home theatre pc advice

R

RaD

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hi guys, I'm looking at setting up a small (read: cheap) home theatre PC/mac or whatever and the Mac Mini looks great except for the price. what could i do as a cheaper alternative?

PS: quite happy to buy second hand and or build from components, i just want it to be a s small as possible.
 
What exactly do you want to do with it all?

Do you need it only to playback media? Do you want to load specific software on there? You want to use it as NAS? You want to use it as a download server?

These things would influence which system you want to get.
 
If you just want something to take your media and put it on the tv, then i suggest a raspberry pi. easy to install and configure (i use raspian, an xbmc image that is ridiculously easy to install). The pi shouldn't cost more than R500 (total with sd card and power adapter)

if you want a device to act as storage and media server, the i suggest the HP micro servers. the N54L is currently EOL and you can get them for about 1.2k (with 250gb hdd and 2gb ram) if you are lucky. the machine does not come with an OS so budget for that if you want to install windows or some. The software i use on that (which im very happy with) is "PS3 Media Server" http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
What exactly do you want to do with it all?

Do you need it only to playback media? Do you want to load specific software on there? You want to use it as NAS? You want to use it as a download server?

These things would influence which system you want to get.
Click to expand...

For all the above, get a Raspberry Pi type B. My one was R500 everything included and it does everything. It NASes a 4TB USB HDD external dock, automates all downloads torrent and usenet as well as it allows remote desktop controlling, video streaming from network devices and does 1080p out to mah TV.

WARNING: It is a little fiddly to get up and running though what with the OS being a lean version of debian Linux. This should be no issue if you are a veteran computer user, but it is not recommended unless you know at the very least some computer programming. (If you dont know what SSHing is, there will be a bit of a learning curve. There are lots of guides to help you though, and it is quite a lot of fun teaching the Pi to do cool new things)

If you are simply using it for playing videos on a network drive, then it is ridiculously easy.
 
Last edited:
Zindaar said:
If you just want something to take your media and put it on the tv, then i suggest a raspberry pi. easy to install and configure (i use raspian, an xbmc image that is ridiculously easy to install). The pi shouldn't cost more than R500 (total with sd card and power adapter)

if you want a device to act as storage and media server, the i suggest the HP micro servers. the N54L is currently EOL and you can get them for about 1.2k (with 250gb hdd and 2gb ram) if you are lucky. the machine does not come with an OS so budget for that if you want to install windows or some. The software i use on that (which im very happy with) is "PS3 Media Server" http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/
Click to expand...

Your Pi can NAS with RAID with parity using the USB slots and external USB HDD docks :)
 
agentrfr said:
For all the above, get a Raspberry Pi type B. My one was R500 everything included and it does everything. It NASes a 4TB USB HDD external dock, automates all downloads torrent and usenet as well as it allows remote desktop controlling, video streaming from network devices and does 1080p out to mah TV.

WARNING: It is a little fiddly to get up and running though what with the OS being a lean version of debian Linux. This should be no issue if you are a veteran computer user, but it is not recommended unless you know at the very least some computer programming. (If you dont know what SSHing is, there will be a bit of a learning curve. There are lots of guides to help you though, and it is quite a lot of fun teaching the Pi to do cool new things)

If you are simply using it for playing videos on a network drive, then it is ridiculously easy.
Click to expand...

I honestly wouldn't recommend the Pi for the general consumer. It's a hobbyists device which is also very underpowered if you plan on using it for multiple functions.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I honestly wouldn't recommend the Pi for the general consumer. It's a hobbyists device which is also very underpowered if you plan on using it for multiple functions.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I could never get my Pi to play 1080p video properly. It would play fine (after a lot of tinkering) but any presses on the remote would only register after a few seconds. And if you hit pause and then play again, the video would stutter for about 30 seconds before it returned to normal. I'm sure there are ways of getting it to run without issues, but in my experience the Pi is pushed right to its limits with HD video.
 
thanks all.

the Raspberry Pi sounds like a fun project but if we are in agreement that it cant really deal with 1080p then... meh.

all i want it to do is be able to wifi into a fileserver and play media from there, but mainly for streaming youtube and twitch, etc.

Ancalagon said:
OP: get one of these:
http://www.avsupply.co.za/product_info.php/droidtv-with-android-422-and-xbmc-p-437
Click to expand...

this thing looks like it'll do the job but would it be able to use different software, ie: not xbmc...

SauRoNZA said:
Xstreamer Ultra
Click to expand...

This also looks decent but the disclaimer about tax and import tax and stuff makes me nervous...
 
It runs Android, so I think you could also install Plex on it. If you install a Linux build (not quite ready for prime time yet), then you might be able to get other software on it.

What other software do you mean though?
 
was just interested actually. i currently use media portal, but it isnt actually a requirement.
 
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