(2013-04-24, 11:37)Havoc2005 Wrote: Hi all,

I used a good part of my weekend reading through the 850+ posts in this thread. I'm really impressed with the skills and knowledge of you guys and I hope that you will be able to help me here as well with my doubts:

My main interest: Get a replacement for an old Wester Digital TV Live box used to show 720p/1080p MKVs to my 64" Samsung (2011 version) TV.

Whats missing: The WD TV Live is missing: (1) Dynamic covers, fanart, description etc. (2) Auto or semi-auto subtitle search (3) Streaming services apps like Netflix etc. (though I have them on the TV) (4) Browsing capabilities

Initial thought: Get a Boxee Box - why not? - It is discontinued and older technology

Second idea: Get an G-Box Midnight/Pivos or similar and use XBMC for Android - why not? - It will take some time until XBMC is stable to show the content I want.

Main plan now: Then I came across the NUC and was hooked - even wanted more stuff now so please help me find the correct things to get:
1) The NUC (i3 version), standard case (I can live with a little noise)
2) Crucial 120GB SSD
3) Min. 4 GB of Crucial SD-ram
4) Windows 8 I would like to be able to use all the streaming services here in Denmark as well - NetFlix Nordics, HBO Nordics, Viasat Nordic, TV2 Denmark, Yousee web-apps etc.)
5) A nice remote - could that be WIFI/Bluetooth - I can live with having to turn on the NUC on the device (since it might be running 24/7 for TV recording) - any suggestions? put around 40 US$ in the budget for it
6) A nice keyboard/mouse, Bluetooth - Maybe compact with touchpad but also usable for e.g. browsing in Crome/FireFox and my daughter playing Sims etc. - any suggestions? put around 40 US$ in the budget for it

I know a good bit about computers, software etc.

Will this make me happy? I'm pretty sure.
My wife? Can she turn on this thing and in 15 seconds be in XBMC ready to choose film, series, a recorded tv-program and afterwards turn it off on the remote?

Bonus: I then read that XBMC 12 can handle tv-guide functionality with an extra software installed but what I'm missing is how to get the TV signal into the NUC (or NAS, I have a Synology DS209+NAS with the media on) for recording and viewing? With this I can drop my recorder subscription from my cable company (and justify the investment ;-) Can the NUC handle it? Together with XBMC? Can the NUC 'sleep' in-between recordings and wake up when needed? Even wake up the NAS?

(2013-04-24, 15:06)lukasnmd Wrote: I agree with your main plan. It is a good plan. There are people using several diferent remotes, I would recomend you a universal remote like the Harmony series, ask people here, I doesnt know much about remotes.

Quote:About Keyboards, I guess you will prefer a full sized keyboard, so these are my recomendations, and on eBay you can find much more.
Visenta V7 Keyboard
Ergo QUE Keyboard
Rapoo e2700 - Full sized
Or this one to use as a remote as well (not full sized - my choice for HTPC)
Sorry I just saw the words "compact", so if you don't like the other full sized keyboards just ignore it please. =D

Quote:And YES, your wife can turn this thing on in just 10 seconds [there are some answers in this thread about this, and people having to delay the boot time because the faster boot can be problematic, because other NON-NUC components may need time to be recognized]. It will turn on faster than your TV. =D

Quote:About the PVR function, I guess you will have to setup a PVR Server, XBMC is just the frontend, there is a thread about PVR server on forum, but I guess you will still need to have a TV provider, please read this thread about PVR. It is a "guide" in work process.
=D

(2013-04-24, 17:08)mrstarface Wrote: Very frustrating as I nearly have my videos working flawlessly but not quite.

For my full BR rips with HD Audio I get slightly jerky playback, its quite noticeable though. Also when moving to another point in the film the jerking gets more noticeable and the HD Audio wont start again unless I stop and resume

Enabling the Hardware Acceleration sorts all of this and everything plays silky smooth but then I get the occasional block of colour flashing across the screen!

Have tried every combination of settings known to man, has anyone else had a similar experience with the NUC and got it sorted?

(2013-04-24, 17:47)MrBogus Wrote:

(2013-04-24, 17:08)mrstarface Wrote: Very frustrating as I nearly have my videos working flawlessly but not quite.

For my full BR rips with HD Audio I get slightly jerky playback, its quite noticeable though. Also when moving to another point in the film the jerking gets more noticeable and the HD Audio wont start again unless I stop and resume

Enabling the Hardware Acceleration sorts all of this and everything plays silky smooth but then I get the occasional block of colour flashing across the screen!

Have tried every combination of settings known to man, has anyone else had a similar experience with the NUC and got it sorted?

This is the kind of problem I mentioned a few posts back. Hardware acceleration is the only option, but the quality suffers (posterization) and I am starting to get annoyed, especially when playing HD rips or BR's. I have started to try the use of MPC-HC together with MadVR as part of the KCP (Kawaii Codec package), and wow the quality is amazing. But unfortunately, it does not integrate well with xbmc. The player controls are those of MPC-HC and stoping the video does not return control to xbmc. I have seen that there are suggestions around the forum to somehow solve or reduce this annoyances, or live with them since the quality is really worth all the troubles.

(2013-04-24, 18:25)mrstarface Wrote: Its strange because peopoe have said on this thread repeatedly that it can play back full BR file no problem but that does not seem to be the case even though we are all using the same NUC?

Havoc2005 Wrote:This is great. Will I get by the login and launch of XBMC in a good way also and be able to maintain more accounts on the Win installation you think?

(2013-04-24, 18:25)mrstarface Wrote:

(2013-04-24, 17:47)MrBogus Wrote:

(2013-04-24, 17:08)mrstarface Wrote: Very frustrating as I nearly have my videos working flawlessly but not quite.

For my full BR rips with HD Audio I get slightly jerky playback, its quite noticeable though. Also when moving to another point in the film the jerking gets more noticeable and the HD Audio wont start again unless I stop and resume

Enabling the Hardware Acceleration sorts all of this and everything plays silky smooth but then I get the occasional block of colour flashing across the screen!

Have tried every combination of settings known to man, has anyone else had a similar experience with the NUC and got it sorted?

This is the kind of problem I mentioned a few posts back. Hardware acceleration is the only option, but the quality suffers (posterization) and I am starting to get annoyed, especially when playing HD rips or BR's. I have started to try the use of MPC-HC together with MadVR as part of the KCP (Kawaii Codec package), and wow the quality is amazing. But unfortunately, it does not integrate well with xbmc. The player controls are those of MPC-HC and stoping the video does not return control to xbmc. I have seen that there are suggestions around the forum to somehow solve or reduce this annoyances, or live with them since the quality is really worth all the troubles.

Its strange because peopoe have said on this thread repeatedly that it can play back full BR file no problem but that does not seem to be the case even though we are all using the same NUC?

(2013-04-24, 18:48)lukasnmd Wrote: I really dont see need for that but you can set other wind accounts, there is no problem on this... Of course you will have a delay in loading XBMC, since you will need to login into windows first, IMHO this is a boring step.

Quote:I already saw that LifeHacker post, this is for seting up a simple server. And yes, you will need some hardware 'thing' conected. Be sure your system will support the signal from your cable provider. Since it is cable I will assume it is DVB-C. Just 1 question, can you pick the smartcard and put it on another decoder and it will work w/o problems?

Quote:I will use a Rii Mini i8, it seems to have a soft hand touch, many people here doesnt want another boring remote, or a keyboard to deal with. =D

Havoc2005 Wrote:My provider sends the signal so that I can see it w/o having a separate card. For some reason I can see all my channels on the TV and only my "tivo"-like box has the card. I want to cancel this box and do the recording onto the NUC or NAS. Eventually I want to use NetFlix, HBO and other services instead of my cable provider.

(2013-04-25, 06:08)lukasnmd Wrote: I am confused. =S

Do you have the cable from your provider X directly on your TV?
This cable goes on another TV's?
Do you have only one decoder/tivo-like for 2 or more TV's ?
Wich signal is yours? [DVB-S/S2 = Satellite ; DVB-T = Over the air, normal/old antenas ; DVB-C = just the cable, w/o any antenas.]

(2013-04-24, 19:37)DrowningApe Wrote:

(2013-04-24, 18:25)mrstarface Wrote:

(2013-04-24, 17:47)MrBogus Wrote: This is the kind of problem I mentioned a few posts back. Hardware acceleration is the only option, but the quality suffers (posterization) and I am starting to get annoyed, especially when playing HD rips or BR's. I have started to try the use of MPC-HC together with MadVR as part of the KCP (Kawaii Codec package), and wow the quality is amazing. But unfortunately, it does not integrate well with xbmc. The player controls are those of MPC-HC and stoping the video does not return control to xbmc. I have seen that there are suggestions around the forum to somehow solve or reduce this annoyances, or live with them since the quality is really worth all the troubles.

Its strange because peopoe have said on this thread repeatedly that it can play back full BR file no problem but that does not seem to be the case even though we are all using the same NUC?

I'm using openELEC, which does not have this issue. I know there are users on the forum who are using windows successfully, so maybe they can share what settings/drivers are working for them.

(2013-04-24, 19:37)DrowningApe Wrote: I'm using openELEC, which does not have this issue. I know there are users on the forum who are using windows successfully, so maybe they can share what settings/drivers are working for them.

(2013-04-25, 09:07)Havoc2005 Wrote:

(2013-04-25, 06:08)lukasnmd Wrote: I am confused. =S

Do you have the cable from your provider X directly on your TV?
This cable goes on another TV's?
Do you have only one decoder/tivo-like for 2 or more TV's ?
Wich signal is yours? [DVB-S/S2 = Satellite ; DVB-T = Over the air, normal/old antenas ; DVB-C = just the cable, w/o any antenas.]

I'm actually not too sure what signal I have since my TV understands everything. I have no sattelite nor antennas so it must be DVB-C. But I get my signal from the wall connection and with a cable directly into the TV (full package of channels). So if I change my package the provider have to go into the basement area of the apartments to change that.

Further I have a box to record TV, see up to 14 days old TV programmes (on some channels). This box for some reason has a card inserted?

I know that I get full package on all my wall outlets though I havent tried since I only have one TV.

It is with that in mind I think that I should be able to get all the channels through XBMC to recording if I get the correct hardware.

I now ordered the NUC, ram and the SSD so the show is on the road :-) I might make a thread with all my findings during all this.