming PC with a 16x BD-RE drive. If I had to re-encode them then I probably wouldn't bother, as it would take too long even on a overclocked 4790K, but my file server has 36TB (raw, 26TB usable) of storage and 6 more open bays for expansion, so I really don't need to bother with that.
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Feb 21, 2015 18:23
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^^^Why are you ripping both audio tracks? The DTS HD track contains the normal DTS track inside it.GokieKS posted:Yeah, I use MakeMKV, and they're usually about 25-35GB for just the main movie with 1 or 2 audio tracks (full DTS-HD MA/Dolby TrueHD and normal AC3/DTS), and takes about 20-30 minutes on my gaming PC with a 16x BD-RE drive. If I had to re-encode them then I probably wouldn't bother, as it would take too long even on a overclocked 4790K, but my file server has 36TB (raw, 26TB usable) of storage and 6 more open bays for expansion, so I really don't need to bother with that. code:dreesemonkey posted:Ideally I could get some sort of something that I could replace the BRP with in our coat closet. I thought PC because it could be always on, do whatever I'd like with it in terms of streaming or web browsing and get a small lenovo wireless keyboard/mouse controller thing. Most of what we do right now is just watching movies with my son. Since I have a good PC now it would also be cool to be able to do the game streaming thing from my main PC (i5, gtx970, etc etc) to if I ever gamed.
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Feb 21, 2015 18:58
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How I rip a bluray: 1. throw bluray in some box, unopened. 2. Type movie name into CouchPotato and select quality. 3. A little while later the compressed, or raw if I so desire, movie shows up in my XBMC library.
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Feb 21, 2015 19:21
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Thermopyle posted:How I rip a bluray:
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Feb 21, 2015 21:42
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g0del posted:Go hang out on home theater forums sometime, your situation isn't all that unique. What's your wireless situation like? Is it feasible to leave all your movies on a computer in the basement, then stream them over wifi to a fire tv stick or some other small xbmc/plex machine at your tv? You're right, the setup isn't all that weird but I have weird usecases because I'm a special snowflake, you guys. For instance, you ask about wifi. My server rack and my wifi router are opposite corners of the house. It was moved upstairs to try and get a stronger signal to the blu ray player. That makes a chromecast/etc plugged directly into my receiver work not so great. I could probably get another router (or a better router) and do bridge mode on it. But ehhhh, effort. And I do like my chromecast but I don't use it all that much because on my phone I'm not on the wifi network because the internet is so slow and I have unlimited data otherwise. What I'm saying is I'm just a stupid jerk who has an excuse for everything. On the bright side, while my kids were sleeping today I fished a cat5 cable to the blu ray player to see if that fixes my network connectivity problem.
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Feb 21, 2015 22:07
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g0del posted:The guy's got 1.2mbps download speed. Couchpotato/sabnzbd would take days to get him a blu-ray rip, and the internet would be basically unusable for him the whole time. Yes.
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Feb 21, 2015 22:34
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g0del posted:^^^Why are you ripping both audio tracks? The DTS HD track contains the normal DTS track inside it. Not everything that will play a DTS/AC3 track will play it when within the DTS HD MA/Dolby TrueHD track. I don't remember which it was, but I've definitely run into it before, so easier to just also rip a baseline AC3/DTS track.
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Feb 21, 2015 22:52
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Need some suggestions on a HTPC+NAS setup... Main thing is I need it to be as silent as possible, since it will most likely go under my bed and I don't want it keeping me up. I also need whichever one is on 24/7 to be able to run sickbead+sab. Don't need a ton of storage space, everything will be getting deleted once I've watched it. It will have an image of my main PC and all my music, the only things I care about not losing. Originally I planned to get a fanless NUC just to run OpenElec and some silent NAS, probably the QNAP HS-210, but this would probably end up costing like £800 in total and would be overkill. I've just seen the Amazon Fire TV can run Kodi, anyone have any experience with this? any problems? I'll be controlling it most likely with my Nexus 5 if the remote isn't very good. I'm unlikely to use any of the other services on it all, probably just watching .mkvs in Kodi. Anyone have any better/cheaper solutions? Should I try combining the NAS+HTPC into one or keep them seperate? I can't really think of anything else I'd use the HTPC for right now... so an NUC would be too much. Would be good if I could access the videos and music and the sabnzbd install on the NAS remotely, too.
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Feb 23, 2015 00:52
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if you want to run openelec on a cheap, fanless HTPC.... just get a Raspberry Pi 2.
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Feb 23, 2015 05:19
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Cornjob posted:if you want to run openelec on a cheap, fanless HTPC.... just get a Raspberry Pi 2. Can it really run 1080p videos without dropping frames? Seems like it could be a great option if it can, only need to figure out what NAS to get then. This bundle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00...X8-L&ref=plSrch Only costs £15 less than an Amazon Fire TV does right now, is it still worth getting the Pi 2 over this if they cost almost the same?
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Feb 23, 2015 13:43
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uhhhhahhhhohahhh posted:Can it really run 1080p videos without dropping frames? Seems like it could be a great option if it can, only need to figure out what NAS to get then. if you dont care about streaming servces and just eant to play back your own dvd and blu rips, rpi2 is fine. i think you have buy a mpeg2 licence, if your dvds are in that format.
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Feb 23, 2015 16:44
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Cornjob posted:if you want to run openelec on a cheap, fanless HTPC.... just get a Raspberry Pi 2. Does openelec automatically update on the Raspberry Pi? I have a Raspberry Pi 1 and need to switch from the now discontinued RaspBMC,
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Feb 23, 2015 19:18
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Naffer posted:Does openelec automatically update on the Raspberry Pi? I have a Raspberry Pi 1 and need to switch from the now discontinued RaspBMC, openelec will not automatically perform updates across major version releases (gotham > helix) but it will update within versions. (helix 14.0 > 14.1) This is a characteristic of openelec, and has nothing to do with RPi.
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Feb 23, 2015 20:38
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Slightly off topic, but I have a Fosmon VGA to HDMI adapter which I use with my Dreamcast. Works fine when connected directly to my TV but when I have it go into my receiver then out to my TV, the color becomes yellowish and distorted. Thoughts? Something to do with HDCP?
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Mar 10, 2015 23:56
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I'm looking to build a budget HTPC for my dad and I'm wondering if the Intel Pentium G3220 is enough for full 1080p playback? He won't be recording anything, no gaming, etc...
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Mar 12, 2015 14:03
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Hemish posted:I'm looking to build a budget HTPC for my dad and I'm wondering if the Intel Pentium G3220 is enough for full 1080p playback? He won't be recording anything, no gaming, etc... Yes, its more than enough. A lovely AMD E350 does 1080p playback.
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Mar 12, 2015 14:40
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For basic playback it'll be more than sufficient. But if you get into stuff like madVR chroma upsampling or something, you may find it may actually become a bottleneck.
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Mar 12, 2015 19:08
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What's the best way to play Prime Instant Video on a HTPC? I have a Chromecast (use it a bunch for mirroring & casting photos, etc) and don't really want to order a Roku or Fire TV to use ontop that, and playing Prime Video through a browser isn't really ideal for every day, quick use.
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Mar 15, 2015 19:33
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Is this the right place to ask about a technical problem? I can provide lots more details if needed, but I'm having an annoying problem with my Win 8.1 HTPC - it's hooked up to a TCL television via HDMI (port's on a GTX 750 Ti) and sometimes certain applications or videos will make it stop displaying in native 1080p resolution. When I launch the game MGR Revengeance the TV flicks into this alternate quasi-1080p display mode, where the picture is cropped and zoomed in a little and the color is off. I assume it's some kind of fallback mode (the TV displays '1920x1080p' instead of the normal '1920x1080@60Hz') but I'm not sure what the problem is exactly. e: more details Vivian Darkbloom fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 02:08
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Vivian Darkbloom posted:Is this the right place to ask about a technical problem? I can provide lots more details if needed, but I'm having an annoying problem with my Win 8.1 HTPC - it's hooked up to a TCL television via HDMI (port's on a GTX 750 Ti) and sometimes certain applications or videos will make it stop displaying in native 1080p resolution. When I launch the game MGR Revengeance the TV flicks into this alternate quasi-1080p display mode, where the picture is cropped and zoomed in a little and the color is off. I assume it's some kind of fallback mode (the TV displays '1920x1080p' instead of the normal '1920x1080@60Hz') but I'm not sure what the problem is exactly. Revengeance has weird issues with some TVs and hdmi cables. It locks itself at 24 fps on my Samsung tv. I had to use some third party program to force Revengeance into borderless fullscreen for it to stick at 60 fps. e: Not sure which program I used though since this was over a year ago. There's a steamcommunity link with a few options: Link That should work for Revengeance MagusDraco fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Mar 16, 2015 |
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Mar 16, 2015 15:56
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http://gizmodo.com/hp-stream-mini-a-cute-cheap-windows-desktop-for-just-1677146011 This seems like a great little HTPC I just read about in case anyone is looking for more options...
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Mar 24, 2015 20:20
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I'm looking for a solution to Bluetooth audio for my OpenElec HTPC on a ZBox. The ZBox has a Bluetooth chip, but OpenElec doesn't support Bluetooth audio, due to issues with multiple audio devices (see here for example). Right now we're using a separate Bluetooth adapter hooked up to the headphone jack, which works but requires us to change the audio output in Kodi settings, which is not an SO-approved solution. The way I see it, my options are (1) try a more full-fledged distro that has OS-level support for Bluetooth audio. I'm reluctant to do this because I really like OE and I'm not sure it would even work well because it might not just be OE but Kodi that has Bluetooth audio issues (not sure if I understand the full explanation). Or (2), figure out a better way to handle the audio cables. We don't have a receiver which is part of the issue. Right now we have our main audio going through the HDM to the TV and then to a pair of studio monitors. They don't have their own power switches so we use a Belkin remote-control power-strip to turn them on and off with the TV. The bluetooth adapter is hooked up through the ZBox headphone jack. I guess we could get a splitter and hook up both the monitors and the adapter to the headphone jack. Then we could either turn on and off the speakers with the Belkin power strip (plugging in the TV somewhere else) or get a splitter where the output can be directed selectively. Does such a thing exist? Basically like a receiver but much simpler, just for redirecting audio between a few 3.5mm (or whatever) jacks. Ideally by remote. Everything is powered so a receiver seems like way overkill. What do you tihnk? Can we do this without buying a receiver? Any suggestions?
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Mar 24, 2015 21:01
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SurgicalOntologist posted:I'm looking for a solution to Bluetooth audio for my OpenElec HTPC on a ZBox. I'm confused. Exactly what is connected over Bluetooth to your htpc? A pair of headphones, I presume, but you don't mention. If not, could you draw a diagram?
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Mar 25, 2015 22:42
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