[hammerhead69]

Hi,
New here, 1st post, you know whats coming right?

Whats the best............for under............

Ok, about 2 years ago i got the wdtv and converted all my dvd's onto a hard drive, to be fair the wdtv handled playing everything fine but the GUI was like something from my old atari (showing my age here right?)

I heard about this amazing unit called a boxee box coming ou Feb 2010, and pinned all my hopes on it being able to do everything i've ever wanted, which isn't that much really,
Quick access to all my media with 1 remote from one box via hdmi to my Onkyo amp up to my 42" Pioneer played through my Tanoy 5.1 speakers
Play all my different file formats inc 1080 of course
Look at my photos
Play my albums and even be able to flick through and add certain tracks to a playlist
Thats about it really, oh, i'm a little bit of a freak for having things labelled correctly and being in order, so customisation of what goes where is important too

So i waited and waited, and finally in Nov 10 the Boxee Box is realeased, so i got it and kept it for xmas, WHAT A DISHAPPOINTMENT !

I'm gutted, it's a joke, i've never had so much trouble with something that came in a box with a plug on the end!, should be renamed Buggy Box, but anyway off topic there

So in between scanning the Boxee forums on how to fix issues with this BB, i keep hearing XBMC, XBMC, XMBX. Ive watched a number of youtube clips to know now THIS is the media center for me, now my problem like most i suppose is what to put it on?

I've wasted so much time since xmas day reading up on this BB i could have gone to work and with the money i'd earnt bought a super center pc if one exists, but anyway
to the point;

i know a little windows no linux or mac but making my own custom build i would literally have to read and learn everything from scratch some of what i read nvidea this ion that chipset ssd gpu processor is like chinese i dont get it
i have 2 windows 7 pc's and laptop
i want a quick responsive unit that i can hook up 2 ext hd's to with 4tb of media on so i can install XBMC and finally realx in front of the tv with my media collection at my fingertips
oh and youtube would be handy
i don't need it for games, 3d, i dont have discs anymore so no need for a drive,

Any pointers would be very much appreciated, as soon as i decide my BB is going on ebay i've had enough of it!
Thanking you all in advance for your time sorry for the boring long thread

[thanamesjames]

Either of these sound like they would meet your needs...

This is what I own... no assembly required! Frankly the wireless sucks, but I love everything else about it. (No remote included)
http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-MAG-Intel-NV...417&sr=8-1

Now you might want a solid state hard drive, which makes this a great deal... you just need to buy the ram (Remote included!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealD...mbo.587677

I suggest, for your needs, to just install XBMC Live on either of these devices. I understand you have no linux experience, but its really very simple. You just download the .iso from xbmc.org, and then create a bootable usb drive with a program called unetbootin. Set the bios to boot from usb, and bam! You've installed xbmc live.

[htpc guy]

This is a tricky one, especially since you are running off of 2 external hard drives.

I think the best option for you would be to buy a cheap ion box, maybe a zotac. You would need to install a SSD for best performance and then put windows on it (not sure if you are against linux but it sounds like you might be).

Now, external hard drives are a less than ideal solution. Yes they are convenient but you will have issues with high bit rate 1080p rips. Normally I would suggest a NAS (network attached storage) but its not an easy process. Do you have a desktop that you could throw those drives into? Then you could connect your XBMC box to the content over the network using mapped drives. This is how most of us do it when we don't have a NAS. That's what I do.

[hammerhead69]

Thank you both for your replies,

i just had a look at the zotac, good reviews but one guy said it gets choppy with larg emkv files whats your experience with this?

regarding the other link showing jetway mini-top and kingston ssd, i haven't googled ssd yet, i will because i dont even know what it is or does, but is this something that would just plug or slot in?

installing xmbc live sounds like i could do that, i'd have to google each process but i'm up for that

re my ext hd's, i do have a pc, it's upstairs and is using a wireless usb, my router is downstairs in the front room, i have no knowledge of this but i always assumed that i would be better having the ext hd's actually plugged into the media system instead of upstairs then streamed back downstairs, so do you think it would be more stable having the ext hd's upstairs?

i'm not against linux, all i know of it is the documentary i watched explaining how it started free open source and some guy altered it and started selling it, im not against it just have no experience of it

[eskro]

If you plan on doing other things like,
browse the internet and video chat or whatever,
i say use Windows 7....

regarding your External Hard Drives, honestly,
if you dont need to feed other PC's with them,
plug them directly in your soon to be new home theater PC...
its just easier this way....

Now, SSD is a type of hard disk drive... often called RAM Drive...
so thats basically it! A non mechanical drive,,,, no moving parts....
see this video for better understanding --> http://ow.ly/1rZLcc
having a SSD instead of a typical Hard Drive makes your operating run FAST!!

i think an important info you should give us is how much your willing to spend?

and also, if you would buy a new PC to install XBMC on it,
are you comfortable in buying all the hardware separately and
build it yourself?

[maxinc]

Probably the easiest way to start is to burn a XBMC Live CD and try it on one of your PCs. It will boot from the CD and won't touch your Windows installations so it's completely safe.

Try and get a feel for what XBMC is and get some ideas of how you could use it to work best for your setup. Once you decide it's a keeper, you can start thinking about hardware.

The Zotac boxes are cheap and can play smoothly even the most demanding of HD movies. And is probably best to stay in an environment that you are comfortable with, like Windows 7. Although XBMC Live runs on linux and it works pretty much our of the box, working in linux is great but can be intimidating for the unexperienced and may spoil your image about the XBMC.

[Jay_M]

Hammerhead, have you tried installing XBMC on the pc's you already have? There is no need necessarily on purchasing new hardware, it depends on your computer. XBMC will probably run just fine and depending on what hardware you have Bluray may to, there will definitely be no problems with the DVD's that you have backed up.

Download here and try it. Its one of the easiest software's to install on Windows.

As far as the external drives go, if you haven't already purchased both hold off. Get one and see how it works, I don't have any experience with externals and don't really see the issue, however I have seen several folks advising against them.

[commando_j]

If the PCs you have came with Windows 7, then likely they are more than enough to set one up as your HTPC if you can spare it.

As far as streaming wirelessly with exteral HDs, I haven't had any issue between my two HTPCs. One of them has the external HD with movies and I stream wirelessly to the other HTPC. I can even watch another movie from that HD on the PC it is connected to at the same time.

[hammerhead69]

Hi all, wow i never expected this kind of help

eskro - since trying the boxee box i've been messing around with some of the app's, most don't work great ( i think boxee seems to be aimed at american users and i'm in London) but i would like to have some internet access, i've never really used utube much but before it got blocked on the boxee last week it was a nice touch to be able to type in a music track and watch the video so some internet use would be handy
SSD looks like the way for me, would i be right in thinking you don't need to be a qualified electrician to fit one? speed is important especially with my large film, tv series and documentary collection.
as for money, i'd be happy spending upto £1,000 but could go to £1,500 if it would make a huge difference
as for building one myself, i don't know what most of the parts are or do, but if i'm going to get the kind of response on here that i've had so far then i suppose i'm up for giving it a try, but i really would be starting from scratch

maxinc - funny you shouold say that i've been wondering if i should install xmbc on my laptop to get a feel for it, this'll be done this week

Jaym - Theres a thought, maybe i could install xmbc on my pc upstairs and hard wire down to the front room, with some kind of hub to aim the remote control at? (I'm making this part up off the top of my head i don't even know if this is possibble?)
I already have the ext hd's, both the same wd 2tb both 90% full, with both my wdtv and boxee box i can access all my media perfectly, large bluray back ups, HD sky documentaries everything.

commando_j - Thanks for the comments, the upstairs pc seems quick and is newish, wind7 etc, is on 24/7 and wouldn't be too much of a drama to connect a wire into the front room if it would be better than wireless, so as Jaym said that could be an idea to think about.

All in all i'm v impressed with the feedback, thank you all very much looks like i've finally come to the right place

[eskro]

you might wanna go the easy way and get a pre-built HTPC..
most require you to only buy some RAM and a HArd Disk Drive and your good to go....
its pretty much all done for you...
A user showed me a model called ASRock Vision 3D...



it definitely has some goodies...
Plays 3D movies thanks to the NVIDIA GeForce GT425M Graphics card with HDMI 1.4 ....
onboard USB 3.0 ports which is futur Proof....
built-in Bluetooth and WiFi B/G/N...
has Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000
comes with 4GB of RAM (2 x 2GB DDR3 1066MHz)...
Very good Intel Dual-Core i3 2.4GHz CPU ....
has a Bluray Disc Reader combo wich also can burns DVDs....
comes with a 500GB Hard Drive already,,, you can buy an SSD if you want....
7.1 CH HD Audio with THX TruStudio Pro...
Front ports such as --> Microphone/Headphone/Card Reader/USB 3.0
Back ports such as --> eSATA/USB3.0/Optical S-PDIF/DVI-I/HDMI/LAN
Looks slick and has a nice small form factor...
Must be really silent too...

only thing missing in there is an Operating System....
which you install yourself...

check it out here --> ASRock Vision 3D (£685.73)

[poofyhairguy]

as for money, i'd be happy spending upto £1,000 but could go to £1,500 if it would make a huge difference

BUY THE ASROCK!!!!!!!!


Seriously the Asrock eskro has pointed out is the best all-together HTPC on the planet. Futureproof, tons of power, Nvidia GPU. Seriously, I can't recommend a system more highly.

[maxinc]

For that kind of money you can get a beautiful multi-room setup with a central media server that will securely hold your media and make it available to multiple users (rooms) at the same time.

On thing you mentioned which might need upgrading is the wireless network. Since they are quirt unreliable for streaming HD media content, probably best to try and cable your locations with Cat5E to solve 99% of your future networking problems.

The specs on the ASRock are indeed impressive but worth mentioning that you may be able to build your own PC with similar specs and capabilities for maybe 60% of that price. You could then reallocate the funds towards something else like storage.

[Jay_M]

Yes it sounds like you need to purchase a new system. Although technically it is possible to wire a box from one room to a tv in another, using long video, audio cables and IR repeaters, it probably wouldn't be a good idea for you. You really want the HTPC to be in the same room as your TV.

So I agree with the others.....

BUY THE ASROCK!!!!!

[hammerhead69]

Wow that looks like exactly what i've been looking for

and with a few of you agreeing too, thats pretty much sealed it for me

maxinc - i do like the idea of building my own system, so it's more personal, and it is something to add to my "one day" list of things to do, but right now the right move for me is a ready built system, the amount of time i have spent since christmas reading up on how to get my boxee box working correctely i could have gone out to work and fixed a couple of leaky roofs and bought the asrock already, so my time vs paying extra for a ready made it probably actually works out cheaper for my to buy the asrock, but i really appreciate the thought thank you.

ok so i installed xbmc on my laptop last night for a quick try out, loved what i saw, just like the utube clips ive seen, but on my laptop, wonderful, i've got a bit more reading up to do when i get home tonight or tomorrow night then i think i'll be jumping in. Thanks again everyone i'll let you know how i get on

[hammerhead69]

Oh one little thing, so with the asrock you think it would still be wise to buy an ssd,
any suggestions would be handy?
and i hope one of you will be able to guide me through installation of ssd