Looking for a new HTPC. Need some advice...

requiem said:
Save a bit more, run Windows.... You won't regret it
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I did...

I had a beefy HTPC running inside a Antec Fusion MAX case and all the bells and whistles.. the MB popped, and it would have cost me R5k to fix the machine... got an Ouya for R1300 (give or take) instead... and happy as a pig in the proverbial with it...
 
PsyWulf said:
Why dont you just move the Microserver to somewhere else and set it as a NAS,then plop an Android media stick into your telly and stream your content?
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Nah, I actually really want to setup another media box. Don't want to start changing the setup as I've spent a lot of time getting it just the way I want it...
 
requiem said:
So you used a nuke to kill an insect...
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Of course.. over engineering at its best.... :p

It just happened to be a PC I had left over from an Upgrade I did.. so I repurposed it into a HTPC... when it blew up, it just didn't make sense to fix it since it was last gen tech, and I couldn't just get a Motherboard to fix it.. I had to do M/B, CPU and Memory.
 
Because I can chill on my couch and play lol. Have different media players for my flac music, I am running emulators on it as well... Golden axe on a 60 inch is an experience.....


I also have no issues with formats changing, simply install new driver / codec.....
 
I think I might be missing a bit of a trick here. I have a Samsung Series 8 51" plasma TV. Can I not run XBMC on it directly?

I've never actually plugged in a network cable to the thing to check...
 
I have a smart Samsung TV as well.


And while it was convenient, there was always something not quite right. Plex etc, would refuse to play things in a certain format.

YouTube videos would lose a minute of audio for every 5 minutes played, Samsung blames Google, and Google plays Samsung.


You should however, be able to run something for almost no cost, will just increase your effort, recoding, etc.
 
Meh, looks like XBMC doesn't install directly onto the Samsung TV, so that's out. I'm contemplating just chucking an old laptop behind there now instead of buying something new. Seems building a good looking HTPC is still quite an expensive affair, and even if it wasn't, I really don't want to build a PC...
 
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biometrics said:
I still think a microserver is sexy ... ;)
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I've managed to hide mine behind my TV along with the centre speaker, but I've seen some really good looking boxes and I was hoping that someone had commercialised them into single HTPC units, readily available and affordable...
 
Doodler said:
I run this

http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18&products_id=712

in this

http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=29&products_id=4848

plays anything but I only run openelec.
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So you can literally just screw that Sapphire into any chassis/box and it works? No need for extra RAM and video card? When I bought my microserver I upped it to 4gigs RAM and bought a GT520 low profile card. Was "informed" that it was necessary...
 
DJ... said:
So you can literally just screw that Sapphire into any chassis/box and it works? No need for extra RAM and video card? When I bought my microserver I upped it to 4gigs RAM and bought a GT520 low profile card. Was "informed" that it was necessary...
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You needed the graphics card. Not the RAM.
 
DJ... said:
I currently have an HP N40L Microserver which is great, and am now looking for a better looking machine to put in the lounge. I'd really prefer not to have to build it myself - I'd love something straight out of the box that looks good, doesn't cost a fortune, has internal drive slots, and can run Windows and XBMC as smoothly as the microserver does. It won't need to do anything other than run XBMC, and I'm not looking to change from XBMC to any other media centre.

So what are my options here on a budget of around R2k...?

If I have to, I don't mind buying another microserver, but I'd prefer something a little better looking if there is anything available.

BTW, I have tried a Raspberry Pi, and it is just too slow for a media centre setup. It's not really what I'm after...
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U not interested in getting all the parts and putting it together yourself??
 
I was also looking for that out of the box solution, that is why I went with the Roku 3. I got a bit tired of tinkering the whole time, now I run Plex with the Roku and it just works.

If you are looking for an XMBC solution I would probably also recommend something like the Ouya (as mentioned earlier) or a nice Android powered device and move the Microserver somewhere out of sight and let it just be a NAS.
 
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