Kodi Community Forum

Hello Friends

For a long time now I have wanted to play HD movies that I have downloaded from the Internet on my TV, but never really got around to it. I think the time has come.

Please forgive my ignorance of this whole field, I assure you I'll be asking some rather silly questions.

First of all what is HPTC? I googled it, and got 'High Performance Technical Computing' !! I doubt that is the correct meaning in our context.

Secondly, if all I want to do is download, and watch 1080p HD movies with 100% / Unbeatable smoothness (50" TV) ... what Minimum specifications do I need my computer to be?

Which version of XMBC Media Centre is the most stable? What case would you recommend for a Black TV with black glass table (something stylish, and quiet)? Would a remote control work with XBMC .. would I need special equipment for this to work?

I would greatly appreciate any help and advise.

Thank You.

It is HTPC not HPTC which is an acronym for Home Theater Personal Computer

As far as minimum specs I would say 2 - 4 Gig of Ram, a modern low end processor and video card that supports HDMI out.

I would say the most recent stable XBMC is 12. stable.

There are a few options for a compact "stylish" box to integrate into your home theater like the NUC, Q190, Raspberry Pi and the ATV's the ATV1 with broad-com crystal HD card can support 1080p where the ATV2 can play 1080p but down converts it to 720p. Google those and you will find specs for each.

It is really your OS that supports a remote like IR or RF which work on Windows, Linux or MAC and in some cases required a dongle and there is also a remote you can use on your smartphone which uses Wifi as opposed to IR or RF so yes you can get a remote to work with XBMC on all platforms.

Thanks Nokdim, that helped a lot.

So in order to download and install XBMC, I first need an OS installed? If so, which OS works best / 100% smoothly with XBMC?

Yeah XBMC is an App and it runs on lots of OS's.

It depends on your level of knowledge with an OS.

I prefer Linux but I am also proficient with that OS so that is my choice but I have ran it on Linux, Windows and Apple TV OS's so that is really a personal choice, over time I have found things are more stable on Linux but that is a personal opinion.

Maybe look into Openelec which you can install on a thumb drive and boot directly into XBMC or just install XBMC on your PC that you use and see how you like it I doubt you will be disappointed. Openelec is a linux distro but requires little if any interaction with the linux OS from the end user.

OK OpenELEC it is then. What remote control would I need if I do go with OpenELEC?

Thanks

You will need an IR dongle but any IR remote would work with it but will require some programing which I think is made easier with this addon

Movies files I usually download online are .mkv / .mp4 or .avi all with .srt subtitles.

Can these play perfectly fine in XBMC?

Thank You

yes they are

Yeah I have yet to find a format that XBMC is not happy with.
make sure your .srt is named the same as your .mkv and enable subtitles under audio options.

MINIMUM specifications? You can buy a $35 raspberry pi. It will play your movies, and it will get the job done, but that's about all it will do. Lots of plugins wont work, you won't be able to use any of the nicer skins, and it will be pretty pared down.

You can buy a Intel NUC or Gigabyte Brix w/ the Celeron processors for under $200 + mSata + 4gb memroy - this would give you more than enough performance to run XBMC. I ran the OpenELEC version on my i3 Brix and had a ton of issues. Just installed XBMCbuntu and it's working much better now.


YMMV

hardware requirements (wiki)