New HTPC

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soshaughnessy

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New HTPC

#1

Post by soshaughnessy » Sun Sep 11, 2016 6:09 pm

Hello All,

I haven't had an HTPC since back in the early Vista days but would like to set one up now and I am looking for some advise. Glad to see the site is still up and active!!

Currently I have a NAS where I store all of my media files and I am looking for an HTPC that would serve as my front end for accessing those files and recording new content (mainly DRM content from my cable company). I am currently using an old MacBook for the front end but I couldn't find any possible solutions to record the DRM content. Plex's new DVR feature looks promising but still no DRM which is most of my channels I want to record.

I would like to stay under or around the $800 range.

Advise needed
1) Are there any pre built PCs out there that would be able to function as a HTPC? What specs should I look for?
2) Should I buy a Windows 7 Install for the OS? I know that they killed WMC in Windows 10 and that there is a workaround but as I'm starting new I wasn't sure if I should use the workaround or just load Windows 7?
3) Other alternative I was toying with is if I am already going to be spending money on a new PC, I may just go ahead and go all in and get one that would support an Occulus Rift. Is there anything that I would need to look for that would be needed for a HTPC setup but not necessarily in a Rift setup? I know this would push me well over the $800 range, but then I could use for more than just HTPC.

Thank you in advance for any advice! I was trying to find some guides but everything was mainly geared towards building.

adam1991

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#2

Post by adam1991 » Sun Sep 11, 2016 9:16 pm

Random thoughts:

* give up on DRM content. The sooner you start, the sooner you're over it and on to products not controlled by The Borg. I'm serious here. Cut that cord and move on. Stick with clear QAM or ATSC for recording TV. Are we talking just HBO/Showtime here, or does your cableco DRM the hell out of every channel? Giving up HBO/Showtime is incredibly easy; giving up pay TV altogether involves a more involved mindset, but after a month you won't remember why you cared in the first place.

* If you want to record DRM content, the easy answer is a Win7 box running WMC and a cableCARD tuner or tuners. Silicon Dust or Ceton.

* if you don't want to record DRM content but you still want to record TV, the easy answer is still a Win7 box running WMC--but your options are more flexible.

* most off the shelf stuff will do, perhaps with some tweaking, depending on what you want to do in the end. Considerations would be video output and, if you're recording, a spinning storage drive separate from the OS drive. Browse around here and you'll see many discussions on the 29/59 switching frame rate issue, which some video cards present to the user well and others don't (this is an issue with recorded TV).

* What will you do with your existing media and your recorded TV? Will you show it solely on a single TV, or will you want to view it at various locations around the house?

Frankly, if you're looking at starting fresh, WMC might not be the right answer. Depending on what you want to do, Tivo and Plex might be the answer for a longer term. Tivo to record whatever TV you want; Plex running on your NAS; Tivo Mini units at remote TVs; and a single unified Tivo interface and remote control to view either recorded TV or your media library.

That'll rip through your $800 budget like it was tin foil (loose BTTF reference there), but at least you'd have a solid blue sky goal.

Backing off of that, you could still do 7MC and Plex. But the 7MC extenders (XBox and Ceton Echo) don't play in the Plex world, so remote TVs would end up with two solutions--an extender and something like a Roku box? or something.

Others will chime in here with solid advice as well.

dab2kab

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#3

Post by dab2kab » Mon Sep 12, 2016 2:08 am

I believe the xbox 360 does have a plex app, so it could function as an extender and way to view plex.

droopie

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#4

Post by droopie » Sat Dec 03, 2016 4:42 pm

The only solution that will work relatively at all with DRM is WMC. I've been using WMC for about 2 years now with Xbox360's as extenders. Don't actually watch tv on the HTPC WMC server...it's better that way...don't have to worry about something happening to it if it's being used to surf the internet.

But I am in the Memphis area and have Xfinity/Comcast and right now the only DRM channels are the premiums, in my case HBO and Starz. I have 2 HD Homerum cablecard devices with a total of 6 tuners. It's a little wonky sometimes, but for the most part the kids and wife have no troubles and the BIGGEST benefit is I have 7TB of recording space, so we can record everything we want. We can record 6 things while we are sleeping or 5 channels while watching 1...although I have never seen that happen.

I had WMC running on an older Phenom II, but I am giving that to my son for Xmas as a game machine. I am replacing it with a HP Small Format desktop I picked up on ebay for $50. Add 16GB of Ram and a SSD and I've got less than $150 in it. I set it up yesterday and did some testing and even without the SSD yet, it opens WMC and changes channels faster than the Phenom system. Since I won't be touching it once it is running, I will turn OFF Windows Updates and it should be rock solid for many years. The Phenom has been pretty solid, but I was using that desktop too, so loading programs and windows updates sometimes wrecked it and required work to get it back in order.

But if you want to use Kodi or anything else with WMC, that will bump up the horsepower needed and such a small low powered system will probably not suffice...needless to say if you are thinking of building something for VR, this is also out of the question! lol.

mercalia

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#5

Post by mercalia » Sat Dec 10, 2016 5:52 pm

if you want to use Media Center then the original Media Browser plugin is a must use? with atleast 8 gb memory and only ever let it go to sleep rther than have to boot up each time - the media browser plugin will then cache all its artwork in memory and will work real smooth. regarding pcs an old dual core is good enough though get one that uses DDR3 memory

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