newbie needs HTPC help! (1 Viewer)

[jonnym]

Hello all

I've built a few PCs in the past but I'm a bit rusty and I've never built a HTPC.


I need a fanless miniPC HTPC which is almost silent and a USB tuner. My hope is to be able to recorded TV shows can be stored to my 2TB external HDD attached to an Asus RT-AC66U router.


My requirement for the HTPC would be use basic office software occasionally, record and watch TV in SD and HD, watch YouTube, play music from the internet and stored MP3's and watch movies some are FLV's, MKV's and AVI's and external DVD player may be added later.


I would like to run Ubuntu as its platform, as I've used it before, with Kodi and media portal (I haven't looked into what exactly these do yet so I'm not sure what I'm doing , I would like to control the system with my android phone as well as keyboard and mouse if possible. Might open another thread for this).


I've seen these http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Video-Resolution-1920-1080-x-26-C1037U-Mini-host-dual-lan-htpc-dual-lan-two-Lan/1655239991.html and wondered if it would fit the bill. I'm a little concerned about finding a tuner with the necessary drivers etc.


What do you suggest?


Sorry for all the questions and thanks for any help.


Jon

 

[mattCR]

Ok. I'm assuming you aren't trying to do cable card decoding/etc. and that recording QAM or standard cable is probably OK, right? If that's the case, you can get any standard SiliconDust HD Tuner.

IF you buy a cable card based tuner, just remember, Linux will never (under any situation) tune any encrypted channels on your cablecard.


http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/CableCARD


There you go, off to the start

 

[jonnym]

I have to be honest and say most of that was as clear as mud. I think most of what your saying is about cable TV? I'm on the other side of the pond in the UK(must update my profile) and we don't have cable really. TV is all over the air. I don't need any encrypted channels.


I'm going to look round tonight at some other options for the HTPC. Couple of questions


How do the new atom processors fair in a HTPC?


Do your average USB tuners record to a remote HDD OK, I'm guessing that's down to transfer speed it will be across a network using an ASUS RT-AC66U and a 2TB western digital external drive attached to the USB port which I expect to see around 10MB/s write speed?


Thanks


Jon

 

[mattCR]

Ok, great. I didn't realize you were UK, so you're right.. if you aren't worried about Cable (everything over the air or DVB) then you're in the clear.


I wouldn't use an atom.. even the new ones, the problem isn't their performance it is that the don't push Disk performance well, and as a result recording or watching back heavy bit rates suck without throwing too much at a video card.


You can use AMD A6/A8 or an Intel Pentium G series, though, they will work fine and could be done cheaply.


Good pick on the router, which is very solid. If you want external, and you plan on recording more than one show at once, or watching one while recording, give preference to something USB 3.0

 

[jonnym]

Good thinking, I will have a look for a NAS drive. If it didn't have to be a silent PC then I could make it a HTPC and NAS combined and save a few pounds.


Thanks for the advice.


Jon

 

[jonnym]

Ok, great. I didn't realize you were UK, so you're right.. if you aren't worried about Cable (everything over the air or DVB) then you're in the clear.

I wouldn't use an atom.. even the new ones, the problem isn't their performance it is that the don't push Disk performance well, and as a result recording or watching back heavy bit rates suck without throwing too much at a video card.


You can use AMD A6/A8 or an Intel Pentium G series, though, they will work fine and could be done cheaply.


Good pick on the router, which is very solid. If you want external, and you plan on recording more than one show at once, or watching one while recording, give preference to something USB 3.0

I've been looking for any systems with the A6/A8 or Pentium G series which will work fanless or low watts. I can only find ones which suck a huge amount of watts.


I'm thinking about using the Celeron J1900, is this also a problematic processor in regards to disk performance?


I could them couple that with a WD 2tb green HDD and remain fanless. This would remove the need for a NAS drive or external HDD. the set up would be something like this http://www.rkblog.rk.edu.pl/w/p/building-linux-pc-using-low-power-quad-core-celeron-j1900/.


Thanks for your help


Jon

 

[mattCR]

J1900 is an option better than atom. Any usb3 option is fine