Building my first HTPC - Now what??

[Binky]

Damnit Binky, now you have my researching Sickbeard.

Nice setup Zardnok!

It's gonna take you a while to get it setup, but once you do it's really amazing. For newsgroups, check out Astraweb block plans at $50/1TB. That's a very good deal for most people who don't download massive amounts of stuff per month.

 

[jtvang125]

It's gonna take you a while to get it setup, but once you do it's really amazing. For newsgroups, check out Astraweb block plans at $50/1TB. That's a very good deal for most people who don't download massive amounts of stuff per month.

Holy crap, $50/1 tb? I pay $15/month for unlimited.

 

[Binky]

Holy crap, $50/1 tb? I pay $15/month for unlimited.

Unless you download 300GB every month, the block plan is better.

 

[assassin24]

I looked for a builders guide and found a guy that wanted $20 for his guide, but I am a much bigger fan of free. Any tips, hints, or comments before I start turning screws and connecting wires later this evening??

Some "guides" are worth their weight in gold and certainly more than $20 or $25.

Especially guides that took hundreds of hours to create and thousands of hours to test and research.

And a proven setup guide that had 110+ illustrated step by step guides, 65,000+ words and 2200+ pictures? Well that would be a guide that I would easily pay to use for my HTPC.

 

[Zardnok]

Some "guides" are worth their weight in gold and certainly more than $20 or $25.

Especially guides that took hundreds of hours to create and thousands of hours to test and research.

And a proven setup guide that had 110+ illustrated step by step guides, 65,000+ words and 2200+ pictures? Well that would be a guide that I would easily pay to use for my HTPC.

ROFL!! Howdy Assassin. The wife gave me $20 to buy your guide and "quit screwing stuff up", not that I was screwing stuff up, I just wasn't making progress as quickly as she would like. She seems more excited about the whole Computer on the TV thing than I do now.

 

[Binky]

The wife gave me $20 to buy your guide and "quit screwing stuff up", not that I was screwing stuff up.

Your wife is a smart woman

I'm sure it will be worth the cost. I've been reading various HTPC related stuff for about 7 years now and I still screw stuff up.

Assassin is also pretty active over at AVS so if you post a question, he might even pop into your thread with a response.

 

[velillen]

Your wife is a smart woman

I'm sure it will be worth the cost. I've been reading various HTPC related stuff for about 7 years now and I still screw stuff up.

Assassin is also pretty active over at AVS so if you post a question, he might even pop into your thread with a response.

hehas a thread he answers most peoples questions in rather quickly over at avs.

my self personally i prefer the do it myself sort of mentality. Love what ive come up with for myself. as for guides you can find one or another for free for just about everything with some looking. Assassins guides are nice since its all laid out in one place for you. But im cheap and dont need/want to pay 20 bucks for something i already have set up Though i did use his advice on components to use!

 

[assassin24]

You still get to do it yourself. But you get to do it correctly and do it without the headache. Even though yours is "set up" I bet you could still learn a bunch of things from the 110+ guides that I have made.

I'm cheap too. That's why I value my time and these guides would have saved me literally months of tweaking and figuring it all out.

 

[assassin24]

ROFL!! Howdy Assassin. The wife gave me $20 to buy your guide and "quit screwing stuff up", not that I was screwing stuff up, I just wasn't making progress as quickly as she would like. She seems more excited about the whole Computer on the TV thing than I do now.

Great! Thanks for the support.

Make sure to report back what you thought of the guides.

 

[velillen]

You still get to do it yourself. But you get to do it correctly and do it without the headache. Even though yours is "set up" I bet you could still learn a bunch of things from the 110+ guides that I have made.

I'm cheap too. That's why I value my time and these guides would have saved me literally months of tweaking and figuring it all out.

Most of your "110" guides i have absolutely zero interest in though Trust me i keep a watch on both the avs thread and your site to see what you release. Things like J.River, xbmc, downloading, and setting up a pc are not needed by me. I know how to do appearance/themes in MB and WMC so theres another section checked off. But yes you are right i could learn lots from your guides...it would just be in areas i dont care about.

But apples and oranges. You're guides are great from everything i have seen. Definitely seems to benefit those who arent to pc savy and lets them get it all up and running perfectly. If I could simply purchase guide "tabs" for cheaper i might also have considered it. but why pay 20 bucks when 90% of it ill never read/be interested in. But again that is 100% me and i dont mind having to google for 5 minutes to find an answer.

Now if you had done an unraid server guide specifically for media purposes i might have bought your guides. but like you i used the free guide you link to and said you used. I honestly spent way more time tinkering in unraid than i ever have on either of my htpcs (granted my bedroom htpc was a simple copy folders from living room). Only thing i never realy got working right was a download manager which i just scrapped the idea anyways since i now leave the server sleeping as much as possible instead of seeding/downloading

 

[assassin24]

Most of your "110" guides i have absolutely zero interest in though Trust me i keep a watch on both the avs thread and your site to see what you release. Things like J.River, xbmc, downloading, and setting up a pc are not needed by me. I know how to do appearance/themes in MB and WMC so theres another section checked off. But yes you are right i could learn lots from your guides...it would just be in areas i dont care about.

But apples and oranges. You're guides are great from everything i have seen. Definitely seems to benefit those who arent to pc savy and lets them get it all up and running perfectly. If I could simply purchase guide "tabs" for cheaper i might also have considered it. but why pay 20 bucks when 90% of it ill never read/be interested in. But again that is 100% me and i dont mind having to google for 5 minutes to find an answer.

Now if you had done an unraid server guide specifically for media purposes i might have bought your guides. but like you i used the free guide you link to and said you used. I honestly spent way more time tinkering in unraid than i ever have on either of my htpcs (granted my bedroom htpc was a simple copy folders from living room). Only thing i never realy got working right was a download manager which i just scrapped the idea anyways since i now leave the server sleeping as much as possible instead of seeding/downloading

My guides are meant to help get people into HTPC. Since you already know how to setup and use a HTPC and don't have any interest in seeing what else is out there then I understand how you can view them as not needed in your particular case.