Ready to build new HTPC...New Functionality?

[bytor]

I recently have purchased all of the components to build a new HTPC as my current unit is getting quite old. We use it exclusively for all of our TV, Movie (w/MediaBrowser), and Music needs in our home. I do plan on running Windows 7 as 8 didn't bring much to the table from what I read. I have installed MediaBrowser, Channel Logos, Haali Media Splitter and the now defunct Media Center Studio.

In building a new unit I started wondering if there is anything new I could possibly be doing to enhance the experience. I have made small updates over time, but for the past three years (the unit is almost eight) I have used the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra with much success.

So, is there any neat things people are doing with their HTPC that wasn't possible or available a few years ago?

Anyone using voice commands to control the HTPC?

One thing I'd like to do is stream from my phone or tablet to the HTPC, and I know it may not be possible with WMC, but if I can create a link to an external program that would be great. Currently I plug the devices in if I want to watch something. I could get a chromecast, but I'd like to not switch HDMI sources if at all possible to keep my family happy.


So what are your thoughts on newer Functionality?

Cheers,

Bytor

[3rob3]

Not much to be honest. There is a Amazon Instant plugin if you subscribe. I bought Recorded TV HD recently and love it, so much so i uninstalled media browser. Other than that use Relaunch to launch remote friendly websites. Some if the Win8 metro apps are nice if you have a wireless mouse/keyboard.

[nathagt]

My Movies 5 was just released and it has some nice new features, at least new if you don't have Windows Home Server.

- Automatic Disc Copying (DVD or Bluray) - no user intervention required
- Automatic Video Conversion - you can create up to 2 different mp4 or mkv conversions when copying or from existing collection. Uses handbrake profiles
- Streaming to My Movies Pro app - only movies, not recorded tv, only mp4 is supported currently
- Event handlers to connect with many AV receivers

There's probably more but that's what I'm using

[miracleed]

I tried hooking up my Xbox's Kinect as was trying voice and gesture commands. And it may be a limitation of my using the unsupported Kinect model but I wasn't hugely impressed. I think though that that whole thing is lost on my owing to being old and crotchety, I don't use voice commands on my phone either.

For software enhancements I too am using Recorded TV HD, the Amazon plugin, and TotalMedia Theater.

[barnabas1969]

My HTPC doubles as a back massager.

[adam1991]

And a cup holder.

[Roginator]

Commercial skipping with Comskip? That, expandable storage, and copying capability are the main reasons I use Media Center.

[christoph86]

If you are still running mediabrowser 2 in your old unit, it has changed a lot and you will have to get MB3 as the old version is no longer supported. It's added a ton of functionality too. I also use Recordedtv HD, really nice add on but you do have to purchase it.

As for voice controls, there is a Xbox Kinect plugin that works with mediabrowser but I can't speak on how well it works as I've never used it.

For streaming needs I use a roku 3.

[bytor]

I had high hopes when the Kinect came out, but Microsoft appeared to drop support for Media Center around the same time it came out. Maybe it is just me, but I really thought it would be a feature now especially since I can talk to my android phone. It would be neat if someone would create an app that could act as a voice controlled remote

I tried Comskip a couple years ago, but it was way to fragile of software back then to actually work. I assume it is much better. We don't record more than ten hours of programming a week (just have OTA), so pressing the skip button hasn't been that big of an issue and we occasionally stop on a trailer for a movie, or something else. If it works now then I might try it again.

I just started looking into the new MediaBrowser. I haven't found a good answer as to what the differences between "theater" and "classic" are. It looks like it needs to run a separate service in the background. Is there any advantage to the "Recordedtv HD" over just using Media Center's program? It seems redundant, but I have been thinking for some time that they look to be divorcing themselves slowly from Media Center and will sometime in the near future run outside of the Media Center environment. I just looked at MediaPortal again and I just hate their music functionality that is very difficult to use compared to Media Center.

I do need to figure out how to implement bluray playback as I have added a bluray player to my new build and want to start playing all of the blurays I have purchased over the last couple years natively on the HTPC.

Does anyone run FFDshow tryouts or another codec pack with great success. I only loaded the Haali splitter to get everything working last time, but I do notice the blocking on our bigger tv and would love to try and improve that. I also had an issue with getting AC3 output through the SPDIF out on my current system with only MP4 files (damn thing was that MKVs with AC3 would work), but it appears this might not be an issue with HDMI passthrough. Is that the case?

This weekend I built a new system with a Cooler Master 120 mini case, the new ASUS H97I-plus mini board, an i3-4130 processor, 8Gb of Ram, a Samsung 840 250Gb SSD for OS and Music (I found music ran better on the same drive on my current system), a WD 3TB green drive for media and recording, and a bluray drive (think ASUS but it is boxed up). I temp loaded a copy of Windows 7 (from the unit I'm going to retire until I get a new OS ordered) to test everything out and it started up fine. Loaded the OS so fast.

Since my current system is still mostly running I have some time to try things, but I don't want to drag it out too long.\

Good times,

Bytor

[christoph86]

MB Theater is meant to be a standalone player outside of WMC. It's still alpha and has a ways to go. I don't really use it, but love classic. Also use the MB3 Roku and android clients.

I like recordedhdtv because it looks nicer and it recognizes mp4 files, which is what I change my recorded shows to after running through MCEBbuddy to remove commercials. Mp4 files play much better on the roku.

For blu ray a lot of people recommend total media theater 5. I mainly just use Makemkv to rip my blurays to a mkv file and add to my mediabrowser library.

I use LAV filters which handles everything I need. Others use Shark codec pack which has a lot more options in, but LAV is simple and works for my needs. Both of those should handle your ac3 through spdif no problem

[Saml01]

Run an emulator and play all the old NES/N64/SNES titles.

[bytor]

I'll need to give a look at make MKV. My wife's biggest complaint, though is with the extenders not playing all of the containers, and limited to 2 channel output AAC on the MP4s I have saved out as AC3 which is a pain. I have traditionally used Handbrake, but I will take a look at that. Is it on par with Handbrake otherwise?

What does LAV do that Haali doesn't?

I tried the emulator through MediaBrowser a long time ago, but it was a pain to setup and I never took the time to get it working. My daughter likes to play games, so I wouldn't mind setting it up so she could play some games I loved as a kid, but I'm not certain how intuitive the most recent emulators are. The main goal is to keep the 10 foot interface intact so I don't get phone calls when I'm three hundred miles away telling me that there is no volume on the movie they want to watch or that media center somehow minimized and they can't figure out how to get it back up (I know you just need to press the green button on the remote, but I still get the call).

I should state that I am rural and don't have an unlimited internet so I don't currently stream, but , damn, I'd love to. I use an aircard and get 5Gb a month, but at $10 a Gb overage I could just buy most movies we'd want to watch. My only other option is satellite, but I have been told I'm better off with the aircard for speed, which is usually pretty good, and it costs less.

I see that MediaBrowser is touting some sort of DLNA, but I don't know if that means playing files from a tablet to the HTPC which would be great. I can always plug it in, but it would be great if it would just work wirelessly in this day and age.

The one other feature that I have always wanted is the ability to pull a disc out that is half watched, watch something else, and then put the first disc in with it remembering where we left off. Every DVD player I have ever owned did this, but Media Center doesn't. I think I did see that MediaBrowser has disc playback now so maybe they have addressed that. The worst is when the disc is locked and you have to watch the previews. I believe there is a way to disable it, but I never looked into it with my current system. I should, though, now.

I plan on working on it a bit more this weekend. So keep the suggestions flowing and I will keep posting. I plan on erecting an antenna tower to get better reception along with a second antenna pointed south for reception from South Bend if possible. The tower will also get our cell booster up into a better range where Sprint may actually work here. Doubtful, but we will see.

Cheers,

Bytor

[christoph86]

What are you using as an extender? Xbox?

[hooraah]

I don't know if you're into gaming at all, but I've been recently experimenting with steams 'in-home streaming', which streams games from your desktop PC. This is nice considering most people's HTPCs arent running gaming graphics hardware.

I plug in my xbox controller, open up steam big picture mode, and can play most of my steam gaming library at 1080P/60fps with all detail on. I'm having to take baby steps getting used to the controller but overall its a totally new experience for me and a really fun use of the HTPC.

For just HTPC uses, as others posted, check out the new MB3. Very similar functionality Ive heard to Plex. I run MB3 server on my Windows Server box in the office and just the client on the HTPC, but plenty of people do serving/watching on the same box.

Something to keep in mind for a new build - if you get into Plex/MB3/some other streaming setup and use the HTPC to host, it will probably have to be on 24/7 (as opposed to sleeping when not in use), so consider a low power build for energy use if thats important to you.

[bytor]

I use an Xbox 360 in the bedroom and have a DMA2200 in the basement. If there have been improvements in transcoding to the 360 then I would be interested.

I will be keeping this on all of the time if I can't get wake on lan running correctly. I gave up on the last pc because it would wake up just fine, but 10 minutes later the HTPC would shut down since there wasn't direct input from the HTPC remote. I don't know why it did it, but I gave up and left it on. My new system runs the 4130 i3 which is 54W peak so it will be a big improvement. I haven't taken all of the wattages into account, but I opted for this i3 over the 4130t which supposedly runs at 35W.
The other issue with my old system was not having discrete on and off through the remote which caused a mess if the HTPC was on for some reason like a wake on lan request from the xbox. This would cause the HTPC to shut down on the remote's startup sequence. I think Logitech was working on adding the discrete codes, but I haven't touched the remote lately. I guess I will probably need to look into that, too.

I do like gaming, but I currently just use a second Xbox which is right next to the HTPC or the Wii for my daughter's games. I've thought about going back to PC games because they get really cheap fast, but steam requires a download of the game and I'd just end up paying twice for the game if I went over my allotted aircard plan. (Again, that really sucks).

I will need to run the MB server on my HTPC. I tried to check out MB classic on my desktop, but I didn't want to mess with the server on it and classic won't boot up without it. So it will have to wait until I can get back to finishing my unit. I have been waiting on a deal on Windows 7 home premium, but it looks like I will just need to pay up. Third time purchasing software for the same purpose. I don't think you can reuse an upgrade license, but I should check into that.

Did they include WMC on the Xbox One and does it handle more file types?

Cheers,

Bytor

[mdavej]

Xbox One does not do WMC. I don't think it does much in the way of file streaming either.

For your remote to work correctly, you need to program it so that it thinks the PC has no power commands and does not try to send any. On the start of your activity add one additional discrete on for the PC to wake it. Let it sleep by time, not a command from the remote.

As you probably already know, the DMA won't send WOL.

LAV or Shark should take care of your transcoding issues.

[barnabas1969]

Xbox One does not do WMC. I don't think it does much in the way of file streaming either.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winna!

[bytor]

Xbox One does not do WMC. I don't think it does much in the way of file streaming either.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winna!

Just another reason for me to not upgrade, yet. I still have a bunch of 360 games that I haven't played. I have always stayed a year or two behind to get value pricing on games (there have been a few notable exceptions).

[barnabas1969]

OK, sorry... I was being an ass. I think the XBox One is a loser, but the 360 makes a great extender.

So... I finally read the entire thread, and I have this to say:

The ability to use WOL depends on your hardware. If the PC won't reliably sleep/wake, then there is probably a problem with the motherboard and/or the drivers for the motherboard. Sometimes, PCI and/or PCIe cards can cause a problem too. Often, MCE Standby Tool (MSE) will fix your problem if used correctly.

Media Center works very well to watch/record TV... over the air or cable. You can also use it to watch/record satellite, but this requires the use of an STB and a capture card like the HD-PVR or Colossus.

Beyond that, there are ways to watch downloaded/ripped movies and TV series, but the audio/video formats are limited. If you stick to encoding formats which are supported by the extenders, you can watch them too... sometimes requiring the installation of 3rd party splitters like haali media splitter.

There are some very wonderful add-ins for Media Center. My favorites are Recorded TV HD and My Channel Logos XL.

To be honest, for most things outside of live/recorded TV... you're better off using a Roku. Some downloaded/ripped content works fine in Media Center (almost anything on the PC itself, but very limited on extenders unless you make sure to keep it within the bounds of what the extender can support).

So, in my opinion, your best bet is a combination of a streamer like a Roku 3, and a Media Center PC (with software like Plex or Media Browser) plus XBox360 extenders. The PC/extenders will be able to watch all of your live/recorded TV content... and the Rokus will be able to watch all of your downloaded/streamed content.

[hooraah]

My new system runs the 4130 i3 which is 54W peak so it will be a big improvement. I haven't taken all of the wattages into account, but I opted for this i3 over the 4130t which supposedly runs at 35W.

I will need to run the MB server on my HTPC.
Bytor

At that power level I'd say just set it to be on all the time, no sleep. For me, under 50-60W isn't really worth it to deal with trying to get sleep working properly. Plus, you'll want it to be your streaming/transcoding server, so you'll want it always on.

The MB3 server isn't really that big of a setup. Its not a ton different than the old MB (that ran a service in the system tray). You just install the two separately now.
Also, if you like MB3, they have roku and tablet apps. Again - you start going down that path and you're really going to want the system on 24/7.