HTPC or Set Top Box

[fshagan]

There doesn't seem to be any really good choices, or maybe there's too many, because I can't decide how I want to handle streaming from the Internet to my TV.

It looks like the NAS with streamers and other dedicated media streamers provide streaming of content you have stored on your own network and sometimes, limited web surfing functionality. But it doesn't look like the web surfing includes the ability to stream from any new site, but only from the content providers the manufacturer's have an agreement with.

It would be nice to have the ability to play all my MP3s (I'm currently using a Roku Soundbridge and serving it MP3s off of a unslung-NSLU2 with a 160gb hard drive attached). Plus display my digital pictures and movies. But I'd also like to use sites like hulu.com for NBC and Fox Network programs, ABC.com and CBS.com for their content, and even TNT.com for theirs. I think the only way to do all of this would be to have a HTPC. I just don't want one in my a/v stack because of the heat and noise issues.

I was disappointed to see that the D-Link DPG-1200 PC-on-TV didn't fare that well in the review. Something like that would allow me to have a HTPC hidden away from my a/v stack.

The other device I haven't seen reviewed is the Internet Vue 2000; the website has a lot of promises but not too many details. Anyone know about this one? It looks better than the X-10 solution (which looks cheesy to me).

 

[scotty]

I use a Shuttle with XP Media Center. Streams just fine, plays everything, displays photos, plays movies, the whole nine yards. The shuttle is a very small package. Silverstone and Temjin make a variety of HTPC cases that look very slick. Plus, on a 1080P TV, you can use it as a monitor. I'm not seeing anything in your requirements that this wouldn't do.

MythTV is also very popular and seems quite good. And a PS3 is an option as well. Not the best browser / internet going, but it fits the bill pretty well in a lot of cases. Xbox Media Center (XBMC) is also very popular.

I've always been pretty receptive to Media Center. Support for HDTV direct into the PC is a little lackluster, but that usually doesn't end up being an issue. It doesn't sound like your requirements are terrible outlandish, so perhaps give some consideration to Media Center?

 

[fshagan]

I use a Shuttle with XP Media Center.

So you have this with your a/v equipment? Is it noisy or throw off a lot of heat? I have a small room, and the a/v rack already generates a bit of heat in the alcove it is in.

I've looked at doing a HTPC using either MythBuntu or Media Center (I actually have Media center on my current PC, but its Media Center Edition 2002, and I don't like the UI that much ... I should look at its current incarnation because a lot of people think it works fine).

I'd love to find a diskless/fanless PC that could serve media off a network NAS that has a browser and a good UI, but I don't think I can get a diskless/fanless PC that would run Vista Home Premium (the only way you can get Media Center now).

 

[thiggins]

I'd love to find a diskless/fanless PC that could serve media off a network NAS that has a browser and a good UI, but I don't think I can get a diskless/fanless PC that would run Vista Home Premium (the only way you can get Media Center now).

It's not diskless, but a Mac Mini is fanless.

The problem with most media players with video is that there are sooo many encodings and variants. In the end a full computers ends up being what you need. And with so many sites that are based on web-browser video, you again need a computer, or a computer in the background doing some heavy lifting.

My wife is going on vacation for 2 weeks, so I'm going to be trying a Mac Mini as a media player. Probably will post the results as an article.

 

[scotty]

So you have this with your a/v equipment? Is it noisy or throw off a lot of heat? I have a small room, and the a/v rack already generates a bit of heat in the alcove it is in.

Yep, I do have it with my A/V equipment. It's not noisy at all. It throws off a little heat, but nothing excessive. Plus, I don't have anything even close to 'energy efficient' or quiet components in there. It was built as a gaming PC first, and just happen to end up working out well as an HTPC later in its life. It's using an older Athlon64 3000 and a massive graphics card (X800 platinum) - if I were to build it today, there's obviously far better component choices to reduce heat and noise.

As Tim says, diskless and fanless is going to be hard to accomplish, as you're basically looking for a PC, or something very close. I have yet to see any diskless/fanless boxes with the kinds of capabilities you'd need (if you find one, let me know, I'd be interested in getting one myself). A Mac mini aint a bad idea, but I've seen one used in a small space, and it generates a pretty fair amount of heat. I would start looking towards an HTPC rig with good, quiet components. Depending on how much encoding/decoding the rig needs to do, perhaps a low-voltage pentium M processor and a little seagate hdd or possibly SSD depending on your budget. And as I said, manufacturer's like Silverstone, Temjin, and Lian-Li makes really nice HTPC cases which are more suited for the job. The only X factor is whether you're going to need to encode/decode HD streams, in which case you'll want to get decent, albeit basic ATI or Nvidia card that has built in decoding capabilities. Without one, HD will make even a decently new processor work pretty hard.

There's a ton of write-ups about HTPC's and things to look out for. Some googling will get you along the right path if you end up wanting to go this way.

Personally, I don't mind the media center interface (be it 2002, 2005, or Vista), but the vista version is much nicer.

 

[Norcross]

home media center

I've got one running as well. It's an older Celeron-based machine, but it's still pretty quiet. It's running XP Media Center 2005. All the movies I ripped are on a internal IDE hard drive, and the MP3 collection is in a shared network location accessed via wireless. To date, I've never had an issue. And it looks great on my 46" Samsung

Check out The Green Button site, a great resource for media center PCs

 

[fshagan]

You guys have given me hope, at least. I was thinking of a low power machine with a SSD or "small" notebook drive to boot from, and then have it pulling the media off of a NAS that I can locate upstairs in the office. Getting a system that will do at least DVD quality sounds like its the challenge.

 

[scotty]

You guys have given me hope, at least. I was thinking of a low power machine with a SSD or "small" notebook drive to boot from, and then have it pulling the media off of a NAS that I can locate upstairs in the office. Getting a system that will do at least DVD quality sounds like its the challenge.

Don't think so. Streaming DVD it pretty straight forward. I streamed straight ripped VOB's from other PC's and it worked just fine. You should be OK until you start dabbling into HD, and even then there's not too much to worry about there.

 

[Brandon]

I personally use MythTV (More specificly Mythbuntu) for my home entertainment. I like the ability to add hardware as I need it, the PC itself was a freebie from work (HP with 3.2Ghz Pentium D).

I just added ram, and two tuner cards (One single, one double) which allows me to record two channels at once, while watching one, watch three at a time (Streaming to aother front ends) or recorde three at once.

You can use many things as a mythTV front end, including even a few Happage devices that are the size of old CD players (One side to Cat5, the other to the TV). Old Xboxes, as well as Apple TV's also work.

This setup allows me to use a fairly beefy PC/Server combo in the basement, while using silent/non-heat producing devices inside my house, that can play EVERYTHING. I'm a big DVD collector, as such, all of my movies are converted/stripped down to 1-2gb files, then saved on to a home NAS/File server. MythTV will stream any of these, as well as Music, pictures, news, weather, Netflix, and I can even check local movie listings to find out what's playing when!

I LOVE my MythTV setup, I started with a windows Vista Ultimate media setup, but I really thought it was lacking. My current setup is only limited by the ammount of hardware I want to invest.