2015-06-19, 23:24
Hi everyone,
please tell me if I'm totally crazy!
At the moment I'm using Kodi on my Macbook Air and finally everything is running smoothly, thanks to Isengard.
That seems to be too little drama for me so an old idea of mine resurfaced: an HTPC that doubles as a Bluray player.
Not too many people here seem interested in that option as the little boxes (ARM or x86) are all the rage. In my impression most of us tend to rip their (Bluray) discs to a NAS and be done with them.
That approach is out of the question for me though, for three reasons: no hardwired network in my apartment, no real space anywhere for a NAS and no dedicated PC with a Bluray drive anyway.
As a fourth reason, I'd really like a device where I could just pop in a disc that a friend brings. Up until last year I played discs on a PS3 but I sold it while I could get some money for it. Ever since I looked at different dedicated BD players, but all the manufacturers seem to cut corners, so if you don't want to spend an unreasonable amount of money you seem to be stuck with noisy drives, unstable firmware and/or total failure after a couple of months. (Everything beyond € 100 for a a BDP seems unreasonable to me.)
So I started putting together a list of hardware but the price escalated very quickly. I am at € 340 350 and that is without a PSU, wifi and software. Then I started to doubt my approach and decided to ask for feedback:
1. Reliable Bluray playback requires Windows and (expensive) software, right?
2. Is that a good start for an HTPC today?
MB ASRock N3150-ITX (90-MXGZ10-A0UAYZ)
SSD SanDisk X110 64GB, SATA 6Gb/s (SD6SB1M-064G)
RAM G.Skill Value SO-DIMM Kit 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-28 (F3-12800CL9D-4GBSQ)
BDD ASUS BW-16D1HT schwarz, SATA, retail (90DD01E0-B20000)
WiFi TP-Link TL-WN881ND, PCIe x1
(Case MS-Tech MC-1200 schwarz, 350W SFX12V 2.3 Rev. E)
3. I chose the n3150 for its HEVC decoding and passive cooling design. What do you think about that?
4. A picoPSU should be good more efficient than the 350W PSU that comes with the case, right? Is 80W sufficient?
5. Could I get much cheaper for comparable performance?
6. Am I just talking myself into this because I'd like to build again? Would it be much more reasonable to just buy a BDP in addition to whatever Kodi solution?
7. If so, and if you use a BDP that doesn't suck or cost more than my project, what model is it?
8. Does anyone of you have such an integrated system in 2015 and are you satisfied? If you had it but are running a NUC/Chromebox/ARM box now instead, what made you change approach?
(9. to Sony, Samsung, et al: Why don't you produce a BDP with Android TV to sideload Kodi on?)
My output setup is an 1080p plasma, an AVR that routes HDMI but doesn't take its audio track, in connection with an HDMI audio splitter that extracts it and routes it back to the optical in, including AC3 and DTS. That works surprisingly well, as in no problems at all. So all I need is HDMI out really.
Live TV is no concern at all, it sucks anyway.
Thanks!
please tell me if I'm totally crazy!
At the moment I'm using Kodi on my Macbook Air and finally everything is running smoothly, thanks to Isengard.
That seems to be too little drama for me so an old idea of mine resurfaced: an HTPC that doubles as a Bluray player.
Not too many people here seem interested in that option as the little boxes (ARM or x86) are all the rage. In my impression most of us tend to rip their (Bluray) discs to a NAS and be done with them.
That approach is out of the question for me though, for three reasons: no hardwired network in my apartment, no real space anywhere for a NAS and no dedicated PC with a Bluray drive anyway.
As a fourth reason, I'd really like a device where I could just pop in a disc that a friend brings. Up until last year I played discs on a PS3 but I sold it while I could get some money for it. Ever since I looked at different dedicated BD players, but all the manufacturers seem to cut corners, so if you don't want to spend an unreasonable amount of money you seem to be stuck with noisy drives, unstable firmware and/or total failure after a couple of months. (Everything beyond € 100 for a a BDP seems unreasonable to me.)
So I started putting together a list of hardware but the price escalated very quickly. I am at € 340 350 and that is without a PSU, wifi and software. Then I started to doubt my approach and decided to ask for feedback:
1. Reliable Bluray playback requires Windows and (expensive) software, right?
2. Is that a good start for an HTPC today?
MB ASRock N3150-ITX (90-MXGZ10-A0UAYZ)
SSD SanDisk X110 64GB, SATA 6Gb/s (SD6SB1M-064G)
RAM G.Skill Value SO-DIMM Kit 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-28 (F3-12800CL9D-4GBSQ)
BDD ASUS BW-16D1HT schwarz, SATA, retail (90DD01E0-B20000)
WiFi TP-Link TL-WN881ND, PCIe x1
(Case MS-Tech MC-1200 schwarz, 350W SFX12V 2.3 Rev. E)
3. I chose the n3150 for its HEVC decoding and passive cooling design. What do you think about that?
4. A picoPSU should be good more efficient than the 350W PSU that comes with the case, right? Is 80W sufficient?
5. Could I get much cheaper for comparable performance?
6. Am I just talking myself into this because I'd like to build again? Would it be much more reasonable to just buy a BDP in addition to whatever Kodi solution?
7. If so, and if you use a BDP that doesn't suck or cost more than my project, what model is it?
8. Does anyone of you have such an integrated system in 2015 and are you satisfied? If you had it but are running a NUC/Chromebox/ARM box now instead, what made you change approach?
(9. to Sony, Samsung, et al: Why don't you produce a BDP with Android TV to sideload Kodi on?)
My output setup is an 1080p plasma, an AVR that routes HDMI but doesn't take its audio track, in connection with an HDMI audio splitter that extracts it and routes it back to the optical in, including AC3 and DTS. That works surprisingly well, as in no problems at all. So all I need is HDMI out really.
Live TV is no concern at all, it sucks anyway.
Thanks!
