[ewaterke]

Hi,

I'm an old Xbox user and don't know anything about Linux but I'm ready to give it a try if needed.

My requiremenst are very simple:

Budget: maximum 500 € (300 would be better)
- HD 1080p (even if I do not have any content yet)
- Optical drive Blu-Ray
- Minimum Hard Drive or SDD as I have a NAS
- Windows or Linux
- Use of my Harmony ONE remote
- Audio via HDMI or S/PDIF
- Not to much noise and nice looking

Do you have any recomendations for such a system ? (Currently I've only found the Asrock Core 100HT.)

Thanks in advance for your suggestions,

Eric

[poofyhairguy]

Asrock core is not recommended because Intel GPUs suck.

Honestly for the money I think the best solution is a cheap ION 1 box (say a Zbox or a Acer Revo) combined with a decent stand-alone Blu Ray player.

That way you can use Linux XBMC and play any mkv or divx file on the planet without having to worry about the nightmare that is playing Blu Ray disks on HTPCs.

I recommend the Samsung models so it can also do Netflix, which is the other thing HTPCs suck at. It ends up the same total cost as the Asrock. I have this setup basically and love it.

Another option is getting a Blu Ray rom for your desktop and ripping the Blu Rays straight to your NAS. Once decoded they play great on XBMC and Linux. This is what I mostly do to watch Blu Rays nowadays- the player is used more for Netflix. Here is the guide I use to do that:

http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17002

One last option that I don't recommend:

http://lifehacker.com/5621471/how-to-ena...ck-in-xbmc

[ewaterke]

Thanks a lot for your usefull comments.

Eric