Budget HTPC for offline content only (1 Viewer)

[Toast]

Hi,
I am looking to build a budget HTPC to basically just play movies offline with a external hard drive. (do not need access to any other online tv or streaming capabilities) I already have an apple tv and fire TV at home that I use to stream content across my network... but I am looking to build a small htpc that I could set up with my external drive and movies to work without internet to make the wife happy (she gets frustrated when there is any delay or the network causes problems) but also I would like for this to be portable, and allow me to take it in our camper when we go on road trips, and clearly I dont have internet there- nor a way to have my network set up to stream to things like my fire tv.

I have been looking around- and while I used to be a computer nerd, I am clearly now only a nerd because as I read I realize I know next to nothing of this generations options. I am tech savy enough that looking at the guides I could get open elec running on a re-purposed chromebox- I just dont know if that would be the best solution or if there would be something else cheaper or better for me to use if I only want to play movies off a hard drive.

Thanks for any advice.

Matt

 

[bigshot]

I use a Mac Mini

 

[Dave Upton]

I'd recommend a Chromebox running openELEC. It's an amazing value:


http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=194362

 

[jcroy]

(Without being too specific).


If you're planning on watching movies in 1080p hd resolution, you should pay close attention to whether the graphics card can handle it without dropping any frames.


My desktop can barely play 1080p resolution videos without dropping frames. (It is a bottom of the line desktop from 2010).

 

[Clinton McClure]

Another vote for a Mac Mini running Plex.