The HTPC / Media Streamer Thread - Page 4 - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

CKPThunder · 11-10-2011, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

FWIW, I do real-time transcoding to 720p in Plex for streaming to my iPad, and my 2010 Mac Mini (2.4Ghz C2D) doesn't skip a beat.

I think the question I want an answer to is where you found a 2010 Mac Mini for $200 and do they have any more for sale?

MickMcGeough · 11-10-2011, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

I think the question I want an answer to is where you found a 2010 Mac Mini for $200 and do they have any more for sale?

I got it here actually. Just posted a WTB in the Buy/Sell forum.

You can probably build a Windows machine with equal specs for not much more. I ran an AMD 4850e 2x2.4Ghz in my Windows HTPC and I think it costed me about $40.

Burninator · 11-10-2011, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CKPThunder

I think the question I want an answer to is where you found a 2010 Mac Mini for $200 and do they have any more for sale?

No kidding. Kijiji has tons of listings for 5-6 year old mac minis and some people want 350-400 for them. Insanity.

MarchHare · 11-10-2011, 01:00 PM

If anyone reading this is interested, I have a 2008 Mac mini I'll sell for $200. It's still in perfect working condition and I was using it as a HTPC until last weekend (when I bought a 2011 model). Send me a PM if you want more details like tech specs or anything else.

DownhillGoat · 11-10-2011, 01:11 PM

pm'ed

fundmark19 · 11-14-2011, 10:13 AM

Is this a good option to build your own HTPC? What else would you need? Other then standard computer case and what not and hard drive.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/v...pcs/#continued

MickMcGeough · 11-14-2011, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Is this a good option to build your own HTPC? What else would you need? Other then standard computer case and what not and hard drive.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/v...pcs/#continued

I wouldn't say it's a "good" option only because a 1.4Ghz chip will limit you in some areas. Its hardware decoder will let you play 1080p videos that are encoded for it but I have a lot of HD content that isn't. You'll need to be sure to use software that supports hardware acceleration as well.

If it falls back to software decoding, I think the 1.4GHz chip will struggle. AMD's got a lot of good, cheap, low-power chips that will perform much better.

fundmark19 · 11-24-2011, 09:29 AM

Well Another nettop came across my engadget stream. What about this one from lenovo? With blackfriday savings 300 gets you htpc. Is it beefy enough?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...F47726CC8A1ACC

Rathji · 11-24-2011, 11:30 AM

Figured this thread was as good as any place to ask this:

My home computer, now that I am gaming on it a bit more, is really hurting when serving my media at the same time (iTunes/Apple TV2 Setup). So I am considering building a temporary box that will just store and serve my files and media until I can get a good gaming PC build and then re-task my current PC to a server.

Any reason that a P4 with 2GB of RAM wouldn't be suitable for this purpose? I don't want to dump much money into this, since it will only be in use for a few months.

MickMcGeough · 11-24-2011, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Well Another nettop came across my engadget stream. What about this one from lenovo? With blackfriday savings 300 gets you htpc. Is it beefy enough?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...F47726CC8A1ACC

Looks pretty nice. I love the mini-keyboard and blu-ray options.

I've never used a dual core atom CPU, but I still doubt it can handle non-hardware accelerated 1080p playback (though I'd guess that 720p would probably be ok). Most new h264 videos you'll find are encoded for hardware decoding but some won't be, and it's good to have the processing horsepower as a fallback. But maybe at $300 that's an acceptable sacrifice?

fundmark19 · 11-24-2011, 12:19 PM

Don't worry Mick I only post in this thread to make you think harder! I am sure next week a new one will pop up and I will ask your advice yet again!

DownhillGoat · 11-24-2011, 01:42 PM

Here's one I'm having a hard time finding answers to:

Is there any solution (hardware or software) that will de-telecine (decomb?) on the fly?

I'm in the process of transferring all my DVDs to my media server. Movies are fine, but older TV shows and some sports dvds are obviously telecined. I can run them through handbrake (using de-telecine filters) with mixed results, but would prefer to leave them either in the video_ts folders or uncompressed mkvs. Is there any way to leave them uncomressed and not have the shudder/scanlines? Because right now it looks horrible.

Using XBMC (no real opposition to plex if that will get the job done), and a Mac (snowleopard) currently.

I had thought that the tv would have something built in, but I've played around with the 3:2 pulldown settings and it still looks awful.

Burninator · 11-30-2011, 10:07 AM

A couple of questions for those with Mac mini's as an HTPC.

Do you leave Plex open all the time? Or do you have to navigate to it then open it? Ideally I want to use my Harmony remote to turn on my TV and Mac mini (awake it?) and navigate Plex with it, all without a keyboard or mouse. Basically it has to be girlfriend friendly.

What do you guys use for storage? External hard drive? Do you backup anything (media or the Mac mini)?

Also hardware wise is the base model fine? 2.3GHz i5/2GB/Intel HD 3000 vs 2.5GHz i5/4GB/Radeon HD 6630M. The $100 upgrade (refurb.) seems worth it for the ram and graphics. Or I could wait till some base models hit the refurb store.

I've been using a PC with Apple TV's and there are several reasons why it's lacking and not ideal.

MickMcGeough · 11-30-2011, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burninator

A couple of questions for those with Mac mini's as an HTPC.

Do you leave Plex open all the time? Or do you have to navigate to it then open it? Ideally I want to use my Harmony remote to turn on my TV and Mac mini (awake it?) and navigate Plex with it, all without a keyboard or mouse. Basically it has to be girlfriend friendly.

What do you guys use for storage? External hard drive? Do you backup anything (media or the Mac mini)?

Also hardware wise is the base model fine? 2.3GHz i5/2GB/Intel HD 3000 vs 2.5GHz i5/4GB/Radeon HD 6630M. The $100 upgrade (refurb.) seems worth it for the ram and graphics. Or I could wait till some base models hit the refurb store.

I've been using a PC with Apple TV's and there are several reasons why it's lacking and not ideal.

I leave Plex Media Server running all the time so my other clients can connect to it. I don't always leave the Plex client running but if you enable "always on" in the Plex remote settings, the "menu" button starts up the Plex client.

I'm using an old media server to share my media, but planning on getting a Drobo or something better soon. I've got an external drive that I keep a Time Machine backup of a clean Lion installation in case of emergency.

I've got the base model mid-2010 Mac Mini (2.4Ghz C2D, GeForce 320M, 2GB Ram) and it plays back any 1080p MKV I've tried smoothly, and even has enough horsepower for Plex to do real-time transcoding for remote clients (up to 720p).

I'd say that upgrade is definitely worth $100 for you but you don't need it.

Burninator · 11-30-2011, 11:06 AM

Thanks for the info. One more question, does Plex keep track of what you've watched like iTunes does?

DownhillGoat · 11-30-2011, 11:08 AM

Yes, it shows a watched/unwatched status.

What are you watching, out of curiosity? Shows from itunes? Or other means?

Burninator · 11-30-2011, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Yes, it shows a watched/unwatched status.

What are you watching, out of curiosity? Shows from itunes? Or other means?

Does it also keep track of how much you have watched of a particular file?

A bit of everything. Some iTunes stuff, ripped DVD's and other means.

DownhillGoat · 11-30-2011, 12:39 PM

Unsure if Plex lets you resume where you left off. XBMC does, so I would assume plex does too.
- - - edit - - -
Just verified. Yes plex does.

Just keep in mind that with Plex (or any other front end that isn't apple software) you won't be able to watch most movies/tv shows purchased from the itunes store.

fundmark19 · 12-21-2011, 10:26 AM

Ok I have a computer question. I am 99% sure my motherboard is fried on my computer and it is not allowing it to boot up. The motherboard is an MSI N1996. I would like only to replace the mother board and keep all the rest of the computer parts compatible. The Ram and video card and what not.

All I need this to do is run stable, hook up to 3 Hard drives internally and run PS3 media server without stuttering.

All I use it for is accessing my media from my playstations and the odd time playing counterstrike 1.6 so it doesn't need to be that fancy.

MickMcGeough · 12-21-2011, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Ok I have a computer question. I am 99% sure my motherboard is fried on my computer and it is not allowing it to boot up. The motherboard is an MSI N1996. I would like only to replace the mother board and keep all the rest of the computer parts compatible. The Ram and video card and what not.

All I need this to do is run stable, hook up to 3 Hard drives internally and run PS3 media server without stuttering.

All I use it for is accessing my media from my playstations and the odd time playing counterstrike 1.6 so it doesn't need to be that fancy.

What's the question?

Any form-factor compatible motherboard with the same socket and chipset as your N1996 should allow you to do what you need and keep all your existing hardware.