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Oh HTPC, How I Love Thee

iamwiz82

iamwiz82

Lifer
I finally built an HTPC this weekend. OMFG, why the hell did I wait so long? I now have the world at my fingertips. It's like re-discovering the Internet. I got MCE hooked up with Hulu and Netflix already. Anything else I need to look for? I am hooked on Netflix after resisting for so long, the streaming quality is damned good.
 
I know that feeling well. They really are amazing.

The honeymoon wears off when you've gone 3 months trying to solve those "last little problems" with one (or each) of the available interface packages.

Now that playing .iso files is common with several different players and software packages, I'm really getting close to what I want now. It's so convenient to rip my movie to hard drive once, no converting or shrinking necessary, and going to that directory and playing the movies like they were dvd discs.
 
Rio Rebel said:
I know that feeling well. They really are amazing.

The honeymoon wears off when you've gone 3 months trying to solve those "last little problems" with one (or each) of the available interface packages.

Now that playing .iso files is common with several different players and software packages, I'm really getting close to what I want now. It's so convenient to rip my movie to hard drive once, no converting or shrinking necessary, and going to that directory and playing the movies like they were dvd discs.
Click to expand...

Seriously. I was trying to work with HTPC's back in like...2005 (gogogo 6600gt!) and the software just wasn't polished enough at the time for what I wanted. I bought a tivo (with an employee dicount for 2.99 a month), and have been using that, but an HTPC is staring me down right now....gonna be the next purchase 😉
 
Rio Rebel said:
I know that feeling well. They really are amazing.

The honeymoon wears off when you've gone 3 months trying to solve those "last little problems" with one (or each) of the available interface packages.

Now that playing .iso files is common with several different players and software packages, I'm really getting close to what I want now. It's so convenient to rip my movie to hard drive once, no converting or shrinking necessary, and going to that directory and playing the movies like they were dvd discs.
Click to expand...

What software did you end up using? I am running mediaportal right now, still has a couple little things that drive me crazy.
 
Has anyone got a full Win7/Vista integrated browser that can do .iso on the fly yet?
I've been hearing good stuff about the PS3 media center too, does that do decent .iso transcoding on the fly?
 
I'm using xbmc, boxee, and media browser. I'm still choosing between them all. I'll write a longer explanation later on what I'm doing.
 
enjoy it while it last, someone will release a update that will bring the house down and the frustration begans, media center was released in 1995 and still isnt polished enough to be considered stable enough to get one through a year without headaches, turn off updates for everything and donot browse the internet will abide some time but with new releases youll fine something it wont play and force a update.
 
vi edit said:
Has anyone got a full Win7/Vista integrated browser that can do .iso on the fly yet?
I've been hearing good stuff about the PS3 media center too, does that do decent .iso transcoding on the fly?
Click to expand...

Yes, PS3 Media Server does a great job with ISO files. Right now, I can stream ISOs to either my Xboxes or my PS3. There is one issue right now, however -- the Xboxes suffered from a huge A/V sync issue. I researched it and found some parameters you had to enter into the MEncoder custom settings. Now the Xboxes work perfectly with the ISO files, but the PS3 isn't able to stream them unless I take those options off. It is kind of a PITA, but I hope it is resolved in a future release. FWIW, Xbox support is "limited" (as you would expect) and the best experience is with the PS3. I did try Transcode 360 in combination with Windows 7 MC, but I got very mixed results and it just wasn't consistent.


Prior to that and before I moved in 2008, I had an HTPC with Beyond Media as the front end, BeyondTV, the DVD library plug-in, and PowerDVD. I had some scripts that allowed the system to pull ISO files off the backend server (you selected the poster art via the DVD library plug-in), mount them via DaemonTools, and then play them in PowerDVD. The sound was through an Auzentech X-Plosion sound card. For the most part, it worked very well but there were just too many moving parts and now it is having some issues with Beyond Media (currently unsupported). That has kind of steered me away from HTPCs for now; I just want something that works. Hacking and tinkering is fun but you eventually get tired of it.
 
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I'm using a media tank. I use to use a PC, then an xbox media center. But I really wanted to play 1080p and so far I have no found one .mkv it could not play. some whacky low end avi's that got transferred from utube will not play but I just re-encoded it again and plays fine.

I guess the best part is no fan, no over heating and the box is small like a deck of playing cards. Tho I did cheap out and get the media tank clone, egreat or something like that. Had it for a year and it's great! Cancel cable/sat subs... 🙂
 
I dont have much content. I can stream almost anything I would want. I dont remember the last time I bought a DVD, maybe 2 years ago? There is music, but it works fine over wifi without skipping a beat.
 
sdifox said:
Next up is a SAN for all the content 🙂
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It is getting that way for sure. I think I have 3.5 TB of usable space in my server (six 750 GB drives in a RAID5 config) and I have like 1.4 TB left. I am installing an HD tuner in the server so that space will get eaten fast.
 
no windows media player, and no front end.

windows photo viewer
foobar
mpc-hc (i prefer the 32 bit version)
vlc (for .mov and damaged POS files)
opera
hulu desktop
wintv7, will be replaced with gb-pvr if i ever figure it out.
 
blanghorst said:
It is getting that way for sure. I think I have 3.5 TB of usable space in my server (six 750 GB drives in a RAID5 config) and I have like 1.4 TB left. I am installing an HD tuner in the server so that space will get eaten fast.
Click to expand...

I am at 11TB...
 
I love my HTPC. I've found that 7MC is a big improvement over VMC especially with regards to clear QAM. I currently have a Hauppauge 2250 in it and I can't wait to get one of the Ceton 4 tuner cablecard tuners so I can finally get rid of my Comcast boxes which are costing me something like $25/mo. Overall I couldn't be happier with my HTPC.
 
Now I just have to figure out how to get my iTunes music over there. I could just share it out, but my concern is the DRM music. Booo
 
The Boston Dangler said:
no windows media player, and no front end.

windows photo viewer
foobar
mpc-hc (i prefer the 32 bit version)
vlc (for .mov and damaged POS files)
opera
hulu desktop
wintv7, will be replaced with gb-pvr if i ever figure it out.
Click to expand...

MPC-HC can play MOV and thus allow for DXVA too (with internal or external AVC decoder). Install QT Lite for the Apple media handlers and in MPC-HC change format for QuickTime files to DirectShow.
 
sdifox said:
I am at 11TB...
Click to expand...

With Netflix and other on demand streaming services being available, I hope I won't have to build a larger array. On the bright side, when I built the server in late 2007, I did anticipate a huge amount of growth so I am ready if I need it. In my current dual-cage config, I can go to about 10 TB internally (assuming RAID5); I do have room for two additional cages and could up that to 22 TB if I need it. I just can't imagine using that space. Even upgrading it to a 10 TB array seems like it would be way over capacity for my uses.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years. From my geek perspective, I'd love to keep throwing more hardware and storage on my network, as it is really fun; as someone analyzing the "business case," I am not sure that I can justify it any longer particularly if we continue using things like Netflix streaming, etc. My own strategy shifted away from the HTPC as a front end and instead, using consoles (both Xbox and PS3) to be the front ends. I am starting to get the HTPC itch again but I don't think I can justify it now.
 
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Golgatha said:
I guess I'm a weirdo. I just stuffed 5 hard drives into a mid-tower PC case and hid it all behind the entertainment center. Cool, quiet, powerful, and lots of cheap storage to boot.
Click to expand...

Hey, if it works for you, that is all that matters. I have a nasty habit of recording shows and not watching them, which eats up my space.
 
I'm having trouble getting WMC to play divx/xvid/ or anything else. Do I have to install the codec packs separately (meaning VLC/Boxee isn't enough?) If I can get this to work on WMC I'll probably ditch boxee for good.
 
Alienwho said:
I'm having trouble getting WMC to play divx/xvid/ or anything else. Do I have to install the codec packs separately (meaning VLC/Boxee isn't enough?) If I can get this to work on WMC I'll probably ditch boxee for good.
Click to expand...
If you aren't using Windows 7 you'll need to install ffdshow.
 
Auric said:
MPC-HC can play MOV and thus allow for DXVA too (with internal or external AVC decoder). Install QT Lite for the Apple media handlers and in MPC-HC change format for QuickTime files to DirectShow.
Click to expand...

i'm using win 7 and shark007's 32 and 64 bit packs. iirc, i've disabled dxva to prevent windows explorer crashing when thumbnailing .mkv's.

yeah, i know 🙄

i've never had much luck with .mov in mpc-hc. vanilla mpc was no problemo.
 
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