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2012-05-24, 09:16
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-24, 09:16 by azula.)
I am what you would consider a complete novice when it comes to HTPC's (no experience whatsoever). I am currently building a dedicated theater and was going to incorporate a stand alone bluray player to play my titles (what normal used to be, lol). The idea of having movies on a server and not having to get up every time I want to watch something was recently brought to my attention. I would like to know if there is any loss in quality using a htpc as opposed to a bluray player? Also, would there be any reason I would still need to purchase a bluray player if i decided on a htpc? My usage would be primarily for watching bluray's (90%) and music (10%). I have been reading on these forums a lot and you guys have been a great help! However, I am still not confident in my skills for customizing, let alone, building a htpc from scratch. Are there any reputable builders that can piece one together for me? Sorry for all the questions but this is just the beginning. lol. Thanks in advance for all the help!
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Thanks for the link eskro, I have researching tirelessly in that thread. Gort, I will definitely follow your build as I plan on building something extremely similar should I continue down this path. How does an HTPC stack up next to a bluray player? Is video/audio quality the same? Do you guys still have bluray players in your setups in tandem with the HTPC?
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Thanks eskro, I am researching your writeup as well as watching tons of videos on youtube. My main concern is quality loss using the HTPC as opposed to a bluray player.
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If your gonna be playing bluray disks on the HTPC there's no loss, now that we got the obvious out of the way let's get down to the Nitty Gritty. If your planning on ripping, encoding, or downloading your bluray content, that's another ball game. Hard drives are very expensive right now and If you want to archive the best encodes, or back up your own disc's....it's gonna get expensive real quick! Your gonna be filling up those 1,2 Terabyte drives fast. I learned that the best way to add more storage was to use the delete key, sounds stupid but I started going through my library and asked my self " do I really need all these damn movies" so I archive what the family is gonna watch over and over, everything else I delete and make room for new content.
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2012-05-25, 08:27
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-25, 08:28 by Mick1152.)
Only quality loss will come from transcoding the ripped blu-ray, if you use the full size blu-ray rip there is no loss of quality. You can pretty safely transcode most blu-rays to 1/3 their original size without much noticeable loss of quality. I'm sure there are probably better settings than what I'm using but that's been my experience. I just wish it didn't take so damn long to transcode a blu-ray!!!
HTPC 1 - AMD A8-3870K, ASRock A75M, Silverstone ML03B, Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3 1866, Crucial M4 64GB SSD
HTPC 2 - HP Stream Mini, 6GB Ram
unRAID 6 Server - Intel Celeron G1610, 20TB Storage
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Thanks for the replies, that was my main concern. I was initially set on buying an Oppo 93 bluray player but then I found out the capabilities of a HTPC. Mick, what program do you use to transcode your blurays?
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Thanks bluray, and in order for me to use MakeMKV, I would need a bluray writer not just a reader correct?
