Let's crowdsource me a new whole-house DVR rig

[adam1991]

OK, my HTPC is almost 4 years old now. I use it almost exclusively for recorded TV, using the InfiniTV4 PCIe and WMC. I have two XBox and an Echo attached to it.

Current system is i3 Clarkdale 3.2, and has 320GB spinning drive for OS, 2TB spinning drive for recorded TV. There's some stuff on the OS drive that I'd like to keep, some various pictures and silly home videos my kids made (and two specific movies, Home For The Holidays and Christmas Vacation). I am very aware that the spinning drives will die someday, and I'd like to get ahead of that curve before the whole thing collapses and my family is upset that they can't watch TV and I'm in a panic to get it all fixed. I'd much rather do this ahead of time in an orderly fashion.

I'm planning on cutting the cord and going broadcast TV, with Roku on the side for Netflix and whatever else. (Man, am I surprised what the new Netflix interface does for usability.) I already bought a refurb HDHomerun Dual from Newegg, for cheap (and plan on getting one or two more). I have a cheap antenna that, when I plug it into the TV upstairs, seems to work and get the local channels.

My network is solid, so no worries there. I made sure of that when I started this whole thing 4 years ago.

Anyway, rather than tear apart my current rig and upset that apple cart, I thought I'd start from scratch and do a parallel build and get it all set up while the family continues to enjoy what's already in place. NOTE: I'm not a hardware geek. Fact is, my HTPC is the only Windows machine in my house. The other six computers in my house, plus the one in my father's house, plus the 8 or so in my brother's house, are all Macs. So, I'm not up on everything in the build-your-own Windows machine world.

Color me silly, but I do want an optical drive. Yes, we here in the Flintstones household still do DVDs. Other than that, I can do anything. I expect I will want to modernize, with SSD for boot disc and 4TB or larger for recorded TV.

My son has an older Gigabyte mobo (mini-ATX) with AMD processor that he's just taken out of his gaming rig; I could throw some RAM onto that and repurpose it, if I could find a nice horizontal case. But I suspect that because it's 2+ years old, I'd rather just start with all new technology.

I'm intrigued by Intel NUC. Looks a bit pricey, but low power and small and built-in IR is all attractive. Throw in an SSD, 8GB of RAM, and add an external recording storage disc of some sort--plus an external optical drive--and go. But I know little about modern SSDs and how to spec them. And I see there are many models; I'm not sure what the differences are or which of them, if any, are more suitable for a DVR application.

Also, can WMC record directly to a USB drive? I'm pretty sure it can, USB being local and all. Or does it technically require an internal disc?

I could build something, or I could buy something off the shelf and add storage to it. Oh--anything I buy might not come with Windows 7, right? I do need Windows 7 here; that's a requirement for me personally. No Windows 8 shenanigans need apply.

Solid video card is important, with quality HDMI. Does 29/59 mishandling happen in OTA streams? Is Intel NUC video truly suitable for HTPC work like they say? I stumbled into my current i3 Clarkdale setup, and it's flawless. That's my benchmark for video.

Audio is not crucial. I just watch TV. I let HDMI carry audio to the TV, and the let the TV output audio to my ZVox SoundBase.

A little extra oomph is necessary because I do process for commercial skip. And we sometimes have two extenders running simultaneously; doesn't each running extender ask for a core to itself?

I'm wide open for ideas here. While budget is always a consideration, the top issue is value to ME. I'm not looking to squeeze a nickel until it starts crapping dimes. That's not my goal. I'm not here to play games or create a system that requires constant fiddling. The HTPC isn't a hobby in and of itself. The HTPC is a means to an end, which is providing whole-house TV/DVR to my family. To that end, it's OK to spend some money if it means the difference between a system that requires constant fiddling and one that just works.

whew. Thoughts?

[3rob3]

NUC's are nice, but more for "extender" or secondary use (I use an N2820 one in the bedroom). I wouldn't use one as the main Media Center serving a household, mainly because I wouldn't trust recording to a USB drive. If you do go this route, get one with an I5, not the Celeron. To be honest I would just take your Clarkdale system down for a day, swap in an SSD (can't go wrong with Samsung 840/850 EVO's) and reinstall. If not go for an Intel I5, 8Gb ram, onboard Intel video.

[Scallica]

If you buy a Crucial MX100 SSD, it comes with copy of Acronis True Image software. You can clone your existing OS drive in less than an hour.

If you really want a new system, and don't feel like tinkering with it, reach out to Assassin for a quote. He's a member he so you can send him a PM.

[RyC]

I used a USB drive and a NUC for a couple of months while away from home. It worked fine.

[Bryan]

I love the idea of an NUC. Depending on how much local recording storage you want, some of the NUC's support an internal 2.5" spinning drive. You can get that form factor in up to 2TB, though they're thicker than normal laptop drives; not sure if the NUC supports that. My system has a 2TB recording drive, but my WHS box is part of the recorded TV library as well, so once in a while I move older recordings to it, which could be scheduled.

My HTPC is a Pentium G3220, the Intel HD on it is plenty, so the new NUC's would be fine as well. The new ones have at least i3 and i5 versions.

I'm a big fan of the Samsung EVO, Crucial is well-liked too. For NUC, you would need mSATA.

[adam1991]

The new NUCs coming out support m.2 SSD on a PCIe bus, a la Apple.

Pricey right now, but...

Yeah, the taller NUCs support a full 9.5mm high drive, so 2TB would work. But I generally like to separate OS from recorded TV...

I don't mind building it; what I don't want to build and end up with is a hobbyist project that owns me. Some people are looking for exactly that, but not me. I want what I have right now: an appliance that (aside from random reboots) just works.

[3rob3]

I don't mind building it; what I don't want to build and end up with is a hobbyist project that owns me. Some people are looking for exactly that, but not me. I want what I have right now: an appliance that (aside from random reboots) just works.

But it sounds like you do. You have said you are very happy with your current system so why change? All you are doing is switching tuner types from cablecard to OTA.

[Bryan]

Yeah, the taller NUCs support a full 9.5mm high drive, so 2TB would work. But I generally like to separate OS from recorded TV...

I was under the impression the tall ones still had the mSATA/m.2 slot, so you could run both. The now previous-gen NUC had a tall option as well, maybe the prices on those are headed down.

[LuckyDay]

NUC's are nice, but more for "extender" or secondary use (I use an N2820 one in the bedroom). I wouldn't use one as the main Media Center serving a household, mainly because I wouldn't trust recording to a USB drive.

NUCs work fine for recording if you use networked storage. Just grab yourself a NAS enclosure and you're good to go.

[3rob3]

You can't record to a NAS, so now you are dealing with scripts to move recordings after they are done. He said he doesn't want to fiddle and I would consider this fiddling and/or unreliable compared with what he has now. Again, I have one and am happy with it but would never use it to serve the rest of the household.

[LuckyDay]

You can't record to a NAS, so now you are dealing with scripts to move recordings after they are done. He said he doesn't want to fiddle and I would consider this fiddling and/or unreliable compared with what he has now. Again, I have one and am happy with it but would never use it to serve the rest of the household.

Strange, I could have sworn I used to record to my NAS, but it's been years so maybe I did come up with a workaround or script to use.

There are some really easy programs though that will move files automatically.

[adam1991]

I don't mind building it; what I don't want to build and end up with is a hobbyist project that owns me. Some people are looking for exactly that, but not me. I want what I have right now: an appliance that (aside from random reboots) just works.

But it sounds like you do. You have said you are very happy with your current system so why change? All you are doing is switching tuner types from cablecard to OTA.

The drives are 4 years old and will die at some point, and I want to get ahead of the curve.

I want to take advantage of this opportunity to switch to SSD and a larger spinning storage disc. My current setup is limited to recognizing 2GB drives. So this is an opportunity to move to a newer mobo that supports 4TB and larger. Newer might even mean smaller and more energy efficient. Etc, etc.

But you may be right; the discussion may turn me into leaving well enough alone.

[LuckyDay]

Some thoughts, because I have a NUC (I don't use it primarily as an HTPC rig, but I've used it some).

You definitely need the i3/i5 models for the good video, as you said you have with the Clarksdale. The Celerons have the older lower end Intel HD on them.

The broadcast/Roku route is a pretty good one. Another thought if you want to keep it all within the HTPC I installed WIn8 on my HTPC recently and I've actually been liking it, but whether you wanna go that route depends on your opinion of a mouse in the living room. The Win8 apps for video are great, but remote support is all over the place.

I've got my standard broadcast, my subscription to Netflix, and then I use apps like this for other content on my start menu (using my parents login from their cable, so I'm cheating in a sense here).

(I realize the thread is about your hardware set up, but if you're going the route of rebuilding the entire thing, might as well consider upgrades to the software).

[adam1991]

Gee, it looks like Roku with a WMC app!

I've not paid any attention to Win8, other than knowing it isn't as automatic of a DVR--that it does require a mouse. But you know, maybe that's not so bad.

[3rob3]

That looks awesome LuckyDay. It really sucks that the Modern apps don't support remote control because the interface is perfect for HTPC.

[Wilky13]

That looks awesome LuckyDay. It really sucks that the Modern apps don't support remote control because the interface is perfect for HTPC.

Harmony has a "MCE PC" setting or something like that. It works for me in Windows 7. Why would it not work in the Windows 8 interface. You can map the up, down, left, right buttons and also a button for tab.

[3rob3]

Harmony has a "MCE PC" setting or something like that. It works for me in Windows 7. Why would it not work in the Windows 8 interface. You can map the up, down, left, right buttons and also a button for tab.

Huh? We are talking about navigating the "Metro" Windows 8 interface, not Media Center.

[Wilky13]

Harmony has a "MCE PC" setting or something like that. It works for me in Windows 7. Why would it not work in the Windows 8 interface. You can map the up, down, left, right buttons and also a button for tab.

Huh? We are talking about navigating the "Metro" Windows 8 interface, not Media Center.

Yes, can't you use the arrow keys on your key board and tab to move from one Metro icon to another and then 'enter' to select it? I only had Win8 for a while, I went back to Win7. But I thought I remember being able to navigate through metro that way.

[3rob3]

Yeah I guess I wasn't clear what I meant. In the main Metro menu you can arrow around, but once you open most (all?) apps you lose the ability to navigate with a remote. Play/Pause/Stop are usually the only things that work. It's a shame too because the apps look great on a large screen.

[3rob3]

Another thought if you want to keep it all within the HTPC I installed WIn8 on my HTPC recently and I've actually been liking it, but whether you wanna go that route depends on your opinion of a mouse in the living room. The Win8 apps for video are great, but remote support is all over the place.

LuckyDay, how did you resize all your tiles to be wide? My Windows Media Center tile only allows small and medium, not wide.