Media Server/Home Theater PC

Anyone ever dabbled in this? I know there are forums dedicated to the subject, but I don't feel like registering on another forum right now.

I've got an old machine that I'm eventually going to set up as an HTPC. I don't know the specs off the top of my head, but it's very outdated - I'll definitely need to update the hardware to get HD output. I'm thinking XBMC for Linux(XBMC) but if any of you know of any better media software, let me know.

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kalebksp

I have a HTPC running MediaPortal, Boxee and XBMC on Windows XP. I use MediaPortal for downloaded content (podcasts, etc), Boxee for streaming content (the Pandora app is especially sweet), and XBMC just to play around with occasionally. None of these record TV though.

I've heard that the latest graphics cards can offload a lot of the HD processing, even to the point that an Atom processor can run it. If you're building something that's going to sit in your living room I would suggest picking your components by noise output, a noisy computer can be very annoying while watching TV.

fleck

kalebksp wrote: »

I've heard that the latest graphics cards can offload a lot of the HD processing, even to the point that an Atom processor can run it. If you're building something that's going to sit in your living room I would suggest picking your components by noise output, a noisy computer can be very annoying while watching TV.

For HD you're definitely going to want a 9800 minimum, maybe a 9600. I had an 8600 and it needed help from CoreAVC to decode 1080p. And a dual-core CPU, no matter the speed really, just make sure it's dual core.

I really really 2nd that other statement about noise output also, my HTPC was an old but usable computer for watching DivX but I had a buzzing problem that I could never figure out. Maybe a sound output device--preferable external--with RCA outputs would be a good bet.

leefdaddy

Windows Home Server...

It's actually pretty amazing. Check it out.

seanw87

I don't need to record TV, so that isn't an issue. The main thing I plan on using it for is music and movies.

Judging from my research and the posts here, I'll end up replacing just about everything in this old PC. I may just turn this old computer into a file server and build a new box specifically for home theater. That brings me to a new question:

If I'll be streaming my media(assume 1080p video files with 5.1 surround) from the file server to the HTPC, is a 100BASE-T network going to be enough or will I need gigabit ethernet?

eMeS

Two WHS threads I posted a while back:

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/33025-windows-home-server-initial-setup-thoughts.html

http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/33286-windows-home-server-more-thoughts.html

It's still going strong...I'm up to 4TB of storage in this thing, and I don't quite have all of my media over there yet. Now that the 2TB HDs are available and becoming more affordable, I might look at doing some upgrades early next year.

Overall this thing is great because it's very easy for my wife to use. Now that our child is video watching age, this thing makes it very easy to serve up on any tv or computer in our house "Jack's Big Music Show", "Barney", and the various "Elmo" videos that we own.

MS

kalebksp

As for the NAS/media server, I'm looking at building a OpenSolaris-based NAS (so I can use ZFS), I certainly like the features and want to try out their RAID-Z.

eMeS, how's the throughput on your WHS, I thought I heard somewhere that WHS was very slow. I could be confusing it with the Drobo and/or HP's WHS-based NAS though.

seanw87 wrote: »

If I'll be streaming my media(assume 1080p video files with 5.1 surround) from the file server to the HTPC, is a 100BASE-T network going to be enough or will I need gigabit ethernet?

What are we talking here? Files downloaded from the internet or huge Blu-ray rips? I think 100mb would be fine for just about anything off the internet, not so sure about a 50GB Blu-ray disc though.

To be clear, I'm talking about ripping a video from a personal Blu-ray disc. I love the MPAA, who is only trying to protect us from ourselves, and would never condone fair-use copying of media.

seanw87

eMeS - Thanks, I'll read through those threads.

kalebksp - I've ripped several of my Blu-Ray discs but I compress them. An example would be a 720p copy of The Dark Knight weighing in at 8.3 gigs.

the_Grinch

Just slap Ubuntu on the machine and get a PS3. I currently have it setup so that I stream from the Ubuntu box to the PS3. I get the video transcoded on the fly (for mkv files), browse folders for content, and enjoy every piece of media one wants.

ps3mediaserver - Project Hosting on Google Code

My machine has a 1 TB external drive (usb), AMD 3200+, 1 gig of ram and I haven't had any hiccups streaming 1080p content over 10 mb ethernet. Good luck!

t49

I'm running tversity on and old xp pro box to my 360 and 2 laptops. 100 mbit network. Did a stress test on a it a while back watching 3 movies and playing mp3 files at the same time. Everything still went smooth.

With tversity my biggest problem was with buffering, but you can tune all of that according to your network.

Turned off SDDP because tveristy uses upnp. I did not look for anything complicated and would cause me alot of management time. .

Just inputing my 2 cents

eMeS

kalebksp wrote: »

eMeS, how's the throughput on your WHS, I thought I heard somewhere that WHS was very slow. I could be confusing it with the Drobo and/or HP's WHS-based NAS though.

Acceptable, but it took several iterations and lots of experimentation to get it to the point where I could stream video at an acceptable speed for real-time viewing.

I would say there's nothing about WHS itself that slows anything down...after all, all it really is is a slightly customized version of Windows SBS.

I don't know about the HP WHS boxes. I would assume that they have crappy components in them and some of that will lead to low throughput.

MS

seanw87

Realtime transcoding on this box would be an issue, I don't think it has the processing power to support it. That precludes Tversity and anything else that streams media to a game console.

Tonight I'll do some research on what I need to build an HTPC and tomorrow I'll set up this file server so that it's ready when the HTPC is done.

EDIT: Did some research and based on suggestions and reviews, these are the parts I am leaning towards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128399
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103688
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148194
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075

I went with a 160GB hard drive since I don't need an enormous hard drive for the HTPC since the files will all be stored on my server, I only need room for the OS and the media center software I decide on. I won't be using a CD/DVD-ROM since I have an external one that I'll use when installing the OS and whatever else I need.

I just need to pick a case now.

Thoughts/suggestions/reviews?