HTPC Hardware Options

[Hammerhead]

Now that I'm pretty much committed to converting my library to ISOs or MKVs, it's time to give some thought to what I can use to replace my 'console' Samsung blu-ray player, and if possible, have high quality audio (optical data out to a DAC?) for input to my (somewhat high-end) audio system - I keep my systems separate since I'm a borderline audio snob.

The playback software will be one, or a combination of:

• PowerDVD
• Kodi (XBMC)
• Plex
• ??? (open to suggestions)

Although only PowerDVD requires Windows, I'm inclined to stick with a Microsoft OS so that I can benefit from the other utilities and compatibility such as being able to run Firefox as a browser, Office if need be, and access Netflix and other streaming services which do not necessarily have Linux counterparts.

For hardware, I'd like something that's light and portable so that if I choose to take a couple movies with me on the road, I can load 'em onto an external USB drive. The choices I've been thinking are:

• Intel/Lenovo/Asus 'PC-on-a-stick'
• HP Mini Stream
• Raspberri Pi2 (homespun solution)
• ??? (again, open to suggestions)

There's a fair question about the ability of the hardware on any of the above to keep up with decoding BluRay movies, and your input will help inform my choice. I could always use my laptop for travel (HP Envy w/ NVidia card and 2G video RAM) but will still need something at home as a daily driver.

For storage, I'll probably be going with some sort of RAID/NAS enclosure that also supports remote 'cloud' access. There are a number of good units out there from Western Digital and others that will support many TBs per box, so the storage with redundancy issues are solved.

Looking forward to some input preferably from those of you who have gone down this path. I think I'm done with discs, they're just too much hassle and with the cost of traditional rotating or flash drives become less per movie than dual-layer blu-ray media, there's no sense in banging my head against the wall anymore.

Thanks in advance!

 

[dellsam34]

For hardware have you considered nVidia shield? it is a wonderful piece of hardware and it's pretty much future proof, it does UHD and 4K @ 60 fps it has HDMI 2.0 it supports HDR and in addition to playing media it does play games too, the only drawback to any android device vs HTPC is blu-ray menu of an ISO or BD folder is a hit or a miss, it does play the main movie just fine though, I had mine for over 2 weeks now and I'm pleased with it, it is the first piece of my UHD gear that I'm acquiring.

 

[Hammerhead]

For hardware have you considered nVidia shield? it is a wonderful piece of hardware and it's pretty much future proof, it does UHD and 4K @ 60 fps it has HDMI 2.0 it supports HDR and in addition to playing media it does play games too, the only drawback to any android device vs HTPC is blu-ray menu of an ISO or BD folder is a hit or a miss, it does play the main movie just fine though, I had mine for over 2 weeks now and I'm pleased with it, it is the first piece of my UHD gear that I'm acquiring.

Wound up with a Shield and a QNAP NAS. Running Emby server on the NAS to serve the library and Kodi on the Shield.

 

[dellsam34]

Wound up with a Shield and a QNAP NAS. Running Emby server on the NAS to serve the library and Kodi on the Shield.

Great choice, I'm happy for you.

 

[theosch]

A friend told me he got 1080p fluently with (maybe it was 720p), I think it was with kodi on a rasperry pi 1 or 2 (not sure),
But youtube 1080p went very bad. So Youtube perhaps not optimised for ARM CPU.
And he is angered about restricted/bad driver support of Raspi.

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Off topic:
VDR (video disk recorder) get's worse with performance requirements (his and my feeling).
He installed old VDR version, which runs much more performant.

With Q2 Q9550 with VDR
Decoding of h.264 1280x720p one core fully used,
with Blu-ray 1920x1080p same CPU usage (2.25 x resolution of 1280x720)
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