|
I've got a hobo HTPC that I put together with my old PC when I got my macbook. I installed a couple hard drives in it, installed Meedio, and pointed it to every computer in our apartment (college). I don't know how I ever did with out it. The HTPC also serves every computer in the apartment so people can use meedio in their rooms and have access to the same media. I think my next step is to make the htpc just a front end, and build a server with a four 500gb drives in some sort of array. It would be more efficient to because my HTPC can be wireless instead of needing to be wired to the network. right now it serves a lot of machines so it has to be wired. I also use meedio to launch emulators and stuff too. it's great. and my tech-dumb roommates are 100% comfortable using the software. even random guests know how to use it. The PC is a roughly 4 year old pentium 4 3ghz "hyper thread" whatever. I have a quiet little 6600gt and it is all in a very low key and quiet case. I have a streamzap usb/iF remote for it. It plays HD perfectly fine (as in 1080p movie trailers). ynotony fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Mar 20, 2007 |
#
¿
Mar 20, 2007 00:58
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:49 |
|
|
Can anyone here recommend a good solution for using iTunes with my HTPC? Right now I use media portal to navigate everything nicely from the couch, and it would be nice to be able to use itunes as well. "Using iTunes" to me means browsing/searching library, using my roommate's shared itunes libraries, playing playlists made in itunes. In a perfect world, front row for XP is what I'd want. Right now I just use remote desktop to control itunes but that is too much for my roommates to grasp and i'd like them to be able to use this too.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 7, 2008 02:32
|
|
|
For the last four years I've had a P4 3.0ghz, 6600GT, 1gb ram machine sitting under my TV playing any and everything I throw at it. Though lately I've found it annoying to log in and out to change settings/files because it is handling the storage of all my files and a front end media player. I also don't like my idiot roommates being able to have direct access to it because after four years it isn't 100% reliable. I want to retire it to JUST store files and hand off my front end stuff to a little macmini I have an opportunity to buy/inherit. My question is will the macmini (running xp and mediaportal) be able to HD/higher-bitrate content? It is the core SOLO model with 1gb ram. Apple says it can't play any of its trailers but I tested it on a 720p TV and it plays 720p trailers just fine without any dropped frames. Even played that 1080p Dark Knight extended trailer that is floating around. Where do apple trailers fit as a benchmark for HD playback performance?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2008 01:34
|
|
|
stgdz posted:So what is conisdered the quietest hard drive?(non solid state) Honestly? Any 7200rpm drive you buy today will be very quiet.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 26, 2008 20:42
|
|
|
Can anyone think of a way to get my roommates (and myself) in the habit of turning off the TV and stereo when we're done using it? With a traditional set up there is always sound/picture coming through the TV to remind you to turn it off - even a TiVo defaults to live TV when it is idle. But with an HTPC you just walk away when you're done using it and everything remains on without bothering anyone. Are LCD TVs smart enough to power themselves off when idle? My crt is not but I am in the market for an LCD right now so maybe that would solve half my problem.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 14, 2008 18:30
|
|
|
What do you guys use for storage? My 5 year old HTPC needs to be retired, and my new HTPC will be too small to properly house hard drives, so and I'm trying to decide if I want to (in order of price): a) Use old HTPC as server and add new drives as necessary b) Use old HTPC as server but buy a RAID controller and new uniform drives c) Buy a glorified external hard drive enclosure: contains multiple disks, expandable, RAID1 (simple) d) Buy self contained expandable NAS thingy +RAID5 (simple) I'm not a packrat, and for philosophical reasons I don't want to give myself tons of free space. 1-2TB will more than satisfy me for a long long time. I like the idea of keeping my old HTPC in commission, but I feel like reliable RAID controllers are expensive.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2009 19:22
|
|
|
vanilla slimfast posted:You might consider doing software RAID instead of trying to deal with a RAID controller. There will be a minor performance hit, but for your purposes it will probably work fine. I'm not really a linux person, and I've actually decided that I'd be happy with mirroring. It's been a few years since I've bought a hard drive and didn't realize 1.5TB is only a $130 purchase. 1.5TB would double my available space now, so buying two for $260 and mirroring is actually a great solution that should last a long time. Buying three 750GB for raid 5 is needlessly complicated for my purposes. If I thought I'd be adding to my raid a lot I'd do raid5, but realistically I'd add maybe once every few years, so buying two at a time isn't bad considering drives keep getting bigger/cheaper. Mirroring can't be done in XP though. Damnit. Anybody know a cheap Raid1 solution for XP?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2009 22:32
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:49 |
|
|
vanilla slimfast posted:If you are brave, there is a way to modify some system files in XP to turn on RAID support (the same support that is built into the Windows Server line). I had a desktop PC running like this for a while and it seemed to work fine I'm a pussy. I guess I might eventually want 4 drives and I'm limited with my hardware, so a card is the only solution. For simple mirroring, would I be fine with a cheap $100 thing?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2009 05:06
|
|