[mathemaddicts]

Hello all,

I have a HTPC I built several years ago, but it is the size of an old-school desktop (on its side). I am now interested in getting/building a smaller and quieter HTPC.

My current rig runs Windows 7 and has a 512 GB SSD + two 2 TB Red HD. It also has two WinTV (Hauppauge) cards for a total of 4 TV Tuners. I used Kodi for a bit, but the live TV situation was always sub-par to WMC. I am now thinking that going with OpenElec (or LibreElec) might solve those issues, but I am not sure.

My Needs:
I live in a region where streaming is possible, but TERRIBLY slow. On the other hand, my antenna on the house allows me to pick up 70 HD channels!!! I use Vudu for purchasing and downloading movies. That is extremely important because we have a great big (65") plasma and I love watching the best quality the TV can support (no 4k, but 1080 is good). I also use the HTPC to stream YouTube videos every now and then. Finally, I will likely need significant storage space.

Now, I do have a ReadyNas 316 upstairs, but it does not decode and I am somewhat worried about streaming from it to the HTPC (however, I have never tried it). I am assuming the storage of live recordings (and pause buffers) should continue to be done locally no matter what.

I hate to be that guy who says "What should I do?", but... what should I do?

Roy

[nickr]

There would be no problem putting your movies on the nas and watching them over your LAN, assuming you have a wired LAN. Buy a Chromebox as your watching machine. Set up your existing machine in a cupboard for pvr backend and extra storage.

[mathemaddicts]

Unfortunately, my current machine is just too large for the space. It's ready to be retired and replaced with something smaller (and more efficient).

[wrxtasy]

Nickr is right, seperate you server / TV Tuner duties from whatever Kodi client you want to use, and use LAN connections. It will be both more power efficient and open up a greater number of Kodi client boxes for you to choose from.

[Atreyu]

What I would do in your case:
Use existing nas for file storage (only). Replace or add hdds when needed.
Maybe re-use existing's hdds in current setup.
Put current large box aside or sell it
Pick any box, from rpi to intel nuc as your efficient playback device. The suggested chromebox is great, too.

[mathemaddicts]

I sincerely appreciate the responses.

So, what I gather from what is being said here is that a chromebox (or nuc) will allow me to continue with my 4 hd tv tuners (fed via coax), act as my dvr, allow me to surf the web, allow me to download vudu movies via the vudu desktop app, etc.

My current HTPC has about 1.5 TB of recorded TV shows in WMC format. I will likely have to convert those, but is there a process for shuttling those to the NAS? Let me be clearer: while recording, I doubt saving to the NAS is possible (I have heard from others who say that current recordings and live tv buffers are disastrous over the network to the NAS). Do you recommend that I shuttle files to the NAS every-so-often or have I heard incorrectly about the capabilities of storing to the NAS for live video buffers and current recordings?