Tv Stick / Cheap Desktop?

C

ChrisThomas

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Hi peeps.

I haven’t built a rig in about 6 years now, and I’ve got the itch...

The thing is I don’t game anymore and I don’t know exactly how much I’ll even end up using the thing.

Basically my needs would be to be able to download movies and series and stuff and be a place to stream them to my tv and output audio to my amp.

Do you reckon the tv stick would be up to it and outputting video at 4K?

https://www.takealot.com/mecer-xtreme-s01-pc-on-stick/PLID41400847
 
If you want not streaming but to download, probably PC is the best.

There is no cheap PC, as only the latest Intel CPU's have video decoding in hardware, so you must have proper graphics card. The cheapest is GT1030.
 
I don't know about 4k but I re-purposed an old laptop (broken screen, Celeron, 2GB ram, 500GB hdd) as a media pc that's hidden away under a desk in my study. May be useful for you to consider something similar.

I did swap out the ram so I've got 4GB in now. And connected an external hdd for extra storage. Installed win 10 with uTorrent and Plex. It stays on 24/7 in low power mode. Torrents are scheduled for overnight download. Plex serves media to my PS4 (will also work with Android TV) and has a beautiful interface. It can also be accessed from our iPhones and androids using VLC (dlna mode). I've shared the media folder with everyone so that all PCs can access the files directly.

It's connected via cat5e cable to the router (tried wifi first but throughput was an issue when multiple users were accessing simultaneously).

And the old Celeron is surprisingly capable of transcoding various formats but I make it a point of trying to download only h264 video anyway so doesn't have to transcode on the fly.

Been running this setup for months now and I'm happy with it so give it some thought. :)
 
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Maybe try an Intel NUC? The NUC6CAYH KIT can do 4K at 30fps and costs less than R2500. You will need to add your own ssd/hdd and ram though.
 
Practically any pc can do that. If you want to do video conversion I'd add a cheap grfx card but you should be able to output the 720p or 1080p stream directly to the tv. Where it's converted doesn't really matter.
 
who.dat said:
So @ChrisThomas what did you end up with?
Click to expand...

I ended up buying a desktop off of Facebook, I can’t complain I got a good deal! Core I5 with 8gb DDR3 ram and a decent enough power supply to give extra power to my graphics card for R1299!

I then ordered a 2tb hard drive for R1200 and presto! Media centre running through Plex via my router
 
ChrisThomas said:
I ended up buying a desktop off of Facebook, I can’t complain I got a good deal! Core I5 with 8gb DDR3 ram and a decent enough power supply to give extra power to my graphics card for R1299!

I then ordered a 2tb hard drive for R1200 and presto! Media centre running through Plex via my router
Click to expand...
That is a bargain!
 
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