Xbox One as HTPC replacement questions

Ur_Mom

Ur_Mom

Fully [H]
Joined
May 15, 2006
Messages
20,690
I am looking at the Xbox One. I'm getting it, but I was going to wait a bit. However, my HTPC is long in the tooth and having issues playing certain media these days... It's a Core2Duo, 4 GB RAM, SSD (play media off server via Intel Gb NIC, but happens via local media, too), AMD HD4000 series video card (low profile, HDMI). So, I need an upgrade. But, I'd like to see if the Xbox One does streaming media well (either native or via Plex/TVersity) with HD video and surround sound. I think that most have issues with MKV's natively, so that's where Plex/TVersity comes in to transcode first.

What about the Blu-ray capability? Is it on par with a stand alone player?

I can spend $500 on the Xbox or $500 on a good HTPC upgrade (CPU/Video card/MB/RAM). No gaming on HTPC, though. I have a stand alone cabinet for that.

Biggest issue is playing media on the big screen. I've tried Roku, which is great in the bedroom, but leaves some to be desired in the living room (slow, quality is not as high as I'd like - difference between 37" screen and 110").
 
I've used previous xbox's for "HTPC" use (streaming, DVD playback), however, I have a stack of drives in my closet to attest to why I don't do that, anymore. Also 2 dead xbox's (one died in an unrelated manner and I got fed up with replacing the other's DVD drive [laser, twice; PCB a third time; after that, everything *but* the PCB]).


So on my xbox one, I used the bluray player exactly once, and that's it.




Don't get me wrong, I like the xbox controller > KB and mouse for HTPC purposes (by a long shot), but I'd sink money into a cheap HTPC upgrade (as I did). As a note: when I was last upgrading, I noticed the low end GPUs I used to get could stumble over tougher media. Get at least a demi-decent GPU for decoding purposes, especially since everything is GPU accelerated, nowadays. I don't know if the newer Intel IGPs are up to snuff - maybe they are.
 
The short answer no not yet.
Blu-ray playback has audio sync issues they have to fix and media playback is push to right now which for me using media center pc and win 8 tablet works but You may find inadequate right now I'm sure its all an update or two away from doing hat you want but not yet.

I myself just built a new AMD APU media center works perfect its my OTA dvr.
 
One of the things the Xbox One does well is act as a media entertainment hub. The Blu-ray player is on par with an above average unit. All the current streaming media apps seems to play fine and have good quality. I view content on a Sony 55HX950 which was their top of the line TV in 2012.

Just out of curiosity I see the previous posters have negative things to say. Do you all actually own one? I found that Blu-ray movies (at least the ones I own) work better on my Xbox One than my PS4. The only time I've seen audio sync issues is when I fast forward and that's only sometimes. Pausing the movie and then hitting play corrects it.
 
XBMC on the original Xbox was amazing. I doubt I'll get that level of functionality, but I just want basic stuff. Streaming movies and music, Blu-ray.

I know DLNA support is coming (soon? who knows.).
 
bpmurrGT said:
One of the things the Xbox One does well is act as a media entertainment hub. The Blu-ray player is on par with an above average unit. All the current streaming media apps seems to play fine and have good quality. I view content on a Sony 55HX950 which was their top of the line TV in 2012.

Just out of curiosity I see the previous posters have negative things to say. Do you all actually own one? I found that Blu-ray movies (at least the ones I own) work better on my Xbox One than my PS4. The only time I've seen audio sync issues is when I fast forward and that's only sometimes. Pausing the movie and then hitting play corrects it.
Click to expand...

That's a curious question I see coming up a lot. The answer is yes. I have all of the consoles from this gen, and the previous (well, had. Wii U is fully backwards compatible). I don't use the Playstations since the PS3 hates power cycling (frequently blows the internal bluray/encryption drivers to hell, or something). The xbox one is nice, but as I noted in my earlier post, I don't trust Microsoft to make a sturdy ODD. So I have a HTPC... and a cheap Sony bluray player (well, it was cheap on black friday). Both work absolute wonders, and won't cost me any console downtime when if/when their optical drives go kaput.
 
Ur_Mom said:
XBMC on the original Xbox was amazing. I doubt I'll get that level of functionality, but I just want basic stuff. Streaming movies and music, Blu-ray.

I know DLNA support is coming (soon? who knows.).
Click to expand...

DLNA works its just play to is all right now but its played all my media so far. I cannot verify mkv as I don't use that format
 
Bluray works, netflix amazon etc. Note the xbox media player doesn't have a zoom in feature so if you have something in a non-hd format you'll get the lines and will have to zoom in with your tv if you want to do that. Official Plex and other 3rd party apps should start hitting after march when ID@xbox opens up. The kinect is great for controlling the xbox for media related activities although some apps like netflix haven't taken full advantage of it in the layout so navigating through many genres of movies is possible but cumbersome.
 
Not sure if audio means much to you, but the Xbox One only offically supports 3 audio codecs right now: DTS 5.1 (compressed), DD 5.1 (compressed), and LPCM (2-8 channels, uncompressed).
Supposedly the system decodes the HD codecs internally but there is apparently some debate as to the reality of that.
IMO, with all of the crazy functionality XBMC can provide I don't think you can top that with a non-modded console.
 
I did a mini itx APU build and have been super happy with it. Spent about $400 on everything.
 
Anyone with a projector? How's the Kinect handle that? I'm thinking dark room, but real bright light (projector) pointed towards the Kinect.

Audio... Should be fine for streaming. I may end up keeping my current Blu-ray player for physical media.

Thanks for the tips!
 
Check back in 2-3 years after the One has had a bunch of fine tuning. As it currently stands? No .. hell no. The PS3 is probably the best bargin bin option. It does DLNA , it has the best Blu Ray player still and its cheap (you can get one off Ebay for $110 easily).

As to your projector question? No idea. It might fuck with it but I would head over to the projector forums on AVS and see what they say.
 
just to revise what I said it looks like the blu-ray app got an update overnight we shall see if that fixes the audio sync issues for home theater folks
 
I've only had the one for about a week and I'll go with not just no but hell no. I think it will get there but here's my reasons for why it sucks right now in my limited experience.

Can't browse your catalog from the one. Have to use a stream to feature like play to in Windows 7 and 8.

No luck with MKV yet. Had some 720p 5.1 MKVs that I converted to MP4, MKV no dice, MP4 no problem.

I'm using the plex app on my surface pro to stream using the play to feature and it's hit or miss. I can't stream anything from the south park channel for example.

Netflix app for me sucks. Quality is awful and some just don't play. Hope on computer no problems.

And I've not tried the Blu-ray app but from my understanding there's the audio sync issues that have been mentioned along with issues on 24hz playback.

It will get there but if you're looking for an upgrade in the next three months I'd say you're better off upgrading the HTPC. If you can wait 6 or 12 months I'd keep an eye on the one to see if they fix a lot of issues that exist right now. I'm hoping they come out with a plex app that will fix most of my problems.
 
renixinq said:
I've only had the one for about a week and I'll go with not just no but hell no. I think it will get there but here's my reasons for why it sucks right now in my limited experience.

Can't browse your catalog from the one. Have to use a stream to feature like play to in Windows 7 and 8.

No luck with MKV yet. Had some 720p 5.1 MKVs that I converted to MP4, MKV no dice, MP4 no problem.

I'm using the plex app on my surface pro to stream using the play to feature and it's hit or miss. I can't stream anything from the south park channel for example.

Netflix app for me sucks. Quality is awful and some just don't play. Hope on computer no problems.

And I've not tried the Blu-ray app but from my understanding there's the audio sync issues that have been mentioned along with issues on 24hz playback.

It will get there but if you're looking for an upgrade in the next three months I'd say you're better off upgrading the HTPC. If you can wait 6 or 12 months I'd keep an eye on the one to see if they fix a lot of issues that exist right now. I'm hoping they come out with a plex app that will fix most of my problems.
Click to expand...
One of the largest issue threads

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4274/t/1630530.aspx

But there was a Blu-Ray app update overnight going to test some movies


Update:
So far after the update this morning watching pacific rim in 7.1 thru my pioneer vsx-1123k feeding into a sharp aquos LC-52LE700UN its spot on 1080p 24hz perfect sync I couldn't watch anything before in perfect sync. Will watch some more and see if it holds up
 
Last edited:
jeremyshaw said:
That's a curious question I see coming up a lot. The answer is yes. I have all of the consoles from this gen, and the previous (well, had. Wii U is fully backwards compatible). I don't use the Playstations since the PS3 hates power cycling (frequently blows the internal bluray/encryption drivers to hell, or something). The xbox one is nice, but as I noted in my earlier post, I don't trust Microsoft to make a sturdy ODD. So I have a HTPC... and a cheap Sony bluray player (well, it was cheap on black friday). Both work absolute wonders, and won't cost me any console downtime when if/when their optical drives go kaput.
Click to expand...

I only asked because a lot of people just post things they read but don't actually own the device.
 
HisSvt76 said:
One of the largest issue threads

http://forums.xbox.com/xbox_forums/xbox_support/xbox_one_support/f/4274/t/1630530.aspx

But there was a Blu-Ray app update overnight going to test some movies


Update:
So far after the update this morning watching pacific rim in 7.1 thru my pioneer vsx-1123k feeding into a sharp aquos LC-52LE700UN its spot on 1080p 24hz perfect sync I couldn't watch anything before in perfect sync. Will watch some more and see if it holds up
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I'll give it a shot tonight and report back if I have any problems.
 
renixinq said:
Thanks for the heads up. I'll give it a shot tonight and report back if I have any problems.
Click to expand...

No problem lots of people with home theaters seeing this issue.

Ive watched 3 movies today one in 7.1 a 5.1 and a 6.1 and no issues with sync and sound fields were correct.

Just to note I made sure and reset the Xbox press and holding the power button on the front that does a full reboot and flushes the cache. Did that just to make sure I was testing from a fresh boot of the system after updates
 
I'd go with an HTPC. If you already have an HTPC I don't think it'd cost $500 to upgrade. Get an AMD CPU/APU, motherboard, and RAM. You should already have everything else to throw in.
 
HisSvt76 said:
No problem lots of people with home theaters seeing this issue.

Ive watched 3 movies today one in 7.1 a 5.1 and a 6.1 and no issues with sync and sound fields were correct.

Just to note I made sure and reset the Xbox press and holding the power button on the front that does a full reboot and flushes the cache. Did that just to make sure I was testing from a fresh boot of the system after updates
Click to expand...

I played through a few scenes on various discs. No sync issues but I can tell a distinct difference between the audio from the xbone and my pannie bluray player. The surround, clarity and low end were noticeably better on the pannie. From what I've read the xbone decodes the HD audio then ships it off as 5.1 or 7.1 uncompressed so the receiver isn't doing the decoding. I've got a Denon 2310 so I'm guessing the Denon does a better job of decoding. Should be something they can fix through updates but for the foreseeable future I'll be keeping a stand alone blu ray player.
 
Yeah, as of now the Xbox One has some kind of internal decoder. Early press releases claim it had a DTS-HD decoder...but I'm showing everything come over as normal PCM-7.1 on my setup. Ditto for the PS4, although it at least has a (borderline hidden) option to bitstream if you hunt around in the menus.
As of right now neither of them is as good as a PS3 slim or PC for Blu-Rays.
 
renixinq said:
I played through a few scenes on various discs. No sync issues but I can tell a distinct difference between the audio from the xbone and my pannie bluray player. The surround, clarity and low end were noticeably better on the pannie. From what I've read the xbone decodes the HD audio then ships it off as 5.1 or 7.1 uncompressed so the receiver isn't doing the decoding. I've got a Denon 2310 so I'm guessing the Denon does a better job of decoding. Should be something they can fix through updates but for the foreseeable future I'll be keeping a stand alone blu ray player.
Click to expand...

Yeah I still use a Sony player as well as all my stuff feeds into a pioneer vsx-1123k even the ps4 doesn't output audio like a standalone.

I will probably always use a separate player as we watch so many movies I don't want the wear and tear on those slot load drives
 
HisSvt76 said:
No problem lots of people with home theaters seeing this issue.

Ive watched 3 movies today one in 7.1 a 5.1 and a 6.1 and no issues with sync and sound fields were correct.

Just to note I made sure and reset the Xbox press and holding the power button on the front that does a full reboot and flushes the cache. Did that just to make sure I was testing from a fresh boot of the system after updates
Click to expand...

I watched Pacific Rim and the Robocop 4k Remaster on Blu-ray this weekend with no issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top