About to build my first HTPC: Which software?

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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Hey all,

I'm about to build my first HTPC and I could use some advice.

The system will be a AMD Trinity A10-5800K. I plan on using on board sound and video, as I'm just using the TV speakers anyway. (if I ever upgrade to a receiver, I may add a discrete sound card).

The intent is for it to be a multi-purpose device to do the following:
- Stream videos and music from my NAS
- Play Netflix
- Play DVD's
- Play Blu-Ray
- Low end tuner for OTA TV.
- Occasional Spotify use.

A friend of mine swears by his XBMC box, and it looks pretty nice, but no Netflix support is a deal killer for me.

I was considering Windows Media Center, but will Netflix, DVD's Blu-Ray's OTA TV and Spotify as well as playing local files over a network mount all integrate nicely into WMC, or will I wind up exiting out of the WMC interface to the desktop all the time?

Lately I've heard some people talk about skipping WMC all together and just putting clever links on a Windows 8 start screen to do everything you need. What are the limitations of this method? Is it easy to browse through network folders for files to play?

Are there any other options I am missing?

Much obliged,
Matt
 
XBMC has Netflix support, though I am not a fan of its integration.... It's kind of, well,.. shit.

That is of course if you are using windows as the backend, if you are using linux, I don't think xbmc will support netflix.

I used xbmc for a while, but once I got a wireless keyboard/trackpad combo... I just use the regular desktop.

I should say Linux doesn't support blu ray either so you're best off with windows as the backend. I use powerdvd for blu rays and VLC for blu rays that I got around to ripping. XBMC as far as I remember doesn't do blu ray.
 
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I'm kind of stuck in this position too...

Our HTPC is a dual core LGA775 (An E6300 or something, I forget which chip I put in there) with 8GB RAM and a GTX280. It's got a small hard drive so I keep BD rips and downloaded TV shows on our NAS machine, and since our entire LAN is GBe bandwidth between the machines is no problem.

Eventually there will be a SiliconDust HD Homerun tuner on the network as well.

I'm not sure whether to use XBMC as the frontend on the HTPC, WMC, or what especially since I have to consider access to the HD Homerun as well. And I'm not sure wether I should just let the HTPC directly access all the media on the NAS or install some sort of DLNA server on the NAS to serve the HTPC and any other device in the house. (We do have a few DLNA capable devices now: WD TV Live, Vizio 60" Smart TV, as well as phones and tablets)

Something that as an IT guy I thought was going to simplify our lives and be fun is quickly turning into a bit of a headache to think about and get underway. :D
 
Blue Falcon said:
I'm kind of stuck in this position too...

Our HTPC is a dual core LGA775 (An E6300 or something, I forget which chip I put in there) with 8GB RAM and a GTX280. It's got a small hard drive so I keep BD rips and downloaded TV shows on our NAS machine, and since our entire LAN is GBe bandwidth between the machines is no problem.

Eventually there will be a SiliconDust HD Homerun tuner on the network as well.

I'm not sure whether to use XBMC as the frontend on the HTPC, WMC, or what especially since I have to consider access to the HD Homerun as well. And I'm not sure wether I should just let the HTPC directly access all the media on the NAS or install some sort of DLNA server on the NAS to serve the HTPC and any other device in the house. (We do have a few DLNA capable devices now: WD TV Live, Vizio 60" Smart TV, as well as phones and tablets)

Something that as an IT guy I thought was going to simplify our lives and be fun is quickly turning into a bit of a headache to think about and get underway. :D
Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

My plan is to just mount a network folder on the HTPC.

I can't stand all the abstraction layers and special media servers for something that really just should be as simple as reading from a network folder...
 
If you plan on using a cablecard tuner at any time windows media center is pretty much your only option, Its the only thing that will play protected content at the moment.

For Blu rays if you want to pop in a disc and play like a normal Blu ray player windows media center is pretty much your only option right now. Even then you have to get a 3rd party app like PowerDVD or Totalmedia Theatre.

XBMC can play just the movie, but if the bluray is a rip XBMC will play it fine.

Other then that XBMC will do everything you need.

Also if you get a receiver and using HDMI don't get a soundcard. It would be a waste of money. I think the graphics on the new AMD APUs should be able to output lossless formats to a receiver.
 
I use WMC, mymovies, powerdvd 12, makemkv (for TV), and klite. Mkvs play in WMP just fine.

I just use windows home sharing, so I have my stuff spread over like 16 drives. Too much stuff to be rooting around network drives. Mymovies makes it all available in WMC so I can easily find stuff. You watch Netflix and record, but I don't do those much. Could record TV too, but my boxes don't have tuners by choice.
 
I install Window 8 on HTCP. I just create a start menu button for all programs needed - netflix , xbmc, hulu, amazon instant video.

8start_zps53c1e353.jpg


I have Synology with all movies, pictures, video, music on it and just use XBMC to get all the data.

I use enable DLNA for tablet and cell phone.
 
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Curious to see what apps start coming to windows 8. To me the metro interface is perfect.

What would be the tits and an "App" like the live TV app addon for XBMC where you can load a xmltv file and then link a strm (from HDHOmerun or Web) to it. Then have an App like mediabrowser for content.

The ULTIMATE app would be to take the Psuedo tv concept and make an App that integrates you STRM files for "live" channels and then can use your own content to creat your own "channels".

Sigh... wish I had the ability to program.
 
You tried Classic Start Classic Shell Win8 Start Menu 3.6.5?? It will add a start button to your desktop......
 
I use a combination of WMC and Plex, and find this to be the best solution. I have used XBMC, MediaBrowser, and Media Portal extensively and found them all to be lacking.

I utilize WMC primarily for Netflix and Cable Card support. You could also use it for DVD and BluRay playback (with a Cyberlink plugin). I use Plex for everything else. When Plex installs, it automatically installs a button in WMC to access it.

I do have some minor issues with Plex, but overall it has been significantly more hands off for the household than previous interfaces. It syncs all of the content and watched statuses between the three HTPC's in my house, and keeps everything up to date. I had this functionality through XBMC with the sql library hack, but it was never 100% consistent. The library is also automatically updated and syncs instantly as things are added instead of requiring a notification update or manual library update.

Some other niceties are the built in transcoding and various Plex apps available. My sister and brother in law use the Plex app on their Sony Google TV to access my content remotely and watch anything from my library. My parents also remotely access the content from the built in app on their Samsung plasma. I use the built in transcoding to watch content on the go or during my lunch hour from my iPad and Note 2. The remote capabilities are pretty amazing if you have a decent upload speed on the server end.
 
Plex sounds interesting, XBMC I find is lacking in key areas, it's almost there but not quite.
 
've accomplished encrypted channel live streaming using free software. This will bypass any copy once flags and allow you to live stream any content to any java enabled device remotely (IE. laptop while mobile, etc.)

1) Capture screen at 30 FPS with SCFHDSF,
2) Mux audio and screen cap in Adobe live encoder which also real-time encodes it to x264,
3) output the stream to Adobe Streaming Media server developer edition hosted on the HTPC,
4) connect to the stream anywhere using JWPlayer (free viewer software that loads in a browser via Java)
5) use VNC or remote keyboard to swap channels

I stream at 480p and 900 kbit, (~50-60% processor usage on an i3-2100), so it's not perfect, but still looks pretty decent. Packet drops/and the ups and downs of home broadband isn't an issue because RTMP protocol has some buffering built in. You also need an active HDMI splitter (about $30) to do the HDCP handshake and to sit between your TV and HTPC so your TV doesn't need to be on the whole time.
 
Fleat said:
I use a combination of WMC and Plex, and find this to be the best solution. I have used XBMC, MediaBrowser, and Media Portal extensively and found them all to be lacking.

I utilize WMC primarily for Netflix and Cable Card support. You could also use it for DVD and BluRay playback (with a Cyberlink plugin). I use Plex for everything else. When Plex installs, it automatically installs a button in WMC to access it.

I do have some minor issues with Plex, but overall it has been significantly more hands off for the household than previous interfaces. It syncs all of the content and watched statuses between the three HTPC's in my house, and keeps everything up to date. I had this functionality through XBMC with the sql library hack, but it was never 100% consistent. The library is also automatically updated and syncs instantly as things are added instead of requiring a notification update or manual library update.

Some other niceties are the built in transcoding and various Plex apps available. My sister and brother in law use the Plex app on their Sony Google TV to access my content remotely and watch anything from my library. My parents also remotely access the content from the built in app on their Samsung plasma. I use the built in transcoding to watch content on the go or during my lunch hour from my iPad and Note 2. The remote capabilities are pretty amazing if you have a decent upload speed on the server end.
Click to expand...

This is the exact same setup that I've been running for the past year and a half and my sentiments echo this exactly. I've used almost every combination over the years Myth, Sage, XBMC, Tivo etc. and thus far, Plex has been the best. The remote streaming capabilities are simply fantastic if you have decent hardware and good bandwidth. On the TV side of things, WMC is really your only choice unless you take the OTA/Basic Cable approach. I personally use HDHomeRun prime and haven't had any issues at all.
 
This is maybe a noob question but I set up Plex last night...

I hate itunes and I won't install it on my system, it deletes files, doesn't play Flac and I hate it, did I mention that I hate it?... seems like this is the only option if you want to listen to music files locally? XBMC just plays files without going through a channel and using itunes.
 
Windows 8 has its advantage and disadvantage with HTPC when it comes to using a remote like Harmony or a MC remote. For example, the back button on the remote will sometimes back you out of an app entirely (into start screen) AND take you back in the app. For example, in XBMC, if you select the Sci-Fi genre folder and decided to back out of it to go into Thriller, the back button on a Harmony would throw you back into the Start screen and back you out of the Sci-Fi genre folder.

For now, Windows 8 as HTPC is great if you're using a keyboard and mouse or a gyro remote (or air mouse), but if you're using MC remotes and Harmony remotes, I wouldn't bother unless you use Windows 8 Pro and the Media Pack.

I plan on employing Windows 8 using Start screen apps on my HTPC as soon as I buy myself an air mouse like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Koolertron-2-...04SZU0T4/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_3?tag=hardfocom-20

As for XBMC, I've never used it. If it uses a similar Netflix plugin as WMC's, the lack of subtitle or closed caption toggle kills it for me.
 
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Here is an important note to anyone that will be using the Cyberlink BluRay plug in. DO NOT install IE9 on your HTPC. It breaks the plugin on Cyberlink Power DVD 10 which causes the plug in and MCE to crash upon exit.
 
I have another device (WD live TV plus) that does netflix and hulu plus for me, so I really want a PVR only. Has anybody tried out openelec?
 
If anybody is considering XBMC or OpenElec I would strongly encourage just going straight to Plex. The only caveat is that you have to also run the Plex Server app, but as long as your HTPC is halfway decent in CPU power that's a non issue.

After screwing around with pretty much every solution out there (admittedly not openelec though) Plex is the easiest to set up and the most feature rich in my opinion.

I will say to the OP, I don't know how well it accommodates physical media (BR, DVD) because I never even put those drives in my system.

And for Spotify, Netflix... if using an HTPC I suggest running Win 8 like the pics above. The start menu is actually pretty convenient for sitting on the couch and starting apps with a remote.

The other alternative is using a Roku as your playback client (Plex is an official app), use the PC as just to run the server side of Plex. Then on the Roku you get separate apps for Netflix and whatnot.

Its a tossup for me between using my full HTPC or using my Roku. The HTPC is the richer experience for sure, but when it comes down to playback its not like the Roku looks any different. Again, you just have to have some horsepower on the server side because the Roku will require more transcoding.
 
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