What are /r/htpc's favorite Products & Services?

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You would need to move it onto fiber or twisted pair CAT6~ cable. I work in the field, and we use a pair of these types of devices anytime we need to send 4K more than 25 feet.

Definitely check out 'the renamer'. Tell it the source & output directory. It'll work for TV shows & movies. I set mine to run every time a new episode downloads -it correctly renames my shows and moves them to the correct folder. http://www.therenamer.com/

Kodi is a solid program that will run over a normal windows/linux environment but will act very much like a roku or someething like that. Also plex is a solid option as well. https://kodi.tv/about/software

I've used bulk rename utility and I think it should be able to do what you need, though it's easy to get overwhelmed by the options!

You'd need the files in order in some way already, then you select them all and hmm, I'd say use the prefix option and numbering option at least? you can play around with it and see what the end result will be before applying the rename. it can take some playing around with to do it manually but it gets the job done. Quick example of what you could do assuming you already have them in some order already.

I use Private Internet Access. Unfortunately, I never quite figured out the setup on my router. Without it, I'll use my 75mbps connection to the fullest. With PIA on, I rarely top 10 mbps. My friend uses it and gets near full speed.

Don't do that. Composite is the worst option this TV has. S-video is slightly better, but component is clearly the best option here. Component ca at least handle HD. HDMI to composite is blurry as hell and unreadable with most resolutions and font sizes. I say look around amazon for an hdmi to component converter and get one that's decently reviewed and fits your budget.

I would go with something like this If you choose a different one, make sure you get one where the HDMI is the input and not the output. These are 1-way devices and both kinds exist.

I use UnifiedRemote: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Relmtech.Remote Works like a charm for me. It even has a dedicated layout for Kodi and Netflix. But this ist maybe only avaliable in the paid version...

That's a very misleading statement. What i3?

The general rule of thumb is 2000 passmark points per 1080p stream. A (randomly chosen) i3-6320 scores 6112 passmarks, which means it should handle 3 1080p streams at near 100% CPU usage.

If you're seeing an i3 do 5 1080p streams at 60% or lower, either you're not actually transcoding anything, or you're actually using hardware encoding (Intel Quick Sync). If you're sharing over the internet, you probably care about bandwidth, and Intel Quick Sync tends to generate larger files than comparable CPU-only encoding. See this thread for example.

Windows has loudness equalization:

https://lifehacker.com/5986236/normalize-the-sound-volume-on-your-pc-with-windows-loudness-equalization-setting

You might not have it available with your audio card though.

It doesn't have to be pricey to be good enough for HTPC use...don't let that top listing scare you off.

There are also a lot of people better informed than me around here that I'm sure would be happy to provide more info.

I have an Intel NUC7I5BNK, which is considerably smaller than a Mac Mini. If you get a NUC with a 7th generation processor, like a Kaby Lake i5-7260U, it can hardware decode 4K/UHD x265 video with absolutely no problems. I can stream an 80GB x265 4K 2160p movie over my network and output at 2160p60 4:4:4 to my 4K TV using Kodi or MPC-HC with zero dropped frames.

They are amazing little machines and they are impossibly small.

There are usually some good sales going on for the NUC's. I got mine with a Crucial MX300 275GB and 8GB of RAM for $306 from Newegg in a combo bundle. If you are wanting to wait for a smoking deal like that, I would recommend creating a deal alert on Slickdeals to let you know any time a new NUC deal gets posted on there.

https://slickdeals.net/newsearch.php?src=SearchBarV2&q=intel+nuc&searcharea=deals&searchin=first

I personally use an FX-8150, because this is a scenario where the multiple cores of the AMD way outweighs its poor single-core performance. If I were doing it today, I'd go with an 8320. Its passmark score is in i7 territory, but its price is on par with an i3.

Well I am going to be honest and harsh here. If you want to have a nice TV, you are going to need to spend some $$. Most people think they just need a 4k TV, so they will grab a 4 series TCL TV because hey it's 4k and it has HDR. The problem is, the TV is utter shit. Yes for the price it's great, usually $250 for a 55", but the TV does not get anywhere near bright enough to distinguish between SDR and HDR. If you want that great experience, you're going to need a TV that can do HDR, and preferably DolbyVision, justice. What that means, is you need a TV that can do at least 700 cd/m2 (preferably at least 1000 but that's even more $$) in a sustained window.

I would suggest a HISENSE H9G if you are on a budget, which you being a cheapskate, you might be haha. If that is too rich, you can go down to the H8G, but it won't get as bright.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/tvs-on-the-market for some research.

Microsoft have released an official Remote Desktop client for Android.

It's not available for the TV, but if you can get ahold of the APK, either by installing it onto a rooted phone and using adb to pull it out, or finding it on apkmirror or something, you can use adb to install it to the Shield.

You can then launch it with an app such as Sideload Launcher when you need.

As a bonus, because it's not a TV app, you can control the mouse using the gamepad's right thumbstick (works on any sideloaded non-TV app).

In the future, it's always worth checking a site like "downforeverybodyorjustme.com" to see if it's, well, down for everybody or just you.

For instance: http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/thetvdb.com

Handbrake doesn't accept encrypted DVDs, so you need a way to extract the DVD before you can feed it into Handbrake. Makemkv will do that, as will a number of other apps (I like DVD Decrypter; though it's been dead for years it still works great on DVDs).

MKVToolNix is generally the go-to for MKV files. You can take out or add in additional audio and subtitle tracks. You can even use it to add DVD covers to movies.

It won't convert the audio files, but if you can do that on your own, it can add the audio files back in.

I had an MKV of a 1080p movie in Japanese and an MKV of the same movie in 480p in English, and it was piss easy to add the audio from the 480p version into the 1080p one. Bam, dual audio movie in 1080p.

I believe it is, I just don't know the exact method to do so. I would look into AutoHotKey and see if you can trigger a login when a USB device connects.

Maybe a good spot to start: https://autohotkey.com/board/topic/49386-launching-a-script-when-a-specific-usb-device-is-connected/

My b, yeah. It can do 2560x1600, but you want 3840x2160 which is 4k.

I was at 1080, needed 4k which the 5xx series can't. So 1600 is just as useless, which is why I kinda forgot.

You're gonna need a new card.

This would do you just fine:

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=02G-P4-2743-RX

Yeah, I'd maybe try a clean install of Vista or even try a Linux distro.

Looks like netflix works on Linux now http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-netflix-natively-linux-easy-way/

You could also look into aftermarket cooling for the laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Cooling-Pads/SubCategory/ID-319

The pies are very good for retro, there is a limit to the systems it can do but it does the old stuff good. https://retropie.org.uk/ and see r/retropie also

yoou can run retropie on a linux machine also.

Is Netflix the only HD content you will be watching? The Sandy Bridge-based Pentiums are an absolute disappointment in regards to graphics. Make sure you are aware that anything 3D intensive will perform horribly. Take a look at this breakdown. Best of luck.

You can install RetroPie on a PC, so you get the same interface people who use a RPi get but much more power. Setup is pretty simple, just install Ubuntu and use RetroPie setup scripts. Here's the guide

What's your budget?

Your CPU is your biggest bottleneck. What media software are you using? If it supports GPU decoding you might get away with just adding a graphics card.

Otherwise the only option would be to replace the motherboard and CPU.

The Intel Pentium G3258 would a good choice. It's cheap and can handle 4k. Pair it with any compatible motherboard and the rest of the stuff should be re-usable- you might have a Windows activation error by changing motherboards.

Intel IGP's are kind of rubbish so you'll probably want to buy a cheap GPU for gaming. I'd recommend the GTX 750Ti- it's an excellent low/mid range card capable of playing most modern games on high at 1080p.

When i have registered domains they usually come with a dns configuration panel where you can change host configuration settings. You can point different subdomains to different ips etc.

For example: htpc.yourdomain.com could point to your home IP address and www.yourdomain.com could point to your web server IP address And so on...

You could then connect to your IPs by using your domain instead, but you would still need to specify ports for whatever services you are attempting to reach. Non port 80 web services could be reached at subdomain.yourdomain.com:port#

If you ran a webserver you could also set it up so certain subdomains on that server will connect to specific web ports as well using reverse proxy. You could have external connections to music.yourdomain.com internally connect to localhost:5556 etc.

There may be a way for you to forward subdomain.domain.com directly to XXX.XXX.xx.XXX on a particular port, but I have not tried that myself. Check out this link that I found for some info http://serverfault.com/questions/74362/how-to-use-dns-hostnames-or-other-ways-to-resolve-to-a-specific-ipport

http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/#comment-1198654 - it's an ambiguous use of terms.

>Ben Nuttall says: 2nd Feb 2015 at 12:25 pm Windows will not be used as a desktop – you develop your application on a PC and deploy it to the Pi. Performance will be fine for running such applications.

Posted by Eben himself:

> http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/
> Because it has an ARMv7 processor, it can run the full range of ARM GNU/Linux distributions, including Snappy Ubuntu Core, as well as Microsoft Windows 10.

VirtualCloneDrive from Elaborate Bytes...

https://www.elby.ch/en/products/vcd.html

... or if you use Windows 8.x/10 the ISO mounting feature is built-in.

get controllercompanion (http://controllercompanion.com/) also available on steam and you can use your xbox controller to do anything you want. Also check out Netflix Remote Controller (http://sticky-ux.com/apps/NetflixRemoteController/) - it hasnt worked well for me but its worked for many

If it's on a custom-built PC and you want something free, then try Mythbuntu. If that doesn't suit your needs, then just find a copy of Windows for cheap somewhere. With either OS, you'll want to download Chrome to use your phone as a remote control.

I have done a moderate amount of research and experimentation regarding HBO Now and 5.1 support. HBO GO has much better support, which makes no sense to me because they should be running the same software but with a different subscription base.

I had a brief glimmer of hope when there was an android update for my Shield TV that specifically updated the audio support, but that still didn't change anything.

The reality I've discovered is that the only devices that correctly handle surround sound are apple TV and some Roku products. I eventually had to give in and buy a roku streaming stick just for HBO Now surround sound. This model seemed to be the least expensive solution that worked.

Although I do have access to amazon prime, I haven't looked to see if/what surround sound options are available with that.

If you dropped off that computer at my house I would do this as my next project: Load a flavor of Linux: Then: https://emby.media/

http://www.htpcbeginner.com/emby-media-server-alternative-plex-kodi/

and use it with my Roku 3, Chromecast and my HTPC (with HDMI out) with external drives attached.

or follow BananaHamSalads advice. Have Fun!!! Either way it was free and you will learn a lot.

I wouldn't depend on the attached hard drive support, it is fussy about file formats..

I know you don't want to setup a server but I assume you are using a computer to get all that Local media.. I would suggest installing Serviio (http://serviio.org/) or Plex Media Server (https://plex.tv/) on your PC and point it at the media files.. Then have the Xbox play them over DLNA.. The server program will take care of things that won't normally play on the Xbox directly.

You said the movie starts but then starts buffering. Does any image show up at all or is it just a black screen buffering? What are your internet speeds? Do a speed check at https://www.speedtest.net/ Are you able to stream content locally? What are the quality settings in the client and the server? Have you tried playing the file in original format so no transcoding is required? In the server settings does it say "Fully accessible outside your network"? There could be so many things causing this issue. Do some trouble shooting. It might be because your NAS isnt powerful enough and is trying to do transcoding causing it to get stuck buffering. Can you monitor your CPU usage when you start streaming remotely and see if it maxes out the CPU? Try installing the Plex Server on a different computer and see if you can stream remotely from there. If you can then its an issue with your NAS. Just test some things and do some trouble shooting. No one can tell you an answer because you haven't done any troubleshooting yet.

Well after my library started getting somewhat big I built a raid. I have a 6x1tb raid-z along with a few scratch drives in a box running openindiana... but most people just use linux and raid5. (Actually a drive died for the first time earlier this week, and I got a new one in the mail a few hours ago and it's currently being resilvered into the array... been having pseudotv withdrawal)

Anyway, xbmc will be able to scrape metadata off of the file you listed, but I prefer to use sickbeard which automatically downloads my shows, renames them, gets metadata, adds them to the right folder, and auto-updates xbmc with the info while sending a notification to my phone when it's done.

Same with movies, it can do it automatically, but for foreign movies I prefer to bypass xbmc metadata and use something like MediaCenterMaster to make sure it gets it right before I add it to my Movies folder that xbmc watches.

Development of CP has been "phoned-in" for a while now. The developer turned off github issues and really only accepted merge requests, and support on the site was nearly non-existent. That beind said we do have Radarr now — which is a fork Sonarr but for movies(I wonder if it's a good replacement now?).

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I do backup from my data drive to a second internal drive weekly using Cobian Backup currently and have been using this software for years now. Great and free.

http://www.cobiansoft.com/cobianbackup.htm

Why use Glacier which seems to be designed for commercial use when you can just use Amazon Cloud Drive? $60/year for unlimited storage sounds pretty cheap to me.

HDMI really shouldnt be run further than 25feet. If you have the money, get another computer in the living room with file sharing like raffle said.

If you’re handy, you can install twisted pair network cable between your computer and your home theatre, and use an HDMI to RJ45 transceiver at each end to stretch the signal and make it a monitor.

There are a lot of options -- to name a few:

Do the windows approach and set it to automatically open Kodi at boot. Or plex if you prefer that. This option gives you the most flexibility -- you don't ever have to touch a keyboard to open Kodi, but it gives you a lot more streaming options and the ability to use a web browser for things like Amazon Prime Video etc. --bonus, you can create a launcher within kodi to open up Steam in Big Picture mode for light gaming as well

Or grab yourself a raspberry pi 3 and install OSMC on it (cheapest option, performance is "good enough")

Overall: Pick up a FLIRC usb adapter + a logitech harmony remote

I would also highly recommend a small keyboard for when you have to type to search a show, etc. -- I personally use one of these

The K400 is not Bluetooth. It uses a proprietary dongle to communicate with the keyboard (and perhaps other Logitech devices, like mice).

If you have a Bluetooth keyboard, then all you need is a cheapo Bluetooth dongle. Depending on your country, they should be cheap enough.

I needed Bluetooth 4.0 to replace an aging 2.0 dongle, and I ended up with this cheapo on Amazon: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DAW21UG/ (A 3-pack for less than $20.) Works fine on 3 different systems.

It's cheap, supports the things (I thought) I needed (but haven't fully used, yet). And I have it paired with my BT mouse, speaker, and keyboard (which is something like this, but not this specific listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Backlit-Bluetooth-Keyboard-TeckNet-Universal-UltraSlim-Portable-Illuminated/282420578492 ).

One quick and easy way to tell if a keyboard or mouse is truly Bluetooth is this: BT devices seldom (never in my experience) come with a dongle; and non-BT keyboards/mice/remotes often call themselves "2.4ghz wireless" devices, or some such thing.

> Once I got the new TV and receiver, I couldn't use the SFF machine anymore since the video card didn't support 4K

That's not true. A 4k TV will happily do 1080p. In fact, many 4k TVs can do 1080p@120 (requires a "240Hz" TV, which means it has a 120Hz panel, and HDMI 2.0 because of the higher bandwidth requirement, so you can't do 1080p@120 on your old video card but you could certainly still do 1080p@60).

> Can I get this in Low Profile

Wow, MSI did not make that easy to figure out. No pictures of the bracket in the product description, on Amazon, Newegg, or MSI's own site (other boards have pictures of the bracket, for example). I ended up finding an unboxing video that shows the contents of the box and it does indeed come with a LPP bracket. Note that it's still a double-wide bracket, so you'll need two slots of space in your case to fit it. That's pretty much par for the course now for GPUs, though.

You're looking for a splitter. Avoid switches. Switches are typically n inputs to 1 output. A splitter is 1 input to n outputs.

Amazon has several. This one appears to support UHD with HDR. https://www.amazon.com/SIIG-HDMI-Splitter-EDID-Management/dp/B07BVWKDJP/

reddit spam filter is catching your amazon URL and removing your post. Please remove the affiliate link info from the URL. Below is a simplified URL you can use:

> https://www.amazon.com/XFX-Radeon-16GB-Boost-1xHDMI/dp/B07NFGDZWQ/

Just edit your comment and I think we can get this to stay approved.

PIA-Private Internet Access, you can connect to multiple countries, use on up to 5 devices, super cheap, doesn’t keep logs, can pay with bitcoin opposed to credit card. You should connect through the Netherlands because they throw DMCA notices in the garbage.

You can use a simple ethernet to WiFi adapter like either of these from IoGear:

Ethernet to Wi-Fi N Adapter for Home or Office, GWU627

Ethernet-2-WiFi Universal Wireless Adapter, GWU637

On Android, SyncMe is a great tool. Set the folder on your phone, the folder on your network, and the action you want to perform (sync, backup, etc.).

Once you set it up it's one click to do the action later.

31+ bands of EQ is an understatement. EAPO is more powerful than perhaps any MiniDSP unit. The GUI it comes with is already very powerful, and you can get even more power out of it if you learn and use the config file syntax. It has full parametric EQ as well, so you don't even need 31+ bands; just make your own bands with a custom range of effect. If your headphones have a tiny annoying peak at 719Hz, you can target it very specifically and negate it. If your subwoofer's bass needs an extra boost from 31 to 47Hz, your wish is EAPO's command. You also get unlimited channel mixing including creation of virtual channels, you can apply impulse response files with low latency (good for using with rePhase to control phase), you can use VST plugins... The list goes on.

I think the only circumstances in which a MiniDSP could be more useful are:

1. When you need to apply DSP to signal sources other than your PC.
2. When you get past 8 channels. This is less a limitation of EAPO itself and more a limitation in that it's difficult to find cost-effective hardware for.

I find that #1 is the main issue. If you have, for example, a BluRay player or a game console, you can't apply your PC's DSP to it. But if that's a non-issue in your use case, then EAPO is definitely the way to go. (You could be particularly insane and try using a sufficiently capable HDMI capture card and invest the effort to make that a non-terrible experience, but you'd be increasing latency slightly which would be bad for some types of games. Should be fine for movies.)

an account on kodi for him to login with... xbmc installed on a tablet... control the media he can use/see on that. set it in kios mode so he cant mess it up. Done.

http://www.howtogeek.com/107054/how-to-install-xbmc-on-your-ipad/ get him a used ipad 1 from CL.

AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable - 25 Feet (7.6 Meters) Supports Ethernet, 3D, and Audio Return https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008JR72SO/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_eTpNub1ZRD2Q8

I'm in a pretty small one bedroom apartment, and my computer is up against the same wall of the apartment as my TV, so this covers the distance from the bedroom to the living room for me.

Your board supports the full deneb line. It looks like it won't run the thuban chips - 960T, 1055T, 1090T, etc, but a propus or deneb trip / quad core would be your cheapest option. H265 without a newer gpu (gtx 950/960/1050 etc or rx 460 or better) would be using pure cpu grunt. Deneb or propus cpus are a pretty significant improvement over the athlon x64 chips.

Edit:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X3+720

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+5200%2B

Yeah it's a shitty synthetic benchmark, but h265 decoding uses all available cores, and that old phenom II can do twice the work.

The Pi isn't the fastest computer ever built, but it should be able to handle pretty much anything you throw at it (with the correct software / codecs).

You might want to look into changing your Wifi Channel in your Router settings (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21132/change-your-wi-fi-router-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/).

If your current setup doesn't work out the way you'd like, I'd recommend building a custom mini itx computer or going with a pre-built system, like the Roku 3 or Amazon Fire TV

See http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_13447451_nr_p_n_condition-type_0?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A%21493964%2Cn%3A1266092011%2Cn%3A13447451%2Cp_n_condition-type%3A2224371011&bbn=13447451&ie=UTF8&qid=1421076440&rnid=2224369011 for more information

I don't think you'll need anything more than that. The case will come with all the screws you'll need.

Some people would recommend an anti-static bracelet or gloves, but that's your call.

Install isn't difficult, the riser positions are easy to spot once you eyeball the layout of the motherboard.

I would remove the hard drive and optical bays first before you mount the motherboard since they will hang over one edge of the board. It's easier to mount that way.

Also, install the PSU with the fan facing away from the case so it blows air out of the screen in that corner. Don't want heat issues.

I also use a small baggie to tape the case screws to the top of the Optical drive like so so you don't A: mix up the screws with the hard drive screws and B: you don't lose them.

I use white cable ties, so it's obvious where they are, so if I need to go back and cut the ties I don't cut the cables accidentally.

There are a handful of usenet servers that provide free service as long as you're utilizing ipv6.

I'm also a fan of usenetserver.com's $3/3-day package if my ipv6 is acting up.

3677 Passmark score

Plex's rule of thumb is 2000 passmarks per 1080p transcoded stream. So this should be able to handle one 1080p and one 720p, or a couple 720p streams, assuming it's doing absolutely nothing else.

> Folks who have a rig like this: Is this a good choice for a plex server in my living room?

Plex's rule of thumb is 2000 passmark points per 1080p stream that needs transcoding. This CPU scores 2904, so you'd be good for 1.5 streams. That might be sufficient, especially if you're doing lower resolution streams (720p to a phone, for example).

Yeah, just wanted to confirm that step, I might have mis-read (lazy)

So it lies in the content you are playing and what you are decoding with.

Download this app, and load your media file into it. This will then tell you what it's using to "render" it.

Graphstudio

You can give Steam in home streaming a try.

It is designed for games but you can get it the stream your desktop or other programs as well. https://lifehacker.com/use-steam-to-stream-your-desktop-instead-of-your-games-1818722875

This guy right here. With the MCEremote addon for XBMC(kodi, soon) you can map any key with any command. Just remember to launch Kodi as administrator to map them.

Windows7 comes with MCE built in. You will need to disable it to use the remote with XBMC. Just a heads up.

definitely nothing there.

what usually happens is when I plug in the device into the USB, windows 7 recognizes it, says it's installing some files for it etc, and then says something like "device is ready" yet nowhere does it show the bluetooth icon (not in task bar or in control panel) and the computer is not listed as one of the enabled bluetooth devices.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EBE1LI/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

that's the cheap chinese one

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Rocketfish%26%23153%3B+-+Micro+Bluetooth+USB+Adapter/8820886.p?id=1207351932175&skuId=8820886&st=bluetooth%20adapter&cp=2&lp=3

that's the rocketfish one.

I've built a few computers recently and ran into this issue.

Apparently, it's been migrated to a Windows Store app. It's supposed to auto install when you install a driver update through GeForce Experience, but it didn't for me, with the recent drivers. But you can install it manually, which worked for me.

More info from Nvidia.

TL;DR: Install the control panel from the Windows App Store.

With what is currently available and depending on your power/processing needs, I would recommend an Atom/Ion build. Either build it yourself or go with something like This. Unfortunately, there are some bitstreaming over HDMI issues for sound, but it would probably suit your needs.

Otherwise, build a standard HTPC using Sandy Bridge, if you are OK with the 23.967 issues. AMD motherboards with integrated graphics (i.e. 880G) are also sufficient, and will save a little bit of money.

Personally, I'm waiting for the AMD Zacate parts to become readily available. According to most reviews, it's basically the atom/ion combo at a lower TDP power usage with better performance for half the price.

Hmmm, I'm not sure. I don't use FTP for anything on my home network, just at work. I have several cloud-based FTP servers that I upload data to from my premise-based Windows servers, for backup purposes as well as web parsing and posting. I use Auto FTP Manager to accomplish this. It uses SSL, not VPN, but it will automatically sync two or more folders on separate servers via FTP.

If content needs to be transcoded in order to be served to clients (due to bandwidth restrictions or format incompatibilities), additional CPU power would be required.

The AMD E-350 has a PassMark score of only 760 so it wouldn't be capable of transcoding a typical 720p file. Plex suggests a score of 1,500 to transcode a single 4Mbps/720p file (and 2,000 to transcode a single 10Mbps/1080p file).

If you have no intention of playing games or transcoding then you don't even need an APU.

You could go even cheaper with an Intel Celeron J1900. It's still more than fast enough to play 1080p and is more power efficient than an AMD APU. It's also possible to make the whole system fanless and truly silent.

If your receiver only has optical in then your cheapest option is to find a motherboard with optical out.

While not exactly what you want, I personally use teamviewer as a convenient way to manage my HTPC remotely. Offers the ability to do file transfers, physically interact with the HTPC as if I was in front of it and all can be done on my home network or anywhere with an internet connection. I've found it to be a rock solid piece of software. It works seamlessly from another laptop or desktop. It's usable for short periods from a phone. I literally use it on friends and families computers all the time to save me having to go to them for IT troubleshooting, getting large files that they need to send to me or vice versa.

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/

I'll also add a shout out to Ninite which is a convenient way to update a HTPC remotely for some of the major bits of software including teamviewer.

https://ninite.com/

Looks like this build should do everything I want, including emulators.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=59590

Thanks for your help.

Edit: most on that forum are saying xbmc shouldn't have any problem handling live TV from HDHR

You talk about your HDMI bandwidth, but what is your actual internet bandwidth? Go to fast.com (its run by Netflix) and see what your connection speed is.

Have you tried using Microsoft Edge to see if there is difference?

Are you running multiple monitors? All of them have to support 4K@60Hz and HDCP2.2.

What CPU do you have? Has to be an Intel i3, i5, or i7 7000 series or newer.

What is your graphics driver version? Has to be 387.96 or newer.

Most people have the opposite problem, where they get regular PCM audio working just fine, but can't figure out bitstreaming other formats. At worst, they just missed the sound control panel config step. You've got bitstreaming down just fine, but can't figure out multi-channel PCM.

One other possibility -- do you have any sound enhancements on in the Sound control panel (under the Properties of your output device, rather than the Configuration which is where you set the speaker count)? For example, loudness equalization may sound like you're not getting surround sound. Play around in that Properties page. For example, if you're on Windows 10 there's some new "Virtual 7.1" options for Dolby Atmos that you probably ought to just turn off. Make sure Immediate mode is checked on the Enhancements tab, any enhancements are off (you don't have to check the "Disable all" checkbox, but it can't hurt), make sure the Exclusive mode boxes are checked on the Advanced tab, etc. All of this ought to be configured correctly by default.

FYI I had the same issue and this fixed the driver issue for Windows 7 x64 Link to fix driver issue, see 7th post for identifying the problem

Xpadder is a necessity for Xbox 360 controllers. I have had my HTPC Setup for several years and Xpadder is worth the $10. I actually paid for it last week when I upgraded to my i3 system. You will gain access to their support forum and it pays for itself in a very short time. They also have advanced tutorials for auto setting different profiles when you access different applications (my next task with XBMC)

When you map out the 360 Controller buttons, have it similar to what you would use when on a 360

Key Mappings I use:

• Both Analog control the Mouse (doubles the movement speed when used together)
• D-Pad for arrow keys
• A button to Enter
• B to Esc
• LB for Left Mouse Click and RB for Right Mouse Click

This will reduce the "How do I use this?" when your friends use it. I figured out when I made more people use the controller that the Trigger buttons made it difficult for users on mouse clicks, which is why the LB and RB are used.

Yeah, I don't know if it would make any kind of incredible difference one way or the other, in terms of simple content playback. From everything I've read even Celerons can handle 1080p playback fine for pretty much any format. I am looking to also have some emulators on my machine and want to see how well the HD 4000 graphics can handle PCSX2.

How fast is the laptop? If it still has Windows, why not just install Plex, enable Windows auto-login and make Plex run on startup. Then get a InfraRed remote (http://www.dx.com/p/wireless-multimedia-infrared-ir-remote-controller-with-usb-receiver-for-pc-2-aaa-48566) and forget about it!

Also, for XBMC, there's this: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Add-on:PleXBMC

Otherwise, sure, you can use Ubuntu. But it can really be a bitch to get working correctly with the right graphics drivers if it's not supported.

I used to rip with Makemkv. Just pop in the disc and go. With Handbrake works great also. But Now Pavtube ByteCopy is my favorite, it's more powerful and effortlessly rip any regular and badly encrypted DVD/Blu-rays to any format. The trancoding speed is really faster than others.

You can also refer to: Top 5 Best Alternatives to MakeMKV

Microsoft removed the requirement for Xbox live Gold to use netflix, so you should be able to use NETFLIX with a free Xbox live silver account. Unless you live somewhere where it isn't offered

http://www.geekwire.com/2014/xbox-owners-can-now-access-180-apps-free/

The xbox 360 might be all you need, just know that the video playback interface is very basic..

List of supported file types http://support.xbox.com/en-CA/xbox-360/system/audio-video-playback

I use this one: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/djmclean/htmlscreensaver.html

I'm not using an RSS scraper right now, but you could use SimplePie or something. http://simplepie.org/

You'll need to set up a webpage (or static local page w/ javascript widgets) of what you want to show.

According to this site, the J2900 barely performs better than the J1900; maybe 1-5% better.

If cost is an issue, then an alternative like this board could save you 50 bucks.

And yes, the embedded CPU should provide enough power, unless you are wanting to do things at higher resolutions than 1080p.

This site lists the CPU value of the N2800 in the 600s range, and the N2920 (basically the same as the 2930) in the 1500s.

Expect the CPU to be ~2.5 times faster, and the integrated graphics to be considerably better; the old Atoms were infamous for their shitty graphics.

If you get the Celeron system, expect it to have 2-3 times the CPU and 5-10 times the GPU. If you get the i3 or i5, bump those numbers up a bit more.

Yes, you can pull the drive and access it fine. Not natively in windows, no. It's a linux file system, but there are many utilities out there that allow windows to read the filesystems. Is it reiserfs? http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

XFS? https://github.com/Nadrin/fsproxy/

There are many others. Or spin up a VM with Ubuntu.

Most file server software either use proprietary software or something else that will render the drive useless outside of the server, which is what you sound like you're worried about, this isn't the case with Unraid. It's just a linux filesystem so Windows won't read it natively is all.

Are you saying when it opens it is maximized but other programs load after XBMC which causes XBMC to then minimize? If that is the case, you could use something like Startup Delayer (http://www.r2.com.au/page/products/show/startdelay) to force XBMC to wait for maybe 30 seconds or so before it starts.

If netdata won’t do try Glances. It uses Psutil for gathering stats. Although I’ve never tried it in docker I know there is installation instructions for docker.

Edit: here’s the link

https://nicolargo.github.io/glances/

It's on my (very lengthy) to-do list. I didn't realize it was more efficient than VMs though. Does it run on bare-metal or is it a service that runs on top of an OS?

Edit: NVM, you piqued my interest for today so I went looking. Found this handy page for "What is Docker?". It's an App-Container that runs on the OS itself. Looks like it's ideal for something like Plex or maybe even an SQL server. Now I'm wondering about the possibilities of running Docker/Docker Apps on a VM :)

So when I went through this I ended up deleting the partition, doing a quick format, and then running a recovery tool. While the recovery tool was running it was finding all my old content but I didn't have the patience to wait the 5-6 hours for the thing to complete.

You may want to do some research on "recover raw hard drive" and look into the following:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/recover-raw-drive.htm

So....I have had a few people do this. By far the best tool i have ever come across for recovering lost files is a mix of:

DD_Rescue - http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/ddrescue/

and / or

Testdisk / PhotoRec - http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

DD_Rescue creates an IMAGE of your hard drive, while trying to recover data from any bad sectors on the disk. Then Testdisk will recover the actual files from that image.

Testdisk has a windows flavour, DD_Rescue is linux only.

The only downside to recovering files this way is that when you deleted the files, you got rid of the file names... so when testdisk recovers them it has to rename them all to random strings.

Anyway ... give it a shot.

***Edit: It might be quicker just to download all your TV shows again? think of it as a new beginning?

I bought a second hand 720p projector for $100 off of ebay. Going against the advice of my friends.

I LOVE IT. I have a beautiful 77" display. I didn't even get a projection screen, but project onto wood:

http://postimage.org/image/8tryiz217/full/

If you have the USB version you are correct that Windows 7 is the only version of Windows that supports it. The PCIe version supports 8.x. Both have linux drivers so if you want to try that and here is a guide.

Getting a new hard drive will be your cheapest option. I wouldn't recommend upgrading unless you have some need that wasn't met by your previous setup. I hear that costco is running a special throughout most of June on a 5 TB external hard drive that would combo nicely with an internal SSD.

I have a R_Pi and went the Rasbmc way. I don't know if you can play Minecraft from within Raspbmc so this may not be an option for you.

However One way is to have XBMC within Raspbian to watch your video streams from your server. Here is a link I found to a project someone has going with the above description. Link Cheers.

Ah, reading comprehension fail.

Well, if you want/need to stick with WMC, change your Shark settings back to Haali/FFDShow from the LAV defaults. But you might still want to look at XBMC/Plex as a secondary system -- record and watch TV in WMC, do everything else in XBMC/Plex. I will say that my setup is similar to yours (I still record TV, and I use CableCard so switching to non-WMC isn't really any option) and I don't use XBMC/Plex. Instead, I use Shark/Haali/FFDShow and manage media with My Movies.

Do you want to keep TV? Does your cable provider copy protect any channels that you care about?

If you want to keep TV and have to deal with copy protected channels, then Win7 or Win8.1 Pro w/ WMC are the only ways to go (good luck finding a copy of WMC for 8.1 -- there were discs sold, but it was mostly a digital purchase/download and those servers were shut down a long time ago; you might have some luck on Ebay, but it'll cost you).

If you want to keep TV and don't need copy protected channels, then I'd install Windows 10 and NextPVR with Kodi as a frontend. NextPVR supports Ceton cards out of the box (you might need to grab this nshared.dll if you get crashes trying to bulk map), and I believe Ceton's win8 drivers work with win10. You'll need a Schedules Direct subscription ($25/year) for guide data. And I'd recommend in Kodi making sure you set the PVR configuration to use server-side channel maps so you don't get confused.

I'm still using 8.1 Pro and WMC, but after yet another guide data scare last weekend I went ahead and got NextPVR set up. I need to train my in-laws on how to use TV in Kodi, and then I'll upgrade to Win10 and switch over the npvr and Kodi and kiss WMC goodbye forever. Tentative timeline is to get that done in July, giving me time to get a decent extender replacement set up (probably will do an rpi3 and flirc or a wmc USB IR receiver).

Otherwise, it seems HDHomeRun is the way to go these days, but that would be a new hardware investment when you've already got a perfectly good tuner, and it's a downgrade. SD still maxes out at 3 tuners per m-card, despite m-cards allowing up to 6 (Ceton has a 6-tuner device; SD's "6-tuner" device was just two 3-tuners glued together, requiring two cablecards which are the weakest link in the chain). IMHO, I'd rather cut the cord entirely than switch to HDHR.

if your running windows take a look at mediaportal and NextPVR If your tuning OTA the world is yours dude. ATSC is supported completely in basically all PVR clients.

Try TVRename and TheRenamer

They keep my XBMC library tidy.

All of my new downloads go to one directory "Downloads" which is monitored by TVRename.

All of the moving, renaming, and organizing is done automatically. That's just for TV shows, mind you.

TheRenamer can handle movies, though, so they can be used in conjunction with a little tweaking.

Install Libreelec https://libreelec.tv/downloads_new/. Then go to addons > Program addons > Tvheadend 4.2 and install it. Go to your ip:9981 and configure Tvheadend. https://docs.tvheadend.org/before_you_begin/ Then go to addons > PVR Addons > Tvheadend client and install it.

Rock Group has now had a bunch of SBCs, their initial and most famous atleast was Pine64, it was widely viewed as competitor to Rpi from Kickstarter or Indiegogo, which were was their historical funding source. This was regarded poorly from the issues I mentioned in my prior post, I'm not sure what the situation is now... Odroid was and is considered better, deeper community, though Rpi remains chief bar none. There are idiosyncrasies with going with ARM, initially the platform was awkward, a year or 2 ago support was slow, now you have mainline looking more and more promising, especially for the proprietary GPU blobs that are on legacy kernels. It was all a bit hacky and A/B testing worthy, though stable branches were just that...

So, I was trying to give you insight, especially as a programmer you would appreciate the nuance of development. Hardware may be great, but if the software isn't at parity, there's a gap in real world performance.

I would suggest you see the github repos for 3rd party addons. Also, Libreelec runs as root, if you compile you can modify this, I'm not sure what performance implications this may impart though, different thread execution, caching etc. Especially if you start branching applications to certain user profiles.

This is the most recent build, https://libreelec.tv/2018/11/libreelec-leia-v8-90-007-alpha/ it suggests it's ALPHA state, read the blog. Odroid C2 is rock solid and I'm almost a year behind, x86 should be solid as well. 3399 chipset support is new, I would estimate the majority of issues would be in userland Kodi GPU artifacting, unique codecs... Just to be safe, I would look at the issues before finalizing a order.

I'm not sure about all the legal ramifications, but purely on an "It works fine" level, I'm using MakeMKV to dump encrypted DVD and BluRay content, and then I use Vidcoder to encode content to h.264. I like deinterlacing and cropping video content as I encode it to get what are in my mind "nicer" videos than the originals. If you use the right combination of settings you can get visually transparent results which usually end up being 5 to 10 times smaller than the original source material. I usually leave the audio tracks in their original AC3 or DTS formats, as I have a couple of AV receivers which can decode such content, as well as open source free software (Kodi & VLC) to play back such content.

I use the .mkv container format, as it allows for an arbitrary number of nicely labeled / tagged video, audio, and subtitle streams, and does chapter points, too!

Evidently breaking encryption is a legally unresolved issue in the USA, but generally if you're doing this for personal use only and not distributing content or selling bootlegs, you are unlikely to get on the radar of law enforcement. Hopefully at some point in the future the DMCA will be updated / fixed to better match reality in 2016...

Just a few things.

1. Have a look at Universal media centre (Link to website here) which is based off of the now discontinued Playstation media centre (PMS).

2. If you are only using plex for Dlna streams, I would sugest using Kodi without any plex extentions. Unless there is another reason which you need to use plex, kodi should be able to handle streams from PMS/UMS without transcoding.

I have one. If you are going to rip BD's poke around this thread first then join the forum for any other questions. https://makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19928

And r/makemkv will help you find/figure things out if you don't know yet.

LibreElec OS which is a minimal Linux/Kodi build via SMB share.

If you’re having issues with MKV containers - I run all my MKVs/MP4s through mkvtoolnix.

https://mkvtoolnix.download/

This lets you remove language/video/audio/subtitle streams you don’t want and force cleans up the container format and lets you edit header settings like embedded file names, stream labels, default tracks etc as well as embed/mix in subtitles.

Popcorn MKV Audio Converter also helps to recode/duplicate audio streams from day DTS to DD in case you have a TV that won’t pass DTS via ARC to an older AVR with no HDMI etc

https://www.videohelp.com/software/PopCorn-MKV-AudioConverter

Both these programs help similar to handbrake which is a great program but is faster as they transcode streams to containers not encode between different codecs (like handbrake).

I have Plex Pass, mainly to support the developers. I don't think it really adds that much value for my personal situation. Maybe the PP features are more useful for others, but it just isn't for me.

If it were me, I would by a refurb Roku 3 for about $75.

You can look at the Plex Pass features to see how advantageous it would be for you. If you see a lot of added value, get the pass. Otherwise, get a Roku 3.

There is no equivalent of either one of those technologies in linux.

I find mpv to be the "Best" at handling content, but it will tonemap HDR content to SDR since there is no way of doing HDR in linux currently. I'd say they'll be able to get something relatively soon though, and it's being worked on in Wayland. The players would then need to be modified to take advantage of that.

I've never had the need for ReClock in linux though, it (seems) to handle audio sync better than Windows for whatever reason.

ReClock is now basically abandonware, FYI. The author has said there are too many "unsolvable" problems with ReClock and Windows 10.

https://forum.redfox.bz/threads/64-bit-version-of-reclock.69135/

Kodi is definitely still updating. The last one was 2 days ago. Kodi is awesome for a HTPC front end. Your cell phones work as the remote with Yatse. Personally I use Linux a a back end.

Handbrake is probably the easiest to use. Their nightlies allow you to add in 10/12 bit x265 profiles as well.

I would not recommend upsizing during the encode, through if you must you would need to use avisynth with something like nnedi3 rpow2. If you want good quality upsizing look into using madVR as your renderer.