HTPC -- The Next Generation

Howdy. Well its time to upgrade the old HTPC.

Its worked ok but not great. I had tapped into the spare parts bin for that build and the overall performance of the system was just so-so. A few of the key parts (case, mobo, proc, ram, psu) resided in a hot-in-Summer and then freezing-in-Winter, dusty storage unit for almost two years. So I experience periodic BSDs and other related oddities. Usually its no big deal except when the wife is recording something. This time I'm only re-purposing one item which is a Hauppage 2250 TV tuner and that was purchased new for the first generation HTPC.

My objectives are really the same as before:

1. Watch and record OTA TV
2. Stream Netflix and other internet content
3. Distribute audio to Yamaha receiver and 5.1 surround system

Has anyone else rolled their own HTPC recently attempting to meet these objectives? What did you end up with?

I would also like to accomplish the following:

• Prefer to run XBMC
• Prefer to use one remote for all
• Prefer I/R receiver built into HTPC
• Prefer to power on / off with remote
• Prefer HTPC to wake itself up like a DVR otherwise be asleep when not in use
• Prefer to route recorded prgrams to remote device (preferably time capsule)
• Don't need DVD integrated into HTPC
• Do need to increase the WAF on this build -- I'm a bit in the hole on this point from the previous / current setup

I've thought a lot about buy vs build. I really don't want to build another windows setup so feeling kind of motivated by going linux. Anyone else feel this way?

I looked into chromeboxes, rasberries and even the mini mac but left unsatisfied shopping for those. What I'll end up building will probably look a lot like those though. =\

Here's the $350 order I just placed:
Wesena ITX5-B case
Asus P8H61-I R2.0 LGA 1155 HDMI and USB 3.0 mini ITX motherboard
Intel Celeron G1610 2.6GHz LGA 1155 processor
G.Kill Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB) ram
Kingston Digital 60GB SSD drive
Mini-Box picoPSU 160 watt 12V DC output power supply
Sabrent 12V 72W AC power supply

Any other thoughts?

After a little more reading about the new AM1 platform I decided to switch from Intel to AMD. The low power consumption of the chip coupled with the slightly lower price of the supporting motherboard were too compelling.

I switched cpu, mobo and ram. Intel options were $167.67. Since I am still close to my budget I doubled the ram, to 8gb, in the AMD package. Comparable cost: $171.22.

AMD Athlon 5350 APU
Asus Mini ITX AM1I-A
Kingston HyperX Fury1600MHz DDR3 8GB

I've never use XBMC, so I'm not sure if it supports the ability to record to a specific user-specified drive, but really, so long as you have your NAS/ server drives mapped, or shouldn't be an issue. As for the IR receiver, I think if the case does not have it built in, it will be tough to find a USB receiver small enough to simply plug and forget about.

I think you are going to be happier with the AMD solution, the onboard video will be more than enough for any UI or high-res video, and more physical cores will make recording multiple programs a ton smoother while web browsing, playing games, whatnot. Does your board have a TOSLINK optical audio output?

@KazeoHin, not sure why I'd need toslink audio out when the mobo has HDMI out?

The Wesena ITX5 case that I ordered has an IR window. I purchased this IR receiver to mount inside of the case. Hopefully I can get a Harmony 650 remote to recognize the IR receiver and power on / off the HTPC.

In related news, upon reading about problems related to the Kingston SSDNow V300 drives, I decided to return it and go with a (larger 128 gb) Crucial MX100.

Will post pics of the build out of HTPC-TNG as soon as all of the parts come in.

Here are all of the parts I have ordered along with an old remote I had laying around. May replace that with a Harmony 650 if it doesn't behave. The linux on my USB drive is XMBCbuntu.


Since Perfect Home Theater (USA Wesena distributor) doesn't (as off Nov 4, 2014) have any of the Wesena IR receivers in stock, I ordered the internal USB IR receiver from Interset.

So for me the first order of concern was, "Will the Interset IR receiver (linked in an earlier post in this thread) fit onto one of the IR receiver mount points inside of the Wesena ITX5B case?"


I was thrilled to discover that I could make it work without any modifications. Using a motherboard screw I pinned the IR receiver bracket against the Wesena IR mount point. Shown here.


By some chance of fate this allows the IR receiver to line up perfectly with the IR window. I will post more about this when / if I actually get the IR receiver to do what I want it to!


Here is the Asus AM1I-A motherboard fit into the Wesena ITX5B case.


I decided not to order an 80mm fan until I could test how loud the stock Wesena fan is.

Wesena's mounting of the case fan is very clever. They employ a bracket screwed into the case and then screws are used to pin the fan against the bracket.


Even better is the fact that you can access the screws without having to remove the motherboard. This should make replacing the stock fan, if necessary, relatively easy.


More to follow.

AMD Athlon 5350 installed.


Just about everything in place. Only missing Hard Drive bracket + SSD and the tuner card.


Here you can see that there is plenty of clearance for the CPU heat sink and fan.

This video demonstrates the cpu and case fan noise.

Been fiddling around a bit more on the HTPC TNG build. Installed XBMCbuntu, OpenElec and finally just Ubuntu. I like OpenElec tons so may go back to that once I become more familiar with XBMC.

For a novice linux operator its a bit of a pain, though problem solving is fun. Configuring TVHeadEnd has not been a picnic. My services were unnamed (Hauppauge 2250 with Samsung tuners) so the, "Map DVB Services to Channels," function did not work. This meant I had to manually setup 49 channels which took about an hour. =*( I'll definitely back that config up before blowing it away. Next time I might try MythTV.

As for my requirements:

1. Watch and record OTA TV
2. Stream Netflix and other internet content
3. Distribute audio to Yamaha receiver and 5.1 surround system

I haven't tested #1 yet, #2 I can accomplish (though when I jump into Netflix through NetfliXBMC I lose the use of my R6 remote) and #3 is only playing stereo at the moment. So I've still got some problem solving to do.

I will mention this -- after spending a lot of time with linux I believe you actually get what you pay for when you spend $100 on Windows. Its not a criticism of linux -- its very powerful, stable, fast and seems to support all of my components, more or less. Its just that with Windows, it works out of the box. In hindsight, the integration and testing that MS puts into Windows are easily taken for granted. I may jump back into the arms of the evil empire if I can't meet my requirements.

The good news is as follows: 1. The device is now in service and has not crashed during playback, 2. Its almost completely quiet, 3. the Mini ITX case is feather-light which (for me) lends itself for easier (and thus more frequent) transport between the family room and the computer bench, 4. the (not shown) inexpensive R6 remote I had in the spare parts bin works with XBMC so far without any mods required whatsoever. Looking forward to digging into XBMC now.

Here's a few more pics -- I'll add another later once I get the device situated.

This is another closeup of the IR mount. Ace hardware had the small 3mm screws and washers I needed to tighten this up.


Here's the whole package. Noctua NF-A8 ULN fan replaced the stock fan. I'm glad I kept the Hauppauge low profile bracket.


And here is a link to a vid of the Noctua fan.

So, luckily, there is a solution to your netflix problem with the remote. An awesome XBMC user has written an overlay for Netflix that is remote friendly.



He is still working on it, but something tells me that this will make you really happy! Unfortunately, subtitles need to be activated with a mouse. So far, what he has done was create a remote friendly overlay for the Netflix menu...the player itself has not been worked on...he is doing that soon. If you can, comment in his thread and show some support so he is motivated to keep working on this

Install the chrome plugin in the forum link and then all you have to do is use advanced launcher to launch Netflix in Kiosk (full screen mode) and you will be set.

I can't help you with #1 since I use Windows for my HTPC and have ServerWMC setup. I have a spare windows box setup in my house that serves as a Windows Media Center server. You set ServerWMC up on a host machine and the ServerWMC plugin for XBMC will pick up all the channels and logos from the server as well as the recordings. Its awesome!

For #3, you need to remember to have XBMC pass the audio through to your receiver. I forget how to do it,but go ahead and check the wiki and/or make a post in the forums and someone will set you straight in no time!

Any updates?

I did a very similar project, and you have more patience than me! I tried and tried to make everything as easy/happy as a win7 MCE setup with linux and XBMC/Kodi, but ultimately I just wasn't as happy with it as going back to my WMCE setup. Luckily at this point in my life I have a few extra win7 keys around so I didn't have to purchase.

My rig is very similar to yours, I use a Harmony 650, MCE for recording/guide (mychannelogos to populate logos), Kodi for movies/tv series I have downloaded, and Netflix in MCE to play nicely with my remote (and not have to jump through hoops). I haven't messed with the PVR setup of Kodi because MCE does it so well for my purposes. There is also an MCE add-on that lets me launch Kodi from within WMC, so I don't need a keyboard/mouse. When we close Kodi MCE re-launches.

It is "wife proof" which is important because she uses it as much as me....I fear that I could never get my linux setup "wife proof."

So yea...good luck to you but I just could never get 100% happy with linux/Kodi. I will follow this thread and see how you make out.

i could never get 100% happy with linux/kodi either. I ended up using installing kodi in windows so i can easily use netflix and amazon prime without having to deal with beta or broken plugins :[ . kodi works fine though, i just wish the local media tv scraping was better. I didnt have to re-organize my movies at all but tv shows i do

Looking nice.. but.. Linux?