Where to buy a prebuilt silent HTPC

Mr. Flibble

I don't know much about HTPCs. I started researching buying a silent one but all I can find is stuff about building them yourself. Is there anywhere that sells prebuilt silent ones? I got a HTPC from komplett about 3 years ago and it is by far the nosiest computer in the house so I'm weary of just buying the first thing I see again.

spartacus93

Would you attempt building one yourself? It really is the best way, and is not that difficult at all... I've built many for myself and others and it isn't a big job really.

I don't know of anywhere that really sells prebuilt ones...

Mr. Flibble

Yeah, I will if I have to, but I really want to just buy one off the shelf.

spartacus93

ok...

What's the budget? What do you want from the system? Have you any specs in mind?

Brian

EDIT: Also, do you want it in just one room or would you like extenders to use it in two (+) rooms.

Mr. Flibble

Haven't thought about spec in detail at all. Here's a list of what I would like it to do.

Capable of playing any HD stuff out there - hardware decoding.
2x HDMI out.
GB ethernet card.
No need for much HD space, I'll be using a NAS to store the media.
DVD player for the luddites in the family. Maybe a bluray drive.
Quiet.
And some sort of sound card.

What type of media extender do you mean? I have an EVA8000 and it is the biggest pile of crap. Are there better things out there that will play HD?

spartacus93

I mean an extender like the Linksys DMA2100 or the xbox 360. Google the linksys and you'll see what i mean. Basically it connects to your main media centre pc over your network (do you have a wired one in place?) and will mirror the menus etc. you see on your main TV. It will look like media centre and when you want to play something it will stream the data from your HTPC.

They work very well and are an easy way to extend your setup to multiple rooms.

spartacus93

oh and yes they can handle HD.

Mr. Flibble

Ah ha. Does the DMA2100 decode the stuff itself or does the WMC Vista do it then stream it on?

I have WMC XP running at the moment. Could I just use a DMA2100 with that (perhaps with a WMC Vista upgrade), and save getting a new HTPC?

That wouldn't work if the HTPC decodes the video itself as my existing one struggles with HD stuff.

I have wired network around the house. Oh, and I don't need TV recording capability (use SKY+ for this), although it would be handy to be able to watch sky from any extender in the house, but this isn't a requirement.

spartacus93

The DMA2100 decodes as far as I know (i read it, i just don't have first hand proof!)

Yes you could. This would allow you to move your current HTPC to another room and leave the DMA2100 in your TV room. The HTPC would have to remain on at all times you want to use the extender. If you have uncompressed DVDs stored on your HTPC these cannot be streamed (AFAIK). Compressed files are fine. It can handle pictures, music, videos and recorded tv no problem.

As for the live Tv. If you were to hook up your SKY box to your HTPC throught a TV card this would allow you to watch live tv in any room that you have an extender (only one channel tho, multiple channels require multiple boxes). So you can stream live TV to any room and watch recorded TV in any room at the same time. All coming from the same HTPC. ie. Watch Live TV in bedroom 1, play music in bedroom 3, watch something you recorded last night in the living room and do something else in the kitchen!

With a decent powered HTPC you can use many of these devices to stream content all over the house. The fact that you have a wired network is a great advantage! The DMA2100 is 269 on komplett and comes with everything you need. There is a DMA2200 also out there although i can not find it anywhere in Ireland. Maybe if you contacted McKomplett on the Komplett forum he might sort ya out with one. This model also includes a DVD drive with upscaler. It should be in or around 50 bob more.

adrian.s

Just back to your original question,

If you'd like to buy a pre-built system, maybe a hush pc would be what you're after. You can see the range over on mini-itx.com [1]. Pricey, and I haven't seen them in the flesh, but they're fanless which is usually a good indication of being noise free!

A.


[1] http://mini-itx.com/store/

subway

theres also a very nice one in harvey normans.
if your out in swords pop in and take a look, its pricey, but very nice.
lookis like a high end dvd player

spartacus93

adrian.s wrote: »

Just back to your original question,

If you'd like to buy a pre-built system, maybe a hush pc would be what you're after. You can see the range over on mini-itx.com [1]. Pricey, and I haven't seen them in the flesh, but they're fanless which is usually a good indication of being noise free!

A.


[1] http://mini-itx.com/store/

That's very true but they are awful specs for the money!!

mediacentre.ie

I just setup a website for this purpose. Any feedback on products and services would be great. The site is not 100% finished yet. I still have some bits and pieces to finish.

www.mediacentre.ie

It would be nice to know if there are many people who would be looking for something like this.

Thanks

Please don't try ban me as I am answering a question and not advertising. well kinda?

spartacus93

mediacentre.ie wrote: »

I just setup a website for this purpose. Any feedback on products and services would be great. The site is not 100% finished yet. I still have some bits and pieces to finish.

www.mediacentre.ie

It would be nice to know if there are many people who would be looking for something like this.

Thanks

Please don't try ban me as I am answering a question and not advertising. well kinda?

weren't you already banned....

meob

Mr. Flibble wrote: »

What type of media extender do you mean? I have an EVA8000 and it is the biggest pile of crap. Are there better things out there that will play HD?

what probs u having with the eva, I got 3 and they are running sweet.

Mr. Flibble

meob wrote: »

what probs u having with the eva, I got 3 and they are running sweet.

It used to crash requiring restarts all the time. There was a major software update a few months ago which improved the system greatly. Still could be improved a lot tho; it still needs to be restarted sometimes for it to see new network shares and it crashes from time to time when it tries to play a video that it doesn't recognize.

meob

Mr. Flibble wrote: »

It used to crash requiring restarts all the time. There was a major software update a few months ago which improved the system greatly. Still could be improved a lot tho; it still needs to be restarted sometimes for it to see new network shares and it crashes from time to time when it tries to play a video that it doesn't recognize.

are you running v2.1.81 ?
thats the latest code, i did get a few reboots the odd time with some of the early code, but stability is far better now,

aviod the wireless at all costs, espcially if your streaming HD, over powerlines i have no issues streaming 1080p hd

there is some greeat batch files available for transcoding to a format the eva can handle (4 reference frames)

Mr. Flibble

Ok. So I try and update using update from internet function. It says no updates are available at this time. I'll get the image and type in its location on the network with the remote sometime as there is no browse function.


Do you know where the latest software can be downloaded? There is no mention of 2.1.81 at http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/EVA8000.asp

meob

Mr. Flibble wrote: »

Ok. So I try and update using update from internet function. It says no updates are available at this time. I'll get the image and type in its location on the network with the remote sometime as there is no browse function.


Do you know where the latest software can be downloaded? There is no mention of 2.1.81 at http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/EVA8000.asp

you need to be on the beta forum,

http://forum1.netgear.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92

i can send it to you if u want

meob

Mr. Flibble wrote: »

Ok. So I try and update using update from internet function. It says no updates are available at this time. I'll get the image and type in its location on the network with the remote sometime as there is no browse function.


Do you know where the latest software can be downloaded? There is no mention of 2.1.81 at http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/EVA8000.asp

http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=20518

EVA8000 2.1 Firmware Update Change History

http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=20902

Mr. Flibble

meob wrote: »

you need to be on the beta forum,

http://forum1.netgear.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92

i can send it to you if u want

It would be great if you would. I'm at conor.mccarthy@gmail.com.

Thanks