[thealliance43]

Hey Guys,

I have a 3TB drive that I use to rip my blu-ray collection to MKV (using MakeMKV). The files go anywhere from 15gb-35gb files (i.e. avatar 33gb). I've been using MacBluRayPlayer which plays these files flawlessly on my mac pro which has been great so far. Now that i'm in the market for a new TV I've been looking into a media center that'll play these files that same way without any issues. Below is what I'm looking for

-Harddrive(s) of stored content
-Media Player that will play MKV (25GB+ files)
-HDMI output (to TV)


I love the XBMC setup. I just tried it out for the first time today and it played my files perfectly plus it has a ton of great features. Can anyone please recommend a media player that will play my MKV files? I'm not looking to stream them yet… just want the ability to play my movies on my new tv with a connected hard drive.

[customx86]

Couldn't you just use your macbook pro? I used to use an old macbook from 2007, it worked great until I tried watching some 1080p movies on it.

[MrLashed]

Here is a link to my build.

HTPC BUILD

I use an external HDD for my films collection, this works fine with XBMC.

The reason behind such a small SSD is that I only wanted SSD for boot-time as I don't leave it on.

[husky55]

Here is a link to my build.

HTPC BUILD

I use an external HDD for my films collection, this works fine with XBMC.

The reason behind such a small SSD is that I only wanted SSD for boot-time as I don't leave it on.

Your link led to a private listing.

[MrLashed]

Here is a link to my build.

HTPC BUILD

I use an external HDD for my films collection, this works fine with XBMC.

The reason behind such a small SSD is that I only wanted SSD for boot-time as I don't leave it on.

Your link led to a private listing.

Fixed! :-)

[thealliance43]

Thanks for the feedback.

Mrlashed- is building your own the best option? what did you use for casing? any pics of the final design?

[MrLashed]

Yes.

I read reviews on parts that would suit my needs, I was looking to build a HTPC with low power consumption so that I would be able to leave it on (Hibernation).

The Intel Core i3-3225 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor chip that I opted for has built in graphics (HD4000) this is more than capable of streaming 1080p with any problems.

4GB Ram is all you will ever need for a HTPC build, some people go mad and use 16GB... (Corsair make very nice ram)

The small sandisk SSD is used 'only' for OS, and being that it's SSD the boot time is around 8-10 sec from cold start-up.

The ASRock B75M-ITX motherboard has all options that I required for my build, the 2 main options for 'me' was HMDI & SPDIF (Optical out)

The case I chose is very nice and slick (Black e-Mini Q6 E-Q6 HTPC Mini-ITX Slim PC Case with 120W Internal PSU Board), HOWEVER is got 'very' hot to the touch I had to add a Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR2-50 (50mm) Silent Series Case Fan in order to disperse the heat. This help 100% and heat is no longer an issue, there are many cases available to you can use for a HTPC build.

I also brought 'Motorola NYXBoard Hybrid Remote Control' due to review that I had read and it works out of the box for XBMC, so far I've had zero issues with it! It's perfect to wake up your HTPC when in sleep mode :-)

There are MANY builds available for you if you have a look at just search on this forum, if you have the money you could build a VERY nice HTPC, I built mine to a budget, if you still want to see pics of the final build I can sort that out for you.

BUT just a simple search on google would show you pics of the items used, also you will see similar builds as well, perhaps with a similar case.

MrLashed.

[solamnic]

Get a new Haswell Nuc...

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=176718

or if you want to go cheaper...

a Celeron Nuc (Ivy/Bridge)
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=140534

[Dougie Fresh]

The case I chose is very nice and slick (Black e-Mini Q6 E-Q6 HTPC Mini-ITX Slim PC Case with 120W Internal PSU Board), HOWEVER is got 'very' hot to the touch I had to add a Fractal Design FD-FAN-SSR2-50 (50mm) Silent Series Case Fan in order to disperse the heat. This help 100% and heat is no longer an issue, there are many cases available to you can use for a HTPC build.

If you like the size of the E-Q6, the makers of that case (Realan -- rebadged here in the US as HabeyUSA) also make the e-mini E-I5 case which is about the case size but has better ventilation.



A good build for this case is the i3-3225, 4GB RAM, ASUS P8H61-I R2.0 motherboard, SSD, Dynatron T459 low-profile CPU cooler.