It's all so confusing

atilladehun

I don't know what to get. I want to watch 4oD, Flashsportsstreams, the Irish terrestrial channels and anything else free. I also want to link up my HD with avi's and music.

I would love a HTPC but cannot afford one. ATV seems to be a no go. ATV2 seems overpriced.

Which of the rest should I consider. Boxee is might be out of my price range. Is Roku an option.

All these things seem American focused and all for a slightly different purpose.

This site was slightly helpful, i think:
http://deviceguru.com/google-tv-vs-apple-tv-vs-boxee-vs-roku/

Thanks

What's your budget?

You can get a H61 mobo for £35 and a basic dual core for £35:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Celeron-Dual-Core-Processor-Socket/dp/B005KIWT2O/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1342700444&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AsRock-H61M-HVS-Motherboard-Socket-ASRock/dp/B005AQFA54/ref=zg_bs_430512031_10

That's about €90. Its got HDMI and should be fine for 1080p video.

All you need then is a stick of ram, case & PSU. €150 all-in should be possible.

Install OpenElec (free media center OS) or XBMCBuntu onto a thumbdrive or spare 2.5" from an old laptop and away you go. You'll want a keyboard to set it up but once you get it going you can control it with an Android/iOS device.

atilladehun

hmm 150 would be about right. This looks very interesting.

I've a bit of time over the next couple of weeks and I'd like to do this but I'm a complete novice when it come to this. Compatibility, assembly etc.

Excuse my ignorance but there's no bluetooth or wifi on your list - how would the android device work or is that an extra.

I presume further expansion - bluray drive - could be done in the future.

For the gf's sake are there suitable cases - horizontal - that won't look out of place.

I could probably figure out the RAM but the PSU is new to me.

Finally anther days work would be the OS set up and install.

Sorry for the long response but as you can see the heart is willing but the head is far behind.

For a simple build like this no experience would be necessary.

Wifi is for mobile devices. For something under your TV a wired connection to your router is preferable. Once you're connected to your router is the main thing, that's how iOS/Android remotes work, they control it over the network. You could add a wifi dongle or card if you really wanted.

Bluray drive could be added provided you choose a case that has an optical bay. However PC-based Bluray playback is iffy - except under Windows with a commerical player, or on-the-fly decrypter. And I left Windows off in order to keep the price low.

Open source solutions for Bluray playback are just getting going now with libaacs and libbluray projects, but I don't think it'll ever be as stable as a standalone player.

There's horizontal cases available, they tend to be more expensive though. The motherboard in my example is micro ATX (mATX) so you need a case that's mATX or bigger. You can also get smaller mini ITX (mITX) motherboards and cases, but they tend to be more expensive than the example above. Most guys on a very tight budget would just go for a cheap tower case and put it beside their entertainment unit.

PSU is just a power supply, that's what powers your CPU and drives etc. Some cases (expecially HTPC-oriented) come with one built in.

If you decided to go for it you'll get plenty of help here and on the Building & Upgrading forums.

subway

what about an android stick for 50eu ish.
add xbmc, connect it via wifi and away you go.

all the fun of XBMC and pretty much zero power consumption